Select Page ::

Assessing the risks: Mine, yours and ours – Foster’s Daily Democrat

Posted on July 30, 2020 by Danzig

I have been scrupulous about protecting myself from COVID-19. Mostly staying home, masking-up on those rare occasions when I have ventured out, hand-washing like an OCD patient, keeping social distance from friends and family. You know the drill.

Four-plus months of this, however, have begun to take their toll. Maintaining my physical health has started to do a job on my mental health. Some days I feel like Robinson Crusoe before Friday showed up.

I began thinking about the odds of my actually contracting COVID-19 and whether it might be OK to modify my routine a little. My thoughts turned to the evolutionary biologist, Stephen Jay Gould. In his 1996 book "Full House," Gould describes his reaction to being diagnosed with mesothelioma. He was in his early 40s at the time (1982). He knew the median survival for his type of cancer was just eight months, but he also knew that measures of central tendency like medians dont capture range or individual variation.

The median is the halfway point. Half of people with mesothelioma, he observed, may die within eight months, but the other half will live longer and some will live significantly longer. Gould assessed his personal odds of survival to be well above average. He was young, had been diagnosed early and had access to exceptional medical care. He lived another 20 years.

With Gould in mind, I started researching the average risk related to COVID-19. I know that we are safer living in Maine than we would be in Texas, Florida or Arizona. I also know that the risk of dying from COVID-19 is greater for people older than I and for those living in institutional settings. I began to wonder what other variables might affect personal risk. I came to understand that each persons risk is different from every other persons risk because risk hinges on a combination of factors particular to each of us.

You might start by determining the basic risk. The Cleveland Clinic has developed a tool to help you. Research conducted in Cleveland has shown that the risk of a positive result is lower, for example, for people who have received their pneumococcal vaccine or their influenza vaccination. Ive had both. Lower risk for me. Its also lower for people who take certain medications like ACE Inhibitors, which I dont take. Higher risk for me there.

You can access the Clinics online survey at riskcalc.org. On the site you enter your age, race, ethnicity, gender, zip code, medical history, etc. Press the "run calculator" button and the algorithm spits out your odds of testing positive for COVID-19. The Clinic makes clear that their tool is not intended for medical advice.

When I took the survey, I found my risk of getting a positive test was just under 7.5% or about 1 in 13. This is much higher than the odds of being struck by lightening but a lot less than dying of coronary artery disease.

My relatively low level of risk made me curious about how the other factors identified in the Cleveland tool influence risk. I started playing around with the calculator. All other things being equal: what if I were a woman? Lower risk. What if I were Black or Hispanic? Higher risk. This underscores the central point: even though our collective risks are related, your risk is not my risk.

While I can calculate my own risk of contracting COVID-19, I have no way of knowing what yours might be. Only narcissists, fools or villains would dispense with all precautions just because their personal risk is low. What about the other guy?

Were all trying to find ways to live in relative safety. People have got to live their lives, but we can do that and still protect ourselves as well as those around us who are at greater risk from COVID-19. Go ahead and participate in lower-risk activities like cycling, going to the beach and al fresco dining, but think twice about higher risk activities like amusement parks, bar hopping and flying across country.

It is possible to protect your physical health without losing a grip on your mental health. Just dont throw all caution to the wind. By wearing a face covering in public, following the 6-foot rule and washing your hands, you can reduce the risk of infection for everyone.

Ron McAllister is a sociologist and writer who lives in York.

Go here to read the rest:

Assessing the risks: Mine, yours and ours - Foster's Daily Democrat

Researchers Uncover How Cells Interact With Supporting Proteins To Heal Wounds – Technology Networks

Posted on July 30, 2020 by Danzig

When we get a wound on our skin, the cells in our bodies quickly mobilize to repair it. While it has been known how cells heal wounds and how scars form, a team led by researchers from Washington University in St. Louis has determined for the first time how the process begins, which may provide new insight into wound healing, fibrosis and cancer metastasis.

The team, led by Delaram Shakiba, a postdoctoral fellow from the NSF Science and Technology Center for Engineering Mechanobiology (CEMB) at the McKelvey School of Engineering, discovered the way fibroblasts, or common cells in connective tissue, interact with the extracellular matrix, which provides structural support as well as biochemical and biomechanical cues to cells. The team uncovered a recursive process that goes on between the cells and their environment as well as structures in the cells that were previously unknown.

Results of the research were published in ACS Nano on July 28. Senior authors on the paper are Guy Genin, the Harold and Kathleen Faught Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the McKelvey School of Engineering, and Elliot Elson, professor emeritus of biochemistry and molecular biophysics at the School of Medicine.

"Clinical efforts to prevent the progression of fibrocontractile diseases, such as scarring and fibrosis, have been largely unsuccessful, in part because the mechanisms that cells use to interact with the protein fibers around them are unclear," Shakiba said. "We found that fibroblasts use completely different mechanisms in the early -- and I think the most treatable -- stages of these interactions, and that their responses to drugs can therefore be the opposite of what they would be in the later stages."

Genin, who is the co-director of the CEMB, said the process has stymied mechanobiology researchers for some time.

"Researchers in the field of mechanobiology thought that cells pulled in collagen from the extracellular matrix by reaching out with long protrusions, grabbing it and pulling it back," Genin said. "We discovered that this wasn't the case. A cell has to push its way out through collagen first, then instead of grabbing on, it essentially shoots tiny hairs, or filopodia, out of the sides of its arms, pulls in collagen that way, then retracts."

Now that they understand this process, Genin said, they can control the shape that a cell takes.

"With our colleagues at CEMB at the University of Pennsylvania, we were able to validate some mathematical models to go through the engineering process, and we now have the basic rules that cells follow," he said. "We can now begin to design specific stimuli to direct a cell to behave in a certain way in building a tissue-engineered structure."

The researchers learned they could control the cell shape in two ways: First, by controlling the boundaries around it, and second, by inhibiting or upregulating particular proteins involved in the remodeling of the collagen.

Fibroblasts pull the edges of a wound together, causing it to contract or close up. Collagen in the cells then remodels the extracellular matrix to fully close the wound. This is where mechanobiology comes into play.

"There's a balance between tension and compression inside a cell that is newly exposed to fibrous proteins," Genin said. "There is tension in actin cables, and by playing with that balance, we can make these protrusions grow extremely long," Genin said. "We can stop the remodeling from occurring or we can increase it."

The team used a 3D-mapping technique -- the first time it has been applied to collagen -- along with a computational model to calculate the 3D strain and stress fields created by the protrusions from the cells. As cells accumulated collagen, tension-driven remodeling and alignment of collagen fibers led to the formation of collagen tracts. This requires cooperative interactions among cells, through which cells can interact mechanically.

"New methods of microscopy, tissue engineering and biomechanical modeling greatly enhance our understanding of the mechanisms by which cells modify and repair the tissues they populate," Elson said. "Fibrous cellular structures generate and guide forces that compress and reorient their extracellular fibrous environment. This raises new questions about the molecular mechanisms of these functions and how cells regulate the forces they exert and how they govern the extent of matrix deformation."

"Wound healing is a great example of how these processes are important in a physiologic way," Genin said. "We'll be able to come up with insight in how to train cells not to excessively compact the collagen around them."

Reference:Shakiba, D., Alisafaei, F., Savadipour, A., Rowe, R. A., Liu, Z., Pryse, K. M., . . . Genin, G. M. (2020). The Balance between Actomyosin Contractility and Microtubule Polymerization Regulates Hierarchical Protrusions That Govern Efficient FibroblastCollagen Interactions. ACS Nano, 14(7), 7868-7879. doi:10.1021/acsnano.9b09941

This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.

See the original post here:

Researchers Uncover How Cells Interact With Supporting Proteins To Heal Wounds - Technology Networks

Catheters Market Size Estimation, COVID-19 Impact, Emerging Trends, Key Players, Share Value and Global Industry Insights By 2023 – Reported Times

Posted on July 30, 2020 by Danzig

Jul 28, 2020 5:56 PM ET

iCrowd Newswire Jul 28, 2020

Catheters Market Information, Type (Cardiovascular Catheters, Specialty Catheters, Intravenous Catheters, Urinary Catheters, Neurological Catheters), By End Users (Hospitals & Clinics, Ambulatory Surgical Centers, and others)- Global Forecast till 2023

Catheters Market Analysis

The catheter is a thin tube medical device made of high-grade material used in healthcare to deliver medications, gases, or fluids to patients or to drain bodily fluids such as urine. These are inserted into the body for the treatment of several diseases and during a surgical procedure. The globalCatheters Marketsize is estimated to reach USD 49,731.9 million with a CAGR of 6.14% from 2016 to 2023 (forecast period), says Market Research Future (MRFR). Several types of catheters, such as intravascular catheter cardiovascular catheters, specialty catheters, intravenous catheters, urinary catheters, and neurological catheters, are available on the catheters market for the treatment of diseases like cardiovascular, neurovascular,urologyand many more.

Moreover, geriatric people and diabetic patients are more likely to develop cardiac and urological diseases. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, there were around 617 million people over 65 years of age worldwide in 2015. People are more vulnerable to cardiovascular diseases or other associated diseases due to sedentary lifestyles. Thus, increasing the geriatric population, the rising number of diabetic patients, increasing preference for minimal invasive techniques, and changing lifestyles have fueled the growth of the market.

Nevertheless, as per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2015, catheter-associated urinary tract infections were observed in 5% of the causes. The risk of infection due to the use of catheters may hinder the growth of the market.

Request Free Sample Copy at: https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/3186

As per the National Institutes of Health, more than 661,000 Americans had kidney failure in 2016. Of these, 468,000 individuals were on dialysis, and 193,000 were living with a functioning kidney transplant. Additionally, as per the American College of Cardiology, in 2013, cardiovascular deaths represented 31% of all global deaths, and over 790,000 people in the U.S. have heart attacks every year. Rising number of patients with cardiac and urological diseases has boosted the growth of the market. At the University of Chicago Medicine, more than 70% of significant lung resection surgery is performed using minimally invasive techniques. People today favor minimal invasive treatment techniques, which, in effect, is expected to propel the catheters market growth.

Catheters Market Regional Analysis

Regionally, the globalcatheters markethas been segmented into the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East & Africa.

Americas dominates the global catheters market due to the presence of a large population suffering from diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease. North America has the largest market share of the American catheters market. As per the report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 9.3% of the total American population suffered from diabetes in 2015. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 610,000 people in the United States died of heart disease in 2015. In addition, increased expenditure on healthcare and well-developed technology has fueled the growth of the market.

Europe is the second-largest catheters market, followed by the Asia Pacific. The presence of well-developed healthcare industry, significant government funding for research and development, and high expenditure on healthcare have driven the growth of the European catheters market. Germany, the United Kingdom, and France are the main contributors to the European market. Well-developed technologies have played a prominent role in the growth of the European market in these countries. However, Eastern Europe is the fastest-growing region due to the enormous potential of the untapped market.

The Asia Pacific is also anticipated to witness rapid growth, mainly due to rapidly increasing diabetic & obese populations and rising healthcare costs. As per the WHO, 60 % of the worlds total diabetic population lives in the Asia Pacific region. In addition, the presence of rapidly developing economies such as India and China are expected to boost the market growth.

The Middle East & Africa has the lowest market share due to weak political conditions in Africa and insufficient availability of funds and provision of medical facilities. The Middle East holds the largest share of the Middle East & African market due to the presence of well-developed countries such as Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and South Arabia. In contrast, the African region expects healthy growth due to an enormous opportunity for market development.

Browse Detailed TOC with COVID-19 Impact Analysis at: https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/catheters-market-3186

Catheters Market Key players

Some of the leading participants in this market are Dickinson and Company, Boston Scientific Corporation, Abbott, Medtronic plc, Koninklijke Philips N.V, B. Braun Melsungen AG, Becton, Terumo Corporation, Covidien AG (Ireland), LuMend Corporation (US), ACIST Medical Systems (US), and Cook Medical Inc. (US).

Catheters Market Segmentation

The global catheters market has been segmented based on types and end-users.

Based on types, the global catheters market has been segmented into cardiovascular catheters, specialty catheters,intravascular catheter, intravenous catheters, urinary catheters, neurological catheters, and others.

Based on the end-users, the global catheters market has been segmented into hospitals & clinics, ambulatory surgical centers, and others.

Browse More Healthcare Reports at:

Tissue Engineering Market: Information by Material (Nano-fibrous Material, Biomimetic Material, Composite Material and Nano-composite Material) by Application (Orthopedics, Musculoskeletal and Spine, Skin/Integumentary, Cancer, Dental, Cardiology, Urology, Neurology, Cord Blood & Cell Banking and GI & Gynecology) and Region Forecast till 2024https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/tissue-engineering-market-2134

Tissue Microarray Market: Information by Procedure (Immunohistochemistry, Fluorescent In-Situ Hybridization and Frozen Tissue Array), Technology (DNA Microarray, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), Next-Generation Sequencing, Northern Blotting and Western Blotting), Application (Oncology, Gene Expression Profiling, SNP Detection, Double-Stranded B-DNA Microarrays, Comparative Genomic Hybridization and Sequencing Bioinformatics), End User (Pharmaceutical and Biotechnological Companies and Research Organization) and Region (Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Middle East & Africa) Forecast till 2023https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/tissue-microarray-market-1213

Ambulatory Services Market: Information by Type (Primary care Offices, Medical Specialty, Ambulatory Surgery, Outpatient Departments (OPDs) and others) and Region (Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East & Africa) Forecast till 2025https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/ambulatory-services-market-2491

NOTE: Our team of researchers are studying Covid19 and its impact on various industry verticals and wherever required we will be considering covid19 footprints for a better analysis of markets and industries. Cordially get in touch for more details.

