Forbes | If You Copy The Contents Of Your Brain To A Computer, Does It Become You Too? Forbes From this point of view, mind transfer is no different from continued existence. The state of consciousness identifiable as you now gives rise to a state identifiable as you tomorrow inside the computer. It's not the same state whether it is inside ... |
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If You Copy The Contents Of Your Brain To A Computer, Does It Become You Too? - Forbes
Slide: 1 / of 1. Caption: Otherlab
When most people hear the word drone they either think of uncrewed military aircraft or those multi-rotor mini-copters that could one daydeliver packages to your doorstep. But what if the package is the plane? Thats the idea behind the Aerial Platform Supporting Autonomous Resupply Actions drone, a cardboard glider that carries about two pounds of cargo.
It looks like a pizza box thats been shaped into a wing, says Star Simpson, an engineer at San Francisco robotics company Otherlab. Herteam designed and built Apsara with funding from Darpa, which challenged them to developa single-use delivery vehiclefor emergency scenarios. But, Darpa being Darpa, there was a twist: The drones had to not only carry a small payload and land where you told them toonce they were on the ground, they had to disappear.
Cardboard was an obvious choice. Its cheap, lightweight, and can decompose in a matter of months. Plus, the material has a proven track record among drone hobbyists. The Apsara advances cardboard-drone design with something Simpson calls origami thinking; her teams three-foot-wide drone is made of scored and laser-cut cardboard sheets that take about an hour to fold and tape together. Simpson calls it the worlds most functional paper airplane.
Thats important. The Apsara is designed to be deployed by the hundreds or thousands, to deliver supplies during a humanitarian crisis, or in a battles aftermath. For security and ecological reasons alike, the last thing anyone wants is a landscape covered in drone bits.
Now an Otherlab spin-off company called Everfly is hoping to refine the prototype for use by humanitarian groups like the Red Cross or MSF.Simpson thinks Everfly can scale the design tocarry a 22-pound payload (thats about 120 Clif bars). While it may not be as sexy as a whirring drone carrying your UPS package, we bet anyone in dire straits would be more than happy to see a mushroom wing full of energy bars gently floating in for a landing.
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The Brilliant Drone That'll Deliver MedicineThen Rot Away | WIRED - WIRED
In BriefThe future of surgery offers an amazing cooperation betweenhumans and technology, which could elevate the level of precisionand efficiency of surgeries higher than we have ever seen before.
Will we have Matrix-like small surgical robots? Will they pull in and out organs from patients bodies?
The scene is not impossible. It looks like we have come a long way from ancient Egypt, where doctors performed invasive surgeries as far back as 3,500 years ago. Only two years ago, NASA teamed up with American medical company Virtual Incision to develop a robot that can be placed inside a patients body and then controlled remotely by a surgeon.
Thats the reason why I strongly believe surgeons have to reconsider their stance towards technology and the future of their profession.
Surgeons are at the top of the medical food chain. At least thats the impression the general audience gets from popular medical drama series and their own experiences. No surprise there. Surgeons bear huge responsibilities: they might cause irreparable damages and medical miracles with one incision on the patients body. No wonder that with the rise of digital technologies, the Operating Rooms and surgeons are inundated with new devices aiming at making the least cuts possible.
We need to deal with these new surgical technologies in order to make everyone understood that they extend the capabilities of surgeons instead of replacing them.
Surgeons also tend to alienate themselves from patients. The human touch is not necessarily the quintessence of their work. However, as technological solutions find their way into their practice taking over part of their repetitive tasks, I would advise them to rethink their stance. Treating patients with empathy before and after surgery would ensure their services are irreplaceable also in the age of robotics and artificial intelligence.
As a first step, though, the society of surgeons has to familiarize with the current state of technology affecting the OR and their job. I talked about these future technologies with Dr. Rafael Grossmann, a Venezuelan surgeon who was part of the team performing the first live operation using medical VRand he was alsothe first doctor ever to use Google Glass live in surgery.
So, I collected the technologies that will have a huge impact on the future of surgery.
For the first time in the history of medicine, in April 2016 Shafi Ahmed cancer surgeon performed an operation using a virtual reality camera at the Royal London hospital. It is a mind-blowingly huge step for surgery. Everyone could participate in the operation in real time through the Medical Realities website and the VR in OR app. No matter whether a promising medical student from Cape Town, an interested journalist from Seattle or a worried relative, everyone could follow through two 360 degree cameras how the surgeon removed a cancerous tissue from the bowel of the patient.
This opens new horizons for medical education as well as for the training of surgeons. VR could elevate the teaching and learning experience in medicine to a whole new level. Today, only a few students can peek over the shoulder of the surgeon during an operation. This way, it is challenging to learn the tricks of the trade. By using VR, surgeons can stream operations globally and allow medical students to actually be there in the OR using their VR goggles. The team of The Body VR is creating educational VR content as well as simulations aiding the process of traditional medical education for radiologists, surgeons, and physicians. I believe there will be more initiatives like that very soon!
As there is a lot of confusion around VR and AR, let me make it clear: AR differs in two very important features from VR. The users of AR do not lose touch with reality, while AR puts information into eyesight as fast as possible. With these distinctive features, it has a huge potential in helping surgeons become more efficient at surgeries. Whether they are conducting a minimally invasive procedure or locating a tumor in liver, AR healthcare apps can help save lives and treat patients seamlessly.
As it could be expected, the AR market is buzzing. More and more players emerge in the field. Promising start-up,Atheer develops the Android-compatible wearable and complementary AiR cloud-based application to boost productivity, collaboration, and output. TheMedsights Techcompany developed a software to test the feasibility of using augmented reality to create accurate 3-dimensional reconstructions of tumors. The complex image reconstructing technology basically empowers surgeons with X-ray views without any radiation exposure, in real time. TheTrue 3D medical visualization system of EchoPixelallows doctors to interact with patient-specific organs and tissue in an open 3D space. It enables doctors to immediately identify, evaluate, and dissect clinically significant structures.
Grossmann also told me that HoloAnatomy, which is using HoloLens to display real data-anatomical models, is a wonderful and rather intuitive use of AR having obvious advantages over traditional methods.
Surgical robots are the prodigies of surgery. According to market analysis, the industry is about to boom. By 2020,surgical robotics sales are expected to almost double to $6.4 billion.
The most commonly known surgical robot is the da Vinci Surgical System;and believe it or not, it was introduced already 15 years ago! It features a magnified 3D high-definition vision system and tiny wristed instruments that bend and rotate far greater than the human hand. With the da Vinci Surgical System, surgeons operate through just a few small incisions. The surgeon is 100% in control of the robotic system at all times; and he or she is able to carry out more precise operations than previously thought possible.
Recently, Google has announced that it started working with the pharma giant Johnson&Johnson in creating a new surgical robot system. Im excited to see the outcome of the cooperation soon. They are not the only competitors, though. With their AXSIS robot, Cambridge Consultants aim to overcome the limitations of the da Vinci, such as its large size and inability to work with highly detailed and fragile tissues. Their robot rather relies on flexible components and tiny, worm-like arms. The developers believe it can be used later in ophthalmology, e.g. in cataract surgery.
Throughout the history of surgery, the ultimate goal of medical professionals was to peak into the workings of the human body and to improve it with as small incisions and excisions as possible. By the end of the 18th century,after Edison produced his lightbulb, a Glasgow physician built a tiny bulb into a tube to be able to look around inside the body.
