Select Page ::

Health care is not a business, but a service to life, pope says – Crux: Covering all things Catholic

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Danzig

VATICAN CITY A nations health-care system cannot be run simply as a business because human lives are at stake, Pope Francis said.

If there is a sector in which the throwaway culture demonstrates its most painful consequences, it is the health-care sector, the pope told patients, medical professionals, pastors and volunteers attending a meeting sponsored by the Italian bishops national office for health-care ministry.

Anticipating the celebration Feb. 12 of the World Day of the Sick and marking the 20th anniversary of the bishops office, the pope said Catholics obviously give thanks for the advances in medicine and technology that have enabled doctors to cure or provide better care for the sick.

He also praised medical personnel who carry out their work as ministers of life and participants in the affectionate love of God the creator. Each day their hands touch the suffering body of Christ, and this is a great honor and a great responsibility, he said.

But, the pope said, any public policy or private initiative regarding health care that does not make the dignity of the human person its central concern engenders attitudes that can even lead to exploitation of the misfortune of others. And this is very serious.

Indiscriminately adopting a business model in health care, instead of optimizing resources, he said, risks treating some of the sick as disposable. Optimizing resources means using them in an ethical way, with solidarity, and not penalizing the most fragile.

Protecting human life from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death means that money alone cannot guide political and administrative choices in health care, he said. And the increasing lack of health care among the poorest segments of the population, due to lack of access to care, must leave no one indifferent.

See the rest here:

Health care is not a business, but a service to life, pope says - Crux: Covering all things Catholic

How Trump’s Health Agenda Threatens Kindergarteners – Forbes

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Danzig

Forbes

How Trump's Health Agenda Threatens Kindergarteners
Forbes
The lack of a clear plan to repeal, replace or repair the Affordable Care Act could wreak havoc on budget planning by states, threatening everything from social service programs to Kindergarten through 12^th grade education. A new report from Fitch ...

Continue reading here:

How Trump's Health Agenda Threatens Kindergarteners - Forbes

Women in health care: Meet Diane Bartos – Albany Times Union

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Danzig

Photo: Colleen Ingerto / Times Union

Diane Bartos, Administrative Director of Critical Care and Cardiology Services at Saratoga Hospital, in the ICCU at Saratoga Hospital, on Friday, December 2, 2016. (Colleen Ingerto / Times Union)

January/February 2017 edition of Women@Work magazine.

Women in health care: Meet Diane Bartos

Diane Bartos, administrative director of Critical Care and Cardiology Services at Saratoga Hospital, knew she wanted to get her doctorate, even as an undergraduate in nursing. She spent 20 years as a nurse at St. Peter's Hospital before going to Saratoga Hospital 13 years ago, working on her master's degree for 10 years before moving on to pursue her doctorate of nursing practice. She focused that work on rebuilding Saratoga Hospital's intensive care unit, just part of a more than $35 million overhaul, which involved intense feedback from every member of the hospital staff.

Q: What led you to nursing?

A: There's nobody in my family that's a nurse at all. I started working in a nursing home as a nurse's aide, and I loved it. And when I decided I wanted to do nursing, I didn't get a lot of support because nobody was a nurse. They were all engineers and accountants, and they were like, "Why do you want to do that?" I persevered through. I went to Boston University as an undergraduate.

I've always wanted higher ed ... and so I pursued that and was able to do some research in the master's program and found that very helpful. It took me almost 10 years to do that because the research just took forever. I did it by myself, and I decided for my doctorate, I didn't want to do that because I'm getting way too old. So I did a different type of program. The doctorate in nursing practice is actually what I have, so it's a practice program. It takes the research that is out there and implements it into practice. It's an interesting degree because it's really a hands-on type of degree. When I was going for my doctorate, we were also in the midst of building the ICU, so what we did was looked at all the research ... in health care environments and used the research to design the new ICU.

Women@Work

This story the first in a series in the Sunday business section about women in health care also appears in the January/February issue of Women@Work magazine. For more inspiring stories about Capital Region working women and articles that offer career advice, sign up today for $25 at tuwomenatwork.com. You'll get a year's subscription to the magazine and become part of a network of 1,700 Capital Region women who want to grow their careers and help other women grow, too.

Q: You also did some research of your own for that, right?

A: What we really wanted to try to do was be really inclusive. What we did was ask everyone and when I say everyone I mean everyone. We put the architectural plans up in the unit and asked people to put up their thoughts and ideas. When I say everyone it was doctors, it was housekeepers, it was pastoral care, we got all sorts of input from all these different people.

Then we actually built a room, it was all a mess up here, but we also brought everybody up and did the same thing for the room. We used yellow stickies (to represent the furniture/room components) and we kept moving things around. Everybody's input was valuable. The housekeeper said, "How are you going to clean that?" We have these booms that hang from the ceiling, and she was interested in the cleaning aspect. The booms(are) just columns and on those columns they have oxygen, suction, electrical, they had the monitors, so we had to really pay attention to where we wanted everything.

Q: How important is education in nurses advancing into leadership?

A: Education definitely helps when you're talking to physicians and MBAs; you have to be able to speak their language. Sometimes some of the other areas take a higher precedence, such as finances. And nurses need to be educated on that also, so they can talk at the table about finances and quality metrics, reimbursement, all of that.

Q: But there's so much to keep up on just in the medicine part. How do you do both?

A: You have to kind of decide which way you want to go and support each other along the way. There is a huge power base within nursing that has that hands-on, and they know what will work because of simply being there. So somebody might be into the research and keep abreast of all the research. It's really imperative to work with the leaders in that organization to bring that research forward and to implement it. Others might be strong in the finances and need to work with building budgets with their peers.

I think that most females generally have children, and I think it's very difficult. How do you manage and juggle all of it? I try and do everything that I can to help the nurses here that are in school that have families, as far as giving them time off and things like that, but they have to do the work. The good side of that is that nursing is so flexible. You can go back to school and work three days a week. You can still work full-time and still go to school one day a week and get it done. You can work part-time. You can work off shifts. You can work weekends.

Q: Did you have strong mentors?

A: Even as a CNA in the nursing home, I can think of one nurse back then that encouraged me. And she was like the pristine nurse. She was meticulous, down to her shoestrings. She knew what she was doing all the time.

There were certain bosses that I had that were certainly mentors to me. There were certainly clinical people that were mentors to me. There were people who had these great ways of thinking about health care, and which ways we needed to go.

Health care is a civil right – San Francisco Examiner

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Danzig

San Francisco Examiner

Health care is a civil right
San Francisco Examiner
When I was in the third grade, a boy named Nestor was added to my school who, like me, was born blind. He was put in my class, even though he was a year younger and had never been to school before, because of our blindness. Before then, he had, ...

Originally posted here:

Health care is a civil right - San Francisco Examiner

Christie: Health care repeal shouldn’t cost people coverage – Charlotte Observer

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Danzig

Christie: Health care repeal shouldn't cost people coverage
Charlotte Observer
Gov. Chris Christie says Republican lawmakers seeking to repeal or replace the Obama-era health care law must ensure that people covered by its Medicaid expansion aren't harmed. Speaking Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union" show, Christie stood by ...

and more »

Visit link:

Christie: Health care repeal shouldn't cost people coverage - Charlotte Observer

ROBERTS: What I would like to see in health care reform, for starters – Lufkin Daily News

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Danzig

I often tell people that if all I had to do was take care of patients, life would be grand. It is the countless hours of dealing with the administrative aspects of health care that have practically ruined the practice of medicine for many physicians. You should care; it takes away from our time with you.

TheHill.com noted that physicians and their staff spent more than 15 hours per week complying with quality reporting requirements and that for every hour a physician spends with patients, an additional two hours are consumed completing administrative tasks related to the visit. This meaningless (to physicians, anyway) work has costs in both time and money, leads to burnout, and is increasingly mentioned as the reason for early retirement. I, for one, found myself daydreaming in a committee meeting the other day and I calculated that it was 3,361 days until my 65th birthday. Thats nine years, two months and 15 days. No, I am not planning to retire early, but sometimes I sure wish I could. Health care needs reform.

