Monthly Archives: July 2017

Dr. Leif Nelson, who worked on the development of the LUKE arm, said that the number of people who had lost arms relative to those who had lost legs was too small to spur private research and development. Thats when Darpa, along with the Department of Veterans Affairs, funded studies to develop the latest prosthesis. They in turn were able to enlist private companies, working with Dean Kamen, who invented the Segway.

Sensors, similar to the ones found in smartphones that automatically sense when the screen has been flipped, were strapped to a persons feet, enabling arm control by moving the foot side to side or back and forth. And for those who had lost an entire arm, motors at shoulder level enabled people to lift their arms above their head. The next step, Dr. Nelson said, was to develop on-skin sensors that would detect nerve signals and translate them into specific movements.

This is the first device that intuitively moves multiple joints at one time, he said. With other technology, you had to use the hand, then stop. Use the wrist, then stop. It wasnt fluid.

The arm, which will be commercially available through the manufacturer Mobius and sold to civilians too, will cost in the low six figures, though pricing is being worked out, officials said. An initial order of 10 has been placed for veterans.

Mr. Downs and Mr. McAuley were chosen as recipients based on medical necessity and because they participated in the research that led to the LUKE arms development.

Mr. McAuley, 70, who lives in Richmond Hill, Queens, where he cares for his mother, spent most of his post-military life without a prosthetic arm. I did one-armed stuff, he said. I tied my tie with one arm. I tied sneakers with one arm. I typed with one finger. I was strictly a one-sided person.

He participated in Darpas research project, he said, not so much for himself but to help others. Its given me hope for the future, he said. Its not that I want to be remembered, but I would like this to be an inspiration for people down the road.

Mr. Downs, a former Veterans Affairs official who lives in Maryland and is now a consultant to the Paralyzed Veterans of America, had long used a hook arm. But his new prosthesis will finally let him do tasks that require greater dexterity or the ability to hold his hand close to his face.

The symbolism of getting his new arm this weekend was not lost on him.

When you lose an upper extremity, you lose your independence, your ability to take care of yourself, he said. When you lose your independence, you lose somewhat of your dignity as a human being because you have to depend on others to comb your hair, go to the bathroom. With a prosthetic limb, your independence and dignity are returned to you. This is freedom, let me tell you. When I dont have my arm on, I think I am disabled. But when I have this arm on, I dont think Im disabled.

A version of this article appears in print on July 3, 2017, on Page A15 of the New York edition with the headline: For Two Veterans, a Freedom Restored for Independence Day.

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For Two Veterans, a Freedom Restored for Independence Day - New York Times

U.S. President Donald Trump waves at the Celebrate Freedom Rally in Washington, U.S. July 1, 2017. Photo by Yuri Gripas/Reuters

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump vowed to support and defend religious liberty, telling a gathering of evangelical Christians that the threat of terrorism is one of the most grave and dire threats to religious freedom in the world today.

We cannot allow this terrorism and extremism to spread in our country, or to find sanctuary on our shores or in our cities, Trump said Saturday night at a Celebrate Freedom concert honoring veterans. We want to make sure that anyone who seeks to join our country shares our values and has the capacity to love our people.

The evangelical megachurch First Baptist Dallas and Salem Media Group sponsored the event at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. First Baptist Pastor Robert Jeffress was a strong backer of Trump during the 2016 campaign.

The event at times felt like one of Trumps signature campaign rallies, with the president promising an adoring crowd that America would win again and prompting cheers with attacks on the news media.

The fake media tried to stop us from going to the White House, but Im president and theyre not, he said.

READ NEXT: Trump vows to repeal political limits on churches

Trump appeared on a stage decorated with a massive American flag. Choirs performed The Battle Hymn of the Republic and other hymns and debuted a song with the lyrics make America great again Trumps campaign slogan.

Besides speaking to the events religious theme, Trump renewed his campaign promise to always take care of Americas veterans.

Not only has God bestowed on us the gift of freedom, hes also given us the gift of heroes willing to give their lives to defend that freedom, he said.

Overwhelming support from evangelical voters helped propel Trump to victory in 2016. Since he took office, Christian conservatives have been overjoyed by Trumps appointment of Justice Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court and his executive order ordering the IRS to ease up on a rarely enforced limit on partisan political activity by churches.