But it wasnt until the second half of the 20th century when fiber-optic threads brought brighter light into the caverns of the body. And later, tiny computer chip cameras started sending images back out. At last, doctors could not only clearly see inside a persons body without making a long incision but could use tiny tools to perform surgery inside. One of the techniques revolutionizing surgery was the introduction of laparoscopes.
The medical device start-up,Levita aims to refine such procedures with its Magnetic Surgical System. It is an innovative technological platform utilizingmagnetic retraction designed to grasp and retract the gallbladder during a laparoscopic surgery.
TheFlexDexcompany introduced a new control mechanism for minimally invasive tools. It transmits movement from the wrist of the surgeon to the joint of the instrument entirely mechanically, and it costs significantly less than surgical robots.
Complicated and risky surgeries lasting hours need a lot of careful planning. Existing technologies such as 3D printing or various simulation techniques help a lot in reforming medical practice and learning methods as well as modeling and planning successfully complex surgical procedures.
In March 2016 in China, a team of experienced doctors decided to build a full-sized model of the heart of a small baby born with a heart defect. Their aim was to pre-plan an extremely complicated surgery on the tiny heart. This was the first time someone used this method in China. The team ofmedical professionals successfully completed the surgery.The little boy survived with little to no lasting ill-effects.
InDecember 2016, in the United Arab Emirates doctors have used 3D printing technology for the first time to help safely remove a cancerous tumor from a 42-year-old womans kidney. With the help of the personalized, 3D printed aid the team was able to carefully plan the operation as well as to reduce the procedure by an entire hour!
The technology started to get a foothold also in medical education. To provide surgeons and students with an alternative to a living human being to work on, a pair of physicians at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) have developed a way to use 3D printing to create artificial organs. They look, feel, and even bleed like the real thing. Truly amazing!
To widen the platform of available methods for effectively learning the tricks of the trade, Touch Surgerydeveloped a simulation system. It is basically an app for practicing procedures ranging from heart surgery to carpal tunnel operations.
The intelligent surgical knife (iKnife) was developed by Zoltan Takats of Imperial College London. It works by using an old technology where an electrical current heats tissue to make incisions with minimal blood loss. With the iKnife, a mass spectrometer analyzes the vaporized smoke todetect the chemicals in the biological sample. This means it can identify whether the tissue is malignant real-time.
The technology is especially useful in detecting cancer in its early stages and thus shifting cancer treatment towards prevention.
Catherine Mohr, vice president of strategy at Intuitive Surgical and expert in the field of surgical robotics believes surgery will take to the next level with the combination of surgical robotics and artificial intelligence. She is thrilledto see IBM Watson, Google Deepminds Alpha Go or machine learning algorithms to have a role in surgical procedures. She envisioned a tight partnership between humans and machines, with one making up for the weaknesses of the other.
In my view,AI such as the deep learning system, Enlitic, will soon be able to diagnose diseases and abnormalities. It will also give surgeons guidance over their sometimes extremely difficult surgical decisions.
I agree with Dr. Mohr in as much as I truly believe the future of surgery, just as the future of medicine means a close cooperation between humans and medical technology. I also cannot stress enough times that robots and other products of the rapid technological development will not replace humans. The two will complement each others work in such a successful way that we had never seen nor dreamed about before. But only if we learn how.
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The Future of Medicine is Artificial Intelligences And a Virtual World - Futurism
An outbreak of the mumps in the Medicine Hat area has benched several Western Hockey Leagueplayers, and Alberta Health Services says it's likely just the beginning.
According to AHS, there are nine lab-confirmed cases of mumps the south zone. Seven of those cases are players and coaches with thelocal WHL team, the Tigers. Theother two have had direct contact with the team.
VivienSuttorp,lead medical officer of health for southern Alberta, steps have been taken to contain the spread, which could be province-wide.
"Atthis point, a lot of that strategy is there's targeted messaging to, for example, hockey teams that might have been exposed," said Suttorp.
Alberta Health Services has also notified schools and post-secondary institutions across the province and alerted physicians and public health nurses to be on the lookout for symptoms.
Hockey teams have been told to ensure locker rooms and equipment is cleaned and to avoid sharing saliva through things like water bottles and towels.
Those showing symptoms which include low-level fever, headache and swollen facial glands should be isolated for five days.
The first player to be diagnosed with the mumps plays for the Brandon Wheat Kings. His case was confirmed on Feb. 7, 2017. The Tigers' John Dahlstrmwas diagnosed just last Tuesday.
Dahlstrm's roommate at his billet family's home had to move out as Dahlstrom was quarantined with the illness. He returned to the ice last night, and even scored a goal.
Tigers' player John Dahlstrom says he was very sick for two days with a fever and swollen and sore throat. (Sarah Lawrynuik/CBC)
"From what I heard from the other guys it's been a little bit worse for them than me, so I was a little bit lucky there," he said.
Coach Shawn Clouston said he hopes the worst is over, but as mumps has a 25-day incubation period, they will have to wait and see.
"I think the challenging part is that it does have that long incubation period.I've done so much reading in the past week to try to understand what is going on we're hopeful that we're at the end of it."
In a statement, the WHL said they have been working closely with medical staff and health authorities to minimize the spread of the virus.
"With the assistance of the health authorities, WHL Clubs' experienced medical and training staff are continuing to ensure sanitization, early detection and quarantine protocols are being followed diligently," the statement read.
Suttorp said the Medicine Hat area has high vaccination rates,but the rates vary in southern Alberta. CBC News recently reported on vast differences between the communities of Pincher Creek and Fort Macleod.
Rates for the mumps, measles and rubella vaccine in Medicine Hat is 89.4 per cent.
"Of course, there's always worry with mumps, when we see further spread, that it ends up in some of our lower immunized communities and lower immunized schools," she said.
Those who contract mumps can experience complications including meningitis, inflammation of the testicles and pancreatitis.
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Medicine Hat mumps outbreak prompts alert as virus hits hockey team - CBC.ca
Christen Johnson Katie Spinner
When she graduates in May, she will be amongst the newest generation of doctors who practice medicine while also pushing for improved policies on national public health issues such as gun violence.
"As leaders in our communities, physicians should be knowledgeable when issues come up that involve our communities and [we should be] willing to be advocates in and for the communities that we serve," said Johnson, who is enrolled at the Boonshoft School of Medicine at Wright State University. "Our goal is working to ensure that we have culturally competent, socially conscious and clinically excellent physicians for years to come."
DEFINE YOURSELF IN THREE HASHTAGS #perserverance #keepinggodfirst #CreativelyDiversifyingMedicine
FAVORITE SONG TO PLAY AT FULL VOLUME I really love Lindsey Stirling. She has one song called "Shatter Me" which I think is really interesting because she talks about feeling like you're in a glass and breaking free.
MY SELF-CARE RITUAL INVOLVES Praying, journaling and trips to the spa when needed.
ONE THINK I WISH I KNEW ABOUT THIS INDUSTRY WHEN I FIRST STARTED It is a lot of hard work and I guess you always hear that becoming a doctor is very difficult, and everyone comes into medical school with the blinders on. We're all very intelligent in order to get accepted. But it's not necessarily being smart that gets you through medical school. You get through medically on hard work.
