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What We Know Today about Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and Where Do We Go from Here - 0 views

  • The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (2019-nCoV) outbreak is an important reminder that the global community must strengthen national and international programs for early detection and response to future disease outbreaks.
  • Sequencing novel viruses helps remove the fear of the unknown by defining the viral genomic sequence for dissection and interpretation. While we are within the first two months of the first report to the World Health Organization (WHO) of SARS-CoV-21, and there remains much to learn, modern technology has identified and characterized the virus, sequenced its full genome, and started to describe the genetic evolution of the virus over a short time period.
  • Within less than 60 days of reporting, global scientists know the likely origin of the virus, how similar it is to related viruses that are better understood, and what therapies may be applicable.
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  • As of February 7, over 80 SARS-CoV-2 genomes have been shared through the Global Initiative to Share All Influenza Data (GISAID) and GenBank, which will catalyze the research to understanding of the origin of the new virus, the epidemiology and transmission routes, and facilitate development of diagnostic and treatment strategies.3 Understanding the genome of SARS-CoV-2 early, provided unprecedented insight into dynamics of viral spread and impacted response strategies.
  • On January 24, the first SARS-CoV-2 genome was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.2 To our knowledge, this is the first time a complete genome of a novel infectious agent has been publicly available in such a short time after the first case was reported to the WHO.
  • Analysis of the genomic information currently available, indicates SARS-CoV-2 is most closely related to a known bat SARS-like Coronavirus, indicating bats as the likely origin.
  • While this is early in the outbreak, there are no specific drugs available to treat SARS-CoV-2. There is high sequence conservation between SARS-CoV-2 and related SARS-CoV in viral drug targets, such as in protease and polymerase enzymes.
  • Reports from Africa indicate no positive cases of SARS-CoV-2 thus far. However, the lack of confirmed diagnoses may be due to a limited capacity for in-country testing rather than the true epidemiology of the virus.
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Death (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) - 0 views

  • To clarify death further, we will need to say a bit about the nature of life, and ask whether life can be suspended or restored, and how it relates to our continued existence.
  • we will be puzzled about what is entailed by the ending of life, that is, death.
  • ‘Death’ can refer to either.
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  • A third possibility is that life ends when the physiological systems of the body have lost the capacity to function as an integrated whole, or when this loss becomes irreversible (Belshaw 2009; DeGrazia 2014). Call this ‘integration death’.
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'I AM the Voice of the Voiceless' seeks to share overlooked history in women's right to... - 0 views

  • It was Aug. 18, 1920 when the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, giving American women the right to vote. Later that year, on Nov. 2, more than 8 million women in our country voted in elections for the first time.
  • “From the very beginning — from Harriet Tubman, who was a slave, to major suffragette activists, there were black women who were millionaires, abolitionists, educators… who used their influence, they used their money, they used their time, they suffered,” said Executive Director Vivian Shipe. “They fought for the rights for all women to be able to have that right to vote.”
  • The “I AM the Voice of the Voiceless” organization is planning an event to honor what it’s calling “The Shades of The Suffrage Movement.”
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While George W. Bush pleads for unity, Donald Trump plays coronavirus victim (opinion) ... - 0 views

  • On Saturday, former President George W. Bush released a short, heartfelt video offering words of support for a nation rocked by a staggering loss of lives and livelihoods during the coronavirus pandemic. In less than three minutes, a somber-voiced Bush expressed gratitude to the nation's medical professionals, called on Americans to protect their neighbors by keeping their distance from them and urged us to show empathy and kindness to all.
  • Come Sunday morning, President Donald Trump shared his view on the video in which he, true to form, made it all about himself and his grievances.
  • True, Trump has expressed some concern for the suffering of our fellow Americans and their loved ones -- but at callously low levels.
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  • Trump never misses an opportunity to make any situation about himself. That's even true during the time of a deadly pandemic that has taken the lives of more than 67,000 Americans and where business shutdowns have resulted in likely the highest unemployment rate since the Great Depression
  • in the approximately 780 minutes Trump spoke over the past month at press conference he offered less than 300 seconds of empathy to those suffering.
  • And while Trump has tweeted some recognition for first responders -- on March 19 he thanked them for their "dedication and sacrifice" -- just look at Trump's tweets in the last few days. They're all about Trump. On Sunday morning, right around the time he tweeted his complaint about to former President Bush's impeachment response, Trump also slammed the media for not "showing" polls that he believes make him look good -- "The Fake News doesn't show real polls."
  • Over the last few days, Trump reminded us time and time again that he sees himself as the victim in this crisis
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Miranda Fricker: Reason and Emotion / Radical Philosophy - 0 views