About Market Research Future:

At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), & Consulting Services. MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients.

Contact:Akash AnandMarket Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: [emailprotected]

Keywords:Catheters Market Size, Catheters Market Trends, Catheters Market Growth, Catheters Market Share, Catheters Market Insights

Go here to see the original:

Catheters Market Size Estimation, COVID-19 Impact, Emerging Trends, Key Players, Share Value and Global Industry Insights By 2023 - Reported Times

A Study on Globular Clusters Date the Universe at 13.35 Billion Years Old – Science Times

Posted on July 30, 2020 by Danzig

A new study on globular clusters, a group of stars orbiting a core, support theories that the Universe came to be over 13 billion years ago.

(Photo : Photo by NASA/Getty Images)392007 01: This image recorded by the Hubble telescope on July 10, 2001 shows two clusters of stars, called NGC 1850, located in a neighboring galaxy called the Large Magellanic Cloud.

The study, submitted to the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, inquired about the clusters in an attempt to determine the age of the Universe. Titled "Inferring the Age of the Universe with Globular Clusters," the research team was led by David Valcin from the Institute of Cosmos Sciences at the University of Barcelona (ICCUB) in Spain.

The multinational team included members from France's Sorbonne Universite and the US' Johns Hopkins University , in addition to the Spanish researchers from ICCUB and the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies. Representatives from the Flatiron Institute Center for Computational Astrophysics are also involved in the study.

In the study, researchers present their estimate for 68 galactic globular clusters. They utilized the distribution of the stars in each cluster through the full color-magnitude diagram. Among the criteria they used include distance, reddening, and metallicity.

They were able to examine the clusters through the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Survey (ACS). Data from the stars in each cluster were modeled through using a modified version of isochrones.

RELATED:Research Team Discovers Origin Of Globular Clusters Around Giant Galaxies

Prior research on estimating the age of these globular clusters were also used, with their derived measurements agreeing with previously-published reports on the matter. The ICCUB-led research team, however, used the color-magnitude diagram to arrive at the age estimates. In comparison, previous estimates are taken through GAIA, which uses main-sequence dwarf stars instead. The team also used the Mesa Isochrones and Stellar Tracks (MIST) stellar model and the Dartmouth Stellar Evolution Database (DSED).

After evaluating the 68 globular clusters, they arrived at an age estimate of 13.35 billion years. The result they presented stands at a 68% confidence level, and an uncertainty range of 0.16 billion years for statistical uncertainty and 0.5 billion years for systematic. From the data gathered, the oldest globular clusters are those with lower metallicity.

The study used the age of the oldest stars to determine a baseline for determining the age of the Universe. The result supports previously-published reports from the Planck mission on Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) - background radiation all across the universe that is believed to have existed since The Big Bang.

RELATED: Humanity Has Finally Been Able to Observe the Cosmic Web

Furthermore, the Planck estimate on the age of the universe follows the Lambda - Cold Dark Matter (Lambda-CDM) cosmological model. The agreement between the globular cluster aging and the Planck estimate both narrow down the possible age of the Universe without building entirely on theoretical models.

However, the researchers recognize the need to identify discrepancies between different attempts to define the age of the Universe. David Valcin from the ICCUB said: "In the on-going uncertainty about the expansion of the Universe, it is important to collect more data which interpretation is as cosmology-independent as possible, to understand the origin of the discrepancy." He added that while globular clusters do not directly pinpoint the rate of expansion, it provides an idea about the age of the Universe.

Read the rest here:

A Study on Globular Clusters Date the Universe at 13.35 Billion Years Old - Science Times

What Is Abolition, And Why Do We Need It? – Vogue

Posted on July 30, 2020 by Danzig

Rather than creating safety, our punishment system is an active source of harm for many. And the systems violence extends far beyond what makes the news. Black, disabled, and sex-working women and trans people are especially vulnerable to police violence and often face sexual assault at the hands of the police. Disabled people are estimated to make up as many as half of those murdered by police. Between 70 and 100 million Americans have a criminal record, and one year in prison takes two years off ones life expectancy. Further, there are more than 10 million arrests per year, and a misdemeanor arrestthe standard encounter between police and civilianscan upend a life, leading to lasting exclusions from employment and other opportunities.

So while some ask how we will be safe without police and prisons, abolitionists point out that most people cannot be safe so long as they exist. For this reason, abolitionists are, at heart, buildersbuilders of community safety, well-being, accountability, and harm prevention. As abolitionist Ruth Wilson Gilmore has said, abolition is about presencethe presence of life-giving systems that allow people to thrive and be well, that prevent harm and better equip communities to address harm when it occurs.

To be clear, building toward a world without prisons is different than believing in a world without harm. As one contributor to the prisoner-run publication In the Belly writes, abolitionists are not promising a world without harm. People hurt each other, and that wont change. But why do we all just accept that the appropriate response to harm is more harm, administered by the state?

Instead, when presented with harm, abolitionists reject the false choice of putting someone in a cage or doing nothing. In fact, abolitionists are actively building various models of preventing and responding to harm, focusing in particular on community accountability processes that, as our #8ToAbolition cocreators recently explained, seek safety for those harmed, changed behaviors for those who caused harm, and a transformation of the conditions that allowed the harm to occur.

Countless groups across the country are doing the work of safety building. In Washington D.C., the Collective Action for Safe Spaces (CASS) trains community members to intervene in gendered public harassment and, through the Rethink Masculinity program, helps men to identify harmful behaviors and build relationships of accountability and care. Likewise, the Bay Area Transformative Justice Collective holds regular labs to help community members build skills around transformative justice and ending child sexual abuse. Across the country, violence interrupters work to halt lethal violence before it happens by resolving conflicts and building healthy relationships between community members. And beyond programming centered on ending violence, groups focusing on mutual aid are doing the work of abolition by meeting community members needs and building local models of self-sufficiency. This is a small sliver of the work being done by abolitionists.

Ultimately, abolitionists do not have all the answersbut we are committed to finding them together. Prison is a one-size-fits-all solution, sending people to cages for violating a criminal law. Abolition requires just the opposite, recognizing the complexity of harm and the indispensability of humanity.

Ultimately, abolition is a verb, a practice. It consists of the actions we take to build safety and to tear down harmful institutions. People do abolition every day when they connect to their community, learn how to take accountability, and foster communal responsibility for preventing and responding to harm.

Abolition is within our reach; its up to us to build it.

Reiana Sultan and Micah Herskind are 2 of the 10 cocreators of the #8ToAbolition campaign.

Link:

What Is Abolition, And Why Do We Need It? - Vogue

The next step in the culture war is the assault on the traditional family – The Post Millennial

Posted on July 30, 2020 by Danzig

After the leftist progressives have tackled police and government, they will come for the family. The idea is that having family, growing up with two parents, is privileged, and that this creates inequity. Any inequity must be crushed.

Bethany Letiecq, professor in the Human Development and Family Science program at George Mason University called for the abolishing of family, and this concept has been increasingly growing in academic circles. There have been several recent articles calling for abolishing of the family, including in Open Democracy, Outline, and even The Nation. Letiecq, the author of a paper "Surfacing Family Privilege and Supremacy in Family Science: Toward Justice for All," coined the concept of Family privilege. These arguments are all rhetorically similar and are couched in ideas of "justice."

"Family privilege recognizes that some families are the beneficiaries of unearned or unacknowledged advantages... our society values and privileges heterosexual marriages over other relationships, including couples who live together, raise children together, and choose not to marry," Letiecq argued. "Marriage as an institution is patriarchal and hegemonic at its base," she wrote, designed by men to have a hold of power. Needless to mention, that is ahistorical and complete nonsense. And yet, it is increasingly echoed by others.

"There is no doubt that the most effective way to mitigate privilege would be to eliminate the family. Without parents, grandparents, siblings, or any kin relations, we could become equal." The group Black Lives Matters acknowledges their official position stating that they intend to "disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and 'villages' that collectively care for one another, especially our children."

Feminist lobby group Family History Project argues for abolition of traditional families by claiming that conservatives have weaponized traditional marriage. Earlier, a few years back, the best-selling new academic book in feminism was "Full Surrogacy Now: Feminism Against Family," by British-American feminist Sophie Lewis, who argued that "gestation" is work, like any other work and therefore there should be no kinship attached to it, and women should simply be treating childbirth as labour.

"Abortion is a form of necessary violence. We need to move away from arguments designed to placate our enemies, and defend abortion as a right to stop doing gestational work," Lewis claimed, adding that that is the only way for women to reclaim their power, and abolish the traditional family.

Lewis proudly claims to be a Marxist, and wants to abolish not just family but capitalism as well. Coming from a broken and abusive family herself (obviously) she believes that family is the root to all evil, including "discomfort, coercion, molestation, abuse, humiliation, depression, battery, murder, mutilation, loneliness, blackmail, exhaustion, psychosis, gender-straitjacketing, racial programming, and embourgeoisement." Others are not as out and proud, which makes them even more dangerous.

In the traditional western understanding of Marxism, the focus is almost always on class conflict and violent revolution. However, that is also a narrow understanding. A much deeper aspect is often overlooked; Marxists primarily hate family and nations, the units of society, which are the greatest hindrance to true egalitarianism, alongside faith, and flag. In the 1920s, Marxist Alexandra Kollontai outlined how family is viewed under Marxism.

"The family breaks down as more and more women go out to work," Kollontai wrote, adding that "The old family structure is now merely a hindrance. Communism liberates worm from her domestic slavery and makes her life richer and happier." You see, under communism and true egalitarianism, there wont be any personal belonging and attachments, and that includes children.

"The woman who takes up the struggle for the liberation of the working class must learn to understand that there is no more room for the old proprietary attitude which says: 'These are my children, I owe them all my maternal solicitude and affection; those are your children, they are no concern of mine and I dont care if they go hungry and coldI have no time for other children.' The worker-mother must learn not to differentiate between yours and mine; she must remember that there are only our children, the children of Russias communist workers."

Any religion gives a sense of forgiveness and commonality, and any flag gives a sense of nationalism and unity, and family is the ultimate symbol of aspiration. But all these supersedes class consciousness, and naturally are detrimental to an egalitarian flattening social system. The original Leninists wanted this egalitarianism under a single totalitarian state. But thats just one school of Marxism.

The post-60s new left, and feminism, for example, were much stealthier, and far more destructive. Lewis and Letiecq are not the first ones calling for abolition of family. In the late 60s, feminist philosopher Kate Millet urged her followers to understand that the only way to gain true equality is by destroying heterosexual family, by means of pornography, prostitution and promiscuity. In The Dialectic of Sex, book written by American feminist Shulamith Firestone in 1970, childbearing was considered a form of labour performed by women (workers) who were legally subordinate to their husbands (the owners of the means of production).

In the 1968s Paris revolt, the Comit d'action pdrastique rvolutionnaire, and the Front homosexuel d'action rvolutionnaire (clue is in the name) desired "true Marxist egalitarianism" which will destroy the masculine foundations of both capitalism and Soviet style Leninism. Small traditional heterosexual family, as always is the primary threat to leftist state ideology and totalitarianism as child bearing is simply considered labour supply for the society.

A few years back, one would have laughed at such utopian notions. The argument goes like this, the Marxist argument for abolition of the family has been there forever, so what is the threat now? The difference is this: In the 60s and 70s, the majority of the west had a semblance of religious and traditional morality. The universities were not radical hubs churning out revolutionaries funded by tax dollars.

The media, while biased, were not openly contemptuous and destructive in its agenda. And the conservatives were not afraid to legislate, and didnt leave it all to the judiciary, with defeats after defeats in every social issue. As Bethany Mandel wrote in 2017, the argument of slippery slope is very real. It was easy to laugh it all off in 2010 or even in 2015, not so much in 2020. The last remnants of the traditional family is the next and final battleground, one that cannot be lost at any cost, if one wants to preserve society as we know it.

Read the original here:

The next step in the culture war is the assault on the traditional family - The Post Millennial

AJ Student Prize 2020: University of the Arts London – Architects Journal

Posted on July 30, 2020 by Danzig

About Central St Martins

Finn crawford radical temperance 1a

Project titleRadical Temperance

Project descriptionRadical Temperance looks at alternatives to the City of Londons hyper-capitalism and its self-serving use of technology. Responding to the studios agenda of Designing Politics, Finn critically reflects on existing models of social relationships and access to technology. He introduces the idea of temperance to oppose the technological arms race and growing replacement of human social roles by machines, drawing lessons from Icarus and his fall. In response to the studios brief, Imagining Collaborative Futures, Finn gives agency to a radical arts movement of digital secessionists who use arts and crafts to create a virtual world that uses technology to realise a socialist agenda of democratic open access. The proposal develops an open, public building, featuring a theatre arena with reverberating corridors for a political dialogue.

