Monthly Archives: June 2021

Sufferers of chronic pain have long been told it’s all in their head. We now know that’s wrong – The Guardian

Posted: June 28, 2021 at 9:41 pm

It started with headaches and neck pain, but no sooner had Tricia Kalinowskis physiotherapist come up with a strategy to tackle these problems, then another area of her body would start to hurt: her lower back, her hip or her jaw.

The physio was chasing the pain up and down my body, says Kalinowski, 60, from Minneapolis, US. Eventually, she was referred to an oral surgeon, who believed the root cause of these issues was a problem with one of the joints in her jaw, so she underwent surgery to replace a thumbnail-sized disc.

Unfortunately, the replacement was defective, triggering an immune reaction that resulted in the loss of several inches of jawbone. It took 13 rounds of surgery to fix the damage the last of which was performed in 2015. The irony to all the surgeries is that I still have headaches, I still have neck pain, and nobody really knows quite what to do about it, she says.

To most people, pain is an unpleasant but short-lived sensation, occurring as a result of illness or injury. Although some people may experience ongoing or chronic pain, the assumption is there must be some kind of underlying physical injury, such as a crushed nerve, or an angry, inflamed joint.

Increasingly though, experts are waking up to the idea that chronic pain can occur without any obvious physical injury, or in a completely separate area of the body from the original site of tissue damage. Theres also mounting evidence that seemingly very different pain conditions chronic headaches, low back pain and jaw pain, say may share common underlying mechanisms, and that once a person develops one chronic pain condition, theyre predisposed to develop others.

The Covid-19 pandemic could make this situation even worse. One of the most common symptoms reported by people with long Covid is musculoskeletal pain, and those with existing musculoskeletal pain conditions seem to be at risk of experiencing stronger pain after a serious Covid infection.

Musculoskeletal pain is an issue that we must start considering as a long Covid problem, says Prof Lars Arendt-Nielsen, immediate past president of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) and director of the worlds largest translational pain research centre at Aalborg University in Denmark.

The health profession as a whole does not treat people with chronic pain well. And it is about to be hit by a tsunami of severely ill people needing help.

Pain probably evolved as a means of identifying potentially harmful stimuli and withdrawing from them, as well as teaching us to avoid these things in the future. It can also help to protect injured body parts while they heal. But when it continues beyond this recovery period, it has lost this useful function. Chronic pain is a leading cause of disability, affecting about 20% of people globally, but more than two-fifths of people in some countries, including the UK, and is predicted to increase as populations age.

Traditionally, doctors have divided pain into two categories: nociceptive pain, triggered by injuries such as bruises, burns, fractures, sprains or inflammatory conditions such as arthritis, and detected by pain receptors in our skin, bones and other tissues; and neuropathic pain triggered by damage to the nerves that carry sensory signals from these tissues to the brain and spinal cord.

But a few years ago, the IASP introduced a third category: nociplastic pain pain arising from the altered processing of these sensory signals, without any evidence of actual or threatened tissue damage. One thing that can happen is that the pain signals carried by peripheral nerves from the skin, muscles, joints or internal organs to the spinal cord can become amplified, worsening the pain.

Prolonged activation of the bodys pain pathways can also lead to changes in the brain and spinal cord. According to the old way of thinking, the bodys pain pathways were arranged like a telephone switchboard, with fixed sets of wires (nerves) connecting our peripheral organs and tissues to the spinal cord, and further nerves connecting the spinal cord to the brain as well as feeding back down in the opposite direction.

The assumption was that this was a fixed, solid, stable system, Arendt-Nielsen says. But we now know that these neural networks can be reorganised when there are persistent inputs into the system, and cause increased gain of the pain signal and hence generate a stronger pain.

For one thing, nerves in the brain and spinal cord the central nervous system can become hyper-excitable, meaning that minor bumps and grazes become agonising, and even non-painful stimuli such as brushing your hair or touching your skin can trigger pain. It is like an allergic reaction in the pain system, Arendt-Nielsen says.

This central sensitisation can also spread. One of the features that we see in many patients with chronic pain is that they have this generalised pain hypersensitivity. They might have osteoarthritis and pain in their knee, but if you quantitatively assess the sensitivity of the pain system, they have a lower lower pain threshold throughout their bodies, Arendt-Nielsen says. This reorganisation of the pain system is the reason why management of chronic pain is difficult, and traditional analgesics are not efficient and why pain research is so important to discover new ways to modulate this pain reorganisation.

It may also help explain why so many people with chronic pain conditions subsequently develop more of them. More than 200 million people around the world are affected by chronic overlapping pain conditions a cluster of painful disorders which often coexist in the same patient.

Over the past 10 years, theres been the widespread recognition that pain can be a disease in and of itself, and a growing understanding that it is a multi-system illness, and that there are shared mechanisms of disease across these conditions, says Christin Veasley co-founder and director of the US-based Chronic Pain Research Alliance.

A patient like Tricia Kalinowski may start out with jaw pain, then gradually accumulate other conditions, such as fibromyalgia, endometriosis, migraine or irritable bowel syndrome, as time wears on. Other related conditions include temporomandibular disorder (pain related to the jaw joints), painful bladder syndrome, vulvodynia (pain around the opening of the vagina), chronic low back pain and tension-type headache.

In many people with conditions like low back pain, endometriosis, irritable bowel, headache, fibromyalgia, youre not going to find a problem in the area of the body where the person is experiencing pain. Theres more and more evidence that these are central nervous system, systemic conditions, where the pain can present in different areas of the body at different points in time over that persons life, says Daniel Clauw, a professor of anesthesiology, medicine and psychiatry at the University of Michigan.

He likens the experience of pain to the noise produced by an electric guitar; to make it louder, you can either strum the strings harder or turn up the amplifier. In this analogy, the strings are represented by the peripheral nerves carrying sensory information from our organs and tissues, and the amplifier by the brain and spinal cord.

A patient with third-degree burns is having their strings strummed extremely hard, whereas in someone with fibromyalgia a long-term condition that causes pain all over the body their amplifier has been set too loud. They can have pain, without the strings even having to be strummed, Clauw says.

Central sensitisation is one way of turning up that amplifier. It can be triggered by intense, repeated and sustained activation of the nerves that carry pain signals as a result of a major injury or prolonged infection, say.

Peoples innate amplifier settings can also vary. Not everyone who develops a chronic pain condition will develop more of them but they seem to be particularly prevalent among women, and those affected also often suffer from non-pain conditions such as sleep and mood disorders, and fatigue.

Some of this variation between men and women may be due to immune system differences, with women also more prone to autoimmune disease. Immune cells trigger inflammation, which can trigger pain. Sex hormones such as oestrogen and testosterone can further exacerbate or dull pain, depending where they are released and in what quantities.

Laid on top of those basic amplifier settings are events that happen to you as you go through life. Chronic pain is more common among people who experienced lots of surgery as children, or emotional or physical abuse. There is also a strong link between chronic pain and depression. Of course, living with chronic pain can be depressing, but depression can also amplify pain processing in and of itself.

