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Category Archives: Transhuman News

Pursuing the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare – Cedars-Sinai

Posted: October 31, 2023 at 1:37 pm

Artificial intelligence (AI) already is making a difference in healthcare by helping medical professionals interpret tests, clarify diagnoses and identify the most effective treatment approaches to a range of diseases.

As Cedars-Sinai explores new uses of AI, it is balancing the rapid development of this emerging technology with responsible and ethical implementation.

AI systems have the power to transform healthcare, said Mike Thompson, vice president of Enterprise Data Intelligence at Cedars-Sinai. If implemented properly and responsibly, AI can be deployed to enhance patient experience, improve population health, reduce costs and improve the work life of healthcare providers.

Thompson sat down with the Cedars-Sinai Newsroom to examine the uses of AI to improve healthcare and to detail how the academic medical center is pursuing this fast-evolving technology in an ethical manner.

The integration of AI into medical technology and healthcare systems is only going to increase in the coming years. As technology continues to develop, the push toward safety, soundness and fairness occurs at all levels. This effort will require checks and balances from innovators, healthcare institutions and regulatory entities.

As technology advances, the medical community will need to develop standards for these innovative technologies, as well as revisit current regulatory systems on which physicians and patients rely to ensure that healthcare AI is responsible, evidence-based, bias-free, and designed and deployed to promote equity.

If AI systems are not examined for ethics and soundness, they may be biased, exacerbating existing imbalances in socioeconomic class, color, ethnicity, religion, gender, disability and sexual orientation.

Bias disproportionately affects disadvantaged individuals, who are more likely to be subjected to algorithmic output that are less accurate or underestimate the need for care. Thus, solutions for identifying and eliminating bias are critical for developing generalizable and fair AI technology.

While many general principles of AI ethics apply across industries, the healthcare sector has its own set of unique ethical considerations. This is due to the high stakes involved in patient care, the sensitive nature of health data, and the critical impact on individuals and public health.

It is critical that AI in healthcare benefit all sectors of the population, as AI could worsen existing inequalities if not carefully designed and implemented. Its also critical that we ensure AI systems in healthcare are both accurate and reliable. Ethical concerns arise when AI is used for diagnosis or treatment without robust validation, as errors can lead to incorrect medical decisions.

As an example, consider an AI system that is used to assist in a patients risk for diagnosis. One question to ask is whether the AI algorithm performs equally for patients, regardless of race or gender.

In the same vein, an algorithm trained on hospital data from the European Union may not perform as well in the U.S., as the patient population is different, as are treatment strategies and medications.

To combat these challenges, bias mitigation strategies may require us to implement mathematical approaches that help an AI model learn and produce balanced predictions.

At Cedars-Sinai, we also believe that critical AI algorithms should augment the expert, not replace that individual. Keeping the human in the loop to review a recommendation is another important strategy we use to mitigate bias.

To support our AI strategy, we created a framework for the ethical development and use of AI. The framework and policies are designed to ensure that the evolution of AI in medicine benefits patients, physicians and the healthcare community. It advocates for appropriate professional oversight for safe, effective and equitable use.

The framework starts by identifying who might be impacted and how, and then takes steps to mitigate any potential adverse impact.

The most powerfuland usefulAI systems are adaptive. These systems should be able to learn and evolve over time outside of human observation and independent of human control. This, however, presents a unique challenge in AI ethics, as it requires ongoing monitoring, review and auditability to ensure systems remain fair and sound.

Recent booms in AI technologies have been decades in the making. The most relevant and recent advances have accelerated the growth of AI algorithms and conceptsan evolution that will continue.

Now more than ever before, we must ensure that AI algorithms are trustworthy and deserving of trust. In healthcare, this entails systematically accumulating evidence, monitoring systems and data that are based on ethics and equity.

Read more from the Cedars-Sinai Blog: The Human Factor of Artificial Intelligence

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Curse God and Die, They Said. It Will Be Fun, They Said – The Stream

Posted: at 1:37 pm

This column is adapted from Jason Jones upcoming bookThe Great Campaign: Against the Great Reset, which will appear in early 2024.

Last time I ran through the top five fashionable delusions of our elites the people who must know more than we do, since theyre giving TED talks to hedge fund billionaires in Davos. I explained how:

We must fight each of these ideologies on its merits, locating what grains of truth they might contain, then showing how sloppy thinking, hunger for power, the herd instinct, and other ancient temptations have built up a pyramid of lies. And I do that, in detail, in the relevant chapters that follow.

But we must do more than run around putting out fires. Theres a reason that such grotesque caricatures were able to come to dominate among highly educated Westerners: they rushed in to fill a vacuum, which nature abhors. Since the self-styled Enlightenment, the Christian West has been living off its savings, going ever further out on a limb of the Tree of Knowledge, and sawing it off at the trunk.

It might have seemed safe to 19th century Brits like Charles Darwin and Austrians like Freud to hack away at the supports for human dignity, family life, morality and reason. Surrounded by the built-up riches of Christendom, they couldnt imagine what bankruptcy their gambling habit would lead to.

We can. We grew up in the poorhouse, the howling void of meaning, value, and beauty that was left when the last implications of an integral Christian worldview were finally swept away. And in that empty space the principalities and powers have offered us golden calves, primitive fetishes, elaborate phantasms shiny objects that make loud noises to distract us from the fact of our desperation, and the need to turn back to Christ.