The average person thought Obamacare was health care reform. In reality, Obamacare did nothing to actually improve the health care system; it simply added more people to the rolls. Dont get me wrong. Having more people insured is not a bad thing. But we need more than just additional enrollees in a broken system.

After Trump was elected, there was an initial, overly optimistic assumption that Obamacare was on its last leg. Recent infighting among policy makers suggests Obamacare may be more like the proverbial cat with nine lives. I only hope true reform is part of whatever replacement or repair Congress and the president come up with.

In particular, lets hope some of that reform will significantly scale back a bloated, paranoid bureaucracy that sucks hundreds of billions of dollars out of health care that could go to those who actually care for patients. And, perhaps, some could go back into the taxpayers pockets.

Back in 2012, Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett called health care the tapeworm of the American economy. To be more accurate, the federal government is health cares tapeworm. In an online article in Medical Economics last year, Ryan Gamlin, who studies what drives inefficiency, waste and harm in U.S. health care, found that as countries spend a larger percentage of their health care dollars on administration (as opposed to public health, or providing patient care, for example), things get worse for patients and health care providers. High administrative expenditures seem to be associated with negative experiences of providing and receiving health care. That is a nice way of saying theres a ton of money wasted going to paper pushers.

Helen Adamopoulos, writing in Beckers Hospital Review in 2014, noted that U.S. hospital administrative costs account for more than 25 percent of hospital spending, more than double that of Canada, for example, where hospitals receive global, lump-sum budgets. In contrast, U.S. hospitals must bill per patient or DRG (diagnosis-related group), requiring additional clerical and management workers and specialized IT systems. They also have to negotiate payment rates with multiple payers with differing billing procedures and documentation requirements, driving up administrative spending. Not to mention all the personnel, time and IT required to satisfy CMSs (the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) monstrous appetite for quality and safety data, with the ever-present threat of fraud and abuse hanging over every unintentional misstep.

What should be a simple process of billing for services provided is a minefield. And anyone who has ever tried to understand a hospital bill knows it is an impossible task. Aliya Jiwani, writing in BMC Health Services Research, notes that billing and insurance-related administrative costs in 2012 were estimated to be $471 billion and that 80 percent of this spending, which provides little to no added value to the health care system, could be saved with a simplified financing system. Jiwani predicted that greater use of deductibles under Obamacare will likely further increase administrative costs, stating, Empirical evidence from similar reform in Massachusetts is not encouraging: Exchanges added 4 percent to health plan costs, and the reform sharply increased administrative staffing compared with other states.

A CNBC report of a Health Affairs study tagged the extra administrative costs of Obamacare at more than a quarter of a trillion dollars, an average of $1,375 per newly insured person, per year, from 2012 through 2022. The Health Affairs blog authors reported, The overhead cost equals a whopping 22.5 percent of the total estimated $2.76 trillion in all federal government spending for the Affordable Care Act programs during that time.

What do I wish could be different in our health care system? In March, I will discuss some specific changes that would reduce the administrative burden on health care providers and, in many ways, return us to a simpler, more direct, and frankly better transaction of health care.

Dr. Sid Roberts is a radiation oncologist at the Arthur Temple Sr. Regional Cancer Center in Lufkin. He can be reached at sroberts@memorialhealth.org. Previous columns may be found at srob61.blogspot.com.

ROBERTS: What I would like to see in health care reform, for starters - Lufkin Daily News

‘We need this Affordable Care Act’: Voters discuss health care at Florida town hall – Washington Post

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Danzig

Washington Post

'We need this Affordable Care Act': Voters discuss health care at Florida town hall
Washington Post
February 11, 2017 7:15 PM EST - Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.) held a town hall meeting to discuss health care with voters. (Thomas Johnson / The Washington Post). February 11, 2017 7:15 PM EST - Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.) held a town hall meeting to ...

Study of complex genetic region finds hidden role of NCF1 in … – Medical Xpress

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Danzig

February 8, 2017 Betty Pei-tie Tsao, Ph.D., is the Richard M. Silver Endowed Chair for Inflammation Research at the Medical University of South Carolina and senior author on the Nature Genetics article. Credit: Medical University of South Carolina

Investigators at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) report pre-clinical research showing that a genetic variant encoded in neutrophil cystolic factor 1 (NCF1) is associated with increased risk for autoimmune diseases, including systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), rheumatoid arthritis, and Sjgren's syndrome, in the January 2017 issue of Nature Genetics.

Data indicate that increased NCF1 protects against SLE while decreased NCF1 raises SLE risk and highlight the pathogenic role of reduced reactive oxygen species in autoimmune disease development.

Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs - pronounced 'snips') are the most common type of human genetic variation; each one represents a small difference in a nucleotide - the building blocks of our DNA. The Immunochip for fine-mapping is an important tool for conducting genome-wide association studies of the genetic components of disease. Researchers use the Immunochip to investigate DNA samples from people with a particular disease for linkage disequilibrium (LD) signals that illuminate associations between specific SNPs and the disease.

Autoimmune diseases such as SLE are known to have a strong genetic component and, to date, dozens of SNPs associated with SLE have been identified and included on the Immunochip. The Achilles heel is, of course, that the Immunochip cannot identify associations with SNPs that it does not include.

When MUSC researchers genotyped DNA samples from Chinese, European-American, and African-American SLE patients, they found a strong signal in the Chinese sample at the rs73366469 locus in the GTF2IRD1-GTF2I intergenic region at 7q11.23. This was puzzling because that locus was not consistent with SLE loci identified by other genome-wide association studies. Furthermore, the very strong signal in the Chinese sample appeared as a modest signal in the European-American sample and did not appear at all in the African-American sample.

"A true risk gene should be the same in all populations," explained Betty Pei-tie Tsao, Ph.D., Richard M. Silver Endowed Chair for Inflammation Research at MUSC and senior author on the article. "And for such a strong signal, we wondered, 'why hasn't anyone else seen it?' We wanted to find out if what we were seeing was true and explain it."

The team confirmed their finding using a different genotyping platform in an independent Asian sample provided by Nan Shen, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine and director of the Shanghai Institute of Rheumatology at Shanghai Jiao Tong University's School of Medicine. But, because rs73366469 did not show LD with any SNPs in the Immunochip, the researchers hypothesized that the SNP containing the true underlying risk factor was not included in it.

"We came into the study from our Asian samples and then started looking for this signal in other populations," said Tsao. "Every ethnic group has a different ancestral background and different LD patterns. We used the LD signal strength as a guide to find our way to the true risk gene - the particular variant that actually caused the increased risk for lupus."

Because the SNP they were looking for was most likely not included in the Immunochip, the team turned to the 1000 Genomes Project dataset, where they found two SNPs that were not only not on the Immunochip, but also produced stronger LD signals with rs73366469 in Asian patients than European or African patients. One of these two, rs117026326 located on intron 9 of GTF2I, showed a stronger association with SLE than either the original or the other locus from the 1000 Genomes Project.

As the researchers focused in on rs117026326, they saw that the NCF1 gene was nearby. This was important because NCF1, which encodes a subunit of NOX2, is thought to be related to SLE due to its role in activating the phagocytic complex NOX2.

Preclinical studies have shown that non-functional NOX2 exacerbates lupus in mice. Furthermore, NCF2, which encodes another subunit of NOX2, is associated with SLE risk in European Americans.

The strong association of rs117026326 with SLE and the functional implications of nearby NCF1 took the team to their next hypothesis: that the rs117026326 SNP might tag causal variants of NCF1 that were not present in the 1000 Genomes Project database.