This is not the same thing as suggesting that someones mental attitude can affect their pain. Rather, people often dont realise that the brain pathways that drive depression are intrinsically linked to the ones that drive chronic pain, says Dr Kirsty Bannister, a senior lecturer at Kings College London, who researches these pain pathways.

When pain signals arrive in the brain, they are transmitted to areas that allow us to locate and categorise that pain, as well as to areas that process emotions. These brain areas then send signals back down the spinal cord, which, in health, causes those original pain signals to be dampened. This is why your thumb begins to stop hurting several minutes after youve bashed it with a hammer.

But in people with a history of depression or childhood trauma, those emotion processing areas are often wired differently, which can alter the type of signals they send. As a result, their pain pathways carry on being activated. Because our life experiences are not equal, it means that previous issues such as fear, hopelessness or helplessness may escalate your pain to a very different intensity compared to mine, Bannister says.

Thats not to say that everyone with chronic pain is affected by this problem of nociplastic pain or central sensitisation. Fibromyalgia is the poster child for it, but you see elements of fibromyalgia in other conditions, such as low back pain, Clauw says. Probably 40 to 50% of people with low back pain really have something a lot more like fibromyalgia than a problem in their back, and 70 to 80% of people with bladder pain syndrome really have more of a fibromyalgia phenotype, where they have pain in their bladder, but they have pain elsewhere as well.

What we think happens in these post-infection, post-motor-vehicle accident kind of syndromes is that everyone has this background degree of fibromyalgia-ness. And then this gets blasted open by getting Covid, or being in a hospital where you sleep terribly and youre inactive for weeks or months. Whatever you were doing in your life that was sort of keeping that all that bay comes crashing down.

Vicky Naylor, 55, a nurse from Wigan, in the UK, developed fibromyalgia after undergoing an emergency C-section 11 years ago, but through a combination of swimming, yoga and medication, had her symptoms under control. It was only if I had an illness or got very stressed that Id get flare-ups. Id become very stiff, and get painful joints and trigger points [tender spots around the body] and headaches, but I could always get them back under control and deal with them, she says. I never missed a days work.

Then, in March 2020, she developed Covid-19. Her initial symptoms were severe fever, shortness of breath and a cough so bad she lost her voice although she was never admitted to hospital. But as the weeks turned to months, she began to experience a plethora of other symptoms, including excruciating pain. It is off the scale, she says. I get it in my feet some days it is so bad I cant bear to wear filled-in shoes. I get it in my knees, the tops of my legs, my right hip particularly, my elbows, shoulders, neck its just everywhere.

Naylor isnt the only person who is experiencing ongoing pain after developing Covid-19. In a study, Arendt-Nielsen, together with Prof Csar Fernndez De Las Peas at Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid and colleagues, assessed more than 1,100 people who had been hospitalised with the virus seven months after they first developed symptoms.

We found that approximately 70% developed two to three persistent symptoms, and of those 40% developed musculoskeletal-related pain, he says. Also, if you had musculoskeletal pain problems prior to your infection, then seven months later, there was a big chance that you would experience stronger musculoskeletal pain. Those patients with musculoskeletal pain problems prior to the infection were also more likely to have myalgia (muscle pain) during the hospitalisation.

So far we do not know for how long the post-Covid conditions will last. As chronic pain already globally affects approximately one out of five adults, we hope that the Covid condition will not add to this global burden as there are already many bottlenecks to overcome for this vulnerable chronic pain population when they seek optimal management.

In a separate study, neurologists at the Vall dHebron University hospital in Barcelona discovered that almost two-fifths of the Covid patients they assessed in the accident and emergency department were still experiencing persistent and disabling daily headaches six weeks later.

Covid might be triggering chronic pain through various mechanisms. Lingering inflammation triggered by the immune systems response to the virus could be stimulating pain receptors in various tissues. Immune cells make things that the nerves dont like, and so the nerves could become sensitised, says Dr Franziska Denk, a pain researcher at Kings College London.

The Ace2 receptor that Sars-CoV-2 binds to is also expressed in sensory neurons. Thats bad news, because it could be that, like many other viruses, it can damage the sensory neurons, Denk says.

In some people, this nerve or tissue damage will be their only source of pain. Theres going to be a lot of people that have nociplastic pain superimposed upon that, says Clauw.

Unfortunately, our health systems are ill equipped to deal with chronic pain and particularly patients with chronic overlapping pain conditions. Like many patients with chronic pain, Kalinowski takes multiple drugs to get through the day. Working out which ones work for her has taken years.

A lot of people describe it as trying to navigate a maze, Veasley says. It is this hit-and-miss, trial-and-error experiment of trying to firstly find someone whos knowledgeable about even one of these conditions, much less their overlap or interconnectedness. Even then, we really have no idea what treatments or therapies work for which patients.

Although pain experts have accepted the existence of central sensitisation, family doctors are less aware of it, meaning they may dismiss a patients pain in the absence of any obvious abnormality or injury. I find it terrifying to think that anyone who has been to their GP to complain about pain has been sent on their way, Bannister says.

Nor is there any widely available test that doctors could use to determine if someones pain is the result of central sensitisation or not. There is no biomarker that would allow an individual to turn around to their GP and say, You know, this is proof that Im not being hysterical or making it up, says Bannister.

One problem stemming from this poor medical appreciation of chronic pain is the overprescription of opioid drugs. Although opioids are effective at dampening short-term severe pain or cancer pain, they are highly addictive and accidental overdose kills about 50,000 people in the US alone each year.

They can also make chronic pain worse. This is because opioids provide relief by blocking pain receptors but your body responds by increasing the number of pain receptors, meaning you need higher doses to get the same relief. In chronic pain conditions such as fibromyalgia, people have already been producing natural opioids called endorphins, which bind to the same receptors. Giving them an opioid is like throwing kerosene on to a fire, Clauw says.

The good news is that attitudes to chronic pain are changing, even if it may take the wider medical community a bit of time to catch up. In July 2020 the IASP updated its definition of pain to cover nociplastic pain that arising in the absence of obvious injury. Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, actual or potential tissue damage, it now says.

Alongside its revised definition, the IASP published a set of accompanying notes: One of them was that a persons experience of pain should be respected, Bannister says. Regardless whether you think that they dont look like theyre in pain, or theyve only had a cut to the foot, so how can they possibly be complaining, we have to respect a patients report of pain, and treat them as individuals.

As for Kalinowski, if she could offer a single piece of advice to others in a similar situation, it would be to not give up, and seek an alternative medical opinion, if necessary: You need to trust yourself, no matter what the doctor says, and keep pushing on until you find a doctor who does believe you even if they cant define what it is you have.

Sufferers of chronic pain have long been told its all in their head. We now know thats not true. The pain that cant be seen is a week-long investigation looking at why doctors are playing catch-up on chronic pain conditions like endometriosis, migraine and more and what they have to do with long Covid. In the next part, you can read about why women are more likely to have long Covid and chronic pain and hear from 10 readers on their experiences living with theses illnesses.