We now have a pope in Rome who scoffs at reverent liturgy, biblical sexual ethics, unborn life, and the organ harvesting of the Communist regime in China in order to focus on: exploiting shell-shocked and bewildered refugees, battling climate change, and boosting Pfizers stock price. Countless lesser Christian leaders in various churches pursue the same inverted priorities, auditioning to serve as tame live-in chaplains to Caesar, Mammon, and Sodom.

We can do better. We must. In the face of these old errors and new delusions, we turn to what is timeless: the law God wrote on the human heart, which He first made clear to man in the Covenant of Noah. The Natural Law, enriched by the truths of divine Revelation, is our guide. Think of it as the instructions manual to the human race, which its Maker helpfully left us but most of us are too proud to read.

In my last book, written ten eventful years ago, I distilled that Natural Law down to five core principles. The Race to Save Our Century doesnt argue for these principles from some set of abstract definitions, of the kind philosophers argue about in journals few people read. No, it looked at the cavalcade of atrocities and horrors that began in 1914, which turned a century of progress into the great age of genocide, tyranny, and destruction. Then it asked which moral maxims could have prevented these massive abuses of human life and dignity. As it turned out, the five core Whole Life principles that would have saved the 20th century were also the pillars of Catholic social teaching.

Having watched the decade that followed, I can only say that the book was sadly prophetic. Our culture went even further in its rejection of Natural Law than even Id thought possible, and these five principles are more urgently important than ever. In this book Ill lay them out again, more briefly, and in each chapter shows how they need to be applied today, as emergency medicine:

These arent specifically Christian teachings, which people need the grace of Faith to comprehend and accept although, since our reason is fallen, grace certainly helps. Fighting for these principles isnt religious, much less intolerant or somehow (as the left likes to say) promoting a theocracy. In fact, as we can see by the degraded state of our culture in the absence of these principles, fighting for the Natural Law is the only truly human thing to do. And if we value the human race, we will order our lives to serve this struggle.

We might, like the hobbits in The Lord of the Rings, be fighting to save the Shire, but not for us. Its possible that our efforts will win us persecution and poverty, and only leave rewards to our children or grand-children. For centuries, men planted olive trees that only their descendants would live to eat from. At a time when too many people are gleefully eat the seed corn, we ought to act like hobbits, instead of orcs.

Jason Jones is a senior contributor to The Stream. He is a film producer, author, activist and human rights worker.

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Cardinal Hollerich: The openness of the Synod on Synodality ‘will … – Catholic World Report

Posted: at 1:37 pm

Delegates vote to approve a synthesis report at the conclusion of the Synod on Synodality on Oct. 28, 2023. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Oct 28, 2023 / 19:17 pm (CNA).

At the conclusion of the Synod on Synodality, Pope Francis monthlong Vatican assembly, one of the meetings leaders said the freedom and openness experienced during the gathering will help the Church change in the future.

While sometimes people had their knives out over an issue during small group discussions at the Oct. 4-29 assembly, eventually, an alternative solution would be discovered, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, the synods relator general, said at a press briefing Oct. 28.

To have this freedom and openness will change the Church, he said, and Im sure the Church will find answers, but perhaps not the exact answer this group or that group wants to have, but answers [with which] most people could feel well and listened to.

The Vatican gathering this month was the first of two sessions of the 16th Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. The synod delegates, which included laypeople for the first time, voted on and released a synthesis report to conclude the gathering. A more definitive document is expected to be released at the end of the second session of the synod in October 2024.

The process starts, really starts, at the end of the [whole] synod, Hollerich told journalists Saturday evening. So even next year, I hope there will be a document that is a real document, where also some theological questions of synodality get considered and so on.

But even the final document, he stressed, will just be a step of a Church on the move.

And I think thats the important thing: we move, the cardinal added.

The archbishop of Luxembourg repeated that the synod is about synodality even if people have not believed us.

He said there are topics that are important to some people and should continue to be important to them, even if they were not mentioned in the Oct. 28 synthesis report. And I think a synodal Church will more easily try to speak about these topics than the Church as it was structured in the past, he said.

Thats not to say that a synodal church will just embrace everything, he added.

About the fact that some people voted against some of the hot-button issues included in the assemblys report, Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, said there are points in which we agree and points in which there is still a way to go.

Hollerich said: It was clear to me that some topics would have resistance. I am full of wonder that so many people have voted in favor. That means that the resistance [was] not so great as people have thought before. So yes, I am happy with that result.

Similar results, in a parliamentary vote, would be considered very positive, he said.

The inclusion in the report of a paragraph about studying the possibility of women deacons had 69 votes against and 277 votes in favor.

Grech said one bishop told him he saw ice melt in people during the gathering.

This is the approach of Jesus, to create spaces for everyone so that no one feels excluded, he added. Today there was a tremendous joy that you could see with your own eyes.

I think, Hollerich said, people will leave tomorrow or the day after tomorrow going home with a heart full of hope, with a lot of ideas, and Im looking forward to seeing them back next year.

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Virtual insanity Winnipeg Free Press – Winnipeg Free Press

Posted: at 1:37 pm

There are probably many moments when our minds would rather drift off into fantasy rather than deal with the reality of global calamities. Who could blame us?