Trump was spending the pre-Independence Day weekend at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, but traveled back to Washington for the event.

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Trump vows to support and defend religious freedom in US - PBS NewsHour

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Press freedom 'under threat' in new Myanmar - BBC News BBC News Under the military junta that ruled Myanmar for nearly 50 years, the media were tightly controlled. But after a quasi-civilian government took over in 2011, many ... Journalists call for media freedomMyanmar Times all 7 news articles »

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Press freedom 'under threat' in new Myanmar - BBC News - BBC News

More than 200 years ago, the young United States was learning to walk in its freshly won freedom and the Constitution born of it. Our experiment in self-governance, based on the idea that our Creator endowed all of us with certain inalienable rights as reflected in our Declaration of Independence, was unique in the history of the world.

Among these rightswhich we recognize are not given by government but granted by Godis our right to religious freedom. Its importance is signified by the fact that it precedes all the other rights listed in the amendments to our Constitution.

In our early years, imperfect to be sure, as a nation we nevertheless persisted and advanced to embrace the ideal of religious freedom articulated in the First Amendment to our Constitution. That we are still governed by the same Constitution after more than 200 years is itself a miracle, and speaks to the vigilance Americans have exercised and must continue to exercise to guard our freedom.

Generations later, hostility to religion in the public square of the United States has grown significantly. The changes may seem incremental until one compares the social situation at the time of our founding with our present state. Religion was embraced then, and is censored now. It was esteemed at that time; these days it is often disparaged.

From militant atheist hostility to the presence of religious symbols in public and expressions of religious belief by government actors, to government hostility to religious beliefs regarding sexuality, the overall climate for the religious believer is one of apprehension at best. Indeed, some have lost their jobs or been financially penalized due to their beliefsright here in the United States.

To track and address these troubling developments, Family Research Council released a report in 2014 titled Hostility to Religion: The Growing Threat to Religious Liberty in the United States. It documented accounts of hostility toward faith in the United States today, defined in four areas: (1) Suppression of Religious Expression in the Public Square; (2) Suppression of Religious Expression in Schools and Universities; (3) Censure of Religious Viewpoints Regarding Sexuality; and (4) Suppression of Religious Expression on Sexuality Using Nondiscrimination Laws. That catalogue of violations, spanning over ten years, contained 90 incidents.

Many would likely suspect that religious freedom troubles have grown worse during the past three years. They would be correct. Just this past week, we released the updated 2017 report, which showsconservatively estimateda 76 percent increase in overall religious freedom violations documented over the past three years.

The last two sections, dealing with human sexuality, have seen a 114 percent surge. These types of incidents were already on the rise, and the Supreme Courts decision in Obergefell v. Hodges only accelerated the trend. If one reads through the last two sections, many cases will be familiar from the news and cultural discussion. Among those featured is the story of Jack Phillips, the Colorado baker who was sued after he obeyed his conscience and politely declined to create a wedding cake for a same-sex wedding ceremony. The Supreme Court accepted his case for review just several days ago, and will decide it during the next term.

The first step toward action is information. We hope this report will serve as a resource for those who wonder about the state of religious freedom in America. It can also be useful to those who wonder where the evidence is when others cite a trend of religious freedom violations. With this information, our representatives can respond appropriately. Concerned citizens can engage with the media and in their communities. Certainly, our religious freedom problems could be much worse. But our goal is not to get to that much worse place.

When Communism began to spread during the beginning of the twentieth century, many ignored or brushed off concerns as relatively mild, especially in light of other concerns at the time. Only when it was too late and the grip of authoritarian regimes was strong did many realize the horror and carnage that the ideology had wrought worldwide. This is clear in hindsight but was not so apparent at the time.

Our country has been blessed with a long history of freedom. On its birthday, it is appropriate to be thankful and reflect on how we can guard against the suppression of religious freedom we do see now before it is too late. If we Americans can acknowledge the troubling trends now, and work to reverse them while we still have the freedom to do so, we will have a future America that embraces liberty and remains free for all.