Read more:

Sufferers of chronic pain have long been told it's all in their head. We now know that's wrong - The Guardian

Posted in Alternative Medicine | Comments Off on Sufferers of chronic pain have long been told it’s all in their head. We now know that’s wrong – The Guardian

Lawmaker wants state to be ‘Second Amendment Sanctuary’ – ABC 36 News – WTVQ

Posted: at 9:41 pm

FRANKFORT, Ky. (WTVQ) Although experts say the measures are mostly symbolic and have questionable legal standing, Kentucky could become the latest so-called Second Amendment Sanctuary state if legislation pre-filed by Rep. Josh Bray is approved during the 2022 Regular Session.

The measure, BR 171, bars state and local law enforcement from enforcing federal restrictions on the constitutional right to bear arms.

President Biden has declared gun control a priority for his administration and we know that if he doesnt get what he wants from Congress, he will abuse his executive authority through rulemaking, said Bray, who represents all of Garrard and Rockcastle counties and a portion of Madison County. BR 171 sends a clear message that Kentucky is a Second Amendment Sanctuary, and that there is no question we will defend the Second Amendment against any attempt to infringe upon it.

Brays proposal would further strengthen the statewide movement. The fiscal courts in 113 of 120 counties and six cities have approved similar language.

Firearms play an enormous role in our states history and our lifestyle. Kentuckians want to enjoy the outdoors and pass along the tradition of hunting and sportsmanship. However, we also recognize that the Second Amendment was crafted to ensure we can protect not only country, but also ourselves, Bray added.

The full text of BR 171 can be foundhere, or by visiting the Legislative Research Commissions website atwww.legislature.ky.gov.

The Kentucky General Assembly will convene for the 2022 Regular Session on January 4, 2022.

Originally posted here:
Lawmaker wants state to be 'Second Amendment Sanctuary' - ABC 36 News - WTVQ

Posted in Second Amendment | Comments Off on Lawmaker wants state to be ‘Second Amendment Sanctuary’ – ABC 36 News – WTVQ

The real facts about the Second Amendment – Bonner County Daily Bee

Posted: at 9:41 pm

I am writing in response to the letter from Lee Santa. The Second Amendment to the Constitution was ratified on Dec. 15, 1791. It was written as a constitutional check on congressional power. Our forefathers didn't want a repeat of the totalitarian monarchy which ruled them before independence from Britain. They learned from an armed government, and didn't want citizens without a means of defense against that government, and tyrannical rule.

At that time there almost 700,000 slaves in the United States, and the population, according to the 1790 census, was 3,292,214. So it seems a little unlikely that the Second Amendment was written to suppress slave uprisings, which had not yet occurred.

But when have race baiters ever had a problem lying about the facts. Carol Anderson has a book to sell and facts are so inconvenient. In fact, over 300,000 white slaves were shipped from Britain to the Colonies, and in 1830 there were 3,775 free black people who owned 12,740 black slaves. Yes, those pesky facts again.

How dare you characterize citizens who uphold the Constitution and the Bill of Rights as, how did you put it, oh yes, "those, (with their Tarzan yells) who beat their chests, most likely alt-right/white supremacist scaredy-cats who are terrified of people of color, esp. blacks."

You are the racist here, you hate and seem terrified of white people. You are Carol Anderson's water carrier. I am embarrassed for you, you are the racist you purport to hate. And yes, Lee Santa, ignorance is a choice.

CATHERINE FAHRIG

Sandpoint

Read the original:
The real facts about the Second Amendment - Bonner County Daily Bee

Posted in Second Amendment | Comments Off on The real facts about the Second Amendment – Bonner County Daily Bee

Study proves Second Amendment is for everyone – Bonner County Daily Bee

Posted: at 9:41 pm

In response to Lee Santas letter (June 17, 2021) entitled "The Second Amendment is a racist document," I did a little research and learned from a 2017 study that 30% of Americans do own guns, and 36% percent of the rest could see themselves owning one. The same study shows that 24% of African Americans are proud owners of firearms.

The five main reasons for ownership are protection, hunting, sport shooting, collecting, and use on the job. As of April of this year, gun ownership among African Americans is up 58.2% according to the Guardian, US Edition. Apparently the Second Amendment is for everyone.

There is a process by which this nation can limit or broaden the Second Amendment, but to resort to someones narrow study as a cause for inclusion in the Bill of Rights should not be part of the debate.

STEVE HATCHER

Clark Fork

Go here to see the original:
Study proves Second Amendment is for everyone - Bonner County Daily Bee

Posted in Second Amendment | Comments Off on Study proves Second Amendment is for everyone – Bonner County Daily Bee

Second Amendment Sanctuary Movement Secretly Growing, Mainstream Media Ignores It – The Free Press

Posted: at 9:41 pm

When Vice President Kamala Harris kinda, sorta visited the Mexican border last week she at least made it to the El Paso airport where she was greeted by a Texas Democratic congresswoman who declared El Paso was the new Ellis Island.

And that seems to comport with the Democrats plan to turn America into a sanctuary country.

But most of America is now a sanctuary for gun owners.

Last week the pro-Second Amendment website SanctuaryCounties.com reported that 1,930 of Americas counties, or 61 percent of the total, are considered safe spaces for gun owners.

More than half that number 1,137 are counties that have taken it upon themselves to pass Second Amendment Sanctuary laws, the website notes.

The remainder seems to fall under the 21 states that have adopted Constitutional Carry laws, which allow gun owners to carry a concealed weapon without a permit.

The idea of an ever-increasing number of Americans being allowed nearly unfettered ability to carry guns or be free of government regulation of them is happening in a media vacuum, according to Lee Williams, a pro-Second Amendment gun policy columnist.

The mainstream media has missed one of the biggest trend stories ever the massive surge in Second Amendment sanctuaries at the state, county, and local levels, Williams noted.

He wrote that last month when the number of sanctuary counties was 1,459.

Williams also pointed out that this movement seemed to take off after Democrats seized control of the Virginia state government and began a crackdown on guns.

Youd be hard-pressed to get half of America to agree that beer is good, or that steak should be served medium rare, Williams wrote. Yet millions of Americans have forced their elected officials to erect a legislative wall around their communities to protect their gun rights.

Despite the skyrocketing trend, Williams added, stories about the Second Amendment sanctuary movement are scarce unless theyre anti-gun.

Case in point: The media last week quickly picked up Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, vetoing a bill authorizing constitutional carry.

Williams further noted, There has been very little of the usual wailing and gnashing of teeth over this nationwide trend from anti-gun groups, which could indicate they realize the scope of what theyre up against.

Some cable TV news actors have referred to Second Amendment sanctuaries assymbolic, [emphasis original] in what can be seen as an attempt to downplay or trivialize the movement, Williams concluded. When a half of the country supports an issue any issue theres nothing symbolic about it.

Maybe thats even more so now that the sanctuary movement has hit 60- percent and keeps rising.

Android Users,Click Here To Download The Free Press AppAnd Never Miss A Story. Its Free And Coming To Apple Users Soon.

Support journalism byclicking here to our gofundmeor sign up for ourfree newsletter by clicking here

Related

Original post:
Second Amendment Sanctuary Movement Secretly Growing, Mainstream Media Ignores It - The Free Press

Posted in Second Amendment | Comments Off on Second Amendment Sanctuary Movement Secretly Growing, Mainstream Media Ignores It – The Free Press

Judge Benitez: AR15 Rifles ARE Protected by Second Amendment! – AmmoLand Shooting Sports News

Posted: at 9:41 pm

Judge Benitez: Miller v. Becerra, AR15 Rifles ARE Protected by Second Amendment!