But author Jonathan Taplin, who is director emeritus of the Annenberg Innovation Lab at the University of Southern California, argues that a fantasy world is deliberately built around and for us while democracy and the commons are stolen from under our feet.

In The End of Reality: How 4 Billionaires are Selling a Fantasy Future of the Metaverse, Mars, and Crypto, Taplin outlines how the Technocrats Mark Zuckerberg (Meta), Elon Musk (SpaceX, Tesla and Twitter/X), Peter Thiel (Paypal, Facebook) and Marc Andreesen (Netscape, Bitcoin) are intent on dismantling democracy for their own profits by creating a fantasy world for us based on virtual reality, avatars, Marvel Movies, trips to Mars, transhumanism and/or living to age 200.

John Locher / The Associated Press files

Cutline TK

As Taplin suggests,The Technocrats have risen to levels of previously unimagined wealth while providing tools to autocrats around the world. At the same time, they are centrally focused on using public money to fund space exploration and other strange projects, while some, like Musk and Thiel, seem eager to fan the flames of fascism.

And for Taplin, Andressen, Musk, Thiel and Zuckerbergs disruptions of our notions of both capitalism and democracy are only going to increase in the coming years. This will usher in more autocratic states, an expansion of the social class he refers to as the Precariat, and a fantasy world that has all of us spouting hateful things online, betting on sports online and creating more perfect forms of ourselves.

Leaning on George Orwell and Aldous Huxley, Taplin builds the case that our society is at a tipping point where we are eating each other alive while these four, and others, are becoming immeasurably richer at our expense. Taplin calls for a greater collective criticality where we ask ourselves if investing trillions in virtual reality or going to Mars will add to the collective wealth of society, through real, productive growth.

Through contemporary bread and circuses, billionaires are attempting to create a utopian society for themselves, while dangling this utopia in front of our eyes through Captain America, TikTok stars and the Metaverse. Taplin takes the reader through a deep dive of each of the Technocrats, outlining how each grew up focused on science fiction and in contexts where social interaction and healthy relationships were devoid from their experience.

In 2023, our digital social networks will have been created by those who have not developed significant and non-digital social relationships and by four men who would rather live in a utopian world where their awkwardness is shielded. Meta and the Metaverse to Taplin are stark examples of how the Technocrats are engineering a more perfect social network and society while providing insidious forces a platform and space to dull our criticality.

For Taplin, Meta and similar social networks are at best an opioid for Gen Z and at worst a stomping ground for neo-fascism. As he argues, Meta proposes complete elimination of the boundaries between truth and fiction, between real and unreal. This is what Trumpism and fascism produce and need. For Taplin, Zuckerbergs company has almost destroyed civil society and our democracy.

So where is the hope? Taplin suggests we have two choices: succumb or wake up. Waking up involves not letting our children use VR, not buying into cryptocurrency, standing up to the misuse of public dollars for childish space fantasies. And, above all, getting back to humanism, the humanities and the arts. It is within these where revolution and healthy social networks and societies are created.

The End of Reality

For educators, the examination of the Technocrats is an opportunity for learners to fully reflect on the forces that are fully engineered to dissuade them from reality. From Instagram, YouTube and Marvel movies (Taplins rant on Marvel is worth the price of the book alone) to TikTok, are young people able to understand the negative impact the fantasy world has on individuals and our relationships with others?

Educators (and thats all adults): begin with Orwell and Huxley with our teens, and then have them fully investigate the Technocrats. Have them challenge the inevitability of a bleak and engineered modernity. Have them imagine the possibilities that reside in the exciting notion that The brilliance of democracy is that it allows for improvisation, the greatest power of the creative spirit.

Matt Henderson is superintendent of Winnipeg School Division.

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Here’s What You Should Know About Stem Cell Beauty Products – Who What Wear

Posted: October 29, 2023 at 7:47 am

Using stem cell therapies in aesthetic medicine is nothing new, according to Ava Shamban, MD, a board-certified dermatologist based in Beverly Hills. The concept has been around for decades, she says, but there are certain benefits, particularly in regenerative medicine,that have proven to be very important and effective since the cells are undifferentiated. These cells can develop into specific characteristics of an organ or type of tissue to compensate or replace certain areas of damage within the body, she says. Ultimately, when programmed, the stem cells will turn into the cell type that is needed to replace the damaged or affected cells in that area. They are basically our repair kit where and when needed.

You may know about PRP (platelet-rich plasma), or the vampire facial, but you might not have heard of PRF, or platelet-rich fibrin. The treatments are similar, in that they place the patients blood in a centrifuge to separate its layers, but PRP is spun at a high speed, causing the stem cells to go to the bottom. PRF is spun at a slower speed, allowing the stem cells, white blood cells, and fibrin to remain in the platelet. It is then injected into the skin, almost like filler, and helps with wrinkles and lines. Research has shown PRF to be more effective in improving skin texture and skin laxity than PRP.

Another way that stem cells are being used in aesthetic treatments is through stem cell facelifts. The process, which includes fat transfer from another part of your body, like the stomach, was known as the original filler, according to Shamban. The issues are the super-sterile environment and the fact they need to be treated like an infant, as they are super fragile due to the architecture of these cells, she says. When the fat was transferred, she says, the face would blow up or shrink. It was also unstable if the patient gained weight and was not easy to control due to the contouring effects and irregularities.