But unraveling this mystery was not going to be easy.

"This is a very complex genomic region," explained Tsao. "The NCF1 gene has two nearly identical twins - NCF1B and NCF1C - that are 98% the same. But they are non-functional pseudo-genes. This makes working in this region of the human genome very difficult. That's why the next-generation sequencing method that the 1000 Genomes Project has been doing doesn't pertain to this region."

The researchers believed that mapping techniques commonly used by the larger projects, while efficient, limited their ability to find unique sequences among all the copies and duplications in this region. So, they decided to set up their own, novel PCR assay.

"You can't easily sequence this region using the next-generation techniques," said Tsao. "So, we had to do it the old-fashioned way, which was very time consuming and labor intensive. To genotype the region correctly, we used PCR to selectively amplify the NCF1 copies and conduct copy number variation tests. Then we only used samples with no copy number variation to examine the NCF1 variant. This method ensured that what we identified as an NCF1 variant was truly a variant."

Using this strategy, the team identified 67 SNPs, four of which had a strong association with rs117026326. After conducting a long series of multiple tests in samples from various ethnic populations, they gradually eliminated three of the four SNPs and determined that the one called p.Arg90His was the likely genetic variant causing SLE susceptibility across all populations.

In addition, p.Arg90His was associated with increased risk for other autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis and Sjgren's syndrome.

The team also found that having only one copy of NCF1 was associated with a higher SLE risk, but having three or more NCF1 copies was associated with reduced SLE risk. Finally, while the underlying mechanism is unclear, the team found that having reduced NOX2-derived reactive oxygen species also raised the risk for these autoimmune diseases.

Tsao notes that perseverance was a critical component of this work. This work was started years ago when the team was at the University of California Los Angeles and was completed after moving to MUSC.

"We just stuck with it as a labor of love. Our lead author, Jian Zhao, devoted several years of his life to this project," explained Tsao." At the time we started, we didn't know it was going to be so complex. We just wanted to explain what we were seeing. It turned out to be quite a chase and very interesting and rewarding to finally bring this project to this point."

This work also points out an important unmet need in the field of genetic mapping.

"We need a more efficient platform to screen complex genome regions for variants. For a lot of diseases we've identified some, but not all, of the variants. There may be more variants hiding in these complex regions," said Tsao. "You have to sort it out like a puzzle. Autoimmune diseases share certain risk factors but also have unique genetic variants that drive the molecular pathogenesis of the disease. Each time you find a variant, you get more puzzle pieces and you can start to understand more about that disease and other autoimmune diseases as well."

Explore further: Genome study identifies risk genes in African Americans with inflammatory bowel disease

More information: Jian Zhao et al, A missense variant in NCF1 is associated with susceptibility to multiple autoimmune diseases, Nature Genetics (2017). DOI: 10.1038/ng.3782

In the first genome-wide association study (GWAS) of genetic risk factors for inflammatory bowel disease in African Americans, a research team has identified two regions of the genome (loci) associated with ulcerative colitis ...

Researchers from Boston University's Slone Epidemiology Center have found four new genetic variants in the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) that confer a higher risk of systemic lupus erythemathosus ("lupus") in African ...

A person's DNA sequence can provide a lot of information about how genes are turned on and off, but new research out of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine suggests the 3-D structure DNA forms as it crams into ...

Researchers have newly identified three genetic regions associated with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC), the most common autoimmune liver disease, increasing the number of known regions associated with the disorder to 25.

A genetic study of Chinese patients reveals a prevalent risk factor for certain blood cancers not detected in European patients.

Specific genetic errors that trigger congenital heart disease (CHD) in humans can be reproduced reliably in Drosophila melanogaster - the common fruit fly - an initial step toward personalized therapies for patients in the ...

A newly discovered mutation in the INPP5K gene, which leads to short stature, muscle weakness, intellectual disability, and cataracts, suggests a new type of congenital muscular dystrophy. The research was published in the ...

Kawasaki disease (KD) is the most common acquired heart disease in children. Untreated, roughly one-quarter of children with KD develop coronary artery aneurysmsballoon-like bulges of heart vesselsthat may ultimately ...

Geneticists from Trinity College Dublin have used our evolutionary history to shine light on a plethora of neurodevelopmental disorders and diseases. Their findings isolate a relatively short list of genes as candidates for ...

It's been more than 10 years since Japanese researchers Shinya Yamanaka, M.D., Ph.D., and his graduate student Kazutoshi Takahashi, Ph.D., developed the breakthrough technique to return any adult cell to its earliest stage ...

Please sign in to add a comment. Registration is free, and takes less than a minute. Read more

See the article here:

Study of complex genetic region finds hidden role of NCF1 in ... - Medical Xpress

Genetic Engineering | MSPCA-Angell

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Danzig

The MSPCAbelieves scientists ability to clone animals, to alter the genetic makeup of an animal, and to transfer pieces of genetic material from one species to another raises serious concerns for animals and humans alike.

This pagewill explore issues related to genetic engineering, transgenic animals, and cloned animals. It will examine the implications of genetic engineering on human and animal welfare and will touch on some related moral and ethical concerns that our society has so far failed to completely address.

Definitions

Problems related to the physical and psychological well-being of cloned and transgenic animals, significant ethical concerns about the direct manipulation of genetic material, and questions about the value of life itself must all be carefully weighed against the potential benefits of genetic engineering for disease research, agricultural purposes, vaccine development, pharmaceutical products, and organ transplants.

Genetic engineering is, as yet, an imperfect science that yields imperfect results.

Changes in animal growth and development brought about by genetic engineering and cloning are less predictable, more rapid, and often more debilitating than changes brought about through the traditional process of selective breeding.

This is especially apparent with cloning. Success rates are incredibly low; on average, less than 5% of cloned embryos are born and survive.

Clones are created at a great cost to animals. The clones that are successful, as well as those that do not survive and the surrogates who carry them, suffer greatly.Many of the cloned animals that do survive are plagued by severe health problems.

Offspring suffer from severe birth defects such as Large Offspring Syndrome (LOS), in which the cloned offspring are significantly larger than normal fetuses; hydrops, a typically fatal condition in which the mother or the fetus swells with fluid; respiratory distress; developmental problems; malformed organs; musculoskeletal deformities; or weakened immune systems, to name only a few.

Additionally, surrogates are subjected to repeated invasive procedures to harvest their eggs, implant embryos, or due to the offsprings birth defects surgical intervention to deliver their offspring. All of these problems occur at much higher rates than for offspring produced via traditional breeding methods.

Cloning increases existing animal welfare and environmental concerns related to animal agriculture.

In 1996, the birth of the ewe, Dolly, marked the first successful cloning of a mammal from adult cells. At the time of her birth, the researchers who created Dolly acknowledged the inefficiency of the new technology: it took 277 attempts to create this one sheep, and of these, only 29 early embryos developed, and an even smaller number of these developed into live fetuses. In the end, Dolly was the sole surviving clone. She was euthanized in 2003 at just 6 years of age, about half as old as sheep are expected to live, and with health problems more common in older sheep.

Since Dollys creation, the process of cloning has not demonstrated great improvement in efficiency or rates of success. A 2003 review of cloning in cattle found that less than 5% of cloned embryos transferred into surrogate cows survived; a 2016 study showedno noticeable increase in efficiency, with the success rate being about 1%.

Currently, research is focused on cloning for agricultural purposes. Used alone, or in concert with genetic engineering, the objective is to clone the best stock to reproduce whole herds or flocks with desired uniform characteristics of a specific trait, such as fast growth, leaner meat, or higher milk production. Cloning is often pursued to produce animals that grow faster so they can be slaughtered sooner and to raise more animals in a smaller space.