WHAT IS THE SOUNDTRACK TO YOUR DAY? Jill Scott's "Blessed," techno and classical music, John Legend and then Top 40 hits
WHAT DOES BLACK EXCELLENCE LOOK LIKE TO YOU? It's challenging the status quo. It is living up to the dreams and the hopes of those who came before us. You hear the quote many times, "I am the hopes and the dreams of the slaves." And it always gives me chills when I say that, because a slave somewhere dreamt about me. We are rising to our potential. We are rising to show people that our community is not just showing people that we're just as good, but we're exceeding them, and excelling and being the top in our fields, and the top in the game.
NBCBLK is using the 28 days in the month of February to honor 28 of the nation's most impressive innovators, all 28 years and younger. Get to know the #NBCBLK28 class of 2017.
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NBCBLK28: Christen Johnson is Pushing For Diversity In Medicine - NBCNews.com
Winter Park is getting an 80,000-square-foot facility thats more than just a fitness center, officials announced on Wednesday.
The Center for Health & Wellbeing, expected to open late next year, will provide wellness, fitness and medical services. Its the result of a partnership between Florida Hospital and Winter Park Health Foundation. The fitness center is operated by Central Florida YMCA.
Every part of the facility, from top to bottom, is designed to help people become and stay healthy, said Patty Maddox, president and CEO of the Winter Park Health Foundation, in a news release.
Maddox said that with more than 30,000 seniors living within five miles of the new center, the facility will give them a one-stop shop.
The new building replaces the 27-year-old Crosby YMCA on Mizell Avenue near Winter Park Memorial Hospital, which was torn down in late 2015.
Back then, officials estimated that the project would be finished by end of 2017, but the openingdate is pushed back a year. The previously-estimated cost of the project was$35 million to $40 million, paid for mostly by the foundation.
The Center for Health & Wellbeing will feature educational classes, an indoor farmers market and programs like cooking demonstrations; two pools, one of which is designed for warm-water therapy and aquatic exercises; and a 15,000-square-foot clinical space, staffed by Florida Hospital specialists and programs like Florida Hospital Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation.
The City of Winter Park has dedicated a new road the Crosby Way whichleads into the facility.
For more information, visit wphf.org/chwb.
nmiller@orlandosentinel.com, 407-420-5158,@naseemmiller
Winter Park YMCA center to be razed, replaced
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New facility brings together fitness, wellness and medicine - Orlando Sentinel
MEDICINE HAT The Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team (ALERT) have arrested three people after a pair of investigations resulted in a shotgun and more than $30,000 worth of drugs and proceeds of crime being seized.
ALERTs organized crime team in Medicine Hat, along with members of the Medicine Hat Police Service and RCMP, found $17,600 in drugs and cash in a search of a hotel room in the citys northwest on Feb. 17.
Police seized 86 fentanyl pills, 29 Oxycodone pills, 2.5 litres of GHB, 16 grams of cocaine, 1.5 grams of methamphetamine, one gram of heroin and $5,120 cash proceeds of crime during the search.
Aaron Bodnaruk, a 31-year-old man from Red Deer, is charged with drug trafficking, five counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking, two counts of possession of a controlled substance, possession of proceeds of crime, and five counts of breach of recognizance.
Bodnaruks breach charges stem from a previous Medicine Hat Police investigation that occurred in December 2016, and drug charges from Blackfalds RCMP in January 2017.
On Feb. 18, police arrested two people in an apartment building in the citys northeast, seizing $15,000 worth of drugs and cash, alongside a shotgun with 30 rounds of ammunition.
Police also seized 61 grams of methamphetamine, 68 grams of cocaine, 13 grams of cannabis resin and $1,600 cash proceeds of crime.
Staff Sergeant Cory Both said these seizures are more significant than other busts based on the variety and amounts that were found.
"We generally don't see one dealer being so diverse in the drugs they sell," he said. "Usually it's one particular one or a couple different things, but in this particular case there was quite a number of different controlled substances."
Taylor Weiss-Linder, 20, is charged with three counts of trafficking, two counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking, possession of a controlled substance, possession of proceeds of crime, possession of a loaded restricted weapon, unauthorized possession of a firearm, careless storage of a firearm, possession of a weapon dangerous to the public, and nine counts of breach of recognizance.
Mackenzie Osgood, 19, is charged with drug trafficking. Both Osgood and Weiss-Linder are from Medicine Hat.
In a news release, ALERT stated its investigation was aimed at disrupting street-level dealers operating in the region.
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Red Deer man arrested in Medicine Hat drug bust - rdnewsnow.com
Harvard Medical Schools Diversity Task Force will meet six times over the next few months to formulate recommendations for Medical School Dean George Q. Daley 82 about how to make the school more inclusive.
The task force will begin its work amid broad discussion of diversity at the school. Last year, a group of Medical School students calling itself the Racial Justice Coalition submitted a petition calling on University President Drew G. Faust to prioritize diversity during the search for the next dean of the school, among other demands.
After becoming dean in January, Daley announced the creation of the task force in an effort to seek a stronger and deeper evaluation of the issues we are confronting. Daley charged Dean of Diversity Joan Y. Reede with assembling the task force, which met for the first time Feb. 17.
After multiple discussions with members of the community, Reede brought together dozens of Medical School-affiliated students, faculty, researchers, and custodial and security staff with the goal of representing a wide swath of the school.
I think as the meeting opened, I think that people got a real sense that the individuals on the task force are there partly representing the group in their multiple identities but also because of their own personal journeys, Reede said.
Timothy M. McGinnis, a Medical School student who is a member of the task force, participated in the First Year Urban Neighborhood Campaign orientation program and joined the Racial Justice Coalition before becoming involved in the task force. He said that he was heartened with the task force's creation.
I view it as a way to serve immediately in the community where I find myself, and attempt to hold an institution to its ideals if possible, McGinnis said.
In an interview, Reede outlined the four-step charge for the task force. The first part of the task forces work, Reede said, is creating a vision statement for the Medical School that is consistent with the schools mission with diversity.
The second objective of the task force is measuring the schools progress towards becoming more diverse, according to Reede. The task force will create metrics, Reede said, to hold ourselves accountable for achieving goals of diversity and inclusion.
Reede said that the third step, which she called a deeper dive into the community, will include a closer examination of diversity initiatives across the Medical School and its affiliated facilities with the hopes of finding areas for improvement. Lastly, Reede said, the task force will create recommendations based on the overview and create achievable policy changes.
McGinnis said he found the wide scope of the task force stirring.
It truly does seem like we will be able to solicit and listen to viewpoints that many of us wouldnt have even thought to include in the first place, McGinnis said.
The task force is not the only diversity-related program at the Medical School, but rather a convergence of many efforts and an opportunity to reflect on already existing ones, Reede said.
There has been a lot of initiative from not just our students, but our faculty and trainees and others who are concerned with issues that range from diversity to immigration to health disparities, Reede said. People have been involved in these spaces for a while.
Staff writer Alexis J. Ross can be reached at alexis.ross@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @aross125.
Staff writer William L. Wang can be reached at william.wang@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @wlwang20.
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Med School Diversity Task Force Will Formulate Recommendations - Harvard Crimson
Ten incoming freshmen will be selected to participate in a seven-year program that guarantees acceptance into the University of Minnesota medical school.
School leaders started the new BA/MD program to ensure that students work as physicians in Minnesota state after graduation.