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After Death Dangles Answers to the Only Important Question – The Stream

Posted: at 7:47 am

Supposed you walked in to meet the oncologist whod completed your cancer screening, and he spent 20 minutes telling you what strong, healthy teeth you had? And how he admired the car which youd parked outside his office. And how hed enjoyed the pet photos he saw you post on Facebook.

You might start to get impatient. Maybe scared and angry. If he kept up his dawdling, you might even blurt out something like, Yeah, but none of that matters if Im on the fast track to death! So doctor, tell me do I have terminal cancer?

And then he answered like Dr. Leo Spaceman on TVs classic 30 Rock: We have absolutely no way of knowing. Medicine isnt a science, you know! Would you like some erectile dysfunction gummies? Theyre free!

Dr. Leo Spaceman is more than just a brilliant comic character. In fact, hes a perfect stand-in for all our secular sciences, from the hard ones such as physics to the soft ones like psychology, when faced with only question that really matters: Do our lives endure and have meaning, or are they just multiplied by zero when our brain waves flatline, and eager doctors harvest our useable organs?

Doktors Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Charles Darwin and Stephen Hawking prove no more helpful in the end than Dr. Spaceman.

You can pile up a hugely impressive number, even rope in infinity, on one side of the equation. But multiply it by zero and you still get zero. Thats the math problem each one of us will face, sooner or later.

It was easier, in a sense, before Christianity. Pagans were able to cobble together a sufficient sense of meaning for their lives by imagining some vague sense of immortality in the form of an heroic reputation, or at least of thriving descendants.

But then Christ came and dangled the offer of something much vaster: real, personal immortality, with forgiveness of sins, purification and healing, and eternity spent in communion with the good people who wed loved, in the presence of God. Or judgment for our unrepented sins and eternal punishment, with the devil and all his angels.

Wed have to study 2,000 years of intellectual history to understand all the highways and byways along which our culture traveled, to get to our spot today: Where ever-increasing numbers of Westerners young and old have lost faith in Jesus promise, and face the Abyss grasping at straws.

In fact, theyre worse off than pagans. Having heard the prospect of heaven, and waved it off as a daydream, people arent even interested in leaving behind a noble reputation, or happy thriving descendants. Compared to genuine, personal immortality, all those old comforts seem cold. Fewer and fewer of us are willing to make our short, finite lives less pleasant, moment to moment, for the sake of those once-loved things.

Jesus ripped out paganisms heart, and no Wizard of Oz can replace it. A post-Christian world is vastly worse than a pagan one less noble, less courageous, increasingly incapable of self-sacrifice or even of self-restraint. Were barely able at this point even to refuse the next Dunkin Munchkin, or OnlyFans strumpet, in our rational self-interest. Comparison with the divine goods of Christianity has hollowed out forever the merely human ones. All thats left is fleeting pleasure, and the flinch to avoid any pain.

Unless. What if But no, thats just a wish-fulfilment fantasy. Isnt it?

The beautifully made, calmly persuasive, and moving new film After Death throws out a lifeline to a burned-out, despairing culture. It interviews sober, highly-educated Americans who saw the Other Side whose hearts stopped, brains flat-lined, and bodies went cold. Then by some medical miracle, they were revived. And they tell us, without any evidence of hysteria or superstition, what they saw.

Some of the things they saw puzzle the secular scientists whove spent decades poring over their accounts. Patients felt their selves (or souls) leave their bodies and hover over operating tables. They report on medical details, or fragments of conversation, or events that occurred in the roomthings they had no material way of knowing, with eyes shut, ears plugged, and brains inactive. And yet they saw. They heard. They knew.

Other reports were less scientifically interesting, but much more meaningful. People whose brains were barely operating had complex experiences of remembering long-lost events from their livesboth joyful ones they treasured, and old sins they now regretted. They reported meeting family members, now looking much younger than when theyd known them, and radiantly happy.

And one after another of these people whod undergone a Near Death Experience (NDE) recalled encountering a vastly luminous Light that offered them welcome and forgiveness. Some of them saw a recognizable Jesus. Others recall a more cosmic Presence who didnt yet show His face.

And others (the films says between a third and quarter) who report an NDE saw something quite different: Dark figures trying to drag them down, accusing them of their faults, hustling them ever further into cold, and pain, and punishment. One of those who recalls such an experience was a lapsed Buddhist youth whod been urged to suicide by a spirit, which goaded him to the brink then abandoned him once hed died. Another who entered the darkness was an ex-Christian professor, who desperately called on the Jesus hed known as a child. Who promptly came to rescue him.

Not all the stories are sunny. None of those whod seen what they now call heaven was glad to be forced to return to earth. Each says he felt more alive while in the Beyond than theyd ever felt in life, before or since. Some marriages collapsed, under the scorn and skepticism of an unbelieving spouse.

But the overall impact of the scrupulously documented testimonies in After Death is undeniable. There is powerful, empirical evidence that the current scientific consensus is wrong. Just as our physicists cant explain why the universe just happened to turn out designed for life, and biologists cant explain how life arose from dead chemicals, physicians cannot explain how dead brains have all these experiences.