For example, transgenic fish are engineered to grow larger at a faster rate and cows injected with genetically engineered products to increase their productivity. Another example of this is the use of the genetically engineered drug, bovine growth hormone (BGH or BST) to increase milk production in dairy cows. This has also been associated with increased cases of udder disease, spontaneous abortion, lameness, and shortened lifespan. The use of BGH is controversial; many countries (such as Canada, Japan, Australia, and countries in the EU) do not allow it, and many consumers try to avoid it.A rise in transgenic animals used for agriculture will only exacerbate current animal welfare and environmental concerns with existing intensive farming operations.(For more information on farming and animal welfare, visit the MSPCAs Farm Animal Welfare page.)

Much remains unknown about thepotential environmental impacts of widespread cloning of animals. The creation of genetically identical animals leads to concerns about limited agricultural animal gene pools. The effects of creating uniform herds of animals and the resulting loss of biodiversity, have significant implications for the environment and for the ability of cloned herds to withstand diseases. This could make an impact on the entireagriculture industry and human food chain.

These issues became especiallyconcerning when, in 2008, the Federal Drug Administration not only approved the sale of meat from the offspring of cloned animals, but also did not require that it be labeled as such. There have been few published studies that examine the composition of milk, meat, or eggs from cloned animals or their progeny, including the safety of eating those products. The health problems associated with cloned animals, particularly those that appear healthy but have concealed illnesses or problems that appear unexpectedly later in life, could potentially pose risks to the safety of the food products derived from those animals.

Genetically Engineered Pets

Companion animals have also been cloned. The first cloned cat, CC, was created in 2001. CCs creation marked the beginning of the pet cloning industry, in which pet owners could pay to bank DNA from their companion dogs and cats to be cloned in the future. In 2005, the first cloned dog was created; later, the first commercially cloned dog followed at a cost of $50,000. Many consumers assume that cloning will produce a carbon copy of their beloved pet, but this is not the case. Even though the animals are genetically identical, they often do not resemble each other physically or behaviorally.

To date, the pet cloning industry has not been largely successful. However, efforts to make cloning a successful commercial venture are still being put forth.RBio (formerly RNL Bio), a Korean biotechnology company, planned to create a research center that would produce 1,000 cloned dogs annually by 2013. However, RBio, considered a black market cloner, failed to make any significant strides in itscloning endeavors and seems to have been replaced by other companies, such as South Korean-based Sooam Biotech, now the worlds leader in commercial pet cloning. Since 2006, Sooam has cloned over 800 dogs, in addition to other animals, such as cattle and pigs, for breed preservation and medical research.

While South Korean animal cloning expands, the interest in companion animal cloning in the United States continues to remain low. In 2009, the American company BioArts ceased its dog cloning services and ended its partnership with Sooam, stating in a press release that cloning procedures were still underdeveloped and that the cloning market itself was weak and unethical. However, in September 2016, ViaGen Petscreated the first American-born cloned puppy. ViaGen, an American company that has been cloning horses and livestock for over a decade, not only offers cloning services, but also offers to cyropreserve a pets DNA in case owners want to clone their pets in the future.

Of course, ViaGens process is more complicated than it sounds cloning and preservation costs pet owners up to tens of thousands of dollars, and the cloned animals are not necessarily behaviorally identical to their original counterparts. Furthermore, companion animal cloning causes concern not only because of the welfare issues inherent in the cloning process, but also because of its potential to contribute to pet overpopulation problem in the US, as millions of animals in shelters wait for homes.

Cloning and Medical Research

Cloning is also used to produce copies of transgenic animals that have been created to mimic certain human diseases. The transgenic animals are created, then cloned, producing a supply of animals for biomedical testing.

A 1980 U.S. Supreme Court decision to permit the patenting of a microorganism that could digest crude oil had a great impact on animal welfare and genetic engineering. Until that time, the U.S. Patent Office had prohibited the patenting of living organisms. However, following the Supreme Court decision, the Patent Office interpreted this ruling to extend to the patenting of all higher life forms, paving the way for a tremendous explosion of corporate investment in genetic engineering research.

In 1988, the first animal patent was issued to Harvard University for the Oncomouse, a transgenic mouse genetically modified to be more prone to develop cancers mimicking human disease. Since then, millions of transgenic mice have been produced. Transgenic rats, rabbits, monkeys, fish, chickens, pigs, sheep, goats, cows, horses, cats, dogs, and other animals have also been created.

Both expected and unexpected results occur in the process of inserting new genetic material into an egg cell. Defective offspring can suffer from chromosomal abnormalities that can cause cancer, fatal bleeding disorders, inability to reproduce, early uterine death, lack of ability to nurse, and such diseases as arthritis, diabetes, liver disease, and kidney disease.

The production of transgenic animals is of concern because genetic engineering is often used to create animals with diseases that cause intense suffering. Among the diseases that can be produced in genetically engineered research mice are diabetes, cancer, cystic fibrosis, sickle-cell anemia, Huntingtons disease, Alzheimers disease, and a rare but severe neurological condition called Lesch-Nyhansyndromethat causes the sufferer to self-mutilate. Animals carrying the genes for these diseases can suffer for long periods of time, both in the laboratory and while they are kept on the shelf by laboratory animal suppliers.

Another reason for the production of transgenic animals is pharming, in which sheep and goats are modified to produce pharmaceuticals in their milk. In 2009, the first drug produced by genetically engineered animals was approved by the FDA. The drug ATryn, used to prevent fatal blood clots in humans, is derived from goats into which a segment of human DNA has been inserted, causing them to produce an anticoagulant protein in their milk. This marks the first time a drug has been manufactured from a herd of animals created specifically to produce a pharmaceutical.

A company has also manufactured a drug produced in the milk of transgenic rabbits to treat a dangerous tissue swelling caused by a human protein deficiency. Yet another pharmaceutical manufacturer, PharmAnthene, was funded by the US Department of Defense to develop genetically engineered goats whose milk produces proteins used in a drug to treat nerve gas poisoning. The FDA also approved a drug whose primary proteins are also found in the milk of genetically engineered goats, who are kept at a farm in Framingham, Massachusetts. Additionally, a herd of cattle was recently developed that produces milk containing proteins that help to treat human emphysema. These animals are essentially used as pharmaceutical-production machines to manufacture only those substances they were genetically modified to produce; they are not used as part of the normal food supply chain for items such as meat or milk.

The transfer of animal tissues from one species to another raises potentially serious health issues for animals and humans alike.

Some animals are also genetically modified to produce tissues and organs to be used for human transplant purposes (xenotransplantation). Much effort is being focused in this area as the demand for human organs for transplantation far exceeds the supply, with pigs the current focus of this research. While efforts to date have been hampered by a pig protein that can cause organ rejection by the recipients immune system, efforts are underway to develop genetically modified swine with a human protein that would mitigate the chance of organ rejection.

Little is known about the ways in which diseases can be spread from one species to another, raising concerns for both animals and people, and calling into question the safety of using transgenic pigs to supply organs for human transplant purposes. Scientists have identified various viruses common in the heart, spleen, and kidneys of pigs that could infect human cells. In addition, new research is shedding light on particles called prions that, along with viruses and bacteria, may transmit fatal diseases between animals and from animals to humans.

Acknowledging the potential for transmission of viruses from animals to humans, the National Institutes of Health, a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,issued a moratorium in 2015 onxenotransplantation until the risks are better understood, ceasing funding until more research has been carried out. With the science of genetic engineering, the possibilities are endless, but so too are the risks and concerns.

Genetic engineering research has broad ethical and moral ramifications with few established societal guidelines.

While biotechnology has been quietly revolutionizing the science for decades, public debate in the United Statesover the moral, ethical, and physical effects of this research has been insufficient. To quote Colorado State University Philosopher Bernard Rollin, We cannot control technology if we do not understand it, and we cannot understand it without a careful discussion of the moral questions to which it gives rise.

Research into non-animal methods of achieving some of the same goals looks promising.