A panel from the Medical School and the College of Liberal Arts conducted interviews with 20 applicants last week and are in the selection process.
To get into the program, Minnesota high school students who have been accepted into CLA and indicate an interest in medical careers are reviewed for experience in medicine and leadership are invited to apply. Grades are also factored.
Students in the program have to declare undergraduate majors in biology, society and environment, or physiology.
Our review team is looking for medically related experience, said Taisha Mikell, the medical schools director of pipeline programs, a program to help accelerate degree progress. We want to make sure that they are mature, because this is going to be an early and long-term commitment to the field of medicine.
Dimple Patel, the Medical Schools associate dean for admissions, said the goals of the program are to invest in future physicians earlier in their education and to create a diverse workforce.
We want our students to be culturally aware, professional, she said. We want them to have a rigorous education that allows for creativity.
Patel said she is hoping that the program will encourage students to stay in the Minnesota workforce. BA/MD students will receive mentorship, exposure and encouragement to continue in the program.
Its designed also to produce physicians to serve an increasingly diverse population in the state of Minnesota, Patel said.
Mikell said the idea was proposed in 2015 and the Board of Regents approved it last summer.
Students were reviewed for certain attributes according to guidelines from the Association of American Medical Colleges.
Nanette Hanks, CLAs associate dean of curriculum, helped with the planning stages of the program and said about 50 schools in the U.S. already have similar programs.
Hanks said her main concern was making sure students were supported through the intensive and lengthy program.
We want to make sure that the students are going to be supported, she said, adding that the medical school has recruited 10 physicians outside of the University to mentor the students. Its part of our effort to train our own workforce.
Patel said the program will work closely with undergraduate student services to ensure that students get help when they are struggling.
Medical school staff researched other schools around the country who have accelerated degree programs and studied how medical education looks internationally.
In most places around the world, the idea of having a baccalaureate degree plus four years of medical education doesnt really exist, Patel said.
Link:
New program gives freshman fast track to UMN Medical School - Minnesota Daily
Posted: 12:00 a.m. Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Zo: I wasnt scared.
(Pause.)
Zo: Yes, the first time I went to the hospital, I was a little nervous. But after all the other times, it was: OK, were doing this.
Sarah: Shes a good soldier, a nurses favorite. And shes funny.
Zo: Thats what Im known for.
Seated in an airy room at the new Dell Medical School, slender, pert Zo Morehead, 9, and her plainspoken mother, Sarah OBrien, recount their many trips to Dell Childrens Medical Center, where Zo was treated, most often for acute asthma.
Until the doctors found something alarming. More on that later.
It so happens that on this sunny day, Zo is the poster child, literally, for the first portion of a three-building art installation at the medical school. During Zos interview with this reporter, Ann Hamilton, a distinguished Ohio-based multimedia artist, was seated behind a long table downstairs, signing fat, free books that go with the art project Oneeveryone, 2017 which presents cloudy images of scores of Austinites, Zo among them.
A line of the large portraits on enamel looms beyond her in the lobby.
RELATED: UT makes big leap in public art
Sarah: Seeing Zos photograph is bittersweet because I remember the stress and the worry and fear when she was in the hospital. But it turned into this beautiful thing.
The daughter of Sarah OBrien, a rigging and warehouse designer for the lighting company Ilios, and Dennis Morehead, Army retired, Zo attends St. Francis Catholic School. Someday, she would like to join the FBI or maybe become an herbalist. She spends a lot of time fossil hunting and plant collecting.
In spring 2012, she suffered a major asthma attack and was rushed to Dell Childrens Medical Center.
Zo: I felt so yucky. I went to the hospital and threw up on Moms back at the front desk.
Sarah: I remember that.
Zo: My stepdad brought me a bag of toys and blankets and all my things from home. At one point, blood was covering me. (She giggles.)
Sarah: We were no stranger to Dell Childrens. It has always been a point of gratitude that we live in Austin with such an incredible facility. She had been in and out of the hospital. So this wasnt a complete shock. More like, Oh man, we need to do this again? Life is upside down for the next few weeks. Its so stressful even before you get to the ER.
Luckily, the hospital, in the Mueller development, was designed to soften the stay for its youthful charges and their families.
Sarah: Dell goes out of the way to make it not suck so bad. We would walk all over the hospital, or if she was not allowed, Id pull her in a wagon. Around every corner, theres something to look at or interact with.
Zo: Oh, yeah, like that spinning ball thing.
Sarah: Theres a healing garden, also a playroom on every floor.
Zo: On every floor?
Sarah: Yeah.
So it didnt seem strange during a later visit for asthma and complications that an artist with a warm voice and bright eyes was photographing people through a thin membrane at the hospital.
I remember she had this incredible composed presence, artist Hamilton says about Zo. We were in the art room with families and kids. We didnt know the details about their stays at the hospital. She was vulnerable but strong. There was something about the way she held herself. She looked out at us even though she couldnt see through the membrane.
Hamiltons project, commissioned by the University of Texas Landmarks Public Art Program, compiled 21,000 portraits of more than 500 participants, including caregivers, faculty members, students, staff members, community partners, civic leaders and patients.
Inspired by the elusive nature of touch inherent in caregiving, Hamilton positioned participants behind a curtain made from a semi-opaque membrane that allowed her to capture only points where the body touched the material, reads the Landmarks website. The resulting images are intimate and evocative of the sense of touch. Thirty images will be presented as full length enamel portraits in the public thresholds of the Dell Medical School, with a larger selection of smaller-scale portraits to be installed throughout the school.
An exhibition of the smaller portraits and the story behind the artists process can be experienced now at UTs Visual Arts Center at San Jacinto Street and Robert Dedman Drive. High-resolution images can be downloaded for free at landmarks.utexas.edu.
Back to the poster girl.
Sarah explains that Zo had asthma for a long time.
Then in 2012 at Dell Childrens, she was diagnosed with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, meaning there was an extra electrical pathway between the upper and lower parts of the heart, which can cause a very elevated heart rate. Often it goes undetected in young people, but even athletes in top shape can suddenly collapse. Some do not survive.
So if Zo had not gone to Dell Childrens with asthma, the Wolff-Parkinson-White might have been missed.
Zo: They saved me many times.
Sarah: They zapped that pathway. Shes 100 percent clear.
Zo: No, 95 percent.
Sarah: No, 100 percent. Youll never have to worry about the heart thing again.
Zo: But not my asthma. I bet they are really tired of seeing me.
Sarah: Not true.
During her last stay, the pulmonologist adjusted Zos asthma medication and got it under control.
Sarah: I promised that if she could stay out of the hospital for a year, we would stay at a fancy hotel and get room service. She loves room service. Just before Christmas 2016, a dear friend with hotel points rented us a corner room on the 33rd floor of the JW Marriott.
Zo: We ordered eggs, bacon, hot cocoa and fancy hash browns.
This day, however, Zo is tickled by the posters that direct guests to the lobby of the medical schools education and administration building at East 15th and Red River streets.
Zo: My picture followed me all the way here. The posters said: This way, then this way, then this way. When I get them home, Ill see if my 3-year-old sister will follow me.
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Meet the Austin poster girl in that dreamy new Dell Medical School art - MyStatesman.com
First-year medical student Dean Salem says receiving a Catholic Health System/Western New York Medical Scholarship is a weight lifted off my shoulders.