Tutor citationFinns project is exemplary in the way it deals with complex urban, conceptual, political, and architectural settings. Finn re-imagines how the relations between the production of culture and public and political performances in the city could be pushed through the intersection of sophisticated interactions between spatial, material, and virtual realms. The proposal is a layering of spaces and cultural references to create a multiplicity of experiences, interpretations, and meanings. Dejan Mrdja and Albane Duvillier

1.closertohome lois innes

Project titleCloser to Home

Project descriptionCloser to Home challenges the unethical prison system and sets out an alternative future for the young people of colour that are disproportionately incarcerated in this country. Prisons and the way that we think about them have changed little in the past 200 years. Despite overwhelming evidence that points to their inefficacy, our prison population in the UK continues to soar and these repressive environments increasingly serve more to stimulate criminal behaviour, than to act as its deterrent. Taking Londons oldest Category C prison, HMP Brixton, Closer to Home speculates on an alternative and largely de-carcerated penal model. It begins within the community, examining the environmental circumstances that first influence criminal behaviour, and the existing socio- economic capital that offenders can positively tap into. It proposes a policy re-shift, redirecting criminal justice expenditure and commitment to social infrastructure projects instead. This proposition is developed through a series of interventions and imagined stories, using the appropriately fantastical format of the graphic novel to express complex ideas, and to provoke more imaginative possibilities for our changing times.

Tutor citationLois developed her project from the perspective of a young, black architect born and bred in London. Personal insights pertinent in the context of the Black Lives Matter movement have motivated and informed the work. Combining her writing talent with design practice, Lois has chosen the role of narrator and developed a graphic novel advocating the abolition of prisons in favour of community-based forms of education and training. Loiss strong and independent voice finds expression in a powerful graphic novel that translates her social critique into an architecture of care. Ulrike Steven

See the rest here:

AJ Student Prize 2020: University of the Arts London - Architects Journal

Artists in Greece are fighting for their rights and accessible culture for all – Equal Times

Posted on July 30, 2020 by Danzig

Her powerful voice resonates across the empty theatre. Actress and director Fotini Banou is preparing for a performance, even though we dont know when well reopen, she says. In mid-March, the Greek government decided to close cinemas, theatres, museums, archaeological sites, schools, universities and essentially all common spaces (except for supermarkets, pharmacies, hospitals and doctors offices) in order to stem the spread of the coronavirus in the country which has seen 4,279 cases to date, including 203 deaths. A scenario similar to the one that occurred in Italy would be a disaster for Greece, where the health system has suffered under ten years of austerity policies.

Since 18 May, the Acropolis of Athens has once again been accessible to the public, as are all of the countrys archaeological sites and museums. Open-air cinemas have been open to the public since June. Indoor theatres, however, remain closed. Banou and her colleague Dimitris Alexakis are currently waiting for official authorisation to reopen the curtains at TV Control Center (also known as KET), a theatre for artistic, social and political experimentation they founded together in the Kypseli district in the heart of Athens.

While their main source of income relies on revenue sharing between artists, a sustainable cash flow through perseverance, as they deal with the crisis provoked by COVID-19 they cannot count on the help of a state with, according to Banou, no tradition of helping independent artists and public debt that amounts to roughly 180 per cent of GDP. Since opening their theatre in 2012, Alexakis and Banou have received no financial support from the successive governments of the last few years. Though the culture minister Lina Mendoni insisted in late May that there would be no summer 2020 without culture, the decisions made mostly in favour of historical heritage sites and public institutions have left those outside of official circles to fend for themselves.

Kypseli has seen no lack of initiatives. Since early May, Alexakis and Banou have joined weekly meetings organised by about 50 culture workers from the neighbourhood.

Everyone shares their fears and struggles. Some independent venues, especially those with rent to pay, might have to close their doors. What artists are experiencing with this pandemic is a sort of collapse, says Alexakis. Its a drama, a tragedy even, says Banou.

In this tragedy, an alliance between artists was born and Kypseli now teems with cultural and community spaces. In the 1950s, the neighbourhood was home to writers, intellectuals, actors and painters. It was a chic neighbourhood with a vibrant nightlife. In the 1980s and 1990s, people from Africa and Asia settled there, making it one of the most multicultural parts of the city today. Unlike other areas of the capital, rents in Kypseli remain affordable and the neighbourhood, free of Airbnb rentals, is once again attracting gallery owners, painters, actors and musicians looking for spaces to create. It is this social stratification that brought artists together around a question after the lockdown: What do the inhabitants here need? How can we reopen spaces in a way that responds to community needs?

In response to the reality of the neighbourhood, where men and women bending over to dig through rubbish is a daily sight, artists began to reach out to various initiatives, including feminist NGOs, African womens associations, a detox centre and migrant communities. Their aim was to strengthen local associations rather than making demands of the state. For example, Alexakis joined the food aid collective Khora, which prepares and distributes up to 200 free meals a day. In this spirit of solidarity, musicians, theatre and visual artists lend each other spaces and even materials to create, join forces with detox centres to set up ceramic workshops, and with NGOs in the neighbourhood to put on writing workshops.

Communication is now possible, says Meteoritis, who is involved in this mutual aid movement. The closure of his bookstore O Meteoritis in March came as a hard blow. The space with its pastel green storefront is located in the heart of Kypseli on the pedestrian street Fokionos Negri, which was emptied of foot traffic for two months. In late June, Benot partnered with the local organisation El Sistema Greece to invite local musicians to play in front of his bookstore. The open-air concert breathed new life into the neighbourhood and drew passers-by into his shop, where buyers have become increasingly rare.

Further up the street, not far from the bookstore, three young painters have repurposed the studio where they previously hosted educational activities for children before the lockdown. During the quarantine, Katerina Charou, Vincent Meyrignac and Olga Souri asked themselves what they could do to help once the absence of the local government became clear. We had no contact with the town council during the lockdown. We simply never saw them. After that, a sense of urgency was born, which led to the meetings between artists and the need to mobilise, explains Meyrignac. If the state doesnt want to invest in the neighbourhoods cultural life, and in contemporary culture in general, we choose to rely on local initiatives, he adds. In May, all three joined the Kypseli network and are currently preparing to open their exhibition space Noucmas to organisations with the aim of giving free courses and showing films. We keep in touch with whats going on in the community. Creating, reflecting, and continuing to communicate with the people of the neighbourhood by opening our workshop to them is as necessary for living as the most basic needs, says Charou.

While these initiatives are reshaping Kypseli to the point that life here is being reorganised, as Meteoritis explains in front of a row of books, the entire culture sector is mobilising across Greece. The national movement Support Art Workers, which for the last two months has been bringing together people working in the culture sector, has given independent artists an opportunity to make their voices heard. Culture isnt something abstract, there are people behind it. Thats what we are trying to show with this campaign which works to educate trade unions on the precarious conditions faced by artists, explains Konstantina Karameri, cultural project manager.

Karameri has participated in several demonstrations with the 24,000 others members of the movement since May. We are asking the government for a support plan for the next six months and the regularisation of royalty payments and the status of independent artists. According to the artists, the government has yet to respond to demands relating to the most urgent needs and many of the difficulties related to workers rights existed before the quarantine. This has been a problem with the system for years. A significant percentage of people in the culture sector work without a contract and are paid under the table. The result is that they are not registered anywhere and have to do jobs on the side to survive, she explains. When youre not registered you have no rights. We need regulation. If you dont work for public institutions like the national theatre, for example, you dont receive any aid from the state.

Independent venues also suffer from a lack of visibility. There isnt a small theatre company that didnt start off in a space like ours. Its integral to the culture and provides a base for the more commercial theatres, says Alexakis of KET. But at an official level, no one talks about them.

Our culture minister Lina Mendoni doesnt seem to be aware of this and is proposing solutions that completely neglect our [non-institutional artists and culture workers] needs. At the same time, she spends her time being photographed in front of the Acropolis.

According to a study by Eurostat on the share of government expenditures on cultural services in 2018, Greece is at the bottom of the list with the lowest percentage of 0.3 per cent out of an average of 1 per cent in the European Union. The 2020 official national budget dedicated to culture amounts to 334.2 million and to date includes no emergency plan in response to the health crisis that has impacted the entire sector.

While various groups, including the Greek Federation of Performing Arts ( ), which comprises 43 unions, are trying to open a dialogue with the state, the government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced in mid-June the abolition of arts and music education in middle and high schools. Cultural events remain banned and indoor theatres closed. At the same time, Greece has allowed international flights since 15 June in anticipation of foreign visitors. We are going to welcome thousands of tourists but the venues will remain closed. Wheres the balance? asks Karameri.

With a tourist sector that contributes more than 20 per cent to GDP, opening up the country is essential to avoiding another economic catastrophe. Theyre still looking for a magic bullet for recovery but the recovery never comes and the economy is still just as fragile and burdened by debt, says Alexakis, who sees an urgent need to unite the struggle of cultural workers with that of health workers, migrants and climate activists. To do this, they will have to continue to make their voices heard in the coming months. If there is a true general mobilisation, artists will be able to make themselves visible, says political scientist Gerassimos Moschonas.

While taking action, artists are working hard to keep cultural life alive. Alexakis and Banou remain hopeful that their play about the Jewish community of Janina will take place and that Fotini will be able to perform the traditional songs of Epirus in front of an audience. When and under what conditions remains to be seen.

Follow this link:

Artists in Greece are fighting for their rights and accessible culture for all - Equal Times

Gala Emancipation Day event planned – The Bay Observer – Providing a Fresh Perspective for Hamilton and Burlington

Posted on July 30, 2020 by Danzig

Emancipation Day commemorates the Abolition of Slavery Act, which became law on August 1, 1834. This act freed more than 800,000 people of African descent throughout the British Empire. In honour of Emancipation Day the Afro-Canadian Caribbean Association of Hamilton is staging We Are Planted Here: Commemorating Emancipation Day. The keynote speaker is Natasha Henry, President, Ontario Black History Society. The event will include an Arts and Culture Celebration featuring local artists including Juno and Grammy Award Winning Recording Artist Liberty Silver, Spoken Word Artists Klyde Broox and Shiloh Wong, African Dancer Aisha Nicholson and Drummer Jean-Assaoma.

Keynote Speaker Natasha Henry is the president of the Ontario Black History Society. Natasha is an historian and has been an educator for 19 years. She is an award-winning author and an award-winning curriculum consultant, focusing on Black Canadian experiences. Henry is currently completing a PhD in History at York University, researching the enslavement of Africans in early Ontario. Through her various professional and community roles, Henrys work is grounded in her commitment to research, collect, preserve and disseminate the histories of Black Canadians.

Musical Guest Liberty Silver is a multiple Juno and Grammy Award winning recording artist. She was originally discovered on the US based TV show Star Search hosted by Ed McMahon. Liberty Silver was the first Black woman to receive a Juno award. Her Grammy Award (collaboration) was in association with her performance on the single Tears Are Not Enough, which raised funds for relief of the famine in Ethiopia. She has performed for and shared the stage with prominent and influential figures and recorded songs and performed on studio recordings that have sold millions of units worldwide including multi-platinum dance tracks. She has performed thousands of shows, including some of the most celebrated musical events from across the globe.

To Register visit the event Website: https://accahamilton.com/we-are-planted/

Twitter: @accaham Instagram: @accahamilton

Facebook Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/766715170732023/

Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/we-are-planted-here-commemorating-emancipation-day-virtual-event-tickets-114226829522

Get notified about exclusive offers every week!

See the article here:

Gala Emancipation Day event planned - The Bay Observer - Providing a Fresh Perspective for Hamilton and Burlington

Al Southwick: John Brown and his bell in Marlboro – Worcester Telegram

Posted on July 30, 2020 by Danzig

The kerfuffle between the city of Marlboro and Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, over the John Brown bell reminds us that the past sometimes doesnt stay in the past. John Brown was hanged on Dec. 2, 1859, an event that led to the Civil War and created modern journalism.

As I hope you know, John Brown was a radical abolitionist who in 1859 led an invading force into Virginia in the hope of setting off a slave insurrection. With the country teetering on the edge of civil war, all eyes were on the little town of Harpers Ferry. Browns foray was quickly put down by an army unit headed by Col. Robert E. Lee and the ensuing trial was covered by reporters from publications far and wide. It was the first media extravaganza in U.S. history.

Harper's Weekly sent a reporter named David Huntington Strother, whose graphic account and drawing (under the pseudonym Porte Crayon) of the actual hanging proved too much for the Harper's editors and lay unpublished for years. Strother was an enterprising newsman and sketch artist. As the body hung in the gibbet, he mounted the scaffold and lifted the masking cap so that he could do a quick sketch of the old revolutionists face in death.

John Brown was a notorious figure in the America of the 1850s, beloved by some abolitionists in the North, untrusted by others and universally hated in the South. His strident call for armed intervention to overthrow slavery did much to ready the nation for Civil War.

Brown was born in Torrington, Connecticut, in 1800 and led a peripatetic existence for most of his mature life. Early on he developed an overweening hatred of slavery and spent his life railing against it and plotting campaigns to get rid of it. He joined various abolition groups but considered them generally as ineffective. He went around the country with his message of violence and won support from some, including Henry David Thoreau and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Worcesters radical minister. After the execution, Thoreau wrote a widely distributed article that compared Browns death with that of Jesus Christ. Others considered him an agent of the devil.