Researchers in the U.S. and elsewhere have found ways togenetically engineer cereal grains to produce human proteins. One example of this, developed in the early 2000s, is a strain of rice that can produce a human protein used to treat cystic fibrosis. Wheat, corn, and barley may also be able to be used in similar ways at dramatically lower financial and ethical costs than genetically engineering animals for this purpose.

See the original post:

Genetic Engineering | MSPCA-Angell

Jesse Gelsinger – Wikipedia

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Danzig

Jesse Gelsinger (18 June 1981 17 September 1999) was the first person publicly identified as having died in a clinical trial for gene therapy. Gelsinger suffered from ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency, an X-linked genetic disease of the liver, the symptoms of which include an inability to metabolize ammonia a byproduct of protein breakdown. The disease is usually fatal at birth, but Gelsinger had not inherited the disease; in his case it was apparently the result of a spontaneous genetic mutation after conception and as such was not as severe some of his cells were normal, enabling him to survive on a restricted diet and special medications.

Gelsinger joined a clinical trial run by the University of Pennsylvania that aimed at developing a treatment for infants born with severe disease. On 13 September 1999, Gelsinger was injected with an adenoviral vector carrying a corrected gene to test the safety of the procedure. He died four days later at the age of 18, on 17 September at 2:30 pm, apparently having suffered a massive immune response triggered by the use of the viral vector used to transport the gene into his cells, leading to multiple organ failure and brain death.

A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) investigation concluded that the scientists involved in the trial, including the co-investigator Dr. James M. Wilson (Director of the Institute for Human Gene Therapy), broke several rules of conduct:

The University of Pennsylvania later issued a rebuttal,[1] but paid the parents an undisclosed amount in settlement. Both Wilson and the University are reported to have had financial stakes in the research.[2][3] The Gelsinger case was a severe setback for scientists working in the field.[4]

Read this article:

Jesse Gelsinger - Wikipedia

FAQ – Futurism

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Danzig

What is Futurism?

We Are About The Future

Science and technology are transforming our society and fundamentally reshaping what it means to be human. From bipedalrobots to quantum physics, from gene editing toflying cars, Futurism tracks the breakthroughs that are reshaping our future and leading us into a brave new world.

Want to learn more about our areas of coverage? Just head here.

Of Course!

Futurism is always happy to have individuals contribute their knowledge and insights. If you would like to share your expertise with the 20+ million monthly readers of Futurisms content, you can submit a final draft of your article to our contributor team for review.

How it Works

Futurism is particularly interested in content on artificial intelligence, transformative gadgets, genetic engineering, human augmentation and life extension, universal basic income, commercial spaceflight, and commentary on the world of tomorrow.

Send the final draft of your article along with a suggested title, headshot, and links to any social media accounts youd like included in the author profile to sarah@futurism.com Please be sure to make the subject line Contributor Article.

Our contributor team will review your article and contact you if its something were interested in publishing. Please do note that submission does not guarantee publication.

It Depends

All Futurism content is licensed under Creative Commons for Attribution-Non-Commercial Use. For more information, please send your questions to contact@futurism.com

The rest is here:

FAQ - Futurism

A Leak Has Finally Revealed What Magic Leap Is Working On – Futurism

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Danzig

Welcome To A New World

Some time back, Magic Leap raised a staggering $1.4 billion in venture capital in orderto make mixed reality our new reality. Since then, a proverbial firestorm of media coverage has swarmed around them. Part of this stems from the secretive nature of the company.

Part of this firestorm stems from the secretive nature of the company. Few people have tried the tech (and ever fewer journalists), so no one really knows what to expect; however, if the teasers are any indication, whatever they develop is going to be pretty fantastic.

Now, it seems that we may finally be seeing what Magic Leap has really been up to. Business Insider asserts that an image of a prototype was just leaked to them. Their source said that the device is known as PEQ0, which is a stand-in name that was derived from an internal prototype naming scheme that Magic Leap uses.

Business Insider tried to reach out to the company for commentand to verify the information, but they didnt hear anything back by the time the article was released. As you can see in the below image, the prototype

As you can see in the below image, the prototype definitelylooks like a prototype. And this is a bit of a problem.

The issue with this is that, in recent months, Magic Leap has been accused of using erroneous and misleading marketing material to make the public (and reporters) believe that the technology is a lot farther along than it truly is.

Specifically,Reed Albergotti published an article in which he alleged that Magic Leap had oversold its system, using different tech for the demo than what will be used in the final product. In response, in a memo to employees, CEO Rony Abovitz stated that the company shouldnt be sidetracked: Ignore all of this. Focus on what we are doing, and we ship a great product. That will speak loudly and reverberate for many years.

This leak also comes at a prime time, as there is a board meeting next week that is generally seen as a milestone in the products development. In short, itis a chance to show, once and for all, that Magic Leap can truly do all that they claimshrink augmented reality tech so that it is truly portable.

If this prototype is any indication, they have a lot of work to do before next week.

Read the original here:

A Leak Has Finally Revealed What Magic Leap Is Working On - Futurism

The looming conflict between Trump’s immigration sweeps and … – Washington Post

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Danzig

When Guadalupe Garca de Rayos was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Mesa, Ariz., after the most recent of her mandated check-ins with the agency, her lawyer, Ray Ybarra Maldonado, was furious. On a conference call, Maldonado said that ICE had lied to him and that he would advise anyone in Rayoss shoes to seek sanctuary in a church instead of turning themselves in.

Rayos considered that option. Understanding that the check-in might pose a new risk during the Trump administration, allies suggestedthat she do so. She declined, opting instead for going to Mass and praying before she went to the ICE office.

She was deported to Mexico, leaving her two children behind.

Seeking sanctuary at a church would not have offered as much shelter as you might assume. Many of us are familiar thanks to The Hunchback of Notre Dame with the concept of taking refuge in a place of worship as a way to avoid civil authorities. While this was a doctrine that existed in some places in the past, it was never instituted by American colonists, and it is not the case now that someone hoping to avoid arrest can be assured of protection in a house of worship. (Nor is it the case that sanctuary cities offer protection from detention by federal immigration authorities, as recent raids have made clear.)

There is, however, a reason that Rayoss attorney recommended seeking refuge in a church. David Leopold, an immigration attorney from Cleveland and former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, pointed to a 2011 memorandum from then-ICE Director John Morton. It established that ICE would not conduct enforcement actions in enumerated sensitive locations: hospitals, schools, the site of a wedding or funeral, during a demonstration or at a place of worship.

It wasnt impossible to conduct such an action; it was just that any enforcement in one of the places on the list mandated approval from a top ICE official before proceeding (except in the case of an emergency).

What makes places of worship uniquely appealing on that list, of course, is that they alone are part of the long tradition of seeking sanctuary. The concept, established more than 1,700 years ago in the Theodosian Code of A.D. 392, upholds tenets offered in the Bible. Exodus 22:21 part of the delineation of laws following the Ten Commandments implores readers to not mistreat or oppress foreigners. Deuteronomy 27:19 declares that those who deny justice to foreigners, orphans and widows should be cursed.

Churches, in other words, may act to protect immigrants out of a sense of religious obligation. And that is where things might get tricky for the Trump administration.

Last week, a draft executive order that was circulating in the White House was leaked to the media. Titled Establishing a Government-Wide Initiative to Respect Religious Freedom, the draft document sides strongly with recent efforts to support the role of religious beliefs in commercial and legal interactions. The draft order focused on political issues that have been at the heart of that conflict, such as same-sex marriage and contraception. But it was a clear indicator that the administration supported a broad interpretation of religious freedom rights.

The most noteworthy case on this subject was Burwell vs. Hobby Lobby, determined in favor of the retail chain by the Supreme Court in 2014. Five justices agreed that the provisions of the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Actmeant that Hobby Lobby could not be forced to cover contraception in its health insurance for employees, despite such a mandate in the Affordable Care Act.