U.S.A. -(AmmoLand.com)- On June 4th, 2021, in the Southern District of California, Judge Roger T. Benitez found the complex regulatory scheme of California gun laws that outlaw the ownership of Assault weapons, particularly semi-automatic clones of the AR-15, are unconstitutional violations of the Second Amendment on their face.

From the decision:

Like the Swiss Army Knife, the popular AR-15 rifle is a perfect combination of home defense weapon and homeland defense equipment. Good for both home and battle, the AR-15 is the kind of versatile gun that lies at the intersection of the kinds of firearms protected under District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008) and United States v Miller, 307 U.S. 174 (1939). Yet, the State of California makes it a crime to have an AR-15 type rifle. Therefore, this Court declares the California statutes to be unconstitutional.

Plaintiffs challenge a net of interlocking statutes which impose strict criminal restrictions on firearms that fall under Californias complex definition of the ignominiousassault weapon. Hearings on a preliminary injunction were consolidated with a trial on the merits pursuant to F.R. C.P. Rule 65(a)(2). Having considered the evidence, the Court issues these findings of fact and conclusions of law,1 finds for the Plaintiffs, and enters Judgment accordingly.

This is the opening salvo in a tightly worded and beautifully constructed 94 page decision by Judge Roger T. Benitez. This correspondent will lead the reader through a modest sampling of the decision, so those who do not wish to read the entire decision will not need to do so. Reading the entire decision is highly recommended.

Judge Benitez demolishes the argument that AR-15 style rifles are unusual on page 2:

This case is not about extraordinary weapons lying at the outer limits of Second Amendment protection. The banned assault weapons are not bazookas, howitzers, or machine guns. Those arms are dangerous and solely useful for military purposes. Instead, the firearms deemed assault weapons are fairly ordinary, popular, modern rifles. This is an average case about average guns used in average ways for average purposes.

He shows how silly it is to ban a rifle for features that make it more accurate on page 8:

The mechanical design features that identify a rifle as a California assault weapon, it is argued, tend to help a person shoot the rifle more accurately under pressure. The Plaintiffs make the point that this is a better condition for all lawful uses, i.e., a more accurate gun is better for everyone. After all, responsible gun-owners worry about the ending point of every round fired. If shooting in self-defense, a home defender wants every round to hit only attackers.

In contrast, the Attorney General argues that better accuracy makes it a more dangerous weapon.

The Judge cites the Caetano decision, where the Supreme Court unanimously held the Second Amendment protects modern weapons on page 10L

The Second Amendment protects modern weapons. Caetano v. Massachusetts, 577 U.S. 411, 412 (2016). The firearms banned by California Penal Code 30515 and deemed assault weapons are modern weapons. They are principally AR-15 type rifles, pistols, and shotguns. Plaintiffs and others refer to them as modern sporting rifles although they are clearly useful for more than just sport.

He shows the clear inclusion and protection of militia weapons by the Second Amendment on page 11:

Although the Attorney General sees it differently, the Supreme Court also recognizes that the Second Amendment guarantee includes a right to keep and bear firearms that have some reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well-regulated militia. Miller, 307 U.S., at 178. Miller implies that a weapon that is commonly owned and that is useful for the common defense for a militia member is also protected by the Second Amendment.

Judge Benitez shows how common modern rifles are in the United States on page 15:

Nationally, modern rifles are ubiquitous. In 2018 alone (the most recent year with data), 1,954,000 modern rifles were manufactured or imported into the United States. Over the last three decades, 19,797,000 modern rifles have been manufactured or imported into the United States and the numbers have been steadily increasing.

He shows the California assault weapon ban was flawed from the start on pages 24-25.

Moving through the trial record here, it becomes clear that AWCAs assault weapons ban-by-prohibited-features was not designed to address a real harm, and even if it did, does not alleviate the harm in a material way. Guiding the intermediate scrutiny path are some checkpoints.

On page 26, he shows it is the government which bears the burden of proof when it attempts to limit a fundamental Constitutional right:

The presumption in favor of rightfully possessing a citizens arm was made during the adoption of the Second Amendment. The government may carry its burden in a myriad of yet undefined ways, but it is the governments burden to bear.

On page 28, he shows the idea that some weapons can be banned because others are allowed, is a flawed and silly argument with no stopping point:

The problem is that the alternatives-remain argument has no limiting principle and would justify incremental firearm bans until there is only a single-shot derringer remaining for lawful self-defense. The same argument that a handgun ban might be justified because government-approved alternatives are available was rejected in Heller and it is rejected here.

Judge Benitez unequivocally shows AR-15 rifles are used for defense on page 34:

Without question, there is clear evidence that AR-15 rifles are and have been used for self-defense.

He shows the state contradicts itself in its claims about accurate fire on page 39:

Accuracy is very important for self-defense because a civilian is accountable for every round he fires. If he misses the attacker, he will hit something he did not intend to hit, which may be an innocent bystander.61 The State does not dispute the importance of accuracy alone for self-defense.62

Does the state want rifles that are less accurate? No and yes . The State wants rifles that are less accurate during rapid firing because rapid firing, it is claimed, correlates with criminal use. And there is no need for rapid firing for self-defense, according to the Attorney General.

On page 44, Judge Benitez explains the state cannot restrict a right merely because some arms are used more commonly in some crimes:

In other words, if modern rifles are misused in crime(even disproportionately), government must deal with those wrongful acts directly; it may not deal with the problem by suppressing the rights of law-abiding citizens to have modern rifles for lawful uses. Thus, disproportionality is not a valid constitutional concern. Common ownership by law abiding citizens for lawful purposes is the test. Moreover, there is little evidence that modern rifles are used disproportionately in crime.

Then, in a series of arguments starting on page 47, he shows how the claim that AR-15 rifles are more commonly used in a crime is not correct:

Koper concludes, while some surveys suggest that ownership and, to a lesser extent, use of AWs may be fairly common among certain subsets of offenders, the overwhelming weight of evidence from gun recovery and survey studies indicates that AWs are used in a small percentage of gun crimes overall.76 Kopers conclusions comport with the ATF firearm tracing report from 2019.

Recall that to pass intermediate scrutiny, AWCA must have at least been designed to address a real harm and alleviate the harm in a material way.Turner II, 520 U.S., at 195. The evidence described so far proves that the harm of an assault rifle being used in a mass shooting is an infinitesimally rare event. More people have died from the Covid-19 vaccine than mass shootings in California. Even if a mass shooting by assault rifle is a real harm, the evidence also shows that AWCAs prohibited features ban has not alleviated the harm in any material way.

On page 53, Judge Benitez shows how useful a modern rifle is, merely by its presence:

On the other side, a fully loaded modern rifle is surely a powerful psychological criminal deterrent. Simply brandishing such a weapon may cause an intruder to flee precisely because it appears to be dangerous and fully loaded. It is difficult to imagine the same psychological effect on a home invader (or two invaders) from brandishing a 2-shot derringer.