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Report: Attacks On America's First Freedom Increased 76 Percent In Three Years - The Federalist

Linden, Va. About an hour and a half away from the White House, a cloistered nun tells me from behind the grille that separates her physically from the world (even from a friendly visitor like me) about what freedom she lives.

Outside, above the Shenandoah Valley, fog envelops St. Dominics Monastery as I talk to her downstairs in a meeting room made for encounters with family and friends and inquisitors (usually young women who are discerning a vocation to this way of life).

She explains to me how you can live externally free but internally bound. In the monastery, these contemplative nuns live in utter transparency to God and one another, even in their many hours of silence each day. Their vocal chords are used the most for the set prayers of their life together, although there also is designated time for recreation and addressing the needs of community life.

Her comment brings to mind a favorite devotion of Pope Franciss (before he was Pope Francis) to Mary, Our Lady, Undoer of Knots. I think, too, of a sentence in Robert Royals Catholic Martyrs of the Twentieth Century: Willingness to die liberates.

The nun in the cloister has chosen a kind of death to the world, certainly the world in which most of us operate. She does so quite radically. Her choice provides a spotlight on the kind of lives Christians true to the name choose to live, as they believe they are called to live.

At the monastery, were not all that far from Dulles airport. So my thoughts wander. That can happen in an unusually pleasant way when you discover that the WiFi doesnt work as it does not in the basement of the monastery where my guest quarters are. I think about Avery Dulles, the Catholic cardinal who was the son of former secretary of state John Foster Dulles, and about an article he wrote on freedom and truth. He quoted Pope John Paul II, a saint who not only knew about freedom but fought for it in his personal life and in history-changing ways on the world stage: For freedom on the one hand is for the sake of truth and on the other hand it cannot be perfected except by means of truth. Hence the words of our Lord, which speak so clearly to everyone: The truth will make you free (John 8:32). There is no freedom without truth.

Just days before the Independence Day holiday, the Oxford English Dictionary added the word post-truth to its mix an entry to put us on guard about freedom.

Royal also writes about truth in his book about 20th-century martyrs. In part by way of explaining his remark about death and liberation, he writes: Martyrs do more than entertain various possibilities; they put their lives behind the truth. He goes on to quote from Bishop James Edward Walsh, a Maryknoll missionary in China who spent nearly two decades in captivity. Walsh asserted:

Christianity is not a private way of salvation and a guide to a pious life; it is a way of world salvation and a philosophy of total life. This makes it a sort of dynamite. So when you send missioners out to preach it, it is well to get ready for some explosions.

The word martyr, like religion itself, has had its manipulations. During a week that marked the martyrdom of Saints Peter and Paul and other early Church martyrs, Pope Francis told his weekly Wednesday crowd at St. Peters Square that the martyrs are icons of hope. They imitate Christs self-sacrifice and love. They are what this world needs, a witness to the sure hope that faith inspires.

The martyrs who even today lay down their lives for the faith do so out of love, he said. By their example and intercession, may we become ever more convincing witnesses, above all in the events of our daily lives, to our undying hope in the promises of Christ.

Royal wrote the book so that the lives of so many would not go unnoticed and so that we would see Christianity at its truest, most liberating. The monastery in Linden may not be the best spot for viewing Fourth of July fireworks youre not going to find a TV to watch, even in the priests apartment. But it is a place to take a few hours away from the constant headline bombardment, including headlines about religious freedom, to consider what it is about religion that we need, and why its worth giving a life for it in so many different, radical ways.

It was just about a year ago that Pope Francis was in John Paul IIs native land. In the days before, I went to Auschwitz, accompanied by other religious sisters, the Sisters of Life, some of New Yorks finest. They were walking, praying contrasts to the brutality still in the air there, a community of women dedicated to helping all know that they are loved and can live that love and give it to others. Thats why religious freedom matters its the greatest gift that does the greatest honor to humanity: restoring its dignity, like fireworks. An explosion of the kind we need for respite from the kind that plagues us.

Kathryn Jean Lopez is a senior fellow at the National Review Institute and an editor-at-large of National Review. Sign up for her weekly NRI newsletter here. This column is based on one available through Andrews McMeel Universals Newspaper Enterprise Association.