Liz Platt is the director of the Public Rights/Private Conscience Project at Columbia Law School. When we spoke by phone Friday, she suggested that the new breadth of accommodation for religious liberties might make the issue of offering sanctuary trickier. She noted that offering sanctuary to immigrants living in the country illegally has been challenged in the courts previously, with the religious motivations behind the effort playing a muted role.

During the 1980s, a number of religious institutions were helping people fleeing violence in Central America to travel illegally through the United States. Some of those participating in the effort were arrested, and, among other things, the question was raised of whether the arrests violated their First Amendment rights to free religious practice. They lost.

The courts did something that would never fly today, Platt said. The courts questioned whether their religious beliefs were really being burdened. They had some clergy members come in and say, Actually, theres no reason why under Christianity you would need to do this.

Under the Supreme Courts decision in Hobby Lobby, by contrast, they were super deferential to the claimants who said that their religious rights had been burdened, she continued. Under this much, much greater deference to the religious objector and much expanded right to a religious accommodation, I think its certainly a possibility that those cases could come out the opposite way today.

The new, much, much broader of right to religious exemption thats provided under RFRA is going to really give them a chance to relitigate the question of sanctuary, Platt said. She noted, too, that religion might not even be the only boundary, if the leaked executive order is any guide. The document contained protections not only for religion, but also for conscience, she said. This raises the prospect of someone harboring an immigrant in their home, challenging prosecution by citing their conscientious decision to do so.

The issue of punishment for those offering sanctuary is key. Since sanctuary isnt a legal doctrine, those who offer it to immigrants in the country illegally are putting themselves at risk under statutes outlawing the harboring of undocumented immigrants. Federal code bars transporting people known to be in the country illegally or concealing, harboring or shielding those known to be undocumented in any place, including any building or any means of transportation. That includes places of worship.

Leopold, the immigration attorney, agreed that there might be a tension in the administrations likely priorities. Theres an inherent conflict between the harboring statutes and religious freedom in this country, he said. He said he suspects that this could become a significant issue under Trump, thanks in part to his attorney general.

The law is very broad. And thats my fear, Leopold said. My concern is that you have an attorney general in Jeff Sessions who is anti-immigrant. At this point, hes the chief law enforcement officer in the country, and he can use the criminal statutes to prosecute people for harboring.

The penalty for being convicted of harboring someone known to be in the country illegally is five years in federal prison.

The prohibition against raiding places of worship, as outlined in 2011, is a memorandum that could be overturned at any point. Theres another reason that ICE is disinterested in launching raids at places of worship, of course: aesthetics. No head of a government agency wants to have to explain to the public why there were photographs of a priest being lead to a police vehicle in handcuffs.

I think that if Jeff Sessions begins to prosecute people for harboring I think theres going to be hell to pay, Leopold said. I think people are going to recoil at any prosecution of a church or a religious figure or parishioners for doing what they believe is their religious duty.

He compared it to recent protests at airports over Trumps immigration ban. Its the same response that you see when people get off airplanes and are detained at the airport suddenly because they have a passport from a Muslim country, he added. I think youll see the same thing if you see the government going into a place of worship.

Leopold and Platt suggest that the conclusion to any debate over sanctuary might end the same way, in court. If so, the Trump administration may be torn between what it prioritizes more: its ability to deport immigrants in the country illegally or the right of religious Americans to stand in their way.

Continue reading here:

The looming conflict between Trump's immigration sweeps and ... - Washington Post

Freedom is recognized through Jesus Christ – The Philadelphia Tribune

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Danzig

Let the subject of record be freedom today. The freedom of which Im speaking is that afforded all of us through our recognition of the truth of Jesus Christ. There is something quite liberating when you know or realize that you have been set free. Have you ever thought about what that really means? The word release comes to my mind. Some claim relief is how they understand it. However you want to describe it, I think the revelation of Jesus as Lord and Savior removes a lot of barriers and obstacles and burdens that we as human beings place upon ourselves along with the expectations of life as we have come to know it, as well. Thats why I believe as people initially come to Christ they are overcome by a fresh perspective about life, an enlightened one.

In a real sense, addictions are finally overcome, hurt feelings are healed, guilt is removed and insecurities conquered when Jesus is allowed to enter the picture. One of the biggest things that happens when Christ enters your life is that fears are conquered. And if were honest with ourselves, we all have fears. I know I do. It can be the fear of being alone, of being humiliated, ostracized or even the fear of dying. The knowledge of Christ in all of these situations cancels those fears. Thats what I believe people mean when they say set free. Thats how Ive come to understand real joy. In that context of spiritual awareness being blood bought and saved, I have been set free from fear, worry, anger, greed, selfishness, self-doubt and even self-hate.

These things have hopefully been replaced with honesty and integrity, hope and truth, the promise of everlasting life, confidence and yeah, I know above all, love. One of the hardest things to understand in this life, and then act upon, is this love yourself thing. God even commands us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Without Christ in your life, I believe that the concept of self-love can sometimes be distorted and can, in many cases, become perverted. Love along with humility is an awesome thing. When love is set free within you, life takes on a whole new meaning. You no longer have to live in the shadows of pretense; rather, you can now live in the light of truth. I can be who I really am and so can you. Then the world will see you as God sees you and not who you think it ought to see. I am who God made. If thats good enough for God, then certainly its good enough for anyone who wants to deal with me, including you. I am free and it is wonderful. Freedom is my gift from God, blood bought and paid for by Jesus Christ. Know the truth and the truth shall set you free. You are not what the world would have you be. You are what God made you to be. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. Now go tell that.

May God bless and bless and keep you always.

See the rest here:

Freedom is recognized through Jesus Christ - The Philadelphia Tribune

Meryl Streep: Trump shows ‘how fragile freedom is’ – The Hill (blog)

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Danzig

Actress Meryl Streep tore into President Trump during a speech at the Human Rights Campaign's gala in New York on Saturday, calling the commander in chief a bully and condemning his use of Twitter.

"If we live through this precarious moment if his catastrophic instinct to retaliate doesnt lead us to nuclear winter we will have much to thank our current leader for," Streep said, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

"He will have woken us up to how fragile freedom is. His whisperers will have alerted us to potential flaws in the balance of power in government. To how we have relied on the good will and selflessness of most previous occupants of the Oval Office," she added.

"The whip of the executive, through a Twitter feed, can lash and intimidate, punish and humiliate, delegitimize the press and imagined enemies with spasmodic regularity and easily provoked predictability," she said.

Streep's speech wasn't focused solely on Trump. She also discussed the arts, humanities and a transgender teacher she had in middle school.

Some social media users shared bits of the speech online.

Sing for us all, Meryl Streep. @HRC pic.twitter.com/yNqrZpOUI6

Meryl Streep pays tribute to LGBTQ pioneers and those on the front lines of fighting for civil rights. pic.twitter.com/J6PdfbVTDm

This isn't the first time the actress has been critical of Trump. During a Golden Globes speech earlier this year, she got emotional in a speech hitting Trump for being a bully.

See the rest here:

Meryl Streep: Trump shows 'how fragile freedom is' - The Hill (blog)

PA calls mosque-muffling bill an attack on religious freedom – The Times of Israel

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Danzig

The Palestinian Authority on Sunday slammed proposed Israeli legislation prohibiting the overnight use of loudspeakers in houses of prayer, calling it an attack on religious freedom.

A new version of the so-called muezzin bill prohibits the use of loudspeakers for religious purposes from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. It was approved by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday. Violators of the proposed legislation will be fined NIS 10,000 ($2,600).

PA President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday condemned the bill, saying it would drag the area into disaster, according to the official Palestinian news outlet Wafa.

The bill is a revised version of an earlier proposal, which would have banned loudspeakers over a certain volume at all hours, but which drew opposition from ultra-Orthodox lawmakers.