Published February 22, 2017
Dean Salem, a son of immigrant parents and the first in his family to attend college, has been awarded a Catholic Health System/Western New York Medical Scholarship.
Salem, a first-year medical student in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, has lived a life of firsts: He is also the first in a family of five children and the first in his family to study medicine.
Salems parents immigrated to the United States from Yemen, where they had grown up in a village farming community.
They came here in the hope of providing a better life for their children, and I think they have succeeded, says Salem, adding that he earned his bachelors degree in medical technology from UB in 2014 for himself and for his family.
When I graduated, I felt as if I had lifted up my entire family with me, he says. My experience at UB demonstrated to my younger siblings the opportunities that college brings.
Before enrolling in the UB medical school, Salem landed his first full-time job as a medical technologist at Catholic Healths Sisters of Charity Hospital, where he also was a volunteer.
Salem is very grateful to Catholic Health and the scholarship program for giving him this opportunity.
Medical school is stressful enough without having to think about the debt that you are incurring while you attend, he says. This scholarship allows me to focus singularly on my education rather than on financial constraints, and I believe that I will be a better physician for it. It truly is a weight lifted off of my shoulders.
The University at Buffalo is where my interest in science was fostered, he adds, and I am happy to be able to continue my education in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.
The Western New York Medical Scholarship program provides four-year scholarships to local students to attend the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. The goal is to train and retain more doctors in the eight counties of Western New York, stemming a steady decline in the number of physicians who practice there.
Scholarship recipients are awarded about $30,000 annually, and they must pledge to practice in Western New York for five years upon finishing medical school and resident training.
The highly selective criteria require recipients to have excelled academically, to have graduated from a high school in the eight-county region of Western New York and to have demonstrated financial need.
In contributing to the scholarship fund, Catholic Health is looking specifically to support a local medical student who has ties to Catholic Health, either as an associate or family member of an associate, and who is willing to affiliate with the health system for the commitment period following their residency training, says president and chief executive officer Joseph McDonald.
Salems award is the first of three scholarships that Catholic Health has committed to fund over the next 12 years, for a total pledged commitment of $384,000 to support UB medical students and the local medical community.
Catholic Health is committed to investing in the professional development of our associates and proud to be part of this innovative scholarship program at UB that supports our efforts, McDonald says.
More:
UPDATE: The attempt to shield the bill from changes failed on a 18-34 vote on the floor.
ORIGINAL POST:Georgias latest religious liberty billmay have only been introduced Wednesday in the state Senate, but the chamber has quickly signaled it will be met with a fight.
Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, who presides over the chamber, assignedSenate Bill 233 to the powerful Rules Committee, a move that gives leadership broad rein over the bill and whether it advances in the chamber. Under normal circumstances, the bill would have likely been assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee, but thats not what happened.
The bills sponsor, state Sen. Marty Harbin, R-Tyrone, immediately countered Cagle by calling for the bill to be engrossed and protected from any changes he essentially wants to bar the Rules Committee from touching the bill.
Its an extremely unusual move. No one including Cagle (whos a former state senator) said they could remember a bill being engrossed upon introduction. The chamber is now expected to debate the merits of the request and, to a degree, the bill today on the floor.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution will again have Georgias largest team covering the Legislature. Get complete daily coverage during the legislative session atmyAJC.com/georgialegislature. http://www.accessatlanta.com
Harbin was adamant thatthe bill shouldnt be changed, telling a reporter that while he knew this has never been done before, I want Georgians to have the same protection thats in federal law with no tinkering with the proposed wording.
SB 233 stops far short of the wide-ranging religious liberty bill that Gov. Nathan Deal vetoed last year, saying it would damage the states reputation of tolerance and inclusion.
In contrast,Harbins bill says simply that the language in the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act would also apply in Georgia. The federal law requires the government to prove a compelling governmental interest before it interferes with a persons exercise of religion.
To read more about the fight over religious liberty in Georgia and the history of the debate in the state Legislature,click here to read our premium story.
Original post:
High school basketball coaches have enough nightmares, especially when the playoffs arrive, thinking about opposing defenses, wondering if players will step up or whether calls will go their way.
So when a dream comes true, its a treat.
For Liberty first-year boys basketball coach Jeff Hicks, his treat Wednesday came via a career night for senior Okenna Clement, who scored a career-high 15 points off the bench to help the host Patriots to a 74-68 win over Fresno-Sunnyside in the first round of the Central Section Division I playoffs.
Wow, O gave us the boost we needed off the bench, Hicks said. He finished tough baskets underneath against guys six inches taller than him. He was everything we needed.
Those are the efforts teams need in the playoffs, and Clement knew that going in.
Anything could happen, Clement said. I was talking to the younger guys, and I was like, this probably (could) be my final game. Play as hard as you can.
One of those younger guys was sophomore Isaiah Hill, playing in his first high school playoff game after sitting out last season as an intra-district transfer.
Hill, who scored 17 points, said he had nerves coming into the game.
There was a little bit, Hill said.
But being a basketball player, youve got to go show out in these games.
Hill did just that early on. He scored five points as Liberty built a 9-2 lead in the first three minutes before Sunnyside tied the game 13-13 late in the first.
Liberty had a 12-point lead at the half as Anieus Medrano scored two of his game-high 19 points on a layup just before the buzzer for a 38-26 advantage.
But Sunnyside (15-15) battled back.
C.J. Ayers hit two 3-pointers, and 6-foot-8 junior Amari Stroud scored seven of his team-high 17 points during an 18-3 run for the Wildcats, cutting Libertys lead to 49-48.
Thats playoff basketball, Hicks said.
Sumeer Gill hit three free throws after being fouled beyond the arc to start an 9-0 run, and Liberty led 58-50 after three quarters.
Then Clement, all 6-foot-1 of him, stepped up in the fourth quarter with rebounds over Stroud and 6-foot-6 Josh Woods (11 points, 17 rebounds) and hit a key layup to give Liberty a 69-62 lead with 1:19 to play.
Its just about being physical, Clement said.
Every practice we are all physical. I think its about us being physical and us wanting this more.
Liberty will host Clovis North on Friday in the quarterfinals after the Broncos beat Clovis 67-42 on Wednesday.
Ultimately you want to play at home, Hicks said. We shoot on these hoops every day, and this is where we want to be. We put ourselves in a situation in the season to be here.
Gill finished with 16 points for Liberty, including three 3-pointers.
See the original post here:
Clement's big night off bench leads Liberty - The Bakersfield Californian
In 1920, George Truett, pastor of Dallas First Baptist Church, preached a message on the steps of the U.S. Capitol to a crowd of about 15,000. It was a message calling for religious liberty.
It is the natural and fundamental and indefeasible right of every human being to worship God or not, according to the dictates of his conscience, and, as long as he does not infringe upon the rights of others, he is to be held accountable alone to God for all religious beliefs and practices.
Lest anyone misconstrue his words as a call for mere toleration, Truett added, Toleration is a matter of expediency, while liberty is a matter of principle. Toleration is a gift from man, while liberty is a gift from God. God wants free worshipers and no other kind.
Governments, however, have been much more likely to infringe upon that liberty, instead of protecting every persons religious liberty as is their proper role. In many Muslim countries, women are required by law to don the hijab (headscarves) in public, while in some other places, such as France, the hajib is banned.
