One FDA About-Face Doesn’t Mean an Orphan-Drug Bonanza – Bloomberg

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Sometimes it pays to look a gift horse in the mouth.

For example, take the FDA's rare course reversal on Tuesday: It let AmicusTherapeutics Inc. seek accelerated approval for rare-disease drug Galafold, after last year saying the biopharma firm would need more data before seeking approval.

Amicus shares jumped nearly 26percent on the news, which could be a positive sign for other drugmakers dealing with tricky FDA issues. They may have reason to hope the agency will be more flexible, as new commissioner Scott Gottlieb has vowed. But it's hard to tell how far that flexibility will extend -- and whether it really is the boon it seems.

About Face

The FDA changed its mind about one of Amicus Therapeutics' drugs, and the firm saw its biggest share price jump in more than 20 years

Source: Bloomberg

The FDA's decision is clearly big news for Amicus. Galafold, which treats Fabry disease, is already approved in Europe. But it faced a potentially multi-year path to the much more lucrative U.S. market. The medicine could now U.S. see approval in2018, which should substantially boost sales expectations that took a hit after the previously announced delay.

Down on the Upside

Galafold sales estimates plunged after the FDA demanded more data on the drug before considering it for approval; they should rebound after the agency changed its stance

Markets took this hint of a friendlier FDA as great news for other firms worried about getting drugs approved. For example, shares of GW Pharmaceuticals PLC, which wants the agency's OK on a marijuana-derived medicine in a rare seizure disorder, rosemore than 6 percent on Tuesday. Meanwhile, PTC Therapeutics Inc. -- whose application for a muscle-wasting disease drug has gotten rocky FDA treatment so far -- rose more than 5 percent.

It Was a Good Day

A number of firms with complex dealings with the FDA saw their shares jump on Tuesday alongside Amicus

Source: Bloomberg

Anyshift in the FDA's approach is most relevant to firms making drugs for rare diseases, also known as orphan drugs. The agency is already somewhat more flexible in these cases anyway, because alternative medicines aren't available, because Congress has mandated more leeway, and because patient populations are so small that it's hard to run gold-standard clinical trials.

Firms with such treatments also get longer exclusivity periods, speedier FDA reviews, and unparalleled pricing power. According to an analysis by life-sciences data company Evaluate LLC, the average annual per-patient cost of an orphan drug last year was $140,443, compared to $27,756 for a non-orphan medicine.

Investors may think the FDA will now be even more flexible with these drugs, leading to a flood of lucrative new approvals. That jump in PTC Therapeutics' share price suggests expectations may have gotten ahead of reality, though. PTC is isforcing an FDA review of its drug over the agency's objections after its medicine failed a Phase 3 trial.

Even a more-flexible FDA doesn't necessarily mean drugs with little evidence of effectiveness or dangerous safety issues will get approved. The FDA may now review some drugs it might previously have rejected out of hand. A few medicines that might previously have been rejected may get to market. Butit's unlikely the FDA's standards will be drastically lowered.

And an FDA approval is far from aguarantee of success anyway. Someone has to pay for these costly medicines, and it's usually not patients -- it's insurers, which are increasingly throwing up roadblocks to obtaining such drugs. There have already been reported reimbursement barriers for Sarepta Therapeutics Inc.'s treatment for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, which was approved last year despite the strenuous objection of some FDA scientists due to limited evidence of its usefulness. A looser FDA won't make insurers any more willing to pay for high-priced drugs that may have safety or efficacy issues.

So the FDA's Amicus decision either represents a new approach to approvals, in which case payers and patients may balk. Or it is just a one-off or marginal shift, meaning its impact is limited. Either way, investors hoping for a flurry of new orphan-drug approvals should prepare to be disappointed.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.

To contact the author of this story: Max Nisen in New York at mnisen@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Gongloff at mgongloff1@bloomberg.net

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One FDA About-Face Doesn't Mean an Orphan-Drug Bonanza - Bloomberg

Making A Quilt from the Regulatory Patchwork – Natural Products INSIDER

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In the United States, dietary supplements and their ingredients are subject to a patchwork of regulations, industry guidance, voluntary certifications and audit programs. With some exceptions, few standards have been developed with expert consensus and then broadly implemented by the dietary supplement industry. FDAs dietary supplement GMPs (good manufacturing practices) are part of the exception and have made todays supplement products generally a higher level of quality than at any time before.

Yet, few industry standards are clearly understood, consistently applied and sufficiently comprehensive to cover all the ground. One primary example is the gap between compliance requirements for dietary ingredients (under food GMPs) and dietary supplements, whose GMP framework is derived from that for pharmaceuticals. The underlying litmus test for the level of safety demanded for supplements and foods are differentthat of non-adulteration" versus safe for human consumption," Respectively. Maybe due to the differences, supplement GMP audit programs can overlook the food GMPs that govern ingredients. It is not uncommon for a manufacturer and a supplier to speak completely different quality languages. Audits for supplement GMPs are frequently unable to determine to a reasonable degree of certainty whether a particular ingredient, based on its certificate of analysis (CoA), should be expected to meet supplement requirements once it is placed inside a capsule or tablet.

As could be expected, an unintended consequence of this gap is the common practice of a raw material CoA being duplicated as the manufacturers raw material specification. In this scenario, an ingredient specification has been developed according to food requirements and, often without further analysis or verification, it is assumed to meet the requirements of the finished supplement. The result is a supplement that is essentially of no better quality than the food-grade" ingredients put into it.

For botanicals and animal-derived raw materials, cultivation, harvesting and processing before they are made into usable ingredients adds another dimension. This is a complicated problem, particularly for a global supply chain of agricultural materials susceptible to contaminants during farming, harvesting, processing, storage or transportation to the ingredient processing facility. These contaminants may not be necessarily listed on the specification or controlled by the food GMPs, yet they can cause the supplements to which they are added to be adulterated.

Dozens of standards have been written for agricultural products, many of which dont (or cant) apply to the small family farmers who are a predominant source of botanical raw materials. In addition to recent requirements for fresh produce established by the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), which dont really apply to dried agricultural materials, we also have: USDA good agricultural practices (GAPs), which are intended for large farms and seldom fully practiced in the United States; certified organic, which requires no testing for contaminants like pesticides that may cause a product to be adulterated; independent farm standards like Global GAP, which arealso intended for large, modernized industrial farms; and, dozens of good agricultural and collection practices (GACPs) for medicinal plants that have been independently written by various nations and trade groups.

Some experts say the mess of standards, the dynamics of the industry and the law of entropy do not support the possibility of a clear and unified regulatory structure. Others recognize the limitations, yet remain busy sewing the patches together into a quilt that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Fortunately, initiatives are in process or recently completed that contribute to the integrity of our industry quilt and have provided free information. Just in the past couple years:

The U.S. Pharmacopoeia (USP) and American Herbal Pharmacopoeia (AHP) developed monographs and methods for testing dietary supplement ingredients.

USP also developed a Food Fraud Mitigation Database that lists adulterants common for food ingredients.

AOAC International developed analytical methods for dietary supplement ingredient potency and contaminants.

The National Institutes of Healths (NIH) Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) website became a valuable source of information and resources.

Trade groups such as the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) and American Botanical Council (ABC) made enormous efforts to educate and guide the industry on issues around botanical dietary ingredients and adulteration, including a recently updated draft GACP from AHPA, and the ABC-AHP-National Center for Natural Products Research (NCNPR) Botanical Adulterants Program.