Critics say they new bill does nothing to address the proposals apparent targeting of mosques, which broadcast prayers five times a day. While the legislation wont apply to West Bank mosques, it will silence those in East Jerusalem.

PA spokesperson Yusuf al-Mahmoud said that [the PA] considers the bill seriously damaging to the freedom of worship in Jerusalem, the capital of the Palestinian state.

He said that historically there has been coexistence between Muslims and Jews in Jerusalem, but that the new legislation would change that.

In Jerusalem and in the rest of our country, Palestine, people of different beliefs have lived throughout successive periods of history in respect and harmony, he said. The Arabic, cultural and religious inheritance of Jerusalem stretches back to the depths of history, and in this respect, it is inconceivable that [Israel] could destroy this by imposing a ridiculous and dangerous law that deprives those who follow the Abrahamic religions from upholding their faith, and performing their rituals and religious duties, he added.

He called on Arab states and the international community to prevent Israel from passing the bill into law.

Joint (Arab) List party chairman Ayman Odeh reacts during a plenum session in the assembly hall of the Knesset on January 25, 2017. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The head of the Joint (Arab) List in Israels Knesset also condemned the proposed legislation.

This is yet another in a series of offenses committed by this government with the express purpose of marking the Arab community as an enemy within, said Ayman Odeh. This law is not about noise or about quality of life, but is solely racist incitement against the national minority.

Odeh said the traditional call to prayer would outlast the current government. The sound of the muezzin was heard here long before the racists of Netanyahus government and will remain after them, he said.

If the bill passes its initial reading in the Knesset, expected to take place on Wednesday, it will be sent back to committee, after which it will again come before the plenum for its second and third readings prior to becoming law. The backing by the ministerial committee gives the bill coalition support.

Jewish residents of East Jerusalem and other areas of Israel have long complained about what they say is the excessive noise coming from mosque loudspeakers, as they say it wakes them up in the middle of the night.

Here is the original post:

PA calls mosque-muffling bill an attack on religious freedom - The Times of Israel

Post unrest, Kashmir ‘freedom’ songs making waves – Hindustan Times

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Danzig

Srinagar: Almost a month into last years civil unrest in Kashmir, as violence on the streets spiralled and civilian death toll increased, Ali Saffudin, 23, a rock singer here uploaded a song titled tum kitne jawa maroge on YouTube.

His song goes: Tum kitne jawa maroge, har ghar se jawa niklega/ Jo lahoo hai behta rag rag mein, wo junoon banke ubhre ga (How many youth will you kill, from every home a youth will come out/The blood which flows in the veins, will rise into a frenzy, madness)

The song became quite popular and had 30,000-odd views on YouTube.

Since last years unrest, the Valley has been seeing an increase in the number of protest songs and raps by young artistes who are composing, singing and launching their music on social media.

Ali, a post-graduate student of mass communication at Kashmir University, says, In Kashmir, there is a new wave of resistance through art and a lot of young kids joining in through their respective mediums of expressions.

Ali says his songs depict the reality. My songs portray the general sentiment on the streets of Kashmir. If I do not put those sentiments into my songs I will be blocking my natural process.

I believe people connect to the truth in my song I intent to play some Blues and Kashmiri folk songs, he adds.

Alis protest songs have catapulted him to global recognition. In October, as the unrest continued in the Valley, he appeared on a programme on BBC World Service from London and spoke about the socio-political situation in Kashmir.

Hip-hop revolution

On January 26, two Kashmiri protest raps were uploaded on YouTube Dead Eyes in English, which describes the plight of pellet victims, and Voices of Kashmir, rapped in Urdu, narrates how conflict and the ensuing deaths have ravaged the Valley.

Dead Eyes has garnered over 11,000 views on YouTube in two weeks, while Voices of Kashmir has got 9,000-odd views.

My friend Nazar ul Islam was injured by pellets during the unrest. That was the inspiration to start writing this song, said Aamir Ame (23), the singer of Dead Eyes who is doing his MBA from Kashmir University.

Danish Bhat, 22, a diploma student of engineering who wrote and rapped the Kashmiri part in Dead Eyes, says, Till the time I feel that my people are suffering injustice, I will keep writing and singing.

But the brewing hip-hop revolution is not limited only to the states summer capital Voices of Kashmir has been sung by two rappers from the strife-torn north Kashmir town of Sopore.

During the unrest, there was a neighbour of mine who told me he is going to take a stroll and two hours later I came to know he is no more. One line in my song, says, Koi ghar se gaya, duniya se gaya, said Faizaan Farooq, 22, who along with fellow musician Wani Arman composed and sang Voices of Kashmir.

Post unrest, Kashmir 'freedom' songs making waves - Hindustan Times

Experts mull religious freedom, tolerance in US and abroad – Crux: Covering all things Catholic

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Danzig

WASHINGTON, D.C. Speaking at a forum on tolerance, the former U.S. religious freedom ambassador said complaints about religious freedom problems in this country pale in comparison withatrocities faced by religious minorities abroad.

Rabbi David Saperstein, who recently ended his tenure at the U.S. State Department, said he takes seriously tough issues, such as abortion and gay rights, that have divided Americans who emphasize religious or civil rights.

But make no mistake: As painful and real as these issues are in the hearts and souls of the people making these competing claims, we are talking about people who are being brutalized, we are talking about people who are being imprisoned, he said of international religious freedom challenges.

I pray for the day when across the globe the worst problem that we have is how do we balance our competing civil rights claims, he added. What a day for a hallelujah that will be in terms of the entire vision of our international religious freedom efforts.

The forum, Tolerance: A Key to Religious Freedom, was hosted by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and co-sponsored by Religion News Service and the Religion News Foundation.

Father Thomas Reese, moderator of the event and USCIRF chair, said his bipartisan commission is addressing countries, such as North Korea and China, that are widely considered to be hostile toward religion, and nations such asIraq and Nigeria that have failed to protect the religious freedoms of theircitizens.

There are grave humanitarian consequences when religious freedom is violated, he said. These conditions underscore the need for a different way forward, one of tolerance as a key to religious freedom as well as stability and security.

A representative of the Hindu American Foundation asked the panelists why U.S. agencies that address religious freedom are dominated by members of the Abrahamic faiths and dont tend to include people with Eastern philosophies and secular standpoints.

Reese said the commission is willing to work with Hindu groups to learn more about persecution of Hindus in countries such asPakistan and Bangladesh.

I think thats very important for us to focus on, Reese said. We have to defend not just Christians, not just Jews, not just people from the Abrahamic tradition but people of all faiths or people who have no faith whatsoever, and I think that is a fundamental principle of religious freedom that we should have.

Other panelists at the forum, attended by about 80 journalists, faith leaders and religious freedom experts, stressed the role of educators in building tolerance and religious understanding.

We have to work with teachers often because they have fears and misconceptions about whether they can even teach about religion, said Joyce Dubensky, CEO of the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding.

They even wonder, she added, whether they have to avoid talking about the reason Puritans came to the U.S. religious persecution.

John Sexton, president emeritus of New York University, teaches students in Shanghai and Abu Dhabi about government and religion, fostering discussions that range from the Crusades to Mideast tensions.

The heart of the matter is to understand that the core problem here is not anything other than a mindset of certitude and triumphalism that can manifest itself secularly as well as religiously, he said.

Former Rep. Frank Wolf, a longtime religious freedom activist, urged that Republicans and Democrats set aside partisan differences and continue to travel together to global regions to investigate religious persecution firsthand and visit the imprisoned and their families.

The worst thing in the world is being in the darkest place and think no one cares, he said.

Continued here:

Experts mull religious freedom, tolerance in US and abroad - Crux: Covering all things Catholic

Tennessee lawmakers introduce ‘Milo bill’ to protect freedom of speech on all state campuses – TheBlaze.com

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Danzig

Two Tennessee lawmakers introduced a bill in the Tennessee legislature this week that seeks to protect freedom of speech at Tennessee universities while preventing campuses from stifling students First Amendment rights.