  • The question of how emotion relates to reason acquires its importance from an apparent conflict between the implicit teachings of Western philosophy and and feminism.
  • if feminism has learned that it is a political imperative to acknowledge, share and thereby validate the ways in which women’s emotions may conflict with accepted modes of reasoning,
  • Stress, for example, is one such emotional condition which can often remain unacknowledged by the sufferer until stomach ulcers and the like make it painfully and belatedly evident.
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  • If our emotions are accompanied by correlative judgements, then the cognitivist theory can explain dispositional emotions as simply lacking their physiological accompaniment.
  • One expresses a very different response to the world if a judgement is declared with anger, than if one speaks without apparent emotion.
  • In the light of this acknowledgement of the partial autonomy of emotions and their political import, the traditional idea of emotion needing to be dominated by reason is also exposed as hopelessly biased. Of course reason must regulate wayward emotions and -prejudicial feelings, but equally emotion must regulate reason in order that accepted forms of interpretation and rationality do not brutalise and deny people’s emotions, forbidding them their due interpretation, their meaning, and their political significance.
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She's Crazy | Psychology Today - 0 views

  • Psychological research comparing women and men on measures of anger find that they are more alike than different. Men and women are equally likely to experience anger and the intensity of their anger is remarkably similar. Regardless of gender, we get angry when frustrated, criticized, betrayed, rejected, or disrespected. When someone behaves immorally or unethically it can also lead to our anger and outrage.
  • But anger is “gendered.” It’s perceived through gendered (and racial) lenses. While most emotion is identified as feminine, anger is considered more of a masculine emotion. Anger and its expression are contrary to traditional beliefs about women’s essential “nature” as compassionate, passive, and other-centered. Meanwhile, anger and its expression as aggression and violence, is viewed as naturally male, and masculine. “Boys will be boys,” so many people say.
  • Their apologies likely reflect an awareness that anger and assertiveness are generally more acceptable for men than they are for women, and that they must be careful not to appear “too emotional” as this is sometimes used to justify the exclusion of women from political leadership roles.
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  • Only the women candidates responded with an apology, and both apologized for their occasional anger. Said Senator Elizabeth Warren, “I will ask for forgiveness. I know that sometimes I get really worked up. And sometimes I get a little hot. I don’t really mean to.” Senator Amy Klobuchar said, “Well, I’d ask for forgiveness, any time any of you get mad at me. I can be blunt, but I am doing this because I think it is so important to pick the right candidates here.”
  • Expressing anger can help you influence others and can help you make change or get your way. But this seems to be truer if you’re a man, especially a white man.
  • expressions of anger detracted from the credibility and influence of women and African Americans relative to White males. The authors suggest that angry women and angry African Americans are perceived as “emotional” and this is used to discredit them, and consequently their social influence is reduced. 
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Air Pollution, Evolution, and the Fate of Billions of Humans - The New York Times - 0 views

  • The threat of air pollution grabs our attention when we see it — for example, the tendrils of smoke of Australian brush fires, now visible from space, or the poisonous soup of smog that descends on cities like New Delhi in the winter.
  • Air pollution and tobacco together are responsible for up to 20 million premature deaths each year.
  • Scientists are still figuring out how air pollution causes these ailments.
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  • The story begins about seven million years ago. Africa at the time was gradually growing more arid. The Sahara emerged in northern Africa, while grasslands opened up in eastern and southern Africa.
  • Dust was not the only hazard. The lungs of early humans also may have been irritated by the high levels of pollen and particles of fecal matter produced by the savanna’s vast herds of grazing animals.
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Why the US needs Russia and China to help change Iran's behavior | TheHill - 0 views