The Supplement Online Wellness Library (OWL) was established by the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), to allow labels for supplement products on the U.S. market to be put into in one place.

The Supplement Safety and Compliance Initiative (SSCI) was formed as a broad industry initiative, with wide support from trade associations, to address some of the gaps for supplements that arent sufficiently covered under other standards. SSCI is led by experienced players in retail, manufacturing and supply, and includes a focus on identity, risk assessment and quality for raw materials.

In response to consumer demand, leading retailers, manufacturers and ingredient suppliers invested significant resources into traceability and quality, and are now able to make meaningful claims to these effects that are not only important to consumers, but also serve as a reliable way to differentiate from the competition.

Todays movement toward a greater level of education and transparency includes a firming of the gaps, especially where raw material traceability and quality are concerned. Successful companies across the entire supply chain are actively improving and adopting new standards, building a level of quality and integrity that provides lasting value to their business. Those who are upping their game are piecing together a quilt of their own, leveraging their quality advantages into claims that deliver marketing value. On the other side, those who continue to rely on ignorance or a lack of regulatory clarity as reason to take no action are increasingly left behind.

In an industry where faceless online product marketers are more common than they should be, and where a list of the tens of thousands of products on the market is just getting kicked off, efforts to fill in the gaps of our patchwork are a good thing for everyone.

Blake Ebersole has led a number of botanical quality initiatives and formed collaborations with dozens of universities and research centers. As president of NaturPro Scientific, Ebersole established quality compliance and product development services for supplements and ingredients such as ID Verified. Follow him on Twitter at @NaturalBlake.

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Making A Quilt from the Regulatory Patchwork - Natural Products INSIDER

CRN to Explore Adding Medical Food to its Mission – Natural Products INSIDER

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Press Release

The Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), the leading trade association for the dietary supplement and functional food industry, today announced it is exploring adding representation for companies in the medical food industry to its mission, following a unanimous vote by the CRN Board of Directors at its June Board meeting to launch an examination of this burgeoning sector of the nutrition category.

According to CRN Board Chair Jim Hyde, vice president & general manager, Balchem Human Nutrition and Pharma, CRNs Board of Directors believes there is enormous growth potential for the medical food industry over the next several decades as healthcare practitioners, the academic community, and policy makers continue to look at the ways that nutrition contributes to better health. We take seriously the name of our association, and incorporating medical food along with dietary supplements and functional food to our responsible nutrition portfolio is forward-thinking and a logical next step for CRN to consider.

CRN President & CEO Steve Mister focused on the potential synergy of adding medical food, explaining, "CRN's strong reputation was created by our forty-five year history of representing mainstream companies in the dietary supplement industry. Several years ago, we opened our doors to functional food companies with the reasoning that we were already representing the ingredient suppliers manufacturing the ingredients that went into the food. We envision the same synergistic approach with medical food. It's all a spectrum of nutrition that provides health benefits to consumers. If there is an interest from companies who manufacture and market medical foods, we're open to working with those companies to ensure their interests-and the interests of their consumers-are being properly represented to Congress, regulators, and in the media."

As part of its exploratory process, CRN intends to convene the major players in the industry, some of whom are already CRN members, as part of a listening tour to determine where voids in representation exist, if CRN can fill those needs, and what the regulatory and policy priorities of the medical food industry should be. Weve already begun talking with some of the significant providers of these products to the market, and we understand some of their concerns focus on the lack of clarity provided by FDAs oversight of the industry, leading to some controversy and uncertainty about these products, said Mr. Mister.

The term medical food is defined by Congress under Section 5(b)(3) of the Orphan Drug Act as a food which is formulated to be consumed [orally] or administered internally under the supervision of a physician and which is intended for the specific dietary management of a disease or condition for which distinctive nutritional requirements, based on recognized scientific principles, are established by medical evaluation.

CRN has previously expressed concerns that a more narrow interpretation of that definition offered by FDA that limits the range of available products may undermine Congressional intent for this category, thereby stifling the markets ability to reach its potential. On the other hand, CRN fears that some companies may try to take advantage of the lack of clarity with illegitimate products, leaving the industry open to the risk that rogue players will define the industry.

"In many ways, there are similarities between where medical foods are today and the dietary supplement industry immediately following the passage of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act," said Mr. Mister. "CRN wants to work with responsible companies who want to play by the rules. We want to ensure those rules protect consumers, but also allow for industry to innovate and grow. Twenty years from now, we don't want medical food companies to be in the position of looking back and wishing they had established themselves as a unified industry sooner. Consumers will benefit from a vibrant medical food industry that develops and delivers helpful, innovative products under reasonable regulation that assure fly-by-night companies don't grab and destroy the reputation of those companies investing in science and following the law."

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CRN to Explore Adding Medical Food to its Mission - Natural Products INSIDER

Eternity 2.0 – North Bay Bohemian

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At 11am on a Sunday morning, I slip into a row of seats in front of a podium with flower bouquets on each side. I'm here to listen to an aging white man talk about the afterlife. A woman in a fancy hat arranges a potluck lunch on a back table. Other attendees, mostly gray-haired, pass around a wicker basket and toss in $20 bills and personal checks.

We aren't in church. This is godless Silicon Valley.

The Humanist Society has welcomed Ralph Merkle, a Livermore native, to explain cryonicsthe process of freezing a recently dead body in "liquid goo," like Austin Powersto the weekly Sunday Forum. We all want to know about being re-awoken, or reborn, in the future.

Merkle, who has a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford and invented what's called "public key cryptology" in the '70s, makes his pitch to the audience: hand over $80,000, plus yearly dues, to Alcor, and the Scottsdale, Arizonabased company will freeze your brain, encased in its skull, so that you and your memories can wait out the years until medical nanotechnology is advanced enough to both bring you back from a frozen state as well as fix the ills that brought on your death in the first place.

"You get to make a decision if you want to join the experimental group or the control group," Merkle says. "The outcome for the control group is known."

Alcor gained infamy in 2002, when the body of baseball legend Ted Williams was flown to the company's Arizona headquarters, where his head was then severed, frozen and, according to some reports, mistreated.

The Humanist Society is an ideal audience for Merkle's presentation, as its congregants aren't held back by the tricky business of believing in a soul. Debbie Allen, the perfectly coiffed executive director and secretary of the national board of the American Humanist Association, considers cryonics a practical tool. "Religion has directed the conversation for thousands of years," she says. Allen prefers to focus on ethics, and whether cryonics "advances the well-being of the individual or the community."

"Science-fiction," someone whispers behind me, as Merkle talks about nanorobots of the future. He also notes how respirocytes and microbivores can be "programmed to run around inside a cell and do medically useful things like make you healthy."

As one might expect in a room full of humanists, skepticism runs high during the Q&A portion of the meeting. People are wondering exactly what kind of animals the scientists have used to test the cryonics process (answer: nematodes); when Alcor freezes bodies (after one's heart stops, if a DNR, or do not resuscitate, order is requested); whether a frozen brain is any good if the rest of the body deteriorates ("Toss it," Merkle says. "Replacement of everything will be feasible."); and what happens if Alcor goes bankrupt.

"We take that very seriously," the doctor says.

Lunch is served.