He polarized the nation. Many thought him a madman, especially after the so-called Pottawatomie massacre where Brown and three of his sons slaughtered a settler family from the South. That was during the Bleeding Kansas period when the new territory of Kansas was opened up for settlement. Under the Compromise of 1850, the new state could choose to be either slave or free, depending on the wishes of the settlers at the time. That set off a land rush from the North and the South with much violence.

All that was but a prelude to Browns grand scheme to overthrow slavery by a military attack. He imagined that such a dramatic move would inspire millions of slaves to join the rebellion and force Southern slave owners to capitulate. It did not work out that way. After months of speeches and fundraising, including a visit to Worcester, he assembled a motley group and attacked the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, on Oct. 16, 1859. After the hapless venture was put down. Brown was transferred to Charlestown, then in Virginia, later in West Virginia.

That led to an orgy of publicity. Magazines and newspapers from all over the country sent reporters and sketch artists to chronicle the events. Strothers reports and sketches were avidly featured by Harpers Weekly. Harpers great rival, Leslies Illustrated Newspaper, followed suit, using the work of Alfred Bergson, a talented artist. Other publications used telegraphed accounts from the scene. The trial and the conviction were followed far and wide. But Strothers description and drawings of the actual hanging were too much for the editors at Harper's and they were unpublished for 90 years.

At eleven oclock escorted by a strong column of soldiers the Prisoner entered the field. He was seated in a furniture wagon on his coffin with his arms tied down above the elbows, leaving his forearms free ... He wore the seedy and dilapidated dress that he had at Harpers Ferry ... As he neared the gibbet his face wore a grim and grisly smirk In this position he stood for five minutes or more while the troops that composed the escort were wheeling into the positions assigned them ... The Sheriff struck the rope a sharp blow with a hatchet, the platform fell with a crash a few convulsive struggles & a human soul had gone to judgment.

That was not the end of Strothers report. According to Andrew Hunter, reporter for the New Orleans Times-Democrat, While the body was hanging, Strother slipped up, raised the cap from his face and took a sketch of him hanging. An enterprising newsman indeed.

Strother, a staunch Union man, served with distinction in the Union army and ended the war a Brevet Brigadier General. After the war he resumed his career at Harpers.

The bell, seized by Union soldiers from Massachusetts after the Civil War, was brought to Marlboro, where it has been ever since, despite periodic demands from Harpers Ferry that it be returned. Should it be? Thats not for me to say.

Originally posted here:

Al Southwick: John Brown and his bell in Marlboro - Worcester Telegram

Labour Laws Amendments – Initiatives By State Governments To Provide Impetus To Economic Activity – Employment and HR – India – Mondaq News Alerts

Posted on July 30, 2020 by Danzig

To print this article, all you need is to be registered or login on Mondaq.com.

With the announcement of 'unlock-2' (phase-2 of openingof lockdown), except for few areas, industries or establishmentshave gradually started inching towards operations of businesseswith the limited workforce or resources to not only sustain thebusinesses but also to contribute to the economic growth ofIndia.

Since COVID-19 has led to slow down of economic growth in India,besides the federal (central) government, state governments havealso commenced introducing various measures by way of amendinglabour and employment statutes, such as granting exemption inworking hours and raising the statutory thresholds, amongst others,to ease the financial burden on employers

The subject "labour" falls under the concurrent listof the Constitution of India, thus giving power to both federal andstate governments to make laws regulating labour and employment,with the exception of certain matters being reserved for thefederal government. State governments generally provide foramendment, exemptions, or additions concerning the subject"labour" either by introducing a subject specific statuterelevant for such a state or by amending the federal statutes,within the rights available to states, which requires assent of theHon'ble President of India.

State governments derive power from Article 2131 ofthe Constitution of India which allows amendments by way ofordinances in the statutes (when not exercising the powers givenwithin the statutes). In the last few weeks, state governments,exercising the powers under Article 213, have passed certainordinances to carry out major amendments in federal laws, whichwould come into force as soon as the ordinances receivePresident's Assent. Simultaneously, exercising the rightsavailable within the statutes, various state governments havebrought in several changes, which are relevant for the specificperiod.

A. UTTAR PRADESH

The Uttar Pradesh ("UP") Governmenton May 08, 2020 has introduced the Uttar Pradesh TemporaryExemption from Certain Labour Laws Ordinance, 2020, applicable toall factories and establishments engaged in manufacturing processand intends to exempt the said factories and manufacturingestablishments from the operation of certain labour laws for atemporary period of 3 years subject to the conditions,amongst others, mentioned therein:

B. MADHYA PRADESH

The Madhya Pradesh ("MP") Governmenton May 06, 2020 also has introduced the Madhya Pradesh Labour Laws(Amendment) Ordinance, 2020, which aims at amending two state laws,the Madhya Pradesh Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act,1961 and the Madhya Pradesh Shram Kalyan Nidhi Adhiniyam, 1982.

The Madhya Pradesh Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act,1961 is applicable to all the undertakings2 having 50employees3. The MP Government by way of an amendmentintends to increase the applicability threshold to 100 or moreemployees.

The Madhya Pradesh Shram Kalyan Nidhi Adhiniyam, 1982 providesfor constitution of a labour welfare fund that will finance theactivities related to welfare of labour. Under the said Act, anemployer is required to deposit contribution on behalf of bothemployer and employee4 at the rate of INR 1(employee's contribution) and INR 3 (employer'scontribution) every 6 months. The proposed ordinance intends toamend the said Act by including a new section to allow theGovernment of MP to exempt any establishment or class ofestablishments from the provisions of the said Act through anotification.

C. GOA

Vide the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) (GoaAmendment) Ordinance, 2020 introduced on June 26, 2020, the StateGovernment of Goa intends to amend the threshold of employees from205 workmen to 50 as prescribed under Section 1(4)6 of the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition)Act, 1970 (the "CLRA Act") forapplicability of CLRA Act in the State of Goa and, also incorporatea new section with respect to compounding of offences, dependingupon number of workmen employed in the establishment and number oftimes such an offence is committed.

Further, vide the Industrial Disputes (Goa Amendment) Ordinance,2020 introduced on June 26, 2020, the State Government of Goa wantsto amend the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (the "IDAct"), as in force in the state of Goa. The StateGovernment of Goa intends to lower the limitation period from 3years to 1 year under Section 2 A (3)7 of the IDAct.

Further, a new sub-section (4) in Section 2A is proposed to beinserted which makes it mandatory for raising the dispute beforeconciliation officer within 1 year from the date of discharge,dismissal, retrenchment or termination in order to qualify as an"industrial dispute" under the ID Act.

The Government of Goa intends to amend the threshold regardingapplicability from 100 to 300 workmen, as provided in Section25K8 (Chapter V-B) of the ID Act (special provisionsrelating to lay-off, retrenchment and closure in certainestablishments). In case of retrenchment (under Section25F9 and Section 25N of the ID Act) or closure of anundertaking (under Section 25O of the ID Act), compensation to bepaid to workmen is sought to be enhanced from 15 days' averagepay to 45 days' average pay, for every completed year ofservice part in excess of 6 months.

Further a new Section 31 A relating to compounding of offencesis proposed to be incorporated for any offence punishable underSections 25Q, 25R, 25U, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30A and subsections (1) and(2) of Section 31.

D. ASSAM

The Factories (Assam Amendment) Ordinance, 2020 introduced onJune 30, 2020 aims at amending the threshold of employees in thedefinition of factory10, as defined in the FactoriesAct, 1948, from 10 workers (where manufacturing process is with theaid of power) to 20 and from 20 workers (where manufacturingprocess is without the aid of power) to 40.

E. BIHAR

The Factories (Bihar Amendment) Ordinance, 2020 introduced onJuly 02, 2020, aims at amending the threshold of employees in thedefinition of factory, as defined in the Factories Act, 1948, from10 workers (where manufacturing process is with the aid of power)to 20 and from 20 workers (where manufacturing process is withoutthe aid of power) to 40.

Vide the Industrial Disputes (Bihar Amendment) Ordinance, 2020promulgated on July 02, 2020, the state government intends to amendthe threshold regarding applicability from 100 to 300 workmen, asprovided in Section 25K (Chapter-V-B) of the ID Act (specialprovisions relating to lay-off, retrenchment and closure in certainestablishments).

The Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) (Bihar Amendment)Ordinance, 2020 promulgated on July 02, 2020 proposes to amend thethreshold regarding applicability of statute from 20 to 50 workmen,as prescribed under Section 1 (4) of the CLRA Act.

F. GUJARAT

The Factories (Gujarat Amendment) Ordinance, 2020 introduced onJuly 02, 2020 aims at amending the threshold of employees in thedefinition of factory, as defined in the Factories Act, 1948, from10 workers (where manufacturing process is with the aid of power)to 20 and from 20 workers (where manufacturing process is withoutthe aid of power) to 40.

Further, the State Government of Gujarat also intends toincorporate a new section with respect to compounding of offences,which may be specified by the State Government of Gujarat by way ofnotification.

The Industrial Disputes (Gujarat Amendment) Ordinance, 2020introduced on July 03, 2020 aims to amend the threshold regardingapplicability from 100 to 300 workmen, as provided in Section 25K(Chapter-V-B) of the ID Act (special provisions relating tolay-off, retrenchment and closure in certain establishments).

Under Section 25N of the ID Act, the option to pay the workmanwages in lieu of 3 months' notice is sought to be done awaywith. Further, in case of a retrenchment (under Section 25N of theID Act) or closure of an undertaking (under Section 25O of the IDAct), an amount equivalent to the workman's last threemonths' average pay has been added in the last of eachsection.

The Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Gujarat AmendmentOrdinance, 2020 introduced on July 20, 2020 aims at amending thethreshold regarding applicability of statute from 20 workers to 50,as prescribed under Section 1 (4) of the CLRA Act.

G. HIMACHAL PRADESH

The Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Himachal PradeshAmendment Ordinance, 2020 introduced on July 09, 2020 aims atamending the threshold regarding applicability of statute from 20workers to 30, as prescribed under Section 1 (4) of the CLRAAct.

The Industrial Disputes (Himachal Pradesh Amendment) Ordinance,2020 promulgated on July 09, 2020 aims to amend the thresholdregarding applicability from 100 to 200 workmen, as provided inSection 25K (Chapter-V-B) of the ID Act (special provisionsrelating to lay-off, retrenchment and closure in certainestablishments). Further, in case of retrenchment (under Section25F of the ID Act), the compensation is sought to be increased from15 days' average pay to 60 days' average pay for everycompleted year of continuous service or part thereof more than 6months. Further, the provisions governing prohibition of strikesand lock-outs under Section 2211 is sought to be madeapplicable to public utility and non-public utility services.

The Factories (Himachal Pradesh Amendment) Ordinance, 2020promulgated on July 09, 2020 aims at amending the threshold ofemployees in the definition of factory, as defined in the FactoriesAct, 1948, from 10 workers (where manufacturing process is with theaid of power) to 20 and from 20 workers (where manufacturingprocess is without the aid of power) to 40.

Further, the State Government of Himachal Pradesh also intendsto incorporate a new section with respect to compounding ofoffences which are punishable with fine only and committed for thefirst time.

Click here to continue reading ...

Footnotes

1. 213. Power of Governor to promulgateOrdinances during recess of Legislature

(1) If at any time, except when theLegislative Assembly of a State is in session, or where there is aLegislative Council in a State, except when both Houses of theLegislature are in session, the Governor is satisfied thatcircumstances exist which render it necessary for him to takeimmediate action, he may promulgate such Ordinance as thecircumstances appear to him to require: Provided that the Governorshall not, without instructions from the President, promulgate anysuch Ordinance if

(a) a Bill containing the same provisionswould under this Constitution have required the previous sanctionof the President for the introduction thereof into the Legislature;or

(b) he would have deemed it necessary toreserve a Bill containing the same provisions for the considerationof the President; or

(c) an Act of the Legislature of theState containing the same provisions would under this Constitutionhave been invalid unless, having been reserved for theconsideration of the President, it had received the assent of thePresident

(2) An Ordinance promulgated under thisarticle shall have the same force and effect as an Act ofLegislature of the State assented to by the Governor, but everysuch Ordinance

(a) shall be laid before the legislativeAssembly of the State, or where there is a Legislative Council inthe State, before both the House, and shall cease to operate at theexpiration of six weeks from the reassembly of the Legislature, orif before the expiration of that period a resolution disapprovingit is passed by the Legislative Assembly and agreed to by theLegislative Council, if any, upon the passing of the resolution or,as the case may be, on the resolution being agreed to by theCouncil; and

(b) may be withdrawn at any time by theGovernor Explanation Where the Houses of the Legislature of a Statehaving a Legislative Council are summoned to reassemble ondifferent dates, the period of six weeks shall be reckoned from thelater of those dates for the purposes of this clause

(3) If and so far as an Ordinance underthis article makes any provision which would not be valid ifenacted in an Act of the legislature of the State assented to bythe Governor, it shall be void: Provided that, for the purposes ofthe provisions of this Constitution relating to the effect of anAct of the Legislature of a State which is repugnant to an Act ofParliament or an existing law with respect to a matter enumeratedin the Concurrent List, an Ordinance promulgated under this articlein the Concurrent List, an Ordinance promulgated under this articlein pursuance of instructions from the President shall be deemed tobe an Act of the Legislature of the State which has been reservedfor the consideration of the president and assented to by him.