On page 59, the Judge shows how other firearms were used in the vast majority of the crimes the state claims would be reduced by banning AWs.

Analyzing the list of 161 national events, Allen finds that 78% of mass shooting events did not involve an assault weapon. Put differently, across the U.S. only 22% did involve an assault weapon.115 Her opinion comports with other evidence in the record. Professor Mark Gius reports even less frequent use of assault rifles in mass shooting events.116 Gius says, [c]ontrary to popular belief, however, assault rifles were not the predominant type of weapon used in these types of crimes. In fact, according to a recent study, handguns were the most used type of firearm in mass shootings (32.99% of mass shootings); rifles were used in only 8.25% of mass shootings.117

On page 60, he shows how the ban in California is a failure:

From Allens list of mass shooting events, it is reported that in California there have been 25 mass shooting events over approximately 40 years.118 How well has the California ban on assault weapons worked? Before AWCA, twice in a decade, an assault weapon was used in a mass shooting. On average, since AWCA, twice a decade, an assault weapon was used in a mass shooting.119 The assault weapon ban has had no effect. Californias experiment is a failure.

On page 64, he notes that AR-15 type rifles are lower-powered than many common rifles:

A modern rifle like the AR-15 platform rifle typically uses lower power cartridges than either military rifles or hunting rifles.

On page 69 the judge states what has become obvious from the research:

Put simply, the evidence indicates gun bans are in effective at reducing gun crimes.

Then Judge Benitez starts taking apart the wrong decisions in other circuits which have been hostile to the Second Amendment, on page 70:

In the past, Second Amendment cases were wrongly decided by following a majority of circuit courts down the wrong path.

He shows how the California government has infringed on Second Amendment rights on page 75:

Today, the Attorney General goes beyond N.Y. State Rifle & Pistol and suggests that intermediate scrutiny should permit a class-wide ban on extremely popular assault rifles, assault shotguns, and assault handguns, in addition to an existing ban on buying any handgun not found on a shrinking list under Californias handgun roster of safe handguns, because some alternatives remain. This is too far.

On page 77, he explains how the other circuit decisions do not apply because they were deficient in various ways:

None of the out-of-circuit decisions comfortably fit this case. None of the cases went to trial. None of the cases had substantial evidence that AR-15 type rifles are useful and used by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes like home-defense and sporting competition. None of the cases considered an AR-15s militia use. None of the cases scrutinized a statute like Californias 30515 that bans assault rifles, assault shotguns, and assault pistols, while at the same time prohibiting the sale of all potentially alternative handguns not included on the States shrinking handgun roster.

He shows there is no logic to the AW ban. It has to have a real purpose to restrict Second Amendment rights, yet the ban does not make sense, on page 80:

The point is that most of what the Attorney General says are dangerous features on a prohibited modern rifle are also features on a Second Amendment-protected semiautomatic pistol. The Ruger Mini 14 is not banned by AWCA but it is capable of shooting the same ammunition, at the same speed, with the same type of large capacity magazines, as an AR-15.

On pages 80-81, he puts forward the reasons the AR-15 type rifle is protected as a militia weapon:

Banning the Ideal Arm for Militia Use Fails Intermediate Scrutiny

The Attorney General does not address or acknowledge whether the ban also imposes a burden on the Second Amendment right to own a firearm that is the ideal weapon for use in the militia. If the modern rifle is the ideal weapon, which it is according to the testimony of General Youngman, then the ban forces a choice of a less-than-ideal weapon for militia use.

On page 84-85, the expert testimony for the militia argument is explained:

Youngmans testimony is uncontroverted. Youngman is very well qualified to opine on the usefulness of an AR-15 for militia use. He has served in the regular army and the army reserves. He served as Kentuckys Adjutant General commanding the states national guard. He is a firearms trainer and armorer. He was a member of the bar and worked as a prosecutor. His opinion that an AR-15 is an ideal firearm for use in a militia is unequivocal and uncontested. Of the prohibited features in 30515(a), most are important for militia use.

On page 85, the protection of militia weapons is directly tied to Supreme Court precedent in the Miller case from 1939:

But Miller held that it is precisely this type of firearm a firearm that has a reasonable relationship to militia service that is protected by the Second Amendment. It is a principle that Heller grasped. This holding [of Miller] is not only consistent with, but positively suggests, that the Second Amendment confers an individual right to keep and bear arms (though only arms that have some reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well regulated militia).

On page 87, he categorically declares the AR-15 in particular, and militia weapons in general, are protected by the Second Amendment:

The evidence is clear, however, that the AR-15 type of modern rifle bears a reasonable relationship to the preservation and efficiency, as well as the effectiveness, of a modern well-regulated militia. It is therefore categorically protected by the Second Amendment.

On page 92, Judge Rodger T. Benitez sums up the rationale for the Second Amendment as valid today as it was in 1791. It is beautifully done:

There is only one policy enshrined in the Bill of Rights. Guns and ammunition in the hands of criminals, tyrants and terrorists are dangerous; guns in the hands of law-abiding responsible citizens are better. To give full life to the core right of self-defense, every law-abiding responsible individual citizen has a constitutionally protected right to keep and bear firearms commonly owned and kept for lawful purposes. In early America and today, the Second Amendment right of self-preservation permits a citizen to repel force by force when the intervention of society in his behalf, may be too late to prevent that injury. Heller, 554 U.S., at 594. Then, as now, the Second Amendment may be considered as the true palladium of liberty. Id. at 606 (citation omitted).

This is a remarkable and long-awaited Second Amendment decision. It will now be appealed to a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit.

It is impossible to know how they will respond.

About Dean Weingarten:

Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.

Read the original here:
Judge Benitez: AR15 Rifles ARE Protected by Second Amendment! - AmmoLand Shooting Sports News

Posted in Second Amendment | Comments Off on Judge Benitez: AR15 Rifles ARE Protected by Second Amendment! – AmmoLand Shooting Sports News

Samsungs new Google-based smartwatch software addresses a lot of old annoyances – The Verge

Posted: at 9:40 pm

Samsung has taken the wraps off it and Googles new unified smartwatch platform at MWC 2021 sort of. The company isnt announcing a new Galaxy Watch today, or even what the new platform will be called (its unofficially referred to as Wear); those announcements will come later this summer at a proper Galaxy Unpacked event. But what Samsung did show off was a first look at what its new One UI Watch software will look like, and it elaborated on just what the new Google / Samsung partnership could mean for future Galaxy Watches.

To be clear: what Samsung is showing of One UI Watch wont be what all smartwatches built on the new unified Google / Samsung platform look like its an added layer on top specifically for Samsung devices. Its similar to what Samsungs One UI does for Samsungs smartphones. The goal is a consistent look and experience across all of Samsungs hardware and software, and so far it looks lovely.

The Settings menu has been redesigned to look more like the phones menu, and things sync from the phone: if you have additional time zones set in your clock app, theyll be there on the watch, and blocked callers on the phone will be blocked on watches, too. Samsung also showed off a new watchface design tool, which will be available for Android developers later this year to easily create new watchfaces for the platform. Its unclear yet if current Tizen or Wear OS watchfaces will work with the new OS or One UI Watch, but the current options have also been seriously lacking, so any new choices even ones largely reliant on developers are welcome.