"Why would he want to preserve somebody like Adolf Trump?" asks Bob Wallace, 93, who ate salad and cubed cheese with his partner, Marge Ottenberg, 91, whom he met at a Humanist Society event.

"Obviously, the worst possible people are most likely to want to live forever," says Arthur Jackson, 86, a retired junior high school teacher.

Ottenberg seems more open to the idea of coming back from the dead than her golden-year counterparts. "Whatever works," she says.

Silicon Valley is the sort of place where people dream about nanorobots fixing our medical disorders. It's the sort of place where hundreds of millions of dollars are spent chasing that dream.

The last five years have seen an investment boom in what's called "life extension" research. Some of it is straight-up science, such as the Stanford lab researching blood transfusions in mice to cure Alzheimer's. Scientists are in a race against time to help as many people as possible, as fast as possible. They're battling a disease that saw an 89 percent increase in diagnoses between 2000 and 2014; and Alzheimer's or other dementia is currently the sixth leading cause of death. There are also nontraditional sources of cash flowing into biotech, which was once considered a risky investment.

But death itself is the biggest social ill Silicon Valley is trying to solve.

We can build apps to keep track of diabetics' blood glucose levels, to measure how soundly we're sleeping and to access medical records in an instant, but none of this stops the body from wearing out. Alongside the scientists laying the medical foundation to get us to the nanorobots envisioned by Merkle, techie utopians are looking at other ways to cheat death. A cluster of tech companies are attracting far more funding from Silicon Valley than academia, shifting the research landscape with infusions of cash.

Bryan Johnson, an entrepreneur who sold his online payment company to PayPal for $800 million, was the first investor in Craig Venter's Human Longevity Inc., which aims to create a database of a million human genome sequences, including people who are over 100 years old, by 2020. Oracle founder Larry Ellison, who once said "Death makes me very angry" and is one of the oldest of the life-extension investors at 72, has also invested in Human Longevity. Johnson infused even more cash into the biotech field, investing another $100 million of his own money into the OS Fund in 2014, to "support inventors and scientists who aim to benefit humanity by rewriting the operating systems of life."

Such projects are examples of Silicon Valley's extreme confidence in its own ability to improve the world. In an email, Johnson describes his work in grandly optimistic terms.

"Humanity's greatest masterpieces have happened when anchored in hope and aspiration, not drowning in fear," he says.

It takes some serious chutzpah to say you'll extend the human lifespan, and for Johnson, he and his colleagues are venturing where no one has gone before.

"Building good technology is an act of exploration, and that it is very difficult for us to imagine the good that might come from any new technology," Johnson says. "We proceed, as explorers, nonetheless."

Johnson's lofty goals are similar in scale to other giant anti-aging investments in Silicon Valley. In 2013, Google created an anti-aging lab called Calico (for "California Life Company"), hiring top scientist Cynthia Kenyon, known for altering DNA in worms to make them live twice as long as they usually do. Calico is not your local university research lab; it has $1.5 billion in the bank and has remained close-lipped about its progress, like a Manhattan Project for life extension.

For Google co-founder Sergey Brin, 43, Calico may be another way to attack a more personal health concern: Brin carries a gene that increases his likelihood of contracting Parkinson's disease and has already invested $50 million in genetic Parkinson's research, conducted by his ex-wife's company, 23andMe. Brin said in 2009 that he hoped medicine could "catch up" to cure Parkinson's before he's old enough to develop it.

That hope is a common thread among health-obsessed tech investors like PayPal founder Peter Thiel, 49. A libertarian and Trump adviser, Thiel is trying to avoid both death and taxes. His foundation hired a medical director, Jason Camm, whose professional goals include increasing his clients' "prospects for Optimal Health and significant Lifespan Extension." Like Brin, who swims and drinks green tea to prevent Parkinson's, Thiel has changed his daily habits to live longer. He's aiming for 120, so he avoids refined sugar, follows the Paleo diet, drinks red wine and takes human growth hormone, which he believes will keep bones strong and prevent arthritis.

Thiel has also expressed personal interest in a company called Ambrosia in Monterey, where Dr. Jesse Karmazin is conducting medical trials for a procedure called parabiosis, which gives older people blood plasma transfusions from people between 16 and 25. Karmazin has enrolled more than 70 participants so far, each of whom pays $8,000 for the treatment. Much has been made of Thiel harvesting and receiving injections of young people's blood, though Karmazin recently denied that Thiel was a client of his.

Karmazin doesn't call himself a utopian, but he does note that his work requires some faith. "There's always uncertainty about whether it's going to stand the test of time, whether it'll work at all," he says. "That's especially true in technology, and you have to believe in it."

At the same time, the dystopians of Silicon Valley are preparing for the apocalypse. Reid Hoffman, CEO of LinkedIn, told the New Yorker that he guesses up to 50 percent of tech executives have property in New Zealand, the hot new hub for the end of the world. Steve Huffman, CEO of Reddit, bought multiple motorcycles so he can weave through highway traffic if there's a natural disaster and he needs to escape. He also got laser eye surgery so he wouldn't have to rely on glasses or contacts in a survival scenario.

Among the dystopians is Elon Musk, whose brand-new Neuralink company is investigating what Musk calls "neural lace," a digital layer on top of the brain's cortex that connects us to computers. Such inventions could eventually lead us to what Google director of engineering Ray Kurzweil calls "technological singularity," or the time when ever more powerful artificial intelligence will surpass human intelligence, around 2045.

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Extension Office welcomes new employee onboard – The Mena Star

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It is fulfilling for Bridgett Martin to be able to help educate individuals on ways to improve their way of life.

Martin joined the Polk County Extension Office as the new Cooperative Extension Agent for Family and Consumer Science and 4H April 3.

"All and all it seems like it has been a really good fit so far," Martin said. "Basically we are responsible for empowering individuals to improve their way of life.

"Whether it be through parenting classes, child care provider training, nutrition education or family resource management," Martin continued. "We cover a whole great variety of fields."

Martin is married to Mena Police Chief Brandon Martin and together they have seven children. She graduated from Mena High School in 1991.

Martin graduated from Henderson State University with a bachelor's degree in Home Economics. She earned her master's degree in Agriculture and Extension Education from the University of Arkansas in 2005.

Martin worked in the Mena Extension Office shortly after she graduated from Henderson State in 1995 as a Water Quality Agent. Martin then worked in the Scott County Extension Office as a Family and Consumer Science Agent until 1999.

She returned to that same position in 2015 and continued in that role until the opening in Mena became available. Martin worked at Rich Mountain Community College and the Health Department during her hiatus from the extension office.

"Since I was already working in Scott County it just spilled over and made it easier to work in Polk County," Martin said. "I've lived in Polk County the entire time and my children are in school here. I have always stayed connected. I worked this county for a long time."

Martin said her time is divided 70 percent to Family and Consumer Science and 30 percent to 4H.

"We have some very successful programs," Martin said. "We've done a lot of things with Louise Durham Elementary School and we've had some good programs at the library increasing awareness in reading and nutrition education."

She added that they are going to be having more programs coming up including a Diabetes Awareness Event in September.

"The role that we play is informal in nature in that you're not necessarily in a classroom setting," Martin said. "Most of our programs are based with some hands-on training, so that we are able to teach people while they are actually learning it hands-on."