2. The Madhya Pradesh IndustrialRelations Act, 1960 defines 'Undertaking' as a concern inany industry. 'Industry' means:

(a) any business, trade, manufacture orundertaking or calling of employers.

(b) any calling, service, employment,handicraft, or industrial occupation or avocation of employees, andincludes-

(i) agriculture and agricultureoperations;

(ii) any branch of an industry or groupof industries which the State Government may by notification,declare to be an industry for the purposes of this Act.

3.The Madhya Pradesh Industrial RelationsAct, 1960 defines 'employee' as any person employed in anyindustry to do any skilled, unskilled, manual, supervisory,technical or clerical work for hire or reward, whether the terms ofemployment be express or implied, and includes

(a) a person employed by a contractor todo any work for him in the execution of a contract with an employerwithin the meaning of sub-clause(e) of clause 14, and

(b) an apprentice other than anapprentice under sub-clause (v) but does not include anyperson-

(i) who is subject to the Army Act, 1950,or the Air Force Act, 1950 or the Navy Discipline Act 1957; or

(ii) who is employed in the PoliceService or as an officer or other employee of prison; or

(iii) who is employed mainly in amanagerial capacity; or

(iv) who being employed in a supervisorycapacity draws wages exceeding one thousand and six hundred rupeesper mensum; or

(v) who is a craftsman or an apprenticeworking under a scheme approved by the State Government on thecondition that such craftsman or apprentice shall not be deemed tobe an employee under this Act;

Explanation An employee who hasbeen dismissed, discharged or retrenched from employment or whoseemployment has been otherwise terminated shall, in respect ofmatters relating to such dismissal. discharge, retrenchment ortermination, be deemed etc., be an employee for the purposes ofthis Act.

4. Under Section 2(3),"employee" means any person who is employed for hire onreward to do any skilled, semi-skilled or un-skilled, manual,clerical, supervisory, or technical work in an establishment butdoes not include any person:

(a) who is employed mainly in amanagerial or administrative capacity; or

(b) who, being employed in a supervisorycapacity draws wages exceeding one thousand and six hundred rupeesper mensem or exercises, either by the nature of the dutiesattached to the office, or by reason of the powers vested in him,functions mainly of a managerial nature.

5. The Goa government had already reducedthe threshold from 20 to 10 employees for the applicability of theContract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970 vide GazetteNotification dated April 30, 2001.

6. 1 (4) It applies -(a) to everyestablishment in which twenty or more workmen, art employed or wereemployed on any day of the preceding twelve months as contractlabour;

(b) to every contractor who employs orwho employed on any day of the preceding twelve months twenty ormore workmen. Provided that the appropriate Government may, aftergiving not less than two months' notice of its intention so todo, by notification in the Official Gazette, apply the provisionsof this Act to any establishment or contractor employing suchnumber of workmen less than twenty as may be specified in thenotification.

7. (3) The application referred to insub-section (2) shall be made to the Labour Court or Tribunalbefore the expiry of three years from the date of discharge,dismissal, retrenchment or otherwise termination of service asspecified in sub-section (1).

8. 25K. Application of Chapter V-B.- (1)The provisions of this Chapter shall apply to an industrialestablishment (not being an establishment of a seasonal characteror in which work is performed only intermittently) in which notless than 2[one hundred] workmen were employed on an average perworking day for the preceding twelve months. (2) If a questionarises whether an industrial establishment is of a seasonalcharacter or whether work is performed therein only intermittently,the decision of the appropriate Government thereon shall befinal.

9. 25F. Conditions precedent toretrenchment of workmen

No workman employed in any industry whohas been in continuous service for not less than one year under anemployer shall be retrenched by that employer until,

(a) the workman has been given onemonth's notice in writing indicating the reasons forretrenchment and the period of notice has expired, or the workmanhas been paid in lieu of such notice, wages for the period of thenotice:

(b) the workman has been paid, at thetime of retrenchment, compensation which shall be equivalent tofifteen days' average pay for every completed year ofcontinuous service or any part thereof more than six months;and

(c) notice in the prescribed manner isserved on the appropriate Government or such authority as may bespecified by the appropriate Government by notification in theOfficial Gazette.

10. (m) "factory" means anypremises including the precincts thereof-

(i) whereon ten or more workers areworking, or were working on any day of the preceding twelve months,and in any part of which a manufacturing process is being carriedon with the aid of power, or is ordinarily so carried on, or

(ii) whereon twenty or more workers areworking, or were working on any day of the preceding twelve months,and in any part of which a manufacturing process is being carriedon without the aid of power, or is ordinarily so carried on,-

but does not include a mine subject tothe operation of the Mines Act, 1952 (35 of 1952), or a mobile unitbelonging to the armed forces of the Union, a railway running shedor a hotel, restaurant or eating place.

Explanation. I--For computing the numberof workers for the purposes of this clause all the workers indifferent groups and relays in a day shall be taken intoaccount;

Explanation. II.--For the purposes ofthis clause, the mere fact that an Electronic Data Processing Unitor a Computer Unit is installed in any premises or part thereof,shall not be construed to make it a factory if no manufacturingprocess is being carried on in such premises or part thereof;

11. 22. Prohibition of strikes andlock-outs

(1) No person employed in a publicutility service shall go on strike in breach of contract,

(a) without giving to the employer noticeof strike, as herein-after provided, within six weeks beforestriking; or

(b) within fourteen days of giving suchnotice; or

(d) during the pendency of anyconciliation proceedings before a conciliation officer and sevendays after the conclusion of such proceedings.

(2) No employer carrying on any publicutility service shall lock-out any of his workmen,

(a) without giving them notice oflock-out as hereinafter provided, within six weeks before lockingout; or

(b) within fourteen days of giving suchnotice; or

(d) during the pendency of anyconciliation proceedings before a conciliation officer and sevendays after the conclusion of such proceedings.

(3) The notice of lock-out or strikeunder this section shall not be necessary where there is already inexistence a strike or, as the case may be, lock-out in the publicutility service, but the employer shall send intimation of suchlock-out or strike on the day on which it is declared, to suchauthority as may be specified by the appropriate Government eithergenerally or for a particular area or for a particular class ofpublic utility services.

(4) The notice of strike referred to insub-section (1) shall be given by such number of persons to suchperson or persons and in such manner as may be prescribed.

(5) The notice of lock-out referred to insub-section (2) shall be given in such manner as may beprescribed.

(6) If on any day an employer receivesfrom any persons employed by him any such notices as are referredto in sub-section (1) or gives to any persons employed by him anysuch notices as are referred to in sub-section (2), he shall withinfive days thereof report to the appropriate Government or to suchauthority as that Government may prescribe the number of suchnotices received or given on that day.

The content of this article is intended to provide a generalguide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be soughtabout your specific circumstances.

View original post here:

Labour Laws Amendments - Initiatives By State Governments To Provide Impetus To Economic Activity - Employment and HR - India - Mondaq News Alerts

In the Footsteps of Jules Verne in Nantes – FranceToday.com

Posted on July 30, 2020 by Danzig

His life began in 1828 on Lile Feydeau in Nantes then an idyllic little island set in the Loire river. He was educated at a local boarding school, where his teacher told romanticised tales of her sea-captain husband, who had gone missing on a voyage 30 years earlier. According to her, he was not dead, but had been shipwrecked on a paradisiacal desert island and one day just like Robinson Crusoe he would return. The six-year-old Verne listened avidly, wide-eyed with excitement. Perhaps this was the moment when his fathers ambitions for him to become a corporate lawyer melted away and the feverish imagination that would later transform him into an adventure writer was first sparked into action.

Within five years of hearing these stories, the young Verne was ready for his own adventure. Secretly gaining employment as a cabin boy, he managed to set sail for the West Indies before his parents noticed his absence. He had set his heart on discovering buried treasure and bringing back a coral necklace for the cousin he hoped one day to marry.

In modern times, it would be inconceivable for a child to gain employment without their parents permission, but back in the 1800s, no one batted an eyelid. The young adventurer sailed as far as Paimboeuf on the southern banks of the Loire before his distraught father caught up with him. He made his son promise never to travel again, unless in his imagination. Whether or not this legend was true, for a time, Verne substituted exploration of the real world with a passion for conjuring up fiction.

Later, he reluctantly attended a Parisian law school during the maelstrom of the 1848 French Revolution. Yet Verne, it seems, was oblivious to the political upheaval surrounding Napoleons election, instead losing himself in the works of Victor Hugo. Before long, he had read Notre-Dame de Paris so many times that he could recite by heart huge chunks at a time.

Despite passing his law exams with flying colours, he shunned all expectations that he would follow in his fathers footsteps. Even when an increasingly desperate Verne Senior offered his son ownership of the familys law firm, he refused point-blank, simply quipping, literature above all else.

Verne produced a play with Alexandre Dumass son called Les Pailles Rompues, which appeared at Pariss Theatre Historique. To his fathers horror, he accepted the position of secretary at the theatre in return for a near non-existent salary and then, with 10 chums, launched the self-deprecating Onze Sans Femmes bachelors supper club. Even after his eventual marriage, Verne read, wrote and travelled voraciously.

In 1862, Verne had a literary breakthrough when Pierre-Jules Hetzel the publisher of George Sand, Balzac and Victor Hugo released his novel, Five Weeks in a Balloon. A series called the Voyages Extraordinaires followed, in which Verne revisited his fascination with adventures at sea, while outlining all the geographical, geological, physical, and astronomical knowledge amassed by modern science and recounting the history of the universe. Thanks to Vernes imagination and rigorous academic research, he realised these lofty ambitions.

He wrote novels including Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, in which he accurately predicted the submarine before it had even been invented. He also relived childhood escape fantasies in A Captain at Fifteen, in which a teenage boy becomes the commander of a ship after its captain and crew are murdered. The ships conniving cook then lures him and a group of castaways off their route and into Africa, where he attempts to sell them into slavery.

This theme is controversial for Verne. His wealthy ancestors were leading lights in the shipbuilding industry, and therefore indirectly complicit in slave trafficking. Nantes allegedly transported more than half a million people from African slave forts to colonies in the Caribbean, to harvest sugar cane and cacao which would be transported back to France.

In sentiment at least, Verne condemned slavery, although he clashed with Hetzel when the publisher argued that Captain Nemo should be made an enemy of the slave trade. Vernes vision of Nemo was one of a vengeful scientist seeking to settle the score against the Russians who had slaughtered his family during the January Uprising. Yet profit-hungry Hetzel feared alienating his lucrative Russian audience. Hetzel also rejected Vernes thriller The Mysterious Island, but disagreements did not mar his popularity. Verne was admired by many, including Jean-Paul Sartre, and legend has it that without Verne, novels like Bram Stokers Dracula might never have existed, as his novel The Carpathian Castle sparked Stokers imagination.

Following a brief political career and assassination attempt by his mentally unwell nephew, Verne died in Amiens in 1905 from complications caused by his diabetes.

The tales of his worldwide voyages and literary successes not to mention a childhood that fuelled his love of the ocean can be found in Nantes today at the museum dedicated to him. Those interested in following in Vernes footsteps can also visit the Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery in Nantes, which documents a controversial past that both inspired the writers work and involved his ancestors. His former boarding school is now a restaurant, Bistro Regent, and there are historical associations aplenty elsewhere in the city for those adventurous enough to seek them out.

From France Today magazine

See the article here:

In the Footsteps of Jules Verne in Nantes - FranceToday.com

Philly lawyer collects millions evicting people for city courts. She’s married to an eviction judge – The Philadelphia Tribune

Posted on July 30, 2020 by Danzig

In the winter of 2017, Blanche Jacobs North Philadelphia apartment got so cold, she moved her bed into the kitchen at night and turned on the oven for warmth.

She says the heat in the building never worked right, but the landlord still asked tenants to pay utilities.

The building was real old, everything was a mess, she said in a July interview. But they still wanted the money whether it was heated or not.

Jacobs said she called the citys Department of Licenses and Inspections and eventually began withholding rent after a doctor diagnosed her with pneumonia in the spring of 2018. Her landlord moved to evict her several months later over unpaid rent.

One day, she heard a knock at her door. As Jacobs rose and turned the doorknob, a short man dressed in black, wearing a badge and carrying a gun pushed his way in with enough force to knock the 55-year-old with a disability to the ground, she recalled.

Jacobs said the man indicated he was with law enforcement, but she sensed something was amiss that he might have been hired by her landlord.

He said he was a police officer. But I dont know if he was. He didnt have the blue clothes on like a regular cop, Jacobs says now. I had to call the regular cops on him because I couldnt believe what was happening. He really hurt me.

Like many thousands of Philadelphians, she was locked out of her home not by a court employee or law enforcement, but a private security contractor. This man, like others, was hired by an obscure law office appointed by the courts to collect fees from landlords and serve the two court orders that formally boot tenants from their homes known as a writ of possession and an alias writ.

Unlike many other jurisdictions, Philadelphia Municipal Court relies on an appointed Landlord and Tenant Officer, to handle this paperwork and employ hired muscle to encourage tenants to leave, like the man Jacobs encountered. This post is largely unknown to the public but quite lucrative, entailing the collection of millions in related fees for landlords.