One would suspect that Truett, whose descendants own the highly successful Chick-fil-A restaurants, would have disapproved of either position, but would commend the action taken by Nazi (her first name, which means gentle, and is pronounced Nah-Zee, not the shortened form of National Socialist, the party of Hitler) Paikidze-Barnes, the reigning U.S. womens chess champion.
The World Womens Chess Championship is being held in Tehran, Iran, but Paikidze is not there, because the theocratic Iranian government has made it a requirement that all participants (Muslim or non-Muslim) in the tournament wear the hajib.
She announced her decision in an Instagram post. Some consider a hijab part of culture. But, I know that a lot of Iranian women are bravely protesting this forced law daily and risking a lot by doing so. Thats why I will NOT wear a hijab and support womens oppression. She was unsuccessful in getting the World Chess Federation (FIDE) to move the championship out of Iran. However, Iran was the only nation to submit a bid to host the event.
A spokesman for FIDE said that they were not requiring participants to wear a hajib, but they do require players to respect local traditions, customs, laws and religions at all times and be aware of your actions to ensure that do not offend. (Emphasis added.)
Ironically, the game of chess is believed to have originated in the Persian Empire (basically Iran) in the sixth century. The familiar check, which announces an attack on the opposing king, is a variation of the Persian word for king shah. The actual capture of the opposing king is checkmate, or shah-mate, which translates roughly as the king is helpless.
One would expect that feminists and their allies in the media to be supportive of Paikidzes courageous stand for womens rights, if they cannot support the concept of religious liberty, but she has received very little encouragement from either. In fact, Azadeh Moaveni, writing in an op-ed for the the New York Times, was quite critical of her, writing, This kind of protest outsiders who think they know best is exactly the opposite of what most Iranian women want, and is at the heart of whats worst about policing how Muslim women dress. (Liberty is not something that should be up to what most want, but rather what an individual wants).
How exactly forcing women especially non-Muslim women such as Paikidze, who are not even Iranians to wear a headscarf as part of a religious practice they do not believe in, is somehow policing how Muslim women dress is not stated. But policing in Iran is done by the Iranian government, which actually patrols the streets to ensure that all women wear the hajib.
Mitra Hejazipour, a woman grandmaster, and the 2015 Asian womens champion, also disagreed with Paikidzes decision to opt out of the tournament in Iran, rather than wear the hajib. Hejazipour told the Guardian that Paikidzes boycott would be detrimental to Iranian female chess players. This is going to be the biggest sporting event women in Iran have ever seen; we havent been able to host any world championship in other sporting fields for women in the past, Hejazipour said. Its not right to call for a boycott. These games are important for women in Iran.
Paikidze responded, I am not anti-Islam or any other religion. I stand for freedom of religion and choice. Im protesting FIDEs decision not because of Irans religion or people, but for the governments laws that are restricting my rights.
Born in 1993 in Russia, Paikidzes father, a mechanical engineer, taught her how to play chess when she was four years old. They moved to Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, where she attended elementary school. Chess was part of the curriculum, which soon became her favorite class. Her chess teacher believed she had exceptional talent, and recommended she consider a professional chess career.
At age nine, she won her first international tournament, taking the title of European youth chess champion (in the category for girls under ten). Russian grandmaster Vladimir Belov began coaching her when she was 14, and she achieved the title of woman grandmaster in 2010, and finally, international master (which includes males, as well) in 2012.
Over the years, Paikidze won multiple tournaments and championships, before moving to the United States to attend the University of Maryland, which had a well-known powerful college chess team. Soon, she changed her FIDE affiliation to the United States, and married American engineer Greg Barnes. They make their home in Las Vegas, and Paikidze makes her living as a chess professional.
Passing on the world womens championship tournament in Iran is a financial sacrifice for her, as she could have won $100,000. But that would have required her to follow others religious beliefs, not her own. I will NOT wear a hijab and support womens oppression, she explained, even if it means missing one of the most important competitions of my career.
She added, By participating, I would be forced to submit to forms of oppression designed specifically for women. It sets the wrong example, particularly for young girls interested in chess. She insisted that her decision is not intended as an insult to the people of Iran. I have received the most support and gratitude from the people of Iran, who are facing this situation every day.
When government proceeds to infringe upon religious liberty, by forcing a person to wear something for religious reasons, when they do not wish to do so; or to write words on a cake antithetical to their religious beliefs; or to require Catholic nuns to pay for contraceptives in contradiction to their religious liberty; then that government has acted in an opposite way from what is the proper role of government.
When George Truett said he was for absolute liberty in religion back in 1920, most Americans would have nodded in agreement. It was a principle enshrined in our founding documents, and enunciated by the founder of Rhode Island colony, Roger Williams, when he said, Forced worship stinks in Gods nostrils. Were it so today, the country's inhabitants would be better off.
Here is the original post:
Woman Chess Player Makes Move for Religious Liberty - The New American
Immigration activists unfurled a sign that read "Refugees Welcome" from the observation deck of the Statue of Liberty on Tuesday.
The 20-foot by 3-foot red and white banner was hung near the statue's base soon after the Department of Homeland Security announceda host of immigration enforcement changes ordered by President Donald Trump, including expediting deportations of "criminal illegal immigrants" and the hiring of 15,000 immigration enforcement officials.
The groupAlt Lady Liberty claimed responsibility for the banner, sayingthe act was a "reminder" that welcoming immigrants and refugees is integral to America's core values, according to CNN.
The message of the Statue of Liberty is unmistakable.
This banner ought to make it clear 2 @realDonaldTrump #RefugeesWelcome#NoBanNoWall pic.twitter.com/ZSpg4uB9Qg
Alt Lady Liberty (@AltStatLiberty) February 21, 2017
Ingraham: Trump Is Fulfilling His Promise to Crack Down on Illegal Immigration
Rove: DHS 'Makes It Clear' They Will Prioritize Deportations Based on Crime
'Angel Mom': 'Nobody Gets Sanctuary From the Law'
The sign was removed by park authorities after about an hour, which allowed photos to circulate online -- sparking a social media firestorm for and against the protest.
I believe the Statue of Liberty actually has a plaque on it that says refugees are welcome. https://t.co/xZl0y9KJY8
Kat Godspell (@KatGodspell) February 22, 2017
The statue has always sybolized hope for immigrants 'Refugees Welcome' banner hung on Lady Liberty https://t.co/l4BkbvYvaZ #SUsocialwork
Alexandra Young (@ayoungsowk17) February 22, 2017
CLUELESS LIBERALS HANG Refugees Welcome Sign On Statue Of LibertyHeres Why Theyre All Wrong [Video] https://t.co/8Ug4VQ1hZV pic.twitter.com/ObfOIB6GvD
Fayber Miller (@suppfortrump) February 22, 2017
'Refugees Welcome' banner illegally placed on Statue of Liberty, who does that happen? Immigrats were legally here https://t.co/PtmBWyWFJS
The TRUMP Effect (@Truth_Lost13) February 22, 2017
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Read this article:
Immigration Activists Hang 'Refugees Welcome' Sign on Statue of Liberty - Fox News Insider
Members of our community may have information to assist in this investigation. We are making a direct appeal to members of this community who may have information but are unaware or unsure of its significance or assume law enforcement may already have the information.
Often someone in the community will unknowingly be associated with the individual or individuals who committed the crime and may be in a position to observe behavioral changes in that person. They will recognize the changes, and may even question the person about it, but may not connect the changes to that persons involvement in the crime.