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Extension Office welcomes new employee onboard - The Mena Star

NDP Leadership Contenders Square Off On Climate Change – Huffington Post Canada

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OTTAWA NDP leadership contenders vying for the same job found some common ground Tuesday night in their vociferous opposition to Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall and Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister on carbon pricing.

Their fourth leadership debate, held in Saskatoon, marks the beginning of the last half of the race for a party hoping to rebuild and grow following the painful results of the 2015 election including in western Canada.

Candidates Manitoba MP Niki Ashton, Quebec MP Guy Caron, Ontario MP Charlie Angus and Ontario legislator Jagmeet Singh all took aim at Wall for his strident opposition of Ottawa's plan to put a price on carbon emissions.

The premier has vowed to go to court if the province is forced to adopt it.

Angus said Tuesday the Saskatchewan premier fails to acknowledge the 20th century is over, noting that as NDP leader he would personally favour adopting a legislated carbon budget to reduce emissions.

"The guy, no offence, but he is like the man violently defending the future of the typewriter when everyone else has moved to cell phones," Angus said, adding he will work with any government on the Prairies willing to diversify its economy.

"We have an enormous renewable potential in Saskatchewan and Alberta."

For her part, Ashton came out swinging against the conservative in the province next door Pallister.

"Coming from Manitoba, I can say my premier, Brian Pallister, doesn't speak for me and I'm venturing to guess a lot of people here in this room don't feel that Brad Wall speaks for them," she said.

Pricing carbon is necessary to fight climate change but a one-size-fits-all approach won't work when it comes to implementing a carbon plan, Singh said.

"We need to also know that every province is different so we have to approach that," he said.

Singh said a proposal outlined in his climate change plan includes working with each province to explore solutions. He has also vowed to reduce carbon emissions to 30 per cent of 2005 levels by 2025 five years ahead of the current Liberal target.

"My plan also proposes if we are going to bring in a carbon tax, it has to be twinned with rebates to low and middle income families so they are not disproportionately impacted which we know will happen otherwise," Singh said.

Pallister and Wall are wrong, Caron added, noting it says something when the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers and the Mining Association of Canada are open to carbon pricing.

"This is the type of thinking that left us behind and lagging behind most of the European countries on this," Caron said.

Ashton and Caron have both forcefully opposed the Kinder Morgan pipeline proposal to carry oil from Alberta to British Columbia, but have yet to unveil their full climate plans.

At the beginning of Tuesday's debate the only event of its kind in the Prairies during the course of the race the leadership candidates acknowledged the province is the birthplace of the NDP.

It currently holds three seats in the province including Regina New Democrat MP Erin Weir.

NDP Leadership Race 2017: Candidates

Prior to the debate, Weird called on candidates to explain how they would help make carbon pricing work for Saskatchewan's resource-based economy.

The next NDP leadership debates is slated for August in Victoria and Montreal as well as in Vancouver in September.

Online voting in the leadership race will begin on Sept. 18, with results to be announced in October after each round of balloting.

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NDP Leadership Contenders Square Off On Climate Change - Huffington Post Canada

Free tour of Netarts Bay salt marshes – Coast Weekend

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Photo by Jim Young

NETARTS Walk along the salt marsh of Netarts Bay while learning about how plants survive in a salty world noon to 4 p.m. Sunday, July 16.

Join Friends of Netarts Bay Watershed, Estuary, Beach, and Sea for a free guided tour along the salt marsh at the southern end of Netarts Bay.

The class size is limited to 10 participants. Registration is required.

The tour includes an easy-to-moderate walk through muddy areas and trails covered by brush. It is best suited for participates 12 and older comfortable with walking in these environments. Participants should wear long pants and closed-toe shoes for this adventure, organizers advised.

The event is part of theExplore Natureseries of hikes, walks, paddles and outdoor adventures.Explore Nature events are hosted by a consortium of volunteer community and nonprofit organizations, and are meaningful nature-based experiences that highlight the unique beauty of Tillamook County and the work being done to preserve and conserve the areas natural resources and natural resource-based economy, according to a release.

Though there is no cost to attend the program, tax-exempt donations to Netarts Bay WEBS to enable programs like this are encouraged, organizers said.

A link is available on the Friends of Netarts Bay WEBS Facebook and Eventbrite pages. Transportation to natural areas is provided by WEBS.

At times, the tour areas will have a moderate number of mosquitos. WEBS requests that participants take appropriate precautions to ensure their comfort.

For questions,email jimyoung4990@gmail.com or call503-842-2153.

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Unilever to increase investment portfolio in Nigeria – Vanguard News – Vanguard

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By Princewill Ekwujuru

UNILEVER West Africas Vice President, Supply Chain, Siddharth Ramaswamy,said the company has concluded plans to increase its investment portfolio in the country, thereby enhancing local manufacturing. This reiterates the companys commitment to contribute to the growth of the Nigerian economy.

Ramaswamysaid this during the courtesy visit and factory tour by the Minister for Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, to the manufacturing firm.

According to him, the company which has been operating in Nigeria for almost 100 years, would continue to invest in the country, despite the prevailing economic challenges. Nigeria is strategic to our business operations. This is why we remain committed to the countrys socio-economic development. We currently operate two manufacturing hubs in Nigeria, and we are already taking actions to increase our local manufacturing capacity.

There are ongoing investments which will not only provide additional employment opportunities for Nigerians, but will deliver further economic value through the development of a sustainable supply chain structure consisting of local manufacturers, he said.

Responding, the minister commended Unilever for its long serving history in Nigeria, and re-affirmed the governments commitment to support Unilever in its operation.

According to him, the government is working hard to move the nations economy from a resource based to a knowledge based economy and the government is looking up to partner with organisations such as Unilever to achieve this, through synergy with several research institutions under the Ministry of Science and Technology.He said visits such as this, is to create an avenue to see how the government can assist organizations such as Unilever to overcome challenges by providing enabling environment to grow its business either through incentives or enabling legal framework.

We want companies to use more of local raw materials in production processes. Because when this happens, new jobs will be created, and our Gross Domestic product, GDP, will grow- thereby, reducing poverty. This can only happen if we work with you and other responsible companies, he said.

Onu urged Unilever to show more interest in local research in order to improve its production process. He charged Unilever to work more closely with FIIRO and other research center sunder the Ministry of Science and Technology.

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Unilever to increase investment portfolio in Nigeria - Vanguard News - Vanguard

Advantages and Disadvantages of Automation in Manufacturing …

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In the past 20 years, technology has changed the nature of manufacturing. In the old days, manufacturing and fabrication were all done by hand by people. Now that computers and technology have penetrated the industry, automation has become the competitive advantage in todays manufacturing world. Automation has allowed for companies to mass produce products at outstanding speeds and with great repeatability and quality. Automation has become a determining factor in whether or not a company will remain competitive within the manufacturing industry. Although automation is constantly setting the standards for the industry and has many advantages, there are also some negative aspects about automation.

Automation Advantages

Automation Disadvantages

While automation has become a resource for remaining competitive in the manufacturing industry, there are definitely some factors to be considered in order to be competitive and to get a return on the investment. Depending on the operations, automation may or may not be a good fit. If it is a small operation with low production quantities, the initial investment of purchasing an automated machine would not be economical. On the other hand, if the operation has a larger facility with many employees on the shop floor two fabricate medium to large runs, automated machines would be better suited.