And, like many valuable functionary positions orbiting city government, the current appointee, lawyer Marisa Silberstein Shuter, has family ties: She is married to Municipal Court Judge David C. Shuter, who personally presides over certain eviction cases, and is the daughter of that courts former President Judge, Alan K. Silberstein.

Legal observers say the arrangement is reflective of a larger culture of nepotism within the courts and presents a serious conflict of interest.

Court records show several eviction cases over the past year in which Judge Shuter ruled in favor of landlords. These judgments resulted in landlords paying an associated service fee directly to his wifes office to deliver writs. On the judges statement of financial interests, he listed his spouse as a source of income.

Speaking generally, Richard Long, chief counsel for Pennsylvanias Judicial Conduct Board, said ethical guidelines prohibit judges from advancing the economic interests of relatives or associates through their conduct on the bench.

Obviously, if a judge is taking actions that are intended to benefit a spouse, thats concerning, Long said. Theyre not making their decisions on the law and the facts of a case.

Barry Thompson, who was himself evicted and now works with a tenant support organization, said that the informal nature of the office operated from Marisa Shuters private office on South Broad Street often confused his clients, blurring the line between law enforcement and mercenary. Landlords or their representative are required to be present for the final eviction, adding another layer of confusion.

People ask, Are these people from the court? Thompson said. Or are they just people the landlords have hired?

In an email, Shuter said her deputies were licensed to carry firearms, held court-issued identity cards and were trained in eviction law by her office.

Most if not all of the deputies are either retired police officers or constables, or at least have extensive background in a security related field, she said of the officers who serve the final writ and lock out tenants. The goal of the Landlord-Tenant Officer is to do everything possible to maintain a peaceful, smooth, safe, and non-confrontational process.

However, because Shuters office is privately run, the identities of these deputies are not publicly available. A court spokesperson said there were no formal credentialing guidelines for these positions.

While the Philadelphia Sheriffs Office is also empowered to handle Municipal Court evictions, landlord groups like the Homeowner Association of Philadelphia primarily direct their members to Shuter, largely because she acts more quickly and charges around $80 dollars less in writ fees.

Although the individual fees her office collects are small, between $95 to $140 per eviction, they quickly add up.

Because the private attorney collects fees directly, a court spokesperson couldnt say how much Shuter had earned since taking over the position in January 2017. Shuter similarly declined to disclose how much her office had earned from fees, but the courts confirmed that from the start of her appointment through the end of 2019 she had served final eviction writs to 16,984 households. That figure would at least entail the collection of fees amounting to roughly $2.25 million.

Currently, her business is set to boom with the expiration of a COVID-era eviction moratorium just over the horizon. Advocates, like Phil Lord, an attorney with the Tenant Union Representative Network, said an office that primarily derived its value from appealing to landlords desire for faster and cheaper evictions, risked making a bad situation worse.

These people are working for the landlords. Their job is to get the house vacant, he said of Shuters office. Why is this private business doing the courts work?

The Wild West

The story of Shuters ascendancy to Landlord and Tenant Officer is the latest chapter in a nearly 50-year-old failure to reform Philadelphias eviction process.

A unique feature in Pennsylvania, the citys current Landlord and Tenant Office dates back to 1970 and was initially introduced as a civil reform to the citys ancient constabulary system. That 17th-century system of appointing men to handle tax collection and court service had, by the 20th century, lost many traditional powers due to government reorganization. By the 1960s, people elected to constable positions in Philadelphia functioned primarily as politically connected bounty hunters, charged with enforcing court eviction orders for profit often by any means necessary.

During that decade, the constabulary system became a lightning rod for criticism over graft and lack of oversight. Renters routinely reported being harassed out of their homes or evicted without cause. The men doing the evictions held constable sales or distress sales to recoup their costs and time, auctioning off furniture or clothing belonging to displaced tenants.

A 1965 state attorney generals inquest into the system recommended abolishing the positions and transferring their duties wholesale to the city Sheriffs Office.

[Philadelphias] constables are engaging in practices designed to terrify the average citizen, the report reads, describing many constables as glorified bill collectors operating under official marque.

Sam Stretton, a longtime ethics lawyer in Philadelphia, said he recalled now-deceased U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter making a case for dismantling the constabulary system as a central plank of his campaigns for Philadelphia District Attorney in the 1960s.

It was the wild west out there, he said, of the constables. It was bribes and everything else.

Outcry and a court injunction followed an episode in 1969 in which a constable sought to auction the furniture of a North Philadelphia family that put rental payments in escrow after the inspectors deemed their landlords property unfit for human habitation. In a subsequent lawsuit, filed by legal aid group Community Legal Services, federal courts ruled these sales unconstitutional, ordering the abolition of Philadelphias constabulary offices and the judicial appointment of theoretically more formalized Landlord and Tenant officers.

But the ensuing reform soon became a source of controversy itself. And the new system quickly came to resemble the old.

One of the first Landlord and Tenant officers, Edward A. Green, was sued by Community Legal Services for attempting in 1970 to shake down tenants for travel costs and service fees on top of what he was legally allowed to collect. Al Sacks, another Landlord and Tenant officer himself a former constable was also sued by the legal nonprofit in 1986 for allegedly bilking tenants into paying bogus legal fees.

The legislative reformsput the Landlord and Tenant Officers in Philadelphia in the same position as the constables were prior to those reforms, lamented plaintiffs in the suit against Green.

By the late 1980s, the position came under the aegis of the law firm of Robert H. Messerman. This attorney was appointed by Marisa Shuters father, former President Judge Silberstein, who presided over Municipal Court from 1986 to 1999. Messerman would hold this appointment for nearly 30 years.

Reached by phone in July, the attorney said he could recall few details of the offices operations. But records show Messerman subcontracted much of the eviction work to surrogates. A so-called deputy landlord-tenant officer that was shot and killed in a 1990s dispute with a West Philadelphia tenant was later revealed to be a contract worker paid by Messerman, according to an Inquirer report. A later lawsuit filed against Messermans office indicated that work was also sometimes subbed out to a local process service firm called B&R Services for Professionals, Inc.

Meanwhile, Silbersteins daughter, Marisa Shuter, graduated from Temple Universitys Beasley School of Law in 1993 and soon went to work in the family trade administering the citys court system. After a stint as an associate in the real estate department at Blank Rome, she began her career in the court system. While her father served as Municipal Courts president judge, the court hired her as a law clerk around 1996. She later joined Messermans office in 2006, serving as a staff attorney and office manager, according to First Judicial District spokesperson Marty ORourke.

When Messerman eventually retired from his post as Landlord and Tenant Officer, Marisa Shuter was appointed by then-President Judge Marsha Neifield Williams to replace him in January 2017.

Today, she runs the office much as Messerman did, relying on independent contractors to do the heavy lifting of writ service. ORourke said all these people are formally deputized, but court rules do not require them to be trained or certified law enforcement.

The court does not require the Landlord-Tenant Officer or the Deputy Landlord-Tenant Officers to meet any specific law enforcement credentials, ORourke said.

Marisa Shuter said, in practice, many did have a background in police work or had served as suburban magisterial constables. She reiterated that she requires deputies to have a license to carry a firearm, own a vehicle and that all received significant job training.

I personally explain all of the laws to them and the process from start to finish, she wrote. They ride along with an experienced deputy for a period of time before being assigned to handle evictions on their own so that they can learn the job.

Michael Williams, a Philadelphia housing attorney, said the distinction between these deputies and actual law enforcement was often vague.

Sometimes tenants will call them the sheriff, but thats wrong, Williams said. Theyre from the landlord-tenant office. Sometimes, they will still refer to themselves as constables.

Some, like ethics lawyer Sam Stretton, said the courts shouldnt be empowering private entities with little duty to disclose information to the public to force residents from their homes.

This office is held out as part of the government when, in fact, its a private law firm, he said. Theres still no standards. They could just get some monster, and say hes just the toughest guy I found.

Ethical nowhereland

It may be unsurprising that the daughter of the former president judge would come to work for a man he appointed Silberstein long held an enthusiastic attitude toward family and government service. He hired his own wife as a judicial aide in the 1980s and, after his own retirement, replaced her in a seat she would occupy on the citys Board of Revision of Taxes, in the 2000s. The BRT was itself later dismantled amid allegations of political dealing. Silberstein did not respond to a request for comment.

ORourke defended Shuters appointment, citing her pedigree in the field and conduct to date.

Ms. Shuter learned every aspect of how to manage the office and handle the legal issues faced by the Landlord-Tenant Officer. She also served as the courts point of contact and effectively managed the office to the courts satisfaction, he said.

While Shuters father had long since retired by the time she took over the office, her husband served on Municipal Court both then and now. ORourke explained that the appointment did not trigger anti-nepotism rules because of the unique nature the Landlord and Tenant Office occupies within the municipal bureaucracy Shuter is paid directly through fee collection and is not otherwise a salaried or contracted employee of the courts.

The Landlord-Tenant Officer neither receives compensation from nor is an employee of the City, State, or First Judicial District, he said. The Citys ethics rulesare not applicable to the Landlord-Tenant Officer because the officer is neither a City officer nor a City employee.

But Judge Shuter ruled on eviction cases before his wife became the person doing the evicting and records show he continued to do so afterward. Municipal Court employs a rotation system where all judges occasionally share the burden of pushing along thousands of eviction cases each year although many individual suits spend little time under the scrutiny of the court.

Rob Caruso, executive director of the State Ethics Commission, acknowledged that other court appointees, like special masters appointed in divorce proceedings, do fall into an ethical nowhereland in state guidelines. But that did not necessarily mean Shuters arrangement was conflict-free.

What doesnt make sense is why her husband is not recusing himself from these eviction cases, Caruso said.

Neither Marisa Shuter nor Judge Shuter responded to requests for comment about this relationship. But ORourke defended the judges conduct.

Judge Shuter very rarely hears landlord-tenant cases and has a reputation for fairness and honesty, he said.

Ethics lawyer Stretton said that, after nearly a half-century, it appeared that the landlord-tenant office had changed little from the 1960s.

Thats Philadelphia for you. Some traditions are wonderful, and some arent, like nepotism, he said. The office should be abolished.

Calls for reform

Research has shown that evictions disproportionately impact Black residents, particularly women-led households across the United States. Locally, a study from the 2000s found that 80% of tenants targeted for eviction in Philadelphia were people of color and 70% were women of color. The city is ranked fourth nationally in the highest number of people it seeks to evict annually.

Some tenants, like Judith Jones, said they felt like the landlord-tenant officer did not treat them fairly. Jones withheld rent after her apartments heater broke, but her landlord later won a Municipal Court judgment evicting her. While tenants are entitled to a minimum three week grace period after a judgment, she struggled to get Shuters office to tell her exactly when she would be locked out of the apartment.

The courts told me to call the office every day to find out when the landlord-tenant is coming, Jones said. I called them every day.

Shuter, reached by email, acknowledged that the office did not disclose the date or time of eviction to reduce conflict.

It is the policy of the office not to disclose the date and time of the eviction to the tenant in order to protect the safety of tenants, landlords and their representatives and Deputy Landlord-Tenant Officers, she said.

Jones eventually packed up and left early, to avoid running into the Landlord and Tenant Officers deputies. She now also works with a tenants rights group and said she has come to understand why it was so hard to get an answer to a simple question.

They try to catch people off guard, Jones said.

For those who experience evictions, the memories are often searing. Munira Edens-McClean, now a community organizer leading a housing justice campaign with nonprofit OnePA, said she still remembers the day the landlord-tenant officers came to her familys home.

I had them come to my door and tell me we had an hour to get out. I still remember it, from when I was a child, she said. Thats part of the reason Im doing this stuff.

To some, its an unavoidable consequence of the reality of a rental market in an impoverished city, regardless of who arrived to change the locks.

Sometimes, maybe the tenant didnt get the notice. But a lot of times, its really just that they couldnt pay their bills because they lost their job. Or people were in another bad situation, said housing attorney Michael Williams. Its sad, losing your house while your kids are standing there next to you. Its just awful.

But lawyers at CLS the housing law organization responsible, in a sense, for the creation of the Landlord and Tenant Office say today that the office is in need of reform, much as it was a half-century ago.

CLS has advocated for tenants rights for years, and we are hoping to see changes in the near future that will involve increased accountability from the Landlord-Tenant Officer in the performance of its duties, said attorney Ian Charlton.

Councilwoman Helen Gym, who helped co-author a raft of renter protections earlier this year, agreed the office should be abolished.

While the sheriffs office has had its own history of ethics problems, she said merging landlord-tenant functions would at least provide a bare minimum of oversight and credentialing.

We already have a process to handle this, she said. They go through the sheriffs office where they are at least tracked and held publicly accountable. There is a public process and a means of appeal.

Barry Thompson, someone who went through the process himself, said even small stopgaps or more warnings could be critical for those already in a personal maelstrom when the eviction workers come.

Its like being caught up in a fire in the wee hours of the morning, youre not in your right state of mind, he said. Youre being told to grab this, grab that, you forget things. You forget your blood pressure pill, your ID. You get around the corner and you realize you dont have it, but the door is already locked.