  • Predicting the future behavior of any country in the Middle East is a dangerous undertaking. Some might suggest it’s a lot cheaper and more effective to rely on a pack of tarot cards than a report from the U.S. intelligence community.
  • Unfortunately, in America, we seem to have little memory of this region’s history, and the misplaced illation made by many over Iranian General Qassem Soleimani’s death soon will fade.
  • In the process of deciding how they will exact this price, Iran will weigh its options against our domestic condition, whether these are set by the U.S. election cycle or Iranian perceptions of who, exactly, should pay the highest price. What Iran’s leadership does know is that a majority of Americans do not want war, nor do most Americans support the seemingly unarticulated reason for keeping U.S. troops in the region. 
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  • Asymmetric responses by the U.S. are a real option, but this comes with a high price. While we could pay this price, Washington would be unable to sustain such an effort indefinitely because of domestic and global political reasons. Israel has been undertaking such operations for many years, with some measurable impact, but the Israelis arguably have the political support at home and the same elements needed for asymmetric warfare that Iran has. Furthermore, the threat of large-scale U.S. military retaliation could quickly broaden the scope of the conflict, with unintended regional economic and political consequences, and still not diminish Iran’s capability to carry out covert attacks on American officials, interests and regional allies. 
  • Pursuing such superpower diplomacy, along with asymmetric pressure on Iran, will not come without some price. Washington may need to compromise with Moscow and Beijing on other matters of considerable geopolitical significance. However, Iran is one area where all three superpowers might find a workable agreement that brings the country back into the fold. Iran is an ancient, formidable regional player and the actions taken by all concerned, across a broad spectrum of issues, will have long-term repercussions for each stakeholder’s critical geopolitical goals in the region and beyond.
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Are Smart People More Likely to Believe Stereotypes? | Mental Floss - 0 views

  • There are many different kinds of intelligence, each reliant on its own set of skills and abilities. One such ability is pattern recognition, without which we’d have trouble recognizing faces, learning languages, or reading other people’s emotions. Because it’s so central to our cognitive and social functioning, pattern recognition is sometimes used by researchers as a shorthand for overall intelligence.
  • Finding that higher pattern detection ability puts people at greater risk to detect and apply stereotypes, but also to reverse them, implicates this ability as a cognitive mechanism underlying stereotyping,” co-author Jonathan Freeman said in the statement.
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On the frontline of the climate emergency, Bangladesh adapts | World news | The Guardian - 0 views

  • Bangladesh is one of dozens of countries on the frontline of the climate emergency. Here global heating is no theoretical calamity of the future, but a very real, present danger.By 2050, it is predicted that one in seven people in the country will be displaced by climate breakdown. The sea level is projected to rise by 50cm over this time period and Bangladesh may lose approximately 11% of its land. Deadly storms are usually a question of when, not if.
  • In the scorching farmlands of south-west Bangladesh, a single coconut tree stands as a barometer of climate change.
  • For example, Mondal says that where once his peers would farm mainly rice, now they have taken to fishing. They use floating cages, allowing fish to breed in a secure area. Also, if water levels rise, the cages will too, so flooding is less of an issue.“About 20 to 30 years ago there would be a minimum of two crops per farming family but now because of waterlogging we have no more than one,” he says. Each cage is owned by one home and yields about 15,000 taka (£135) in additional income for the families a year. It’s also a consistent source of food, which could be vital if natural disaster hits. “In the last two years there was not too much rain but two years ago we were flooded,” Mondal says. “We worry about the future. If there is heavy rainfall the water could remain logged for a long period of time and we would have to take shelter on main road. We would stay there with our remaining belongings.”
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  • The cages are made using cheap materials. Bamboo poles form an outer frame that can float and is covered in netting. They have a top cover to prevent fish jumping and escaping, or being caught by birds. With a capacity of one cubic metre, they hold up to 300 fish at a time. These cages are used for two growing seasons each year.
  • Despite efforts to improve the situation, Bangladesh remains at the mercy of sharp changes in weather patterns. Deep uncertainty persists for millions, even if these newfound techniques are helped to mitigate environmental impact.
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Twitter Mocks Donald Trump's Dismissal of New York Sea Wall: 'Make the Merfolk Pay For It' - 0 views