Here at Vista Industrial Products, Inc., we have had the opportunity to invest in automation to increase our productivity, repeatability, quality, and provide shorter lead times. Due to the size of our operation and state-of-the-art manufacturing facility, automation has been a great fit for our business model. We have a great ratio of automation and employees to cater to our customers needs. Given that we can fabricate low mix/high volume and high mix/low volume runs for our customers, we have the flexibility we need to get the job done.

If you are looking for a company with a wide range of automation for your fabrication needs, please keep us in mind. We have automation for sheet metal punching, forming, and machining. Please contact us today for a quote!

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Automation The Car Company Tycoon Game [PC] Torrent

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**NOTE:** The first Early Access is focused on Car and Engine design and does not yet include any tycoon or campaign mode! Read the Early Access description for an overview of what is finished!

Automation allows the player to become an armchair CEO to build their own car company from the ground up. Create and run anything from a boutique supercar manufacturer to a mass-market multinational mogul. With powerful tools like the Engine Designer, the player can create cars and their engines in mind-boggling detail.

The grand campaign will start in the year 1946 and run until 2020, with the main goal being to build a successful, renowned car company from scratch. All types of car manufacturers can be led to success if managed properly; building the right image over the years is key. The players tasks are to design engines and cars, to manage factories, production, Research and Development, as well as advertising campaigns. In game, time advances at the pace the player chooses and pauses automatically for events and occurrences.

Automation is comprised of three major game components the Engine Designer, the Car Designer and the Company Manager. These components are naturally strung together by the games goals, made to be user-friendly and intuitive to use. A multitude of tutorial missions, videos, and descriptive texts help car novices become experts. Almost infinite options give the player all the creative freedom to create unique cars with vastly different engines.

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Automation The Car Company Tycoon Game [PC] Torrent

IBM Watson takes on IT services with new automation platform – TechRepublic

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The IBM Services Platform with Watson, announced Wednesday, brings the cognitive computing services of Watson to organizations to help manage and automate IT operations. While it will provide autonomous functionality, the goal of the platform is to have human intelligence complemented by the underpinning technologies, not replaced by it.

As reported by ZDNet, the new platform is built on IBM's cloud, and it is designed to help manage hybrid cloud infrastructure as well. As such, the IBM Services Platform with Watson aims to improve visibility across the entirety of a hybrid IT environment, the report said.

"The platform supports the entire managed services life-cycle, from designing to building, integrating and running services, with autonomic operations and augmented subject matter expertise," IBM said in its announcement.

SEE: CompTIA IT Certification Bundle (TechRepublic Academy)

The new platform also relies heavily on data. According to the announcement, more than 30 years of IBM services data, along with other structured and unstructured data, will help provide insights into what is happening in a customer's business.

Those data-powered insights are also used to predict what could potentially happen within the customer's environmentgiving users ideas about how to solve potential problems before they occur, the announcement said.

Automation will also play a key role in the new Services Platform, as users will be able to automate their compliance, governance, and services provisioning. The platform will also automatically detect any incident and resolve it, Gopal Pingali, director at IBM's Global Technology Services Lab, told ZDNet. If certain incidents haven't yet been automated, the platform will look at them and recommend a way to automate a resolution, Pingali said.

When humans do need to work with Watson to solve a problem, they will be able to do so conversationally, due to Watson's ability to understand natural language. That means that an IT helpdesk professional might chat with Watson to try to resolve an issue before bringing it to their superior, Pingali told ZDNet.

Potential customers don't need to be using IBM's cloud to take advantage of the platform. Major firms including Sysco and Danske Bank have already adopted the platform within their IT environments.

View Of Staff In Busy Customer Service Department

Image: iStockphoto/monkeybusinessimages

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IBM Watson takes on IT services with new automation platform - TechRepublic

AE (Aug 2017), Automation Expo, Mumbai India – Trade Show

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Automation Exhibition is a 4 day event being held from 9th August to 12th August 2017 at the Bombay Convention & Exhibition Centre (BCEC) in Mumbai, India. This event showcases product from Automation & Robotics industry. A global platform for the innovators from the Indian subcontinent and Asia Pacific region, Automation India presents high end factory automation products, automation technology, assembly line systems, laser technology, turnkey solutions for industrial automation, advanced ..+ read moreelectrical technology and such others. The Bombay Convention & Exhibition Centre where this event is held plays host to some of the most revolutionary technical procedures in the field of automation giving companies from the whole of the Asia Pacific and Middle Eastern region the technology to compete with global giants. Therefore, if you are pressed with the need to re-look and conventional methodologies or rope in cutting edge technology, Automation India is the place to be in.

FACTORY AUTOMATION, Motion drives, servo drives, actuator drives, Sensors and measuring equipment, Assembly and handling systems, technologies, devices, assembly lines system periphery and application, Complete Factory Automation systems and equipment, Assembly and handling, Machine Vision, Laser Technology, TURNKEY SOLUTIONS, For industrial automation, assembly and handling technology, handling technology, Electric motors, frequency converters and magnetic technology, Laser technology ..+ read moreIndustrial image processing, Production engineering for electrical engineering and electronics, Safety & security in automation, PROCESS & AUTOMATION, Complete automation systems in forging press plants, Complete flexible automated manufacturing plants, Control systems open and closed loop control systems for process automation, Analyzer systems and drive systems for actuators, Identification systems, image processing systems for process automation, Monitoring, safety and SCADA systems for the process industry, Process automation solutions and IT solutions, Integrated solutions for process optimization, statistical process control and data acquisition, Field devices, components for process automation, Special process automation controls and individual controllers, Overall system planning and consultancy services(process automation), Technical services for start-up and commissioning of process automation plants and for the operating phase, INSTRUMENTATION AND CONTROL, Alarm systems for the process industry, Data acquisition systems for the process industry, Diagnosis systems for the process industry, Gas warning systems (for combustible and toxic gases), Industrial security systems for the process industry, Monitoring, safety and SCADA systems for the process industry.

My feedback was very positive and it excellent.I am in need of more details bout Sintex electricaldistribution and other products.

Edition Attended : Aug, 2016

Overall it was a very well organised event. I personally had a good experience and made a few good contacts as well.

Edition Attended : Aug, 2015

Outstanding exhibition...nice to watch new technology via different manufacturing and production company..Rating... 4/5

Edition Attended : Aug, 2016

volunteers are not technical oriented they could not clarify and convey the information properly

Edition Attended : Aug, 2015

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AE (Aug 2017), Automation Expo, Mumbai India - Trade Show

Study: Automation will hurt jobs in rural communities worse than urban centers – Chicago Tribune

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With automation threatening to upend half of American jobs in coming years, a new report examined which counties are most at risk of job loss and found that low-income communities already suffering economically are in for the worst of it.

The white paper released Tuesday by Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., measured county vulnerability to job loss from offshoring and automation, based on the types of occupations that previous studies have shown to be particularly at risk and how prevalent those jobs are in the counties.

Automation poses a far greater risk to American jobs than offshoring and has a disproportionately harsh impact on poorer, rural communities. While the risk of losing one's job to trade pressures or overseas labor competition is spread evenly across income and education, the risk of being replaced by automation is highest among people making less than $38,000 a year.

Economists often focus on the long-term benefits of more trade and automation but "the transition period could be extraordinarily nasty," exacerbating existing trends that have driven much of the nation's political and social discontent, said Michael Hicks, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at Ball State and a co-author of the study.