Dr. Freud and Dr. Spaceman just have to shrug, and its time for believers in Jesus to step up with words of hope. Go see this amazing film, which opens this weekend, and drag your skeptical friends. You might just be rescuing them from their secret shame of despair.

John Zmirak is a senior editor at The Stream and author or co-author of ten books, including The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism. He is co-author with Jason Jones of God, Guns, & the Government.

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Igniting Hope conference aims to end race-based health disparities … – University at Buffalo

Posted: at 7:47 am

On Sept. 30, 300 community members along with UB students, faculty and staff gathered for the sixth annual Igniting Hope conference. The gathering has matured into what organizers describe as a movement aimed at bringing lasting change to the region by ending race-based disparities and their devastating impacts on the health of Black people, Hispanic people and other underrepresented groups.

The movement and the conference clearly benefit from the UB-supported institute, which indicates the universitys strong support of our work with the community, providing critical longevity to the movement, said organizer Timothy F. Murphy, SUNY Distinguished Professor and director of UBs Community Health Equity Research Institute and the Clinical and Translational Science Institute.

President Satish K. Tripathi made welcoming remarks in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, noting that health inequity is a problem that will take the entire university community to address, regardless of specialty.

But doing so will require the clear demonstration that change is possible, said Rev. George Nicholas, pastor of the Lincoln Memorial United Methodist Church, CEO of the Buffalo Center for Health Equity and a conference organizer.

Quoting Malcolm X, who famously said Education is the passport to the future, Nicholas noted that three-quarters of third-graders in the Buffalo Public Schools are not reading at grade level.

If theyre already behind in third grade, how can they ever dream of getting ahead? he asked. Nicholas said it is critical that demonstration projects start be implemented.

What if we do a demonstration project on the East Side where we find a neighborhood or two and commit to bringing every child up to grade level, bringing every home up to code, and improving primary care access, he said. Success in one neighborhood will demonstrate that it is possible to do it in others.

A communitys access to primary care, for one thing, improves outcomes and lowers costs. We know this stuff! he declared. We know the barriers.

One often underappreciated barrier is difficulty in accessing dental care, according to Marcelo Araujo, dean of the School of Dental Medicine. He introduced the first keynote speaker, Natalia Chalmers, chief dental officer of the Office of the Administrator, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Chalmers informed the audience that when people without dental insurance have dental pain or issues, they go to the emergency room, where a visit can cost anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars. And they dont even get an extraction, she said. Instead, they get an opioid prescription and theyre told they should go to a dentist. So dont go to the ER for a toothache you wont get better.

When the system fails, she said, tragedies can happen. In 2007, a 12-year-old Black boy living in Maryland developed a tooth abscess. Without adequate insurance, he lacked regular dental care. It developed into a severe brain infection that killed him. That tragedy spurred outrage, she said, and almost overnight the state boosted Medicaid reimbursement for dental care.

Chalmers said that remote area medical clinics are often the only way that underinsured families get access to any dental care; these RAMs, as they are known, are temporary medical and dental clinics where volunteer providers provide care to hundreds of patients, typically during a weekend.

They are a great point of access, she said, but do you really want to wake up at 4 a.m. so you can get a number and wait in line for hours for dental care? Is this equitable access to care? Chalmers looks forward to a day when there is no need for RAMs to exist.

The afternoon keynote topic delved into issues at the core of medical research, such as informed consent and medical mistrust. Moderated by Jamal Williams, assistant professor of psychiatry in the Jacobs School, the session featured David Lacks and Veronica Robinson, the grandson and great granddaughter, respectively, of Henrietta Lacks.

Lacks was the young, African American mother whose cancerous cell tissue has become, since her untimely death in 1951, one of the most important medical research tools ever discovered. Without her knowledge or consent, tissue was removed during a biopsy she underwent at John Hopkins Medicine and shared with the hospitals tissue lab.

Unlike all other cells, hers (now named HeLa cells after her) didnt die in the lab. Instead, they rapidly divided over and over, a phenomenon that to this day remains a unique medical mystery. HeLa cells have played a major role in the development of major medical advances, from new cancer treatments to the invention of vaccines that protect against polio and COVID-19 to in vitro fertilization.

Today, Lacks family members are active in the National Institutes of Healths HeLa Genome Committee, but for decades they had no idea of the extraordinary role Henrietta played in modern medicine. Neither she nor her family was ever given the opportunity to provide informed consent. Only after a tenacious science writer named Rebecca Skloot started researching the story, which eventually became The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, did the family learn about their ancestors incredible legacy.

Had they asked her, she would have probably given consent, said Veronica. We have been unwilling participants, which keeps us from being a part of science, she said of her family and the African American community as a whole. It starts with saying we cant be silenced anymore.

The Henrietta Lacks story is a story of science at its best and at its worst, said Williams.

We are now at another critical juncture, he said, which is the intersection of having to reckon with past exploitation in biomedical research and the need for historically marginalized groups to be included in studies that pertain to their long-term health.

Understandably, the Lacks family was skeptical when Skloot began her research.

When we were introduced to her, I thought, is this just another white woman who wants something from us? said Veronica. That was a big fear of the family, but Rebecca was very persistent. It has opened up a lot of conversations.

David noted, She took but she also gave back. The biggest thing to come out of this is communication. Even if you dont monetize it, let people know whats going on!