  • The tweet led to a flurry of responses mocking the president with references to his rhetoric about the wall at the U.S.-Mexico border."Build the sea wall and make the merfolk pay for it,"
  • Trump tweeted about the proposal on Saturday night after The New York Times reported that a six-mile-long barrier was among the options the Army Corps of Engineers is looking at to protect the region severe storms like Hurricane Sandy, which ravaged the area in 2012.
  • "We lost 44 of our neighbors in Hurricane Sandy. You should know, you lived here at the time," he tweeted. "Your climate denial isn't just dangerous to those you've sworn to protect—it's deadly."
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The Logical Fallacy Of Security Predictions - 0 views

  • There has been a persistent logical fallacy that annual security predictions will somehow help us to prognosticate our way to a clearer understanding of the security landscape ahead. These predictions often revolve around “budgets will increase by “$arbitrary percentage points”.
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Women's March Peters Out After Women Find Trump's Not Ruining Lives - 0 views

  • The Women’s March has an identity crisis. The march was inspired in 2017 out of fear that Donald Trump would in “Handmaid’s Tale” fashion strip women of all rights and dignity. After two years of a Trump presidency, and no such apocalypse, the Women’s March has lost much of its vigor.
  • This year the march began with a short rally at Freedom Plaza. Rev. T. Sheri Dickerson, one of the march’s board members, started off the rally with the chant, “My body, my choice.” The marchers first made their way to Lafayette Park, then ended in front of the Trump Hotel.
  • Few brought up women’s rights when asked why they’d attended the event. Many answered that they were there to fight for climate change and immigration. One young woman named Bianca from Raleigh, North Carolina pointed out that she was disappointed the organizers decided to make their platform so broad. She said she believed a women’s march should be about issues specific to women.
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  • Some of the anti-Trump signs read, “Trump is a danger to our Democracy,” “Impeach the Mother f-cker,” “Arrest Trump,” and “All these Women yet Trump is the only b-tch.”
  • In front of Trump Tower, about 200 protestors gathered from a group called Out Now. They chanted, “We cannot rely on the election, we cannot rely on the normal channels, because Donald Trump is a fascist…We have to drive him out.”
  • Like many women at the march, “access to health care” was the only policy they could name that had anything to do with women’s rights, and it was always used as a euphemism for abortion.
  • I agreed with many of the women at the march that unfettered access to abortion is in danger. Trump has done a lot to see that abortion is no longer funded by taxpayers, and many states are requiring abortion to meet the same safety standards as other medical procedures.
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'Free' College Would Be an Expensive Disaster. Just Ask Europe. - 0 views

  • Free college sounds great! Who doesn’t like free stuff?
  • To make the idea sound even more appealing, advocates continuously cite Europe as an example of success. Many European countries offer their citizens tuition-free higher education, so why can’t America?
  • Americans already pay a steep price for our higher education system. Taxpayers—including those who never went to college and never intend to—spend more than $150 billion a year on federal student loans, grants, and other government programs.
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  • One of the few factors putting any downward pressure on higher education costs is the growing criticism that universities receive for leaving so many students burdened with massive amounts of student loan debt. Under a fully financed government system, however, universities would receive no such scrutiny. They’d simply pass the bill to Washington and let lawmakers take the heat from unhappy taxpayers. That cumulative bill would quickly skyrocket. Many European countries that have experimented with “free college” are finding that approach to be simply unaffordable. Germany, for example, saw a 37% increase in the college subsidy cost to taxpayers once public universities removed tuition.
  • Similarly, England had a free-college policy between the 1960s and the 1990s. Enrollment soared, straining government revenues. Ultimately, England had to lower resources by 39% per student. Ultimately, England’s free college policy wound up hurting low-income students the most, as schools were forced to cap the number of students admitted.
  • European countries that offer tuition-free higher education also struggle with the issue of completion. Finland, for example, ranks first among all Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries in terms of subsidies for higher education, with 96% of all higher education funding coming from public sources. However, Finland ranks 25th among OECD countries for degree attainment.
  • The $1.5 trillion in outstanding student loan debt that Americans owe is certainly a crisis. However, the solution to this problem is not to encourage more students to attend who may later drop out and ask Americans who did not go to college to pay for those who do.
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Is Your Mobile Phone Use Bad for Your Mental Health? | Mental Floss - 0 views