"It would benefit my profession if we were more honest about the cost of transition the disruption of people's lives, the hollowing out of communities," Hicks said.

Big urban centers with a broad mix of jobs are poised to weather the labor market storm better than small rural communities. For example, in Cook County, 54.5 percent of jobs are at risk of being lost to automation, and 28.7 percent to offshoring, while in Alexander County at the southern tip of the state among several counties along the Ohio River substantially reliant on factories 62 percent of jobs risk being replaced by automation and 26.9 percent lost to offshoring.

None of Illinois' counties are in the top 25 ranking of most at risk from automation or offshoring, but some of its neighbors are. LaGrange County in Indiana, for example, has a 65 percent automation risk and 30 percent offshoring risk; the heavily Amish county, which has many assembly plants, is among seven Indiana counties in the top 25 for offshoring and one of three in the top 25 for automation.

The most at-risk county in the nation is Alaska's Aleutians East Borough, at 67 percent automation risk and 31 percent offshoring risk. Falls Church in Virginia has the lowest automation risk, at 36.4 percent.

DuPage and Lake counties have slightly lower automation risk rates than Cook County while Kane and Will counties are slightly higher. Champaign County has the lowest automation risk in the state, at 51 percent, not unusual for rural college towns where jobs in building and grounds maintenance aren't easily automated, Hicks said.

The study did not evaluate how many jobs will be created as a result of automation and offshoring or calculate the benefits of lower-priced goods, increased productivity and more free time that may come with those labor market changes. But it is likely that many of those replacement jobs and benefits will occur in more heavily populated areas, creating even greater gulfs between urban and rural communities, where people often don't have the means or resources to move to where the opportunities are.

The patterns aren't surprising but they are worrisome, Hicks said. The economic frustration of the past few years occurred during a period of job growth and relatively mild automation disruption compared with what some economists think is coming.

"We think that is evidence that it could get worse before it gets better," Hicks said.

The report urges policy discussions to address the transition period and says local and state policy solutions to shore up jobs have been shortsighted. Many communities, particularly in the Midwest, focus on attracting jobs with tax credits without consideration for whether those jobs will exist long-term or funding skills development without regard for whether those skills will soon be irrelevant, Hicks said.

The jobs most vulnerable to automation include data entry keyers, mathematical science occupations, telemarketers and insurance underwriters, according to the report. The occupations most at risk of offshoring include computer programmers, mechanical drafters, computer and information research scientists and, again, data entry keyers.

The jobs at least risk of being automated or offshored include recreational therapists, emergency management directors, mental health and substance abuse social workers, audiologists, and first-line supervisors of mechanics, installers and repairers.

aelejalderuiz@chicagotribune.com

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Advancing Automation Means Humans Need to Embrace Lifelong Learning – Entrepreneur

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When people talk about automation, most of us probably imagine a robot arm on a factory assembly line. And, for much of the past few decades, that wasa reasonableway to think about automation, because of its focus on replacing human physical labor with machines.

Related:The 3 Education Trends Preparing the Next Generation of Entrepreneurs

But that image is increasingly obsolete. With the advancement of artificial intelligence technologies, automation is still replacing humans, only it's now happeningthe cognitive space as well as the physical one.

Nor is this some remote future vision. When U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said earlier this year that AI is not even on our radar screens, adding that he figured it would be 50 to 100 years before humans started losing jobs to AI, he couldnt have been more wrong.

For example, were seeing AI technology companies targeting the replacement of what's estimated to be up to50 percentof current employees in the finance sector over the next 10 years. We would have considered these types of jobs safe from automation only a few years ago.

According to University of Oxford researchers, 47 percent of workersmay beat risk of losing their jobs to automation, in particular those in mid-skilled retail jobs, and office workers like cashiers and telemarketers. A recent McKinsey reportpredicted that a smaller percentage of jobs would be at risk of being completely replaced by machines, but pointed out that the majority of jobs would see some of their tasks replaced by automation.

In other words, were all going to feel the impact of AI in some way. And our skills arent keeping pace.

The sheer number of both soft skills and technical skills already required by most modern companies is exploding. At the same time, the skills people do pick up remain relevant for a shorter and shorter amount of time. AI only accelerates this trend. Weve crossed a threshold where the timed obsolescence for skills is shorter than for a single career.

The message: People need to adapt faster than ever. And this could have enormous consequences, including widespread unemployment and devastating disruptions for parts of the global economy.

One easily imaginable scenario: In the United States, there are approximately 3.5 million truck drivers. Suppose a truck company could retrofit a truck for $30,000 to makeit into a reliable, safe autonomous vehicle. That would be a one-time cost, and the cost would be less than the annual salary of a truck driver. Once that scenario became possible, the industry would likely overhaul its fleet extremely rapidly.

And what would those 3.5 million former truck drivers do then? What about todays taxi drivers and Uber and Lyft drivers? In fact, its entirely possible that we will still have taxi drivers in the streets protesting Uber when Uber drivers take to the streets to start protesting autonomous vehicles.

Related:4 Ways Technology Is Making Education More Affordable and Available

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Advancing Automation Means Humans Need to Embrace Lifelong Learning - Entrepreneur

A beginner’s guide to email automation – Insurance Business

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You may be asking, what in the world is email automation? And why does your insurance agency need it?

For starters, email automation is the act of using email marketing software to automatically send emails when a trigger occurs with the goal of perfecting the right time, right message dilemma. These messages can range from action-based emails that go out when a person performs an action, such as visiting a website; or event/date-based emails that are automated to send out on holidays, birthdays and other dates; and even engagement-based emails that go out to contacts based on how they interact with your emails, such as clicking an email or even declining to open an email.

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According to Heather Cherry, AgencyBuzz product manager at Insurance Technologies Corporation (ITC), email automation can generate 70.5% higher open rates and 152% higher click-through-rates, ultimately producing positive long-term effects for an insurance agencys marketing efforts. When considering its efficiency and around the clock interaction, email automation essentially does the work for you. So how do you start?

Cherry offers three points of advice when creating these targeted campaigns.

Gather your data, she says. Before you can trigger campaigns automatically, find out what triggers are available. Look at the information on your contacts to see what types of campaigns you can implement.

Next, Cherry says to map out the campaign flow and logic.

Take a moment to map out the flow of your campaign, she explains. Dont be afraid to use a dry erase board or blank sheet of paper to draw things out.

Finally, create the content.

You know your audience, flow, and number of emails for your campaign, Cherry says. Its time to sit down and write your content.

Cherry also shares her best practices when it comes to email automation, starting with monitoring results frequently and making adjustments to your campaign when necessary. In addition, updating data often and utilizing email personalization techniques are a few ways elevate your automated campaign.

Finally, Cherry reminds insurance agencies to remember the big picture.

You engage with your database in many ways at different times with different messages. Before you get overly excited and create tons of new automated campaigns, take a step back. Consider all available automated campaigns you can run and prioritize to avoid over-saturation for your audience. Nobody likes a cluttered inbox, she concludes.

Related stories: Dont fall victim to one of these marketing faux pas 4 things every top insurance agency knows about marketing

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A beginner's guide to email automation - Insurance Business

TSA automation will cut positions, but no layoffs yet – Pacific Daily News

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Kyla P Mora , kmora@guampdn.com Published 8:38 p.m. ChT July 12, 2017 | Updated 8:38 p.m. ChT July 12, 2017

In this file photo, passengers wait in line at the security checkpoint, at A.B. Won Pat Guam International Airport.(Photo: PDN file photo)

The Transportation Security Administration has identified positions that will be eliminated due to automation, but no one has been laid off yet, TSA Regional Public Affairs manager and spokesman Nico Melendez said.