Veronica agreed, noting, One of the worst things you can take from a person is their right to know; then you cant make informed decisions. If it comes from me, then its not medical waste, its mine. Theres a difference between something thats given and something thats taken. We have to change that narrative.

In addition to the keynote speeches, breakout sessions took place on topics including Black Lungs Matter, food and elders, neighborhood restoration and medical mistrust.

More information about Henrietta Lacks, the Igniting Hope conference and the issues discussed at it is available in the Sept. 26 WBFO conversation with Pastor George Nicholas.

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10 Best Horror Anime on Crunchyroll – Screen Rant

Posted: at 7:47 am

The series discussed contain graphic violence, mature subject matter, and content viewers may find disturbing.

With Halloween fast approaching, many anime fans are wondering what the best horror anime on Crunchyroll are. Crunchyroll's extensive anime catalog doesn't actually have "Horror" listed as a distinct genre. The closest thing is the "Supernatural" genre, and that should be the starting point for any interested Horror fans. It takes some digging to find them, but there are some fantastic and fantastically creepy Horror series to be found in Crunchyroll's catalog. Fans of Horror are sure to find all the thrills and frights they can handle in the best horror anime on Crunchyroll.

The best horror anime on Crunchyroll take various approaches to delivering scares to the audience. From ghosts and zombies to plots based on traditional folklore and urban legends, Crunchyroll's horror catalog finds inspiration for its supernatural terror tales from diverse sources. There are even a few Horror Comedy series to balance out the scares with some lighter ghost stories.

Year Released

2013

Number of Episodes

130

The name Yamishibai is a pun based on kamishibai, a type of Japanese street performance involving a storyteller using pictures to accompany their story. Theatre of Darkness: Yamishibai makes use of this premise to fascinating and chilling effect. The series is a compilation of four-minute short stories framed as stories being told by a masked street performer. The stories themselves are based on Japanese folktales and urban legends and range from unsettling to downright nightmarish. The art style is particularly interesting, resembling the style of picture boards used in real kamishibai performances. They're more static images that move or change slightly than full animation, but that contributes to the uncanniness of the on-screen stories and really adds to the series' overall aura of creepiness.

The exact English name of the series has been translated in several different ways but is listed in the Crunchyroll catalog as Theatre of Darkness: Yamishibai.

Year Released

2023

Number of Episodes

9

Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead is primarily a comedy, but the series isn't shy about depicting the Zombie Apocalypse in all its gory glory. Zom 100 thrives on dark comedy and the basic comedic premise driving the series is that protagonist Akira finds the zombie apocalypse preferable to his previous soul-crushing desk job. Despite the comedic elements, the backdrop of the Zombie Apocalypse leads to plenty of legitimately horrifying scenes. The zombies themselves are depicted in a very horrifying style and the zombie-related violence is frequently intense and depicted on-screen. Although the series was plagued by delays and the last episodes of Zom 100's first season have been put on indefinite hiatus, the anime adaptation shows a lot of potential, and original the manga has been unaffected by this hiatus for any fans who want to keep following the story.

Year Released

2023

Number of Episodes

13

Accompanied by their elite samurai guards, a group of condemned criminals are sent to a mysterious island on a mission to retrieve the elixir of immortality for the Shogun. As soon as they reach the island though, some of the criminals try to escape or attack their guard and are immediately killed by the samurai. Some of the criminals attack each other. The survivors soon discover that the series lives up to its name. The island is beautiful but monstrous. The island is full of giant mutants and ruled over by a group of eight malevolent god-like shape-shifters. Even things as simple as the island's flowers and butterflies are terrifyingly lethal. Even before Hell's Paradise fully embraces the survival-horror premise and the full nature of the island is revealed, there are scenes of disturbingly graphic violence that set the tone of the rest of the series.

Year Released

2021

Number of Episodes

12

Miko Yotsuya is a high schooler who can see ghosts, a problem she hopes will go away if she ignores it. When that doesn't work, Miko soon finds herself embroiled in various ghostly escapades throughout the series. Originally a webcomic published on the popular Japanese art website Pixiv, Mieruko-chan is really more of a supernatural comedy series with creepy aspects than a full-on horror story, though most of the ghost designs are suitably scary and well-drawn. Mieruko-chan is a welcome change of pace from more intense Horror anime and is a good choice for horror fans looking for moderate scares balanced with humorous scenes.

Year Released

2018

Number of Episodes

12 + 2 OVAs

An episodic compilation of adapting the works of legendary horror mangaka Junji Ito, Junji Ito Collection brings the original manga stories to life in a horrifying new way. Ito is a master of unsettling art, and the anime adaptation of his stories adds not only full color but also movement and audio components that aren't present in the original black-and-white manga images. Each individual episode of Junji Ito Collection consists of two standalone shorts. While the stories themselves are scary, the series' representation of Ito's signature art style is sufficiently uncanny that it manages to be highly unsettling even when nothing particularly scary is unfolding on-screen.

Junji Ito's manga is available to read on Viz's website with a subscription.