Best of all, similar to the Apple Watch, when you install a smartwatch-compatible app on your phone, the corresponding watch app will automatically install on the watch as well. You won't need to manually install anything as you currently do on Tizen-based watches, or deal with the weird on-wrist app store that has made getting apps on Wear OS frustrating. Youll just download an app to your phone and it should appear directly on your wrist, too.

The new One UI Watch experience is expected to first appear on Samsung wearables at a Samsung Unpacked event later this year. Given other recent Samsung hardware rumors, it sounds like this Unpacked should be a big flipping deal.

Update June 28th, 1:43PM ET: Added images from Samsungs Mobile World Congress 2021 presentation.

Correction: Samsungs new watchface designer will be available to developers later this year, not next year as we originally said. We regret the error.

Link:

Samsungs new Google-based smartwatch software addresses a lot of old annoyances - The Verge

Posted in Google | Comments Off on Samsungs new Google-based smartwatch software addresses a lot of old annoyances – The Verge

How Google won over some of its biggest critics to build a megacampus in San Jose – CNBC

Posted: at 9:40 pm

Google's "Downtown West" proposal is Google's fist mix-used campus, comprising of 80 sprawling acres in downtown San Jose.

Sitelab Urban Studio

Google's path to its massive tech campus planning in San Jose began with activists chaining themselves to chairs inside City Hall over the city's decision to sell public land to the tech giant. It ended with some of its biggest opponents signing its praises.

Last month, the San Jose City Council approved Google's plan for a mixed-use megacampus that spans80 acres and 7.3 million square feet of office space in the heart of California's third-largest city. To win over critics, Google designated more than half of its campus to public use and offered up a $200 million community benefits package that includes displacement funds, job placement training, and power for community leaders to influence how it's spent.

"It's certainly a much different process in the end versus what we saw at the beginning with regards to community and labor movement," said Jeffrey Buchanan, director of public policy for San Jose-based community coalition Working Partnerships USA.

"It was a reminder of how organizing works and matters," said nonprofit Silicon Valley Rising director Maria Noel Fernandez. "Now, it really does feel like a partnership."

The successful partnership comes as tech giants like Google, Facebook and Amazon seek to expand their real estate footprint around the country while residents complain of displacement. It comes two years after Amazon famously abandoned plans to build a campus in New York after communities opposed it. It also comes as labor groups and employees are growing more vocal about the influence big tech companies exercise. Some local organizers said their success with Google is paving a path for future organizing with tech.

But it took four years to get there.

Google had a long history of dealing with city government and the community near its headquarters in Mountain View, 10 miles up the road from San Jose. But the company had no history of investments in San Jose itself, even though many of its workers live there.

The process started off on the wrong foot, community members said.

Silicon Valley Rising campaign lead Maria Noel Fernandez leads a protest at Google's 2019 shareholder meeting at company's campus in Sunnyvale, California.

Jennifer Elias | CNBC

It began when the campus plan appeared cloaked in secrecy at a time just as the conversation around tech power and antitrust was beginning to gain traction in the broader world. To the local community, it appeared that Google and the city were secretly plotting to give the company public land without much discussion with the community.

In 2017, the public found out that the city of San Jose had entered exclusive talks with Google, which intended to buy all the parcels in a roughly 240-acre area. In 2018, local media reports uncovered non-disclosure agreements between public officials and Google. Buchanan's organization Working Partnerships USA sued the city, alleging it was conducting backroom deals with the tech giant.

"One of our initial concerns was with the NDAs," Fernandez said.

"The NDA was just such a bad look for the project," agreed Bob Staedler, who is a principal at Silicon Valley Synergy, a San Jose-based land use and development consulting firm."So, it just started off badly."

Another big concern was displacement, which the city had seen as tech employees from Apple, Google and others moved in over the years. Within one week of the news breaking that Google was coming to town and taking most of downtown with it, home prices in a three-mile radius of the site jumped 7%, -- and rose from there in the following months, experts told CNBC at the time.

Community groups protested at every Google and city event in sight. At a particularly contentious city council meeting, several protesters chained themselves to the chairs. Protesters also made scenes outside of Google's marketing conference in San Jose, and teamed up with employees and investors for a protest outside of the company's 2019 shareholder meeting, where picketers held signs reading "Welcome to Googleville," and"Hey Google, Don't evict me."

Fernandez led most of them, speaking into a megaphone.

"Since Google went into exclusive negotiations agreement, I've had two kids since." Fernandez said. "But it almost feels like Google's been my third."

After such displays, the company announced a $1 billion housing pledge to build 20,000 Bay Area homes over the next decade but residents still held off on their excitement, fearing the company was throwing money at the problem without providing details or plans of how exactly it would be spent. Shortly after Google's announcement, U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., sent CEO Sundar Pichai a letter requesting more details.

At the time, Google told CNBC it had heard criticism around the timing of the announcement, but that it also recognized that Bay Area housing had reached a crisis point.

Fernandez' organization called Google's housing investment a "win" but added there was much more work to be done.

Google kept scooping up land around the region and adding to the frustration from labor organizations seeking answers. "We wanted to make sure they weren't just throwing money at the problem," Buchanan said.

Fernandez said at that point, local organizers had a clear message for Google: "Swim upstream or build something together."

In 2019, Google put together a diverse cohort of community liaisons to talk with local residents, listen to their concerns and highlight their stories. Community members said these open-door conversations eventually led to them having a seat at the table when it came to decisions.

That cohort consisted of newly hired folks, several women and people of color who had held roles ranging public affairs to real estate.

One was Ricard Benavidez, who is responsible for the "design, programs and partnerships that are essential for inclusive real estate development," according to his LinkedIn page.

Another, Javier Gonzles, was a San Jose native who often connected to residents about their shared love and concerns for the region's blue collar workers, arts and culture.

"I think it was just the times where they made themselves available to have a coffee or an off the record chat with organizations," Bob Staedler said. "Instead of Google being a monolith, you really needed a human."

Google holds a community presentation and feedback session in San Jose for its proposed mega campus.

Jennifer Elias / CNBC

These liaisons became trusted members of the community who listened to concerns and followed up, residents said.

"They put together a team of folks who were really interested in working more closely as a community as partners," said Buchanan. "As the team came together, you saw the relationship with Silicon Valley coalitions, the complexion of the conversation changed over time."

By the end of 2019, local community members started to see a shift.

One key hire was Google's district lead for San Jose, Alexa Arena, who joined the company 2019. She previously worked for real estate company LendLease, which partnered with Google on its Bay Area housing plans, and she had experience with contentious real estate plans.Adding Arena showed community members that the company was sending somebody with real decision-making power to listen to them.

They say Arena's presence was unassuming and calm, and she displayed awareness that she was entering an established and historic community a departure from Google's entrance in 2017, when the company and city officials kept referring to the project as a "game-changer" for the city.

"It's really different than what we see in projects of a normal scale," Arena told a large group of San Jose residents at an early public feedback session in 2019. "In this case, it's Google that's the end user."

She thanked the people for their time and for allowing the company to be builders in an already historic city, but she didn't do so in a pandering way, community members said.