View original post here:

Philly lawyer collects millions evicting people for city courts. She's married to an eviction judge - The Philadelphia Tribune

Posthuman | Tardis | Fandom

Posted on July 30, 2020 by Danzig

Posthuman

Posthumanity was the term used to describe the human race after the destruction of Earth by the Sun in the far future. Deprived of their common cultural reference point, humans formed a loose political structure composed of many groups and subspecies known as the posthuman hegemony. (PROSE: The Book of the War)

Their territory existed at the Time Lords' frontier in time. (PROSE: Frontios, The Book of the War) With their time travel technology, posthumans were a significant faction in the War in Heaven. (PROSE: The Book of the War, Cobweb and Ivory, et al.)

Due to the availability of time travel in the posthuman era, many posthumans influenced their species' past. (PROSE: The Book of the War, Work in Progress) Due to the actions of the Pilots' Coterie, le Pouvoir, the 17th century French secret service, briefly acquired "mirrors" which showed them potential timelines of posthumanity. (PROSE: Newtons Sleep)

27th century human academics were familiar with the term "Posthuman". (PROSE: Work in Progress)

Transhumanity was the evolutionary stage between humanity and posthumanity. (PROSE: Stranger Tales of the City linking material)

The pre-posthuman era was home to a group of emotionless militant cyborgs who forcibly converted other humans and were in turn reviled by humanity, (PROSE: The Book of the War) known by some as the Inanem Magnanime Milites. (PROSE: Weapons Grade Snake Oil) Members of this cyborg race, such as Litany Chromehurst, were the forebears of technosapience (PROSE: Happily Ever After Is a High-Risk Strategy) and eventually became regarded as simply another posthuman subspecies, some of them forming the Silversmiths' Coterie. (PROSE: The Book of the War)

Earth is swallowed by Sol in the 57th Segment of Time. (TV: The Ark)

The posthuman era began with the loss of Earth, which The Book of the War and The Human Species: A Spotter's Guide indicated was circa the year 10,000,000. (PROSE: The Book of the War, Of the City of the Saved...) Another account similarly showed that the Sun swallowed Earth about ten million years after the 1st Segment of Time. (TV: The Ark) However, Compassion believed that most posthuman historians dated the destruction of Earth to 12,000,000, (PROSE: The Brakespeare Voyage) and several other accounts placed Earth's end in 5,000,000,000. (TV: New Earth, The End of the World, et al)

The period immediately after Earth's destruction, the 58th Segment of Time, (PROSE: The Well-Mannered War) was at the edge of Gallifrey's noosphere, (PROSE: The Well-Mannered War, Frontios) the frontier in time. (PROSE: The Book of the War) Early Time Lords forbid within Gallifreyan civilisation any knowledge of history beyond this point, and the Fourth Doctor regarded it as the end of the Humanian Era. (PROSE: The Well-Mannered War) Finally beyond the Ghost Point (PROSE: The Book of the War) and starting to mirror the Great Houses in several new ways, (PROSE: Of the City of the Saved...) posthuman history began with a Diaspora Era (PROSE: The Silent Stars Go By) just as the Houses' history did. (PROSE: The Book of the War)

Some human colonists of Frontios were augmented into non-humanoid, cyborg forms, (TV: Frontios) as would later become popuar among technosapiens. (PROSE: Weapons Grade Snake Oil)

Direct human survivors of Earth's destruction included the Guardians, who took a 700 years voyage on the Ark to Refusis II; (TV: The Ark, PROSE: The Book of the War) Revere's ship of refugees, thought by the Fifth Doctor to be one of the last surviving groups of Mankind, who colonised Frontios; (TV: Frontios) and the Morphans, who colonised Hereafter and very slowly terraformed it into a replacement Earth while the elite transhumans of pre-destruction Earth waited in hibernation. (PROSE: The Silent Stars Go By)

Two distinct political viewpoints arose in humanity from the loss of their original homeworld. One, the Arcadians, considered themselves the preservers of the old Earth's ways. They recreated Earth on 28,000 Earth-like displays, many of which were called New Earth. (PROSE: The Book of the War) One notable New Earth was founded by the "big revival movement" within 23 years of Earth's destruction. (TV: New Earth) The Arcadians were isolationist and eventually almost completely vanished, (PROSE: The Book of the War) with one group secretly surviving in suspended animation beneath the acid seas of Endpoint until near the end of the universe. (PROSE: Hope)

Mrs Foyle of the Remonstration Bureau. (PROSE: The Book of the War)

The other viewpoint which defined the early posthuman era was one of decadence. Mrs Foyle was a notable early era decadent who ran the House of the Rising Sun and the Remonstration Bureau. (PROSE: The Book of the War)

Beginning with the early posthuman era, humans were able to procreate with basically every other species capable of breeding; a rare trait shared with advanced factions such as the Great Houses. (PROSE: Of the City of the Saved...) With the commonality of hybridisation, some posthumans genetically modified themselves to be able to speak the language of their alien partners, as Marinthe did for Rynu. (PROSE: Farewell to a World) The Eighth Doctor once encountered a race of time-travelling Cybermen who turned to the 21st century because in their native era after Earth's destruction, humanity was scattered through the cosmos and "genetically diluted," proving unfit for cyber-conversion. (COMIC: The Flood)

A chain of posthuman worlds became the breeding-grounds of the Remote. (PROSE: The Book of the War)

Some posthuman subspecies had physical aspects of other animals originating from Earth, including dolphins and tigers. (PROSE: Of the City of the Saved...)

The Immaculata Formosii was a posthuman War Goddess who allied with many sides of the War in Heaven, including the Enemy and Faction Paradox. (PROSE: The Book of the War, Against Nature)

The posthuman (PROSE: A Hundred Words from a Civil War) Malkuthites killed the native population of Yesod, including the Yesodi, and adapted themselves into the Yesodites, who were once visited by the Eighth Doctor, Samson, and Gemma. (PROSE: The Long Midwinter, AUDIO: The Wake)

The Quire were a group of posthuman scholars who once sent six of their people to the Braxiatel Collection in the 2600s. (PROSE: Work in Progress, Tribal Reservations, Quire as Folk, Intermissions, Future Relations)

The giant Bribori Zadig with a city on his shoulder. (PROSE: Furthest Tales of the City)

There existed posthuman giants for whom a planet was comparable in scale to a mountain to a normal-sized human. (PROSE: Unification Theory) The largest giant was Bribori Zadig, who constituted his own class of posthuman and was suspected by some to have been engineered as a piece of living art. (PROSE: Sleeping Giants)

Many posthumans became became parts of hive minds, such as the Saqqaf Hive (PROSE: Saqqaf) and Angstrom Hive. (PROSE: Of the City of the Saved...) The shoal-people spread their individual minds among many fish, each person their own hive mind. (PROSE: Just Passing Through)

Akroates came from an isolated society of posthuman shepherds who resembled cyclopses. (PROSE: Akroates)

A fabled clan of long-limbed posthumans lived on Trapezium. (PROSE: The Baker Street Dozen)

The Entrustine Horde were an obscure posthuman barbarian guild. (PROSE: Of the City of the Saved...)

The colonists of the ocean world Widowseed diverged into the Seaborn and Airborne, who brutally warred for control of the gigawrack, each denying the others' humanity. (PROSE: Salutation)

A-Ph-Aa came from a cuboid race of posthumans with a rich history who were made to never exist once history changed so that humans never colonised their homeplanet. (PROSE: Mourning the Story)

In the 11th billennium, several posthuman types were created along eugenic principles, including the Neotonic Clade. (PROSE: Unification Theory)

Two of the Pilots' Coterie manifest at Salomon's House in 1671 with the use of praxis. (PROSE: Newtons Sleep)

About two million years after Earth's demise, circa 12,000,000, the posthuman era entered its height as empires began emerging from the decadant movement. (PROSE: The Book of the War) The most notable of these were the aristocratic Blood Coteries based in Siloportem. (PROSE: The Book of the War, AUDIO: Movers) The Blood Coteries included the Pilots of Civitas Solis, (PROSE: The Book of the War, Newtons Sleep) the Weavers, and the Silversmiths. (PROSE: The Book of the War)

The miniscule Plume Coteries were librarians who lived in the distant reaches of dead space. (PROSE: Cobweb and Ivory)

Gargil Krymtorpor, who lived from 12,023,711 to 12,023,967, was a posthuman interstellar pirate who renegaded from Siloportem and became indentured to the Celestis. (PROSE: The Book of the War)

At the time of the last humanoid Arcadians of the Milky Way, posthumans led by Linemica resurrected Cernunnos using delicate craftmanship and illegal time travel. Dignitaries from countless posthuman cultures attended Cernunnos' unveiling on Terra Primagenia. (PROSE: Cobweb and Ivory)

A Drashig striking. (TV: Carnival of Monsters)

A splinter Coterie became lost on a million-year mission across the cosmos, during which radiation affected their evolution by activating "a few forgotten DNA pathways". Little Brother Intrepid of Faction Paradox transported some of their eggs backwards through time to a prehistoric swamp, where they evolved into Drashigs (PROSE: Daring Initiation)

Marko Marz was a transhuman Plutocrat from an openly mercantile posthuman period. Despite time travel being taboo among the Coteries, Marz publicised his interest in it (PROSE: Subjective Interlock) and had his book Retroeconomics and Timeschism for Dummies published in the past, 4973. In the book, Marz mentioned that the Dealers in Yellow operated in his era. (PROSE: Pre-narrative Briefing L)

Megropolis One on Pluto. (TV: The Sun Makers)

The Chance Coteries were a wealthy cymbiont civilisation who, during the reign of Scacia De Rein circa 19,531,250,000,007,031, manipulated public perception of technosapiens across the posthuman hegemony. De Rein secretly supported the revolution on Pluto against the Company which led to the foundation of the Plutonic Republic of Technosapien Enhanced Cultures. The revolution led to increased sympathy and understanding for technosapiens. PROTEC's president, Sojourner Hooper-Agog, later teamed with Faction Paradox Bankside to cause the fall of the Chance Coteries. (PROSE: Weapons Grade Snake Oil)

The Technosapien Interstellar Cooperative spanned many worlds, including the AutoFolk's homeworld Mechanique II. (PROSE: Happily Ever After Is a High-Risk Strategy)

The Million-Star Alliance did not actually span a million stars, but it did include the mining planet Isoptal, where posthumans survived by turning themselves into artificial intelligences known as the Isoptaline. (PROSE: Weighty Questions, Salutation)

By 6,000,000,000, the posthumans previously living on Pluto had modified themselves into homo solarians and colonised the expanding Sun. They died when the Sun was swallowed by Grandfather's Maw. Compassion considered this to be the ultimate fate of humanity, with all the posthuman groups outside the solar system being mere off-shoots of the core continuity. (PROSE: The Brakespeare Voyage)

The Lasthumans were widely considered the final posthuman civilisation. (PROSE: Of the City of the Saved...) Their God-King was Het Linc. (PROSE: The Book of the War) They created the Universal Machine in their last millennia before being massacred by House Mirraflex in 334,961,147,104. (PROSE: Of the City of the Saved..., The Book of the War)

The Toclafane. (TV: The Sound of Drums)

While the psychics of the Lasthumans had scoured the universe and found no other human minds, there also existed strands of humanity posthumously termed the "revolved" who evolved into mindless beings then "revolved" back into conscious creatures. (PROSE: Of the City of the Saved...) The Tenth Doctor encountered a group of humans on Malcassairo in 100,000,000,000,000 whose ancestors had spent millions of years evolving into gas and another million as downloads. The Master hid from the Last Great Time War among these humans (TV: Utopia) and caused their evolution into the Toclafane. (TV: Last of the Time Lords)

Near the end of the universe, when the universe was ruled from the Needle by the Imperial Family, the planet Endpoint was home to the human-descended Endpointers as well as a secret faction of "genetically pure" humans (PROSE: Hope) of the Arcadian viewpoint (PROSE: The Book of the War) in suspended animation. The Eighth Doctor, Fitz Kreiner, and Anji Kapoor came to Endpoint, got caught up in the reawakening of the humans, and ensured peace between the Endpointers and the humans. (PROSE: Hope)

Posthumanity's final creation, the Universal Machine, was one of the Secret Architects of the City of the Saved. (PROSE: Of the City of the Saved...) All of posthumanity was resurrected in the City. (PROSE: The Book of the War)

During the City of the Saved Civil War, the most sophisticated posthuman factions fought in ways incomprehensible to common humans. Five Districts warred entirely with music and representatives of two cultures went into combat in Flautencil's Plaza which appeared to consist only of smelling orchids and exchanging meaningful glances. (PROSE: A Hundred Words from a Civil War)

Continued here:

Posthuman | Tardis | Fandom

How to git clone on Ubuntu with GitLab and GitHub – TheServerSide.com

Posted on July 30, 2020 by Danzig

Im not one of those software developers that shuns a Windows based GUI and portends that every operation performed on a computer is best performed using a command prompt or the BASH shell. But I can tell you that if you want to do version control with Git, the terminal window in Ubuntu is the best place to do it. Let me demonstrate that by demonstrating how to perform an Ubuntu git clone operation, taking all of the content from both a GitHub and a GitLab repository and copying it all down to my local machine.