According to the Washington Times, Republican State Rep. Martin Daniel and Sen. Joey Hensley, both Republicans, introduced the Tennessee Freedom of Speech on College Campus Bill last Thursday which seeks to prevent state universities from adopting policies that shield individuals from ideas and opinions considered unwelcome, disagreeable or even deeply offensive.

The bill would prevent campus groups and school administrators from closing off the discussion of ideas no matter how offensive or disagreeable.

In addition, the bill would require every state school to be open to any speaker whom students, student groups, or members of the faculty have invited.

The bill has been dubbed the Milo bill, giving a nod to alt-right figurehead Milo Yiannopoulos whose presence on college campuses routinely causes riots, incited by Democratic protesters who want to prevent Yiannopoulos from speaking. Conservative figures Gavin McInnes and Ben Shapiro have also been blocked from giving speeches at universities.

Campus free speech is being challenged by restrictive speech codes; speaker bans and disinvites; safe spaces and trigger warnings; and administrators who feel pressured to placate demonstrators, Daniel said at a press conference Thursday, according to the Huffington Post.

Too many times weve seen classrooms where the professor doesnt want to hear both sides of an issue, added Hensley. Weve heard stories from many students who are honestly on the conservative side, who have those issues stifled in the classroom.

We just want to ensure that our public universities give all students the right to free expression, Hensley explained. We dont want this happening in Tennessee, what happened in California.

Earlier this month, thousands of protesters rioted on UC Berkeleys campus prior to Yiannopoulos speaking. The university eventually cancelled Yiannopoulos speech and he was escorted by police from the school. According to reports, no rioters were arrested.

Daniel introduced similar legislation last year, according to WVLT-TV, but pulled it after critics said it would theoretically allow Islamic extremists to recruit for the Islamic State at Tennessee universities.

Originally posted here:

Tennessee lawmakers introduce 'Milo bill' to protect freedom of speech on all state campuses - TheBlaze.com

Holly Holm Loses, De Randamie Sidesteps Cyborg and Featherweights in Disarray – Bleacher Report

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Danzig

Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Getty Images Mike ChiappettaFeatured Columnist IIFebruary 12, 2017

The thing about new is that it is supposed to be fresh, unblemished, perfect. And easy. New is supposed to be carefree and undemanding of its owners.

If only the UFC matchmakers had it that good.

After years of hemming on the idea of a womens featherweight division, the promotion finally caved and established a belt, but only after it was left in a lurch and with few other options. It was a reluctant undertaking, and the bungling of the booking left long-term ramifications that are still resounding.

At Saturday nights UFC 208 in Brooklyn, New York, the echo continued to reverberate.

Sure, the UFC finally crowned a champion when Germaine de Randamie defeated Holly Holm in a unanimous decision, but it was a moment that wasnt close to the positive it should have been. Instead, the organization was left with a controversial outcome, a falling star, a champion ready to sidestep her first challenger and a top contender still facing a potential performance-enhancing drug violation.

These three women are the entirety of a division, meaning the division is in total and complete disarray.

First things first.

Holm may end up being the biggest story of the night after suffering her third straight defeat. Once a clear golden girl heir to Ronda Rousey, Holm has lost every bit of momentum she earned on that legendary night in Melbourne, Australia.

One year ago at this time, Holm was on top of the world. A few months removed from that shocking knockout over Rousey, she had upped her profile with a series of appearances on major media shows. She was on the verge of following Rousey into superstardom.

Better yet, she assured the fight world that fighting was her life, that nothing would distract her from her focus.

But then she faced a stunner of her own, submitting to Miesha Tate late in a fight she had been handily winning, before losing an uninspired decision to Valentina Shevchenko last July. The stretch marked the first two-fight losing streak of her combat sports career.

On Saturday, she wasnt completely outclassed by De Randamieand in fact, she had the fights most significant strike, a straight left that dropped De Randamie to her knees in the fifth. But for at least the early part of the five-rounder, Holm had trouble finding her opponent and ate stiff counter strikes for her trouble.

Time after time, Holm failed in her takedown triesshe went a woeful 0-of-9, according to FightMetricand the inability to meaningfully threaten De Randamie there limited her offense.

The decision was controversial, but that it ends like this, at the hands (and feet) of De Randamie, is as big a surprise. As a UFC entity, the Dutch fighter wasnt anonymous, but she wasnt far off. Despite a stunningly successful kickboxing career, her time as a mixed martial artist had been mostly inconsistent.

Until now, she had been unable to translate her mythical 37-0 kickboxing background to the cage in any kind of reliable manner, particularly against fighters who would not be scared off by what she had accomplished in the past. Most times she had stepped up to experienced competition she either struggled (split-decision win over Julie Kedzie) or lost (Amanda Nunes).

As a result, she had never even established herself as a serious title threat as a bantamweight.

Even Saturday, she needed a bit of help. At the end of the second round, De Randamie and Holm were exchanging, and a moment after the horn sounded to signify the close of action, she fired off a right hand that wobbled Holm.

Incensed, Holms corner called for a point deduction, but referee Todd Anderson took no action. The next round, the same situation, another De Randamie right hand after the bell.

Again, Holms corner demanded a point be taken away, but Anderson instead issuing a warning.

Had he followed through on a deduction, the fightwhich all three judges scored 48-47would have been ruled a draw.

It was in [the] heat of [the] moment, I apologize, De Randamie said. The first time [the ref] said it was on the buzzer, it wasnt late. It was in the heat of [the] moment. I apologize. Im not like that.

That was certainly of little comfort to Holm.

You look at the scoring, and you look at what the ref has to do, and yes, that could have changed the whole way the fight went, Holm said. But I look at what I could have done differently, and it could have changed the fight, too.

The matchup was a strange one from the get-go. After years of flirting with longtime featherweight queen Cris Cyborg Justino, the UFC signed her and asked her to go through multiple weight cuts in trying to push her toward 135. Justino never made it all the way down to the bantamweight limit, but her efforts went in vain after the UFC booked a featherweight title fight without her.

To be fair, the promotion did try to include Justino in the inaugural pairing, but after she asked for an extra month to recover from her difficult September 2016 weight cut, the UFC balked and quickly moved on without her.

For those that pay attention to such developments, it immediately put a fugazi stamp on the UFC 208 proceedings.

Now, De Randamie is the champion, but what does it mean? There may not be a single MMA fan alive who thinks she is the best womens featherweight on earth. Not one. Even if Justino comes with a caveat, and even if its a huge one, she has been too good for too long to ignore.

So the UFC is effectively asking fans to live in a world of make believe where this belt isnt just a place-holder.

Adding a degree of difficulty to that is De Randamie herself. Just seconds after winning, UFCannouncer JoeRogan asked herabout the possibility of facing Cyborg, who happened to be in attendance.

You know, I want to fight everybody, the Dutch fighter said. If shes the one I have to fight, Ill fight her. Right now I need surgery on my hand, so Ill get surgery.

She went on to say that this surgery was something she really needed, saying she had broken her hand. That sounded reasonable until she explained that shed injured it against Larissa Pacheco. Two years ago.

And so, while the UFC would like to say the stage is set for what comes next, thats not even close to the case. Its bad enough that Cyborg has to address her problems with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency to get eligible again, and that she could be facing a suspension; now, suddenly, De Randamie is ready to disappear for a while. And Holm? Shes not completely out of the mix, but shes fading fast.

It's rare that something so new is so problematic, but for the UFC, the start of the featherweight division was a nightmare kind of night.

Excerpt from:

Holly Holm Loses, De Randamie Sidesteps Cyborg and Featherweights in Disarray - Bleacher Report

Select Page ::