"We're here for the long haul," read her first slide at the 2019 community presentation.

"For the first time ever we saw that real intentional process," Buchanan said. "For all of us, it felt pretty different."

Residents tested her authenticity and expertise. If Arena didn't know the answer, she wouldn't pretend to, but would repeat the question back to make sure she understood it, then consult others at the company or external partners. She followed up on items of concern, such as how the placement of a six-story building near an existing neighborhood would work.

Many organizers said the diverse makeup of the Google team helped them relate better to minority members of the community.

"She has a different set of skills that a white guy would not have," Staedler said about Arena. "There's media training and there's just a natural way where Alexa, especially, wasn't trying to sell you something."

By 2020, Google began to understand residents needed more transparency and wouldn't settle for a partial view of the plans. As a result, the company made a series of updates to its plans, including a community-based governance committee for certain funds.

The company also hired a local agency to design a website, which displays updates, timelines, expectations and other details of the campus plans. The website displayed residents' key concerns such as "Keeping an authentic non-corporate character " and "losing mom + pop shops." It also began an email list, where it would send periodic updates on the campus with the option for readers to send feedback on the plan.

Google tech campus community feedback session

Jennifer Elias | CNBC

By 2021, the company had conducted more than 100 listening sessions, and its plans were beginning to sihft. It updated renderings of the space to reflect a warm, inviting open space where workers, residents kids and artists could walk among each other, eat together or shop together. That was a stark contrast to the first renderings, which displayed cold, basic high-rise buildings overlooking the rest of the region while young, hip tech workers walked around.

"Thousands of conversations helped us hone in to what we really want in a site, which was much less the corporate campus and the financial district and much more a resilient neighborhood," said Alexa Arena, Google's district lead for San Jose in aOct. 2020 video.

It's "the opposite of a traditional corporate campus," lead urban designer Laura Crescimano said at the time.

The biggest win for community organizers is gaining decision-making power over how community dollars are designated and disbursed.The final agreement included the establishment of a 13-member advisory committee that must include five members with lived experiences from the community.

"The decision power isn't going to sit in city hall or elected politicians but with the community and be intentional about the power imbalances for those who experience them," Buchanan said.

"To be able to have real power in decision-making at this level is something we haven't really seen before," Fenandez said.

A project labor agreement ensures apprenticeship on the job and fair wages for construction workers to make sure "non-Google workers benefit too."

Buchanan said since the approval, organizations like Amazon and Major League Baseball's Oakland Athletics have reach out for advice on how they can connect with neighboring communities given the success of the Google partnership.

"I think it's really representative of how community can come together around some complex projects and make sure it works for all residents and businesses of San Jose," South Bay Labor Council CEO Jean Cohen told a local television show. "Google's not a union employer but Google's been a really good partner in figuring out how to make this project work for as many union members as possible."

While some critics still remain, organizers say the project has created a positive pathway for future organizing on real estate projects and more. Cohen added that she thinks the conversations have gone so well that she sees it continuing after the project finalization.

"Once the project is complete, there's been conversations with Google about how to make sure unions can organize," Cohen said. "So I believe there's a lot of dialogue that's positive so eventually those companies do decide they may want to be union companies."

Read more here:

How Google won over some of its biggest critics to build a megacampus in San Jose - CNBC

Posted in Google | Comments Off on How Google won over some of its biggest critics to build a megacampus in San Jose – CNBC

Purpose At Work: How Google Is Building Diversity And Inclusion With Performance Paradigm – Forbes

Posted: at 9:40 pm

Purpose At Work: How Google Is Building Diversity & Inclusion With Performance Paradigm

While diversity, equity and inclusion are paramount to attracting and retaining top talent, many companies miss the mark. When brands do implement a program, it may not actually be effective. For so long, we looked up at largely white men and asked them how the organization is doing on diversity, equity, and inclusion, Michael Munoz, who leads diversity, equity and inclusion within Marketing at Google, tells We First. We need to look at the Black, Latinx, Asian, indigenous populations and ask, How are we doing at building a culture where you feel empowered and a strong sense of psychological safety?

Performance Paradigm is helping Google do just that. The company has been advising top business leaders for nearly 30 years about how to shift the conversation around diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) to create more deeply engaged leaders and teams. A lot of senior leadership is afraid of messing up. I don't care if you mess up. If you're trying, at least youre showing evidence of effort. That will make your team stay. We need people to get involved and stay engaged. Reggie Butler, founder of Performance Paradigm, says.

Google has contracted Performance Paradigm to develop their own diversity, equity and inclusion programs, Examined Human and Digital Human. Through shared experiences and community building, the partnership is a disruptive way to truly incorporate DEI within Google. The collaboration between Performance Paradigm and Google offers actionable insights for executives looking to Lead With We.

Why companies get diversity, equity and inclusion wrong

Despite the best of intentions, many DEI programs havent produced long lasting change. Somebody will look at their organization and say, We have a representation issue. They try to solve for representation. However, they don't solve the environmental issues that create exclusion, Butler says. People don't feel like they belong. People have very different lived experiences. The bigger issue is more complex than representation. So, sometimes it doesnt look like theres much progress in organizational programs. Theyre only looking at certain indicators. Essentially, many leaders arent considering the whole picture. They must understand and highlight new perspectives to start deconstructing old habits.

How the partnership began

It takes leadership with an active desire and understanding to change complex issues around race, sexual orientation, and unconscious bias. The partnership between Google and Performance Paradigm started with Reggie and Michaels shared desire to disrupt the status quo.

I was tired of looking at data that said people from different genders and races were having different experiences. To fix that, we needed to change the way that their managers and leaders were thinking about them in the organization. That is the beginning of changing behaviors, Munoz says.

When the two met, they both wanted to implement a program that would be so transformative that staff members and leadership couldnt go back to their desks and forget about it.

It all started with someone trying to solve a human-centered problem. They need different people to actually be a part of that solution, Butler adds.

A collective love for art and music as well as the belief that shared experience can be a transformational tool to create community, brought the two thought leaders together. Those shared values sprouted the formation of new DEI models.

Examined Human is the first thing we built together. We've created a bunch of shared experiences that Covid-19 made Digital Human necessary for us to do. We migrated a lot of that content, methodology and learnings about creating shared experience into a digital platform, Munoz says.

Fundamentals of Digital Human:

Digital Human helps leadership and team members navigate DEI. The program concentrates on four key behaviors, Munoz describes.

Biases can be deeply rooted. It takes real work to break them down. Our leaders need to unlearn, Munoz says. Unlearning is a powerful concept. Executives often have to face difficult questions that might bring up uncomfortable feelings. When executives ask, How can I do more? I often ask them When did you realize you were white and it mattered? How are you using your position to deliver access and privilege to others? Butler shares. Those questions are presented to them through an experience. So they cant unsee it.

One of the engagement activities we do is called 2, 24, 25. You pick two people on your team, one that you know fairly well and one that you barely know. Within 24 hours, schedule a 25-minute meeting with them and talk about them. Don't talk about a project, Butler explains. The feedback we get sounds like, It was pretty easy to start the conversation with the person I knew. When I went to the person I didn't know, they thought something was wrong. It was awkward but a great exercise. It highlights that you're supposed to create belonging for all, not belonging for people in your prototype.