On Monday, February 13, the individual or individuals responsible for these crimes may have been absent from work, missed or cancelled appointments or social engagements, or been unavailable or unresponsive during the afternoon period. They may have been a no-show or offered a plausible excuse for their absence or tardiness such as, illness, death in the family, car trouble, etc.
Since that time, the individual or individuals may have exhibited some of the following:
It is important to know that the exhibition of one or more of these behavioral changes alone are not indicative of ones involvement in a crime. These behavioral characteristics or changes are being shared so that the public may be sensitive to them and may bring forth possible helpful information. If you have any information that you feel may be of use in this investigation, please contact us the tip line at (844) 459-5786 or via e-mail to abbyandlibbytip@cacoshrf.com.
Here is the original post:
WEST LIBERTY, Iowa (KWQC) A social media experiment in a small Iowa town is reaching across the globe.
Its kind of crazy how many people have seen that post already, said West Liberty parent Sandee Buysse-Baker.
West Liberty, Iowa is home to around four thousand people. The community is surprised to see how far one social media post, meant to be a lesson for local students, is reaching.
I had to shut my phone off, said Chief Kary Kinmonth, the mastermind behind the lesson. My phone was just going crazy.
The idea sparked as a way to localize in West Liberty the reality of social media use.
Were talking to kids about social media stuff and we wanted to show them how quickly once you put something out there you dont get it back, Chief Kinmonth said.
He said the experiment is exceeding expectations.
Mission accomplished as far as Im concerned, Chief Kinmonth said.
Since publishing this post around 7:30 a.m. Tuesday millions have seen it.
As of [Tuesday afternoon] I think we have almost 1.2 million people that have seen it and its been shared thousands of times, he said. Its been commented on I think over six thousand times now.
West Liberty teen Maya Morales said it is great to see her little town getting lots of attention.
Its pretty cool how one little thing can become a big thing, she said.
But Morales also recognizes the dangers the reach of this post represents.
Like it could be bad at times but it really depends on what you did, she said.
But parents like Sandee Buysse-Baker feel the post also represents the positive and responsible side of social media.
As parents and as users of social media if we can use it in responsible ways and in positive ways then that kind of helps to reinforce the message to our kids too, she said.
No matter the take-away from this social media experiment, Chief Kinmonth said this lesson hits a personal note for the tight-knit community.
It humanizes it and it also kind of validates it in our eyes too, he said.
This post has made its way across the globe, seen by people from New Zealand, Australia and Mexico to name a few.
West Liberty Police are taking everything they have learned from this post and putting together a presentation. They plan to share it with students next week.
Excerpt from:
Construction crews had doused minor fires on the Liberty Bridge twice in the previous three days before a major fire on Sept. 2 closed the bridge for 24 days, according to documents obtained from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
The 155 pages of documents, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, show that hours before the major fire occurred, a safety official for Joseph B. Fay Co. removed an employee assigned to watch for fire in the area where the major blaze occurred. Safety officials also failed to report the previous fires to their supervisors or to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, which is paying for the $80 million bridge rehabilitation project.
Safety experts said the minor fires never would have happened if Fay had followed proper safety procedures, and after they happened, the company should have taken steps to improve procedures to avoid the major fire that almost caused the bridge to collapse.
What this says to me is the safety hierarchy there wasnt working in a collaborative manner, said Frank Burg, a registered professional safety engineer and certified safety professional in Woodstock, Ill. Mr. Burg spent 18 years as an OSHA inspector and has operated a private firm, Accident Prevention Corp., for 22 years.
If they arent reporting these near misses, theres a problem in their safety procedures.
Fay has paid a reduced fine of $7,500 for what OSHA termed a serious safety violation, not protecting flammable material, and has adjusted its fire safety procedures. The bridge rehabilitation project is expected to resume in earnest in March once permanent repairs are made.
According to a statement he filed with OSHA, Les Carpenter, senior superintendent with Fay, said he was not aware of previous fires that had occurred on Aug. 30 and Sept. 1. In those incidents, hot slag from a metal-cutting operation on the top deck fell onto a tarp surrounding a construction deck two levels below and caused minor fires that employees put out with hoses at the site.
After the first minor fire, safety officials assigned an employee to the lower deck to watch for fires. On Sept. 2, hours before the major fire was discovered at 12:55 p.m., Mr. Carpenter said he reassigned the fire watch from the lower level to other duties.
Mr. Carpenter said the immediate supervisor never explained why he wanted a fire watch on the lower platform and he didnt ask. He reassigned the employee because through three earlier phases of the project an employee assigned to fire watch duties on the upper deck was responsible for watching the lower decks as well.
Fay safety coordinator Zachery Reefer, who said he was at the job site one to three days a week, and safety director Dave Maloney, who oversees safety at all Fay job sites, also didnt know the minor fires had occurred.
That [minor fire] is a pretty serious incident, Mr. Burg said. There has to be reporting on that to top management.
Jim Foringer, PennDOTs assistant district executive for construction, said Fay didnt report the minor fires to PennDOT, either, because they were quickly handled by employees at the site. PennDOT conducted a safety review immediately after the major fire, he said, but Fay changed its procedures to have fire safety responsibilities assigned to a foreman at the site before PennDOT made its recommendations.
PennDOT is satisfied with that change and will review safety procedures as normal before construction resumes, Mr. Foringer said.
All three men said the companys normal practice was to remove flammable material from areas below a metal-cutting operation because of openings in the bridge deck that could allow hot slag to fall below. Crews placed plywood on the deck to try to cover holes but also were supposed to cover with Kevlar any flammable material below that couldnt be removed.
Plastic ventilation pipe on the lower deck was left uncovered on Sept. 2 and ignited in a major fire 30 to 45 minutes after crews had quit a metal-cutting operation. The fire burned so hot that it buckled a key 30-foot steel chord that supports a large portion of the bridges weight.
David Gardner, a Pittsburgh-based civil engineering expert who specializes in construction safety for Robson Forensic in Lancaster, Pa., said fires should not occur even when crews are working with live flames if companies follow safety procedures established by OSHA and the National Fire Protection Association. When he worked on a similar project on the Fort Pitt Bridge in 2002-03, he said, the only fire that occurred was an arson set near the Fort Pitt Tunnel.
Im going to say that should not happen minor fires should not occur occasionally, Mr. Gardner said. I would think in a job as confining as the Liberty Bridge that the safety measures to make sure there are no fires would be really strong.
Fay officials werent available to be interviewed about the OSHA documents but issued this statement:
Individual OSHA interviews are a portion of an investigation and need to be taken in context with all the findings. The final determination was based on the entirety of information collected and verified by the compliance officer.
The OSHA investigation is closed. The bridge was reopened and safe to traffic months ago and not one person was injured during the entire incident. Modifications have been made to procedures to assure no future situations occur.
OSHA initially fined Fay $11,224, nearly the maximum for a serious incident, but regional director Christopher Robinson said that was cut to $7,500 based on Fays cooperation and previously strong safety record. He said despite working with open flames, construction fires shouldnt occur.
There was a finding of a lack of a real strong violation history, so the fine was reduced, Mr. Robinson said. Ideally, [these types of fires] shouldnt happen. Its certainly not something we like to hear.
Ed Blazina: eblazina@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1470.