Year Released

2001

Number of Episodes

13

Although primarily an action-oriented series, Hellsing has clear horror-genre underpinnings and doesn't shy away from the scariest aspects of having a ruthless Vampire monster hunter for its protagonist. Alucard is at least nominally heroic and on the side of good, but he isn't a nice person. He's very much a monster who hunts other monsters, both literal and metaphorical. He's creepy at the best of times, and when unleashing his full power in battle, he comes across as a powerful, almost Cthulhu-like entity that just happens to be contained in a humanoid form. The rest of the series is filled with horrifying monster designs, intense violence, and bad guys that are so despicable that they deserve every terror Alucard unleashes on them.

Year Released

2005

Number of Episodes

46 + 2 Specials

For a horror series, Mushi-shi is pretty laid-back. The series follows Ginko, a traveler who's equal parts wandering exorcist and therapist. He helps people haunted by Mushi, supernatural creatures that aren't necessarily evil but are nevertheless dangerous because of their supernatural powers and not operating within the constraints of human morality. Thanks to Ginko's intervention, many of the human characters and Mushi get fairly happy endings, though that isn't a universal rule. That also doesn't mean there are no scary parts in Mushi-shi. In general, the Mushi themselves are inherently weird and mysterious, and manage to be unsettling just by existing. The series' general aura of strangeness and low-key horror is punctuated by moments that are overtly and openly scary.

Fans looking for the scariest episodes should watch season 1's Cotton Changeling and season 2's Tree of Eternity.

Year Released

2019

Number of Episodes

23

The Promised Neverland isn't the first horror story to use a dark plot twist to subvert an initially idyllic setting. In this case, the reveal that the children at the Grace Field House orphanage are in fact being raised as livestock to feed demons who need to eat humans to remain sentient. After that reveal, the plot centers on the characters' attempt to escape the orphanage and somehow overthrow the demons' regime that created the orphanages in the first place. Similar to a series like Stranger Things, much of the horror and lingering unsettling aura of The Promised Neverland comes from the fact that the protagonists are children being placed in very real and often very graphically depicted danger.

Year Released

2004

Number of Episodes

13

Throughout his career, the late Satoshi Kon was a master of blending surreal art and animation with mind-bending stories and themes. The only full-length anime series he directed, Paranoia Agent is a fantastic example of his signature beautiful but bewildering style. What begins as a fairly mundane crime story investigating a series of seemingly random attacks by a young boy with roller skates and a baseball bat gets progressively weirder, more surreal, and more supernatural. Like many of Kon's other works, Paranoia Agent has a major psychological focus, and like many other horror stories, has a clear metaphorical component. In Paranoia Agent's case, the series turns into an examination of coping with grief and processing trauma.

Year Released

2007

Number of Episodes

12

Mononoke has few jump scares, but it feels like it was designed from the ground up to make viewers as uncomfortable as possible. The art style is gorgeous but full of clashing colors and patterns. In addition to that, it's also heavily steeped in visual symbolism and metaphor, so it's never clear what exactly the audience is supposed to be seeing, or if they're even seeing the same thing as the characters.

While the traveling Medicine Vendor exorcises each of the titular restless spirits he encounters, each storyline is left open-ended, and very few of the lingering uncertainties are resolved. Even the Medicine Vendor himself is a constant mystery. He claims to be a simple merchant, but he's clearly supernatural and all but explicitly established to be immortal and ageless. Mononoke is an underrated gem of historical fiction that all horror fans need to watch, but the series deliberately never does anything to dispel the lingering aura of unease and slow, inescapable dread it builds up from the very first scene.

Whether it's ghosts, zombies, or even Horror Comedy series, there are some real gems in Crunchyroll's Horror catalog. Although the lack of a genre label makes the Horror series hard to find, it's worth the effort to track them down. There are plenty of memorable thrill and frights to be had for anyone brave enough to watch the best horror anime on Crunchyroll.

All anime on this list are available to stream on Crunchyroll!

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10 Flowers That Represent Freedom – AZ Animals

Posted: at 7:47 am

Flowers are a beautiful gesture to give to someone on any special occasion. However, each flower has a specific meaning and symbolism, making them unique. After writing this article, I understand why certain flowers are placed together in a bouquet. Each flower listed in this article originates somewhere in the world, and all represent freedom! Freedom can appear different for everyone. It can mean letting something go, breaking free of a burden, or taking back independence!

The Nerine Flower symbolizes freedom and good fortune. This flower drifted on the seas from South Africa, washing up on the Island of Guernsey Shores. In Greek Mythology, Nerines or Nereids were the nymph offspring of Nereus, the sea God. This pink and violet flower is sensitive to cold weather. Nerines is also called the Guernsey lily because it thrives well on the English Channel Island of Guernsey.

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The Strelitzia flower represents freedom, independence, and the immortality of man. The flower obtained its name from a naturalist who became Queen of England in 1761. Strelitzia is also known as the Bird of Paradise Flower because it resembles a tropical birds beak. It is also known as the Crane Flower because of its exotic, tropical appearance. This Strelitzia grows in Southern Africa and Cape Province but was introduced in England in 1773.

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In the Victorian language, Freesia resembles trust, innocence, freedom, and independence. A German Physician, Friedrick Heinrich Theodore Freese, discovered the flower and thus how the flower got its name. The Freesia flower is native to the eastern side of Southern Africa. This beautiful flower comes in white, cream, yellow, orange, red, pink, mauve, and purple. This flower thrives in hardiness zones nine and ten.