To create that sense of belonging, the Digital Human platform includes 12 weeks of workshops and exercises. The content is structured like a four season show. We still used art and all the experiential things to deliver it, but we wouldn't let them fast forward. We wouldn't let them binge, they had to stop and do the work, Butler says.

Purpose At Work: How Google Is Building Diversity & Inclusion With Performance Paradigm

Facing resistance from leadership

For senior leadership, 12 weeks of diversity and inclusion training might sound like a diversion from hitting project deadlines and sales targets.

People ask me all the time, Why is diversity important? Munoz says. The answer is, it's not. It's not important unless you build a culture of inclusion. If you have an organization with a lot of diversity and no psychological safety, that company either has or will soon have a retention problem.

We took a lot of heat when we decided to go for it, he continues. People said, I only have three hours. Let me just binge through this. What's been incredible is that now folks are emailing me to say, It's my Friday night appointment viewing. It helps them frame how they want to show up the next week or in the next one-on-one differently.

By measuring results based on feedback from underrepresented employees, Google is getting a better sense of the long lasting benefits. Team members will ping me and say, I'm going to stay here longer because my relationship with my manager has gotten better. I don't know what you did to them when they went through the training but theyre showing up for me differently. I feel like I have a voice. I have better psychological safety., Michael explains.

We've got to move a person from being transactional about their job and the people that help to get the job done, to being transformative and human-centered, Butler says. When people come out of the training, they're more focused on their humans than they are on the project.

Ultimately, the long-term benefits of building culture and retaining talent pay off when it comes to DEI training like Digital Human and Examined Human. Are you able to retain the talent that you have and acquire new, diverse, underrepresented talent moving forward? that's going to be the new barometer for us, Munoz says.

Dealing with discomfort

When you're trying to be at service to everyone inside your organization, there can be sensitivity amongst those who have enjoyed privileges. They may feel like theyve done something wrong. At the same time, there can be uncomfortable feelings around favoring those who have been marginalized in different ways in the past and trying to better serve them. How can a company resolve that?

We started both programs with the premise that human connection will define our future, Munoz says. We're creators of a just Google that elevates the power of people through equitable systems, continuous learning and collective action. When you center everything on this operating premise, it frees people up. It brings us to focus on the common good and collective action. There can also be a paralysis, especially for white males in leadership positions. They dont want to say anything wrong or be perceived as out of touch, so they dont say anything.

Another core concept of the training is the idea of calling in. We think everyone needs to find their voice and be vulnerable, Munoz says. The Digital Human or Examined Human programs help folks understand that there is a place for everyone in the conversation but doing nothing is not an option.

When the focus goes astray, Munoz and Butler use methods like art, music and frameworks to bring the focus back towards the common goal. We try to create shared experiences through storytelling and narratives, but also some shared accountability, Butler says. Heres an example. We were talking about how people who are Black, Latinx and women, have a very different experience than white males. We take them through a small exercise. Some of them say, That's never happened to me. So I don't believe it's true. Somebody else in the room goes, It happens every day. Just because you don't see it doesn't mean we're not supposed to do something. By having collective experiences, Reggie and Michael hope participants from all backgrounds will feel a deeper sense of belonging at work.

Tools for diversity and inclusion:

Performance Paradigm utilizes what Reggie calls R.I.C.H. Dialogues to facilitate authentic communication and community building. R.I.C.H. is an acronym for race, identity, culture, and heritage, he says. It's a type of communication tool that accelerates relationship management by exploring all the different points of view around race, identity, culture, and heritage.

Behavior change, whether it's around DEI, marketing or even taking a different route to work, is extremely difficult to catalyze. It starts with people saying, I know what the problem is. I may not know what to do, but I must listen. If we can get people to use a tool to help them frame these conversations that typically paralyze them, we're going to make incremental progress, Butler says.

Long lasting impacts

While unlearning and increased awareness often happens after a DEI training, it can be difficult to maintain and measure the long lasting impacts. Some of the ways Digital Human and Examined Human try to prolong the lessons is by providing participants with memorabilia like bracelets and art, as well as building real relationships with coworkers and employees on a human-to-human level.

It's an opportunity to rejigger peoples mindsets to catalyze the experience in the course so they show up a little differently for their one-on-one meetings, Munoz says. By implementing leadership buy-in, measuring the success by feedback from underrepresented groups and taking a more human approach, the impacts of diversity, equity and inclusion can be sustained over time.

Numerous studies have shown that diverse teams are more resilient, more creative and more effective at generating results. Talk about diversity and innovation. Imagine when everybody's working well together. Munoz says. That's that magic sauce that is going to unlock the creativity we've talked about for years.

If youd like to dive deeper with more purpose-led companies like Performance Paradigm and Google, check out the Lead with We podcast here, so that you too can build a company that transforms consumer behavior and our future.

See the article here:

Purpose At Work: How Google Is Building Diversity And Inclusion With Performance Paradigm - Forbes

Posted in Google | Comments Off on Purpose At Work: How Google Is Building Diversity And Inclusion With Performance Paradigm – Forbes

Google is warning users when its search results might be unreliable – The Verge

Posted: at 9:40 pm

Google will now tell users when search results are rapidly changing around a breaking story. Some searches will now bring up a warning that it looks like these results are changing quickly, and a subheading will explain that if this topic is new, it can sometimes take time for results to be added by reliable sources. In a blog post, the company suggests that users might want to check back later when its found more results.

The notice is initially appearing on US-based English-language results when a topic is rapidly evolving and a range of sources hasnt yet weighed in. Google will expand the tools presence to other markets in the coming months.

While Google Search will always be there with the most useful results we can provide, sometimes the reliable information youre searching for just isnt online yet, the company explains. This can be particularly true for breaking news or emerging topics, when the information thats published first may not be the most reliable. Recode reported on the feature yesterday, following up on a tweet from Stanford Internet Observatory researcher Renee DiResta.

A sample Google search screenshot features the query ufo filmed traveling 106 mph, an apparent reference to a recent tabloid story about a 2016 UFO sighting in Wales. (Currently, that precise search result does not actually include the warning.) Someone had gotten this police report video released out in Wales, and its had a little bit bit of press coverage. But theres still not a lot about it, Google search public liaison Danny Sullivan told Recode. But people are probably searching for it, they may be going around on social media so we can tell its starting to trend. And we can also tell that theres not a lot of necessarily great stuff thats out there. And we also think that maybe new stuff will come along.

That whimsical example aside, Google has inadvertently showcased incorrect information after mass shooting events where early official reports are often inaccurate and deliberate misinformation is common. (This is sometimes exacerbated by data voids, or keywords that have few search results and can be easily hijacked by bad actors.) This warning wont necessarily stop bad content from surfacing, and its not clear exactly how Google determines a sufficient range of sources. But it could remove some of the false legitimacy that high Google placement can confer on early, unreliable search results.

Read more here:

Google is warning users when its search results might be unreliable - The Verge

Posted in Google | Comments Off on Google is warning users when its search results might be unreliable – The Verge