The following is the list of steps required to perform an Ubuntu Git clone:

The commands used in the Ubuntu git clone example where the target was a GitLab project are as follows:

The process of cloning a GitHub repo in Ubuntu isnt that much different. Since the first set of commands installed Git and performed the one-off config operations, the set of commands is more compact:

You can find these repositories on GitHub and GitLab.

Read the original post:

How to git clone on Ubuntu with GitLab and GitHub - TheServerSide.com

The 2020 Emmys, ‘Watchmen’ and Black Lives Matter – Vogue

Posted on July 30, 2020 by Danzig

As Variety reported, a record number of Black actors were nominated for Emmy this year taking 35 of the 102 possible slots, or 34.3%. That was a jump from last year, when Black actors made up 19.8% of the nominee pool, as well as an increase from 2018, when there were 27.7% Black actors nominated the previous highest percentage in the Academys history. Among those nominated: Billy Porter, Sterling K. Brown, Zendaya, Anthony Anderson, Don Cheadle, Issa Rae, Tracee Ellis Ross, Regina King, Jeremy Pope, Octavia Spencer and Kerry Washington. (King, Spencer and Washington all compete in the same category, Best Actress in a Limited Series; the other two nominees are Cate Blanchett and Shira Haas.)

"This year we are also bearing witness to one of the greatest fights for social justice in history, and it is our duty to use this medium for change," Frank Scherma, chairman and CEO of Television Academy, at the start of the live-streamed nominations on Tuesday. That is the power and responsibility of television not only delivering a multitude of services or a little escapism, but also amplifying the voices that must be heard and telling the stories that must be told. Because television, by its very nature, connects us all.

Of course, inclusion only goes so far.

One of the glaring omissions in this year's nominations was Pose, which failed to repeat as a Best Drama nominee, and garnered only one acting nod Billy Porter, for Best Actor, the award he won last year, becoming the first openly gay Black actor to do so. Left out was the entire rest of the cast, including several of the supporting actors who are trans. Emmy voters also failed to recognize Janet Mock, the barrier-breaking trans director who executive produces Pose. (The show did receive nominations for makeup, hairstyling and costume design.)

On Tuesday morning, Pose stars Indya Moore and Angelica Ross responded to the snubs on social media.

Moore, who plays Angel, took to Twitter, posting, I cNt tell nobody I deserve their sht. I didn't invent the academy or any of the award shows. If they think my work is unworthy Chile that's just that. In a follow-up tweet she added, Imagine if we depended on cis ppl to validate anything about us. (Responded one fan: Watching you on Pose made me cry... made me laugh.. made me think about life in the LGBTQ+ community. Your ability to convey emotions and portray such a powerful character speaks volumes about you and your ability to act. Needless to say, I believe you deserved a nomination.)

Go here to read the rest:

The 2020 Emmys, 'Watchmen' and Black Lives Matter - Vogue

Marshall School of Medicine 1 of 9 schools to offer Mission Act scholarships to veterans – Huntington Herald Dispatch

Posted on July 30, 2020 by Danzig

HUNTINGTON Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine was selected as one of nine medical schools to offer a new scholarship for veterans pursuing a career in medicine.

The Veterans Affairs Mission Act of 2018 created several programs to assist veterans in paying for medical school through scholarships and loan repayments, including the Veterans Healing Veterans Medical Access and Scholarship Program (VHVMASP).

Beginning with the incoming class of students in 2020, Marshall University was selected to award up to two scholarships per year to qualifying veterans. To qualify for VHVMASP, applicants must have completed their military service no more than 10 years from the time of application. They cannot receive the GI Bill or Vocational Rehabilitation funding while receiving the scholarship.

The scholarship is renewable for up to four years and covers tuition, fees, equipment and books; a stipend; and costs for two rotations at a Veterans Affairs (VA) facility during the senior year of medical school. In return, recipients must meet several obligations, including agreeing to complete residency training in a specialty that is applicable to the VA and become board-eligible in their specialty. They must also agree to become a full-time clinical provider at a VA facility for at least four years after their training.

As a state medical school, we are always working to identify mechanisms for recruiting students from diverse backgrounds or with unique life experiences, said Bobby L. Miller, M.D., vice dean of medical education at the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine. This scholarship provides us the opportunity to recognize individuals who have served our country while continuing to demonstrate our strong ties to the VA, upon which our medical school was founded.

Matthew W. Werhoff Jr., an entering first-year medical student, is the first recipient of the scholarship at Marshall University. Werhoff is a native of Martinsburg, West Virginia. He earned his Bachelor of Science in exercise physiology from West Virginia University in Morgantown. He joined the U.S. Army immediately following high school graduation in 2011 and served until 2019 as a member of the Military Police Corps.

The Marshall School of Medicine was established in 1977 through federal legislation, known as the Teague-Cranston Act, that authorized the creation of five new medical schools in conjunction with existing VA hospitals. Marshall maintains its partnership with the VA through pre-clinical and clinical learning opportunities for medical students.

Other schools of medicine participating in the VHVMASP include the Texas A&M College of Medicine, University of South Carolina College of Medicine, Boonshoft School of Medicine at Wright State University, Quillen College of Medicine at East Tennessee State University, Howard University School of Medicine, Meharry Medical College, Drew University of Medicine and Science, Morehouse School of Medicine.

The rest is here:

Marshall School of Medicine 1 of 9 schools to offer Mission Act scholarships to veterans - Huntington Herald Dispatch

Irish medical school students learning about Sarnia area – Sarnia and Lambton County This Week

Posted on July 30, 2020 by Danzig

From left, William Elia, Dr. John OMahony, Samuel Goh and Vladimir Djedovic.Handout

A relationship the Sarnia Lambton Physician Recruitment Task Force formed with an overseas medical school could pay future dividends for the community.

Of six Visiting Elective Program spots this year matching fourth-year medical students with local family physicians, three are from the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland (RCSI) and have been spending four weeks this summer living in Sarnia observing and learning from Dr. John OMahony.

Recruiter Carly Cox said the task force actually awarded six visiting elective bursaries this year, but some of the students werent able to take part because of the pandemic.

Three of the recipients currently in the community are attending medical school in Ireland but are from the Toronto area, she said.

These are spots that are very difficult to come by because physicians do not get paid to train these individuals, Cox said.

Also, the program the visiting electives usually go at through at Western Universitys medical school was cancelled because of the pandemic.

We had our RCSI students reach out to us individually and say, Im still very interested in doing the elective. Can we do it privately?

Because the three students were already home from Ireland, restrictions preventing students from overseas travelling to Canada werent an obstacle.

Cox said the task force worked with the RCSI to ensure the students were able to still take part in the placement in Sarnia, where they have been able to observe many aspects of clinical practice, emergency medicine, nursing home care and obstetrics with OMahony

Sarnia Lambton has so much to offer from a lifestyle perspective and our amazing medical community, OMahony said. You would not be able to appreciate what Sarnia Lambton has to offer unless you spend time in the community meeting our citizens and working in our great hospital.

The program allows the task force to introduce medical students to Lambton as a potential place to live and set up practice in the future.

Its really important we expose them to what a lifestyle is like here because its so competitive, Cox said. If we make a connection with them in medical school, stay connected with them through their residency, we hope theyll practise here.

The fourth-year students taking part in the visiting elective program are at least three years away from beginning their practices, she said.

The RCSI students spending time in Sarnia this summer William Elia, Samuel Goh and Vladimir Djedovic indicated on their applications they had an interest in working in smaller communities and taking advantage of the wider scope they can offer a family practice.

See the original post here:

Irish medical school students learning about Sarnia area - Sarnia and Lambton County This Week

Michigan Medicine named one of best 20 hospitals in U.S. News rankings – MLive.com

Posted on July 30, 2020 by Danzig

ANN ARBOR, MI Michigan Medicine has been recognized as one of the nations 20 best hospitals, according to rankings released Tuesday by U.S. News and World Report.

Michigan Medicine was No. 11 on the honor roll, which ranks the 20 best hospitals in the country for delivering exceptional treatment across multiple areas of care. The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, was No. 1, followed by Cleveland Clinic and Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Michigan Medicine also ranked in the top 10 in five specialties areas, including:

At Michigan Medicine, our commitment is to our patients, first and foremost, said Marschall Runge, executive vice president for medical affairs at the University of Michigan, chief executive officer of Michigan Medicine and dean of the UM Medical School. This honor is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our incredible team of health care providers.

Michigan Medicine also received rankings in a number of other areas, including:

In June, U.S. News and World Report named C.S. Mott Childrens Hospital the top-ranked childrens hospital in Michigan and the only hospital in the state to be nationally-ranked in all 10 pediatric specialties evaluated in the 2020-21 Best Childrens Hospital rankings.

C.S. Mott Childrens Hospital cited among nations best in U.S. News rankings

The hospital was also ranked No. 1 in the state. Beaumont Hospital-Royal Oak was the voted the second-best hospital in Michigan, while Beaumont Hospital-Grosse Pointe and Beaumont Hospital-Troy were tied for third. St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor Hospital was ranked No. 7 in Michigan.

According to a release from U.S. News and World Report, the data used in the 2020-21 best hospital rankings and ratings come from a period predating the COVID-19 pandemic and were not affected by the pandemics impact on hospitals.

Methodologies are largely based on objective measures such as risk-adjusted survival and discharge-to-home rates, volume, and quality of nursing, among other care-related indicators, the release said.

Michigan hospital chosen as trial site for coronavirus vaccine, and its looking for volunteers

Ann Arbor hospitals to receive about $9 million in relief funding

51,000 Michiganders have recovered from the coronavirus. Hospitals havent, yet.

See the original post:

Michigan Medicine named one of best 20 hospitals in U.S. News rankings - MLive.com

What Cuba Can Teach the U.S. About Confronting the COVID-19 Pandemic – southseattleemerald.com

Posted on July 30, 2020 by Danzig

by Sharon Maeda

Cuba is one of many countries that has successfully addressed the COVID-19 coronavirus despite the U.S. embargo that prohibits the sale of ventilators and other medical equipment to Cuba.

Cuba is well known for its medical education and premiere medical school, the Latin American School of Medicine, commonly referred to as ELAM, and for sending medical teams to epidemic and disaster sites around the world. Cuban medical teams were dispatched to early COVID-19 hotspots, including China, Italy, and South Africa.

Cuba has reported only 2,555 COVID-19 infections total with a population of 11.4 million people. Here in the U.S., 4.43 million people have tested positive for COVID-19 out of a population of 328.2 million, an exponentially higher rate of infections compared with our neighboring island country. In some U.S. locales, like Washington States own Yakima County, some 25% of people getting tested for COVID-19 are testing positive and South King County is a potential new hotspot for an outbreak.

How did an island country, 90 miles south of the U.S., get on top of the COVID-19 pandemic so fast, while many places in the U.S., including Washington State, are having a resurgence of cases of the virus? First, Cuban health care is free, and theres no profit motive in medical care. Each neighborhood has a polyclinic staffed with doctors and nurses who usually live in that neighborhood. Primary care teams go door-to-door to see how families are doing. So, the infrastructure was already there and the people know and trust these providers. Providers did not wait for COVID-19 patients to show up in the ER. Rather, they were proactive and went looking for people with the virus, immediately placing positive-tested people in dedicated COVID hospitals and conducting immediate massive testing of those neighborhoods.

Cuba has also utilized an arsenal of drugs including interferon alpha-2b recombinant that helps build the immune system in some of the most severe cases of COVID-19. They also regularly employ preventative naturopathic medications that strengthen immune systems. They bring all of these to the countries that they have dispatched medical teams to around the world.

In a recent webinar, Confronting the COVID-19 pandemic, Cuba shows the way!, Dr. Xochitl Garcia provided a comparison between Cuba and Washington State. Dr. Garcia is a graduate of ELAMs free medical school. Originally from South Central Los Angeles, Dr. Garcia is now working for the Seattle-based Community Health Board Coalition.

Dr. Garcia pointed out a number of gaps here in Washington, and throughout the U.S.:

Lack of Access to Health Care: The lack of medical insurance and fear of prohibitive medical costs keeps many people from seeking preventive health care.

Disproportionality: BIPOC and low-income communities have higher incidences of medical conditions like diabetes that make people more susceptible to the virus.

Antiracist Protocols: The lack of systemic health care protocols that account for ethnic, religious, language, and other differences that impact delivery of appropriate medical care.

Human-Centered Vs. Healthcare as a Business: When the business profit motive is involved, the entire health care system leans away from human-centered care, not to mention the enormous time-consuming documentation and medical reimbursement process.

The webinar included a video of U.S. citizens who attend ELAM for their medical education discussing Cubas healthcare system, pandemic response, and their own contributions to the cause. YouTube also carries a number of other videos documenting Cubas response to the novel coronavirus.

The webinar was sponsored by Seattle/Cuba Friendship Committee, Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO/Pastors for Peace) and the U.S. Women and Cuba Collaboration.

Sharon Maeda is Interim Managing Editor of the Emerald. Decades ago she was part of the team that created the application and vetting process for the first group of U.S. candidates for the free medical education at ELAM.

Featured image is a screen capture from a YouTube video titled ELAM Students Join Cubas Fight Against COVID19 posted by Jennifer Wager.

Like Loading...

View original post here:

What Cuba Can Teach the U.S. About Confronting the COVID-19 Pandemic - southseattleemerald.com

Select Page ::