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The Milkweed flower has its name because it releases milky fluid from its stem or leaves if damaged. The flowers genus name, Asclepius, is derived from the son of the Greek God Apollo. In Greek Mythology, Asclepius had the power to raise the dead, which is why the Milkweed plant is associated with freedom and independence.

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Dandelions symbolize becoming free from things that try to enslave us. It also represents the release of the past and living in the present. Religious and Ancient tribes believed dandelions had healing properties because the forming seeds help detox the body and improve cholesterol levels. The dandelion thrives in North America, Northern Europe, and Asia. This flower is the first sign of spring and is utilized by bees for nectar. The flower is yellow at first but then turns into a bundle of globe-shaped seed heads that are soft and white. Dandelions can produce 20,000 seeds!

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The Tulip is native to Central Asia and Turkey. After World War ll, the Netherlands shared thousands of tulip bulbs with Canada to thank them for assisting them during the war. Because of this gesture, tulips represent freedom! Eighty percent of tulips are grown in the Netherlands. These vibrant flowers come in many colors, shapes, and sizes.

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The sunflower played a role in the Greek Mythology feud between Apollo and Clytie. Clytie was buried alive and turned into a sunflower by a nymph. No wonder why these flowers are so big! The Beautiful sunflower represents joy and the desire for freedom. This flower is useful for fodder, yellow dye, seeds, and oil. This large flower is native to North and South America.

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Roses come in many colors; however, the yellow rose represents freedom from following crowds or trends. The yellow rose is also unique because they do not have a scent, unlike the other colors. The yellow rose was discovered during the 18th century and originated in the Middle East.

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The Edelweiss is a mountain flower that symbolizes freedom and independence. The 10th Special Forces Group of Airborne Soldiers of the United States Army has adopted this unique flower. Edelweiss serves as a national symbol on their uniforms. The German Army also wears the flower symbol on the left sides of their hats, whereas Australia wears it on the rear side of their hats. Edelweiss was associated with the Alps peoples purity and patriotic mindsets.

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White lilies represent the rejuvenation of the soul and starting over. The red, orange, and yellow lilies represent freedom and independence. The lily flower grows in tropical areas of Europe, Asia, and North America. The word lily derives from the Latin word lilium.

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Demon Slayer: What is Muzan’s illness? Explained – Sportskeeda

Posted: at 7:47 am

In the world of Demon Slayer, Muzan Kibutsuji stands as the enigmatic antagonist, concealing a profound secret that defines his character - a lifelong illness. Seeking a cure, Muzan continually experiments on humans to turn them into demons. However, he remains frustrated by the limitations of his condition.

This illness shapes his ruthless quest for a remedy and dominance over demonkind. Though hidden beneath his fearsome exterior, it is a critical weakness that affects Muzan's character and motivations. This article explores the origins and implications of Muzan's ailment, unveiling the hidden layers of his character.

Muzan's illness is never explicitly named in the Demon Slayer manga or anime, but it is described as a rare and terminal disease that would have killed him before he reached the age of 20. The doctor treating Muzan gave him a special experimental medicine, but it initially appeared to have failed.

However, after killing the doctor in a fit of rage, Muzan realized that the medicine was actually working and had helped him acquire a strong body. He also realized that he needed to consume the flesh of humans to survive.

In the Demon Slayer series, Muzan Kibutsuji is portrayed as the original demon. However, his origins can be traced back to a story of human vulnerability. He was born into the noble Ubuyashiki family during the Heian Era but faces a curse of extreme fragility. His heart stopped multiple times in the womb, and he was declared stillborn upon birth. However, he escaped cremation by crying. Throughout his life, he fought tirelessly to survive, haunted by an unrelenting and unnamed illness.

Centuries ago, as Muzan's life hung by a thread due to his worsening condition, he resorted to desperate measures. He underwent experimental treatments in pursuit of a cure, only to take a drastic stepending the life of the very doctor entrusted with his care. To his surprise, the doctor's experimental medicine, concocted from the elusive Blue Spider Lily, bestowed upon him an extraordinary strength that transcended human limits.

However, the newfound power came at a price. Muzan discovered that he could not withstand sunlight, and even brief exposure would spell his demise. The doctor's incomplete remedy had unintentionally transformed him into the world's first demon, granting him a form of immortality, albeit with a critical vulnerability.

Muzan's relentless quest for a remedy for his ailment becomes the driving force of the Demon Slayer storyline. His ultimate goal is to find a way to overcome his vulnerability to sunlight. It's essential to note that Muzan's desire to survive in the daylight is not what defines his malevolence. Rather, it's his single-minded focus on his own survival, often at the cost of others.

This relentless pursuit leads to conflicts between demons and the Demon Slayers, culminating in a climactic showdown in the series' final season. Notably, it is revealed that Nezuko, the sister of the protagonist, Tanjiro, has acquired the ability to walk in sunlight, further fueling Muzan's desperation.

In the world of Demon Slayer, Muzan Kibutsuji is not simply a formidable enemy but a character marked by the shadow of a lifelong illness. His transition into a demon was both an act of desperation to survive and an unintended curse, trapping him in darkness and an unending quest for dominance.

Muzan's illness plays a critical role in the story, shaping his personality and driving the unfolding story. Fans are captivated by his journey, which is characterized by despair and obsession, as they eagerly anticipate his ultimate destiny in the realm of Demon Slayer.

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