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Freedom in a Cloister - National Review

The grotesque betrayal of the generation that most detests Brexit is like some lost Restoration comedy. The Country Wife at Theatre Royal Haymarket. Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian

Nothing is more important to the creative industries than innovation. Without it, well quickly lose our international pre-eminence and a sector that in 2014 was worth 84bn, and is growing at twice the rate of the wider economy, will shrivel and die.

New ideas, contrary to romantic myth, dont emerge fully formed from the imagination of a lone genius. By and large, theyre the result of the kind of creative ferment that feeds off direct exposure to whatever and whoever is breaking new ground, wherever it is happening. In the 19th century, when Britain really was the country the Brexit nostalgists want back, you could work anywhere without a passport. Isambard Kingdom Brunel studied in Paris before he came home and revolutionised engineering. John Ruskin developed his thinking on architecture in Italy. George Eliot lived for eight formative months in Germany; three years later she published her first novel.

The young are still ground-breakers, and theyve been the chief beneficiaries of the freedom of movement that has come with EU membership. It cuts both ways: creatives from the rest of Europe come here because they want to be part of a thriving creative economy. They bring new energy to architecture, fashion, design, music, film.

Its no surprise, then, that before the EU referendum, a survey of members of the Creative Industries Federation showed 96% support for remaining in the EU. Arts world groupthink, sneered the Brexit operative who was sent into the TV studios by the leave campaign to urge us to subscribe to alternative groupthink about taking back control. And if groupthink is the consequence of the individual experience of everyone in the group, maybe it was.

Starting out in the theatre, I worked in France, Germany and the Netherlands. More recently, Ive employed artists from all over Europe, and I felt nothing but shame when the National Theatres head of wigs, hair and makeup reminded me recently that he has yet to be assured he can continue to live his life here. Hes Italian, but he has worked and paid taxes in the UK for 15 years.

Young British theatre-makers hit the road and bring back what they discover from living and working in Berlin and Paris

Meanwhile, young British theatre-makers, impatient with the theatre establishment, hit the road and bring back to our theatre what they discover from living and working in Berlin and Paris. Theyre inspired by what can be achieved with European levels of public subsidy, which accounts for as much as 95% of the income of some German theatres. Its not all upside. With lavish subsidy comes political control: government paymasters have recently turfed out admired directors of theatres in Germany, Poland and France. Our own system of arms-length funding via the Arts Council protects artists from political interference. This system is not the European norm, but at no point during the past decades has the EU tried to bring it into line. In the arts, we cant take back control because it was never given away in the first place.

In any event, the freedom to work and learn in the rest of the EU has been every bit as crucial to British creative success as the freedom to hire talented Europeans to work in Britain. During the election campaign, freedom of movement was presented as a one-way street: unrestricted immigration from the EU is the problem; border control is the solution. Continued membership of the single market is off the table, even for the Labour party, which continues to equivocate about a deal that would genuinely protect the interests not just of the economy but of the young people who voted for it in such numbers.

The students who delivered Canterbury for Labour deserve the right that their predecessors enjoyed to work and live without visas outside this country, if only to be able to come back and turn its failing economy around. In our brave new self-controlled world, the not-for-profit arts sector may miss the modest EU subsidies that it could once apply for. The commercial theatre, of which I am now part, may struggle with a doubled immigration skills charge. But far scarier is the prospect of a generation of creative talent crabbed by insularity and stunted by the delusion that our native genius, once unfettered, will be enough to see off the opposition.

The grotesque betrayal of the generation that most detests Brexit is like some lost Restoration comedy. The Restoration playwrights, their eyes wide open to the worlds lust and avarice, show young people with names such as Heartfree, Constant and Worthy doing battle for the future with their self-regarding seniors. Imagine a creaky burlesque called Lady Woodens Stratagem. Like so many old comedies, its not funny. Lady Wooden thinks herself extremely clever but turns out to be dense, and is held hostage by characters whose names announce their hypocrisy and malevolence: Backstab, Brute, Bullingdon, Gove. They scheme to cheat the young of their inheritance. The play ends badly, but theres no reason why it cant be rewritten.

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Freedom of movement helped British creativity thrive. Its loss will diminish us - The Guardian