Here is the original post:
ANALYSIS/OPINION:
SELFISH LIBERTARIANS AND SOCIALIST CONSERVATIVES?: THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE LIBERTARIAN-CONSERVATIVE DEBATE
By Nathan W. Schlueter and Nikolai G. Wenzel
Stanford University Press, $24.95, 232 pages
While libertarians and conservatives have some similar outlooks on politics, economics and culture, many profound differences have kept them apart. Attempts to bridge this gap, including Frank S. Meyers theory of fusionism (combining elements of libertarianism and traditional conservatism), have largely been unsuccessful.
Nevertheless, these two right-leaning ideological groups have more than enough in common to discuss ideas in an intelligent, thoughtful manner. Nathan Schlueter and Nikolai Wenzels Selfish Libertarians and Socialist Conservatives? serves as an important backdrop in ensuring the libertarian-conservative debate never turns into a libertarian-conservative divide.
Mr. Wenzel, the libertarian, is a research fellow at the University of Paris Law Schools Center for Law & Economics. Mr. Schlueter, the conservative, is a professor of philosophy and religion at Hillsdale College. In their view, a civil, informed, and energetic argument between these two political opposites offers a more interesting, illuminating, and engaging format for readers than an impartial survey of the issues.
Are they right? For those who identify as conservatives, libertarians or one of the worlds few remaining fusionists (like me), their information and analysis is nothing new. But the authors ability to create succinct philosophical arguments for intellectuals and the masses is both admirable and educational.
Each author contributes four chapters. They provide explanations of what their political ideologies entail, whats wrong with each others ideological position, relevant case studies, and final conclusions.
Mr. Schlueter posits that conservatism is not a specific philosophy of government but a generic term that can have a wide range of specific meanings, depending on context. Hence, to create a unified conservatism from its three primary strains (libertarianism, traditional conservatism and neoconservatism), these principles are necessary for human flourishing and that, although they are in some tension with one another, the three principles are interdependent.
Moreover, the author argues, the principles of the American founding that conservatives defend are a form of classical liberalism. This, in turn, has led modern conservatives to defend traditional concepts like natural law and the common good, along with newer concepts like limited government and property rights.
Mr. Wenzel sees libertarianism as a political philosophy about the protection of individual rights. Adherents to this ideology consider liberty to be the highest political good, and believe that government should be viewed as a protector of rights, to provide an umbrella within which individuals can peacefully go about their business, interact, and thrive. Libertarianism also relies heavily on markets and civil society to supplement that which individuals cannot complete on their own and that which government cannot deliver without violating individual rights.
Naturally, the two authors respectfully feel that each others political philosophy is, as they put it, wrong.
Mr. Wenzel believes Mr. Schlueter makes one of the clearest expositions of conservatism I have seen, but that much in conservatism is problematic. For instance, he perceives natural law liberalism, which his co-author defends as a component of unified conservatism, rests on the claim that there exists an objective moral order but that it has also been used to justify ugly things like slavery, absolute monarchy, or Sharia. At the same time, he wonders if this contradictory hodgepodge of different conservatisms is arbitrary in its claims because it seeks justification for the public imposition of private preferences.
Mr. Schlueter admires Mr. Wenzels able defense of libertarianism, but believes [i]n the most fundamental sense, the difference between conservatism and libertarianism turns on the degree to which politics can be understood in terms of economics. By and large, conservatives dont believe that economics defines political life and human beings can only fully flourish through their own self-constituting choices. Also of note, when it comes to public choice theory a popular topic in libertarian circles he feels the major flaw is that its either descriptive, or is it prescriptive. The former is undermined by empirical evidence, and the latter is undermined by political life altogether.
Their case studies and conclusions dont lead to any surprising revelations: Mr. Schlueter supports conservatism, and Mr. Wenzel supports libertarianism. But their discussions about economics, immigration, education and marriage are intriguing. The differences between the two ideologies are subtle in some ways, and more stark in others.
Neither Mr. Schlueter nor Mr. Wenzel believe his political ideology is the model of perfection. There are flaws in libertarianism and conservatism, as there are in all philosophical models. At the same time, they obviously both feel that their respective ideology is better for our society, warts and all.
In this civil debate of ideas, thats the best closing argument we could ever hope for.
Michael Taube is a contributor to The Washington Times.
Continued here:
The libertarians versus the conservatives - Washington Times
Breitbart.comWhat do you do when you're Matt Schlapp, the guy heading up the American Conservative Union, which runs the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (emphasis added), and it turns our your biggest draw to this year's event defends pedophilia? Well, first you disinvite him and then you bluster your way through an excrutiatingly painful few minutes on Morning Joe before trying to pawn Milo Yiannopoulos off as a libertarian:
"He doesn't call himself conservative. He calls himself more of a libertarian.... Some libertarians would deny that he's a libertarian."
On that much, we agree. Most libertarians I know wouldn't claim Milo as one of our own. You know who else says Milo isn't a libertarian? Well, Milo himself, it turns out:
"Libertarians are children. Libertarians are people who have given up looking for an answer. This whole 'everybody do what they want' is code for 'leave me to do what I want.' It's selfish and childish. It's an admission that you have given up trying to work out what a good society would look like, how the world should be ordered and instead just retreated back into selfishness. That's why they're so obsessed with weed, Bitcoin, and hacking."
Read more about that here and here.
Milo's critique of libertarianism is not so strong, is it? As it happens, the policy work being done by folks at Reason Foundation (the nonprofit that publishes this website) is revolutionizing K-12 education, public-sector pensions, transportation infrastructure, and more. Same goes for ideological compadres at the Cato Institute and elsewhere. To the extent that there's a principled opposition to really dumb military interventions, runaway spending, and conservative-approved idiocies such as a border wall and trade protectionism, well, it's not conservatives pushing it. And none of that is to deny one bit that drug policy, criminal justice reform, crypto-currencies, and forced transparency of government overreach are in any way about "selfishness."
What does it say about the modern conservative movement that CPAC was so desperate to get Milo on its stage in the first place? Nothing good. He's outrageous (not really "dangerous" in any meaningful sense of the word) and he is fully capable of bringing out the worst elements of the idiot-progressive left. But does he have anything to say when he's actually allowed to speak? Derp, not really. Schlapp can say that ACU wants to teach the controversy and all that, but the fact of the matter is that as an intellectual force and a serious place for discussion about policy, CPAC has been more watered-down than the beer at Delta House for a very long time. It's a good sign that someone with the last name Paul won five of the last seven presidential straw polls, but conservatives and Republicans have almost completely squandered their power and influence throughout the 21st century. When George W. Bush and the GOP ran the federal government, they busted the budget in a way that would embarrass drunken sailors the world over. When Obama was in power, they did virtually nothing to demand actual budgets or restrain executive power, and they're still pretending that they are really...just...about...ready...to...reveal an alternative health-insurance plan. They nominated and elected Donald Trump for president and it's surprising that CPAC invited/disinvited a flyweight trash talker to their big shindig? It's almost as if they didn't kick out the gays a couple of years ago or that Newt Gingrich doesn't show up every year and talk about the need for flag-burning amendments and English-only laws.
It's never easy for a movement founded on the cry of standing athwart history, yelling Stop to move forward, but this is simply ridiculous.
Here's Matt Schlapp on Morning Joe:
Continued here:
CPAC Organizer Tries To Pawn Off Milo Yiannopoulos as "Libertarian" - Reason (blog)