In June,the Guam International Airport unveiled "Check in and Go!", a $30-million baggage handling system which allows passenger luggage to be checked and automatically screened.

Over the past 15 years, Melendez said, most airports have installed automated baggage screening systems to check for explosives.

"Whenever there's installation of one of these new systems, we have to reevaluate the staffing we have at these locations," Melendez said.

The TSA has identified 40 positions that could be eliminated now that the system is operational. However, the agencyhas authorization to maintain those 40 employees "until we're able to move them, or they quit or leave or other reasons," Melendez said.

Lateral movement within the TSA may be an option if positions are available, Melendez said.

"Obviously were all throughout the Pacific islands, so if an employee wanted to work in Saipan, American Samoa, even Hawaii, those options are available to them as positions come open," Melendez said.

Melendez stressed that because the automated bag screening is a separate system from the passenger checkpoint screening there's noreason to believe it' affect wait times for passenger screening.

READ MORE:

OUR VIEW: Airport security must be increased to ensure the safety of all travelers

Airport unveils new passenger loading bridge

Melendez said the TSA will "be working to make sure the passenger checkpoint is staffed" once the planned checkpoint expansion is completed.

"We have to staff airports based on whats there now. We cant say Guam needs another 30 employees and hire them with the hope that the checkpoint will be installed, because what happens if it's not installed?And were stuck with 30 employees taxpayers are paying for," Melendez said.

Airport marketing administrator Rolenda Lujan Faasuamalie confirmed the airport has been in discussions with the TSA on the expansion of screening lanes as part of the airport authority's capital improvement projects.

Expansion of TSA screening lanes is considered a priority project, Faasuamalie said.

"(The airport is)aggressively moving forward with major capital improvement projects that deal with safety and security, such as the $97 millioninternational arrivals corridor, for which groundbreaking will be held July 19."

On Friday, the Legislature's Committee on Guam U.S. Military Buildup, Infrastructure, and Transportation, led by Sen. Frank Aguon Jr., will hold an oversight hearing toreview the status of the TSA checkpoint expansion design.

Reporter Kyla Mora covers Guam's business community, economy, tourism, public health, and anything else that catches her interest. Follow her on Twitter @kylapmora. Follow Pacific Daily News on Facebook/GuamPDN and Instagram @guampdn.

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TSA automation will cut positions, but no layoffs yet - Pacific Daily News

Quark is sold to new owners; eyes growth in publishing automation – Denver Business Journal

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Denver Business Journal
Quark is sold to new owners; eyes growth in publishing automation
Denver Business Journal
Quark Software Inc., the Denver-based maker of publishing software, has new private equity owners that are prepared to help it grow into a bigger company selling digital publishing automation technology. Los Angeles-based Parallax Capital Partners ...

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Quark is sold to new owners; eyes growth in publishing automation - Denver Business Journal

The First Fully Automated Toothbrush is Here. And it Cleans Your Teeth in 10 Seconds. – Futurism

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In Brief The world's first automated toothbrush is here, and it can brush your teeth perfectly in 10 seconds. This is just one more example of the ways that automation can relieve us of everyday, mundane tasks so we can do what we really want to do instead.

Say hello to Amabrush, the worlds first automatic toothbrush,and goodbye to brushing your teeth for minutes at a time twice a day. Amabrush resembles a mouthguard with soft silicone bristles in it, and it is magnetically attached to a round handle. Put the mouthpiece in, and dont worry about the toothpaste, itll do that for you. It will then go to work, brushing your teeth in the way that your dentist tells you to, in every location in your mouth, all at the same time.

Using this device, brushing all of your teeth to perfection only takes about 10 seconds from start to finish, so its no surprise that the Amabrush isdoing really well on Kickstarter. As this article is being written, they have 25 days to go and have already raised $935,891, surpassing their $56,972 goal.

The Amabrush is just one more example of automation doing what it does best: taking over mind-numbingly dull daily tasks, freeing up humans to think about and do more compelling things. Whether its a significant step in automation, like self-driving cars, or just a piece of the puzzle, its all progress in the same direction. By extension, automation can free us from repetitive, dull jobs and free us up for more challenging careers, hobbies, passions, etc. All we have to do is be willing and ready for this change to happen.

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The First Fully Automated Toothbrush is Here. And it Cleans Your Teeth in 10 Seconds. - Futurism

How to Ethically Hire a Nanny – Lifehacker

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Photo Illustration by Elena Scotti/Lifehacker/GMG, photos via Shutterstock

The maddening paradox of child care in this country is that day care and nannies are really expensivecosting at least more than in-state college tuitionand that child-care workers are generally poor. The domestic work industry is largely unregulated, and workers are vulnerable to exploitation, a direct consequence of domestic works roots in slavery.

Ilana Berger, the director of Hand in Hand, the domestic employer network, says In the 1930s ... both domestic workers and farm workers were mostly black. So [in a nod to the Southern Congressional Delegation], they were left out of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Fast forward to today, so much exploitation happens because workers have been left out of protections, because its this shadow work force. Even when there are laws on the books, theres not a lot of enforcement.

Which means that choosing and hiring a nanny is a process more fraught with ethical considerations than, say, choosing a pediatrician or an electrician.

Besides how to find a good babysitter, one of the top questions for hiring a babysitter is how much

First, the biggest question: Is it ethical to to even participate in such an unjust system, especially if a potential employee is undocumented? Setting aside, for the moment, the question of what middle-class families would do if the answer were no, is it ethical to enter into a professional relationship when the power differential is so great?

Yes, says Randy Cohen, the host of the Person Place Thing podcast and the former author of the Ethicist column at the New York Times. There is generally a huge power differential in all employer-employee relationships ... [Particularly for undocumented workers,] its a difference of degree, not a difference in kind. And people need jobs.

Berger affirms this sentiment: The way domestic work is set up (and in most work) the employer really has all the power. Legal status is just one additional degree of vulnerability, but its pretty much on a continuum.

To better understand the responsibilities of a nannys employer, I asked Berger to break down the duties of an ethical employer. Hand in Hand advocates the fair-care pledge, a three-pronged strategy for hiring of domestic workers: fair pay, clear expectations, and paid time off.

This means, in major metropolitan areas, at least $15 an hour, according to Berger. A good thought experiment is to multiply the hourly wage by 40 and ask yourself, Can someone live on this in my area? She recommends using this living wage calculator to get an idea of a reasonable wage for an adult in your area.

When I tell her a lot of the middle-class families I know in New York say they cant afford to pay, say $20 an hour, she says, There are other optionsyou can do a nanny share, you can find a way to make it work. And skimping on the person taking care of your children is not a wise choice for your child, as well as ethically, morally, and in every other way.

In general, we want our kids to be better people than we are. We insist they eat their vegetables

And if you can pay on the books, you should: Its better for everybody. Its better for the employer, and its better for the worker because it buys them into the systemthey get social security and other benefits. Now obviously undocumented workers might not want to be paid on the books (Berger cites a workaround for the undocumentedan individual tax identification numberbut notes that workers might not be willing start that process, particularly at this political point in time). She says, In general, we say you should do what works best for you and the worker. If you need to pay on the books, you should make that clear at the start of the process.

Finally, pay on time. Dont make a worker wait for her check at the end of the week.

This is where you should be drawing up a contract that lays out duties, hours (including breaks), pay, sick leave, and vacation days. You should also include things like emergency plans, rules about guests, expectations around screen time and meals, expectations around caring for sick kids, housekeeping (like childrens laundry or dishes), reading to kids, petty cash, termination, etc. Need a sample contract? Start here.

The work agreement should be re-evaluated regularly, at least every six months. Did you think youd be home by 6 but its really more like 6:15? She needs to be paid for that extra timeor this is her opportunity to say that she needs you to be home at 6. People have a really hard grasping the fact that nannies have families too, and they might need to get somewhere to pick up their kids, says Berger.

I knew even before I had a daughter that I was going to raise her to laugh in the face of sexist

Would be it be helpful if she starts dinner on Wednesday nights? That can be built into the check-in. Does she need a break mid-day and isnt getting it because the kid dropped his nap? Perhaps the check-in relaxes some screen-time rules. Its a pressure release, says Berger. Ongoing proactive communication is really beneficial for everyone involved.

Vacation is usually decided in conjunction with the familyIve heard of some families offering vacation days when they take their own holidays, plus additional paid time off to be taken at the employees discretion. Berger notes that a common type of question among employers is We got these last-minute tickets to Costa Rica! Do we still need to pay the nanny?

Berger says Employers often says things like Shes like family! but its also an employment relationship. The Golden Rule applies: How would you want to be treated in your own workplace? When your boss goes away, expectations change, but you still get paid.

Need more information? Take a look at the employers checklist. (And as for whether you need to pay the nanny when you take an impromptu trip to Costa Rica, the answer is yes.)

After talking to Berger, I looked up the living wage calculator for where I live now, in Brooklyn, and where I grew up, in West Virginia. A single adult raising two kids in Brooklyn would have to make $37.49 an hour to make ends meet. In West Virginia, it would be $28.20. Now this wage would be impossible for most middle-class families to pay to a caregiver, and it doesnt even touch the problems of extraordinary medical expenses, college savings, or retirement savings. Which means we are, as a culture, trapped in a sick system: one in which middle-class families are stretched thin because of care costs (both child care and elder care) and domestic workers are both exploited and not able to make ends meet.

If you have a son whos the youngest or middle child, youre going to want to watch them like a

Berger is clear that her organizations (and others) guidelines are a stopgap solution to a profound problem. She says, We cant expect individual employers to close the gaping holes in our care infrastructure in this country. So we encourage our people to take part in our campaigns and work to create an affordable care system so the burden is not on individual employers, or workers, to make up for what the government is not providing. People can get involved in the National Domestic Workers Alliance or with the Sanctuary Homes campaign, both of which advocate for domestic workers rights.

Cohen echoes this sentiment: If you believe, as I do, that our current immigration policies and the current status of workers rights are really barbaric, you have an affirmative obligation to do something to address that ... Youre a citizen, and you should be doing something.

Even if, say, youre not a parent, or not hiring a nanny after alleven if youre not participating in the system? Whether you want to or not, youre participating in the system. Theres no way you can exempt yourself from the social trends of the day.

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History of Slavery and Abolition in Brazil – Exodus Cry

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350 Years of Slavery

From its discovery in 1500, Brazil has been a hub for human trafficking in South America.From about 1600 to 1850, some 4.5 million enslaved Africans were taken to Brazil; this is ten times as many as were trafficked to North America and far more than the total number of Africans who were transported to all of the Caribbean and North America combined.1

In 1550, Brazil became a major importer of African slaves, making slaves an estimated 38.3 percent of the population of Rio de Janeiro, its capital city.2This pattern continued as nearly four million slaves were imported into Brazil during its colonial era.In a 2010 Brazil census, it was found that 97 million Brazilians, or 50.7% of the population, now define themselves as black or mixed racemaking African-Brazilians the official majority for the first time.3

The enormity of the slave trades foothold in Brazil was so far-reaching, that the nation largely failed to develop an effective anti-slavery movement, even while many other nations around the world were making revolutionary reforms. Throughout the 1700s and early 1800s, slavery was being weeded out in the British Empire, North America, and France. Brazil, however, still had nearly one and a half million slaves with the number of slave imports only accelerating at 5.7%.4

It wasnt until the late 1800s that reformist activities began to foment at institutions of higher learning. Young lawyers, students, and journalists started to urge their fellow Brazilians to follow the example of the liberation of the slaves in North America. In 1873 Joaquim Nabuco began his fight against slavery in Brazilinspiring the formation of the Brazilian Anti-Slavery Society. He declaredthat there is no freedom nor independence in a land with one million, five hundred thousand slaves!5 The struggle for total abolition kept moving forward under his leadership, and finally on May 13, 1888, the imperial family passed Lei Aurea, the Golden Law, making Brazil the last nation in the Western Hemisphere to formally abolish slavery.6

Even after the slave trade was abolished, years of exploitation continued to have profound effects on Brazilian society, including deep social divides and the widespread expansion of prostitution. Ever since the late 19th century, prostitution has been part of the cultural landscape in the early period of Brazils modernization and urbanization, as slave or ex slave women turned to offering sexual services for survival.7 Such long-standing slavery in Brazil created a vast lower class and extreme inequalities. According to the CIA World FactBook, 21.4% of Brazils 196.6 million inhabitants live below the poverty line.8

Today, just one hundred and twenty-five years after slavery was abolished, Brazil still faces the repercussions of its near 400-year human trafficking legacy. There is an urgent need for resurging abolition efforts to combat a battle that has moved from the brutality of plantation life to brutality in the streets: sex trafficking. The extreme economic inequalities give children and teens no other choice but to find work wherever they can, turning the sex trade into modern-day chains of oppression. Ripples of ancient systems and dehumanization still linger across Brazil, yet when we look at Brazils history, we see that abolition proves to be an inevitable force. It is a story that prevails, with heroes that rise up even in the harshest of circumstances, and its time to open up the history books to write a new legacy of liberation.

1. Jos C. Curto, Rene Soulodre-La France, African And The Americas: Interconnections During The Slave Trade, p. 4 2. Jos C.Curto, Rene Soulodre-La France. African And The Americas: Interconnections During The Slave Trade, p. 4 3. Phillips, Tom, Brazil census shows African-Brazilians in the majority for the first time, November 17, 2011, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/nov/17/brazil-census-african-brazilians-majority 4. Etlis, David, Economic Growth and the Ending of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, p.44 5. Carolina Nabuco, translated and edited by Ronald Hilton, The Life of Joaquim Nabuco, p. 75 6. International Labour Organization, Forced labour in Brazil: 120 years after the abolition of slavery, the fight goes on, May 2008,http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/features/WCMS_092663/langen/index.htm 7. Cristina Pimenta, Sonia Corra, Ivia Maksud, Soraya Deminicis, and Jose Miguel Olivar, SEXUALITY AND DEVELOPMENT: Brazilian national response to HIV/AIDS amongst sex workers, http://www.abiaids.org.br/_img/media/Relatorio%20prost%20feminina%20INGLES.pdf,p. 15 8. CIA World FactBook, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2046.html.

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History of Slavery and Abolition in Brazil - Exodus Cry