  • Smartphones, those digital portals of constant information, have become so integrated into most Americans’ lives, they’re like extra—yet essential—appendages. Some 72 percent of Americans own a smartphone, compared to the global median of 43 percent. But studies have shown that overuse can have a negative impact on your posture, eyesight, and hearing, not to mention distract drivers and pedestrians. More recently, researchers who study the relationship of mobile phone use and mental health have also found that excessive or “maladaptive” use of our phones may be leading to greater incidences of depression and anxiety in users.
  • Cell phones, and smartphones in particular, have an undeniably addictive quality, earning an entry in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) 5th edition. A review of literature on cell phone addiction, published in Frontiers in Psychiatry, describes cell phone and technology addiction manifesting in one or more of the following ways: choosing to use your device even in "dangerous or prohibited contexts;" losing interest in other activities; feeling irritable or uneasy if separated from your phone; or feeling anxiety or loneliness when you’re unable to send or receive an immediate message. The researchers also find that adolescents and women may be more susceptible to this behavioral addiction.
  • So while the research remains inconclusive, it might be worth taking a look at how you feel before and after you spend copious amounts of time on your cell phone. It may be harmless—or it may offer an opportunity to improve your mental health.
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Why Coloring and Doodling Make Us Feel Good | Mental Floss - 0 views

  • there was a neurological basis for the relaxation-inducing powers of coloring, doodling, and drawing
  • All three activities produced an increase in blood flow to the prefrontal cortex, a region that plays a central part in the brain’s reward system. During rest periods, blood flow slowed until it reached normal resting rates.
  • Sometimes, we tend to be very critical of what we do because we have internalized, societal judgments of what is good or bad art and, therefore, who is skilled and who is not," she said. "We might be reducing or neglecting a simple potential source of rewards perceived by the brain. And this biological proof could potentially challenge some of our assumptions about ourselves
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6 Scientific Reasons You Should Be Reading More | Mental Floss - 0 views

  • to assess the relationship between cognitive skills, vocabulary, factual knowledge, and exposure to certain fiction and nonfiction authors
  • those who read literary fiction performed better on tasks like predicting how characters would act and identifying the emotion encoded in facial expressions. These speak to the ability to understand others' mental states, which scientists call Theory of Mind.
  • If we engage with characters who are nuanced, unpredictable, and difficult to understand, then I think we're more likely to approach people in the real world with an interest and humility necessary for dealing with complex individuals
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  • When we read fiction, we practice keeping our minds open because we can afford uncertainty
  • 100 people were assigned to read a fictional story or a nonfiction essay. The participants then completed questionnaires intended to assess their level of cognitive closure, which is the need to reach a conclusion quickly and avoid ambiguity in the decision-making process. The fiction readers emerged as more flexible and creative than the essay readers—and the effect was strongest for people who read on a regular basis.
  • They saw themselves differently after reading about others' fictional experience.
  • As you identify with another person, a protagonist in the story, you enter into a piece of life that you wouldn't otherwise have known. You have emotions or circumstances that you wouldn't have otherwise understood
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Study Finds Experts Overestimate Their Knowledge | Mental Floss - 0 views

  • You’re in the middle of a conversation about politics or music or art, and someone asks, “Have you heard of…?” And despite your complete lack of knowledge of that band or law or artist, you say, “Sure!”
  • As it turns out, the more you know about a subject, the more likely you are to fib when your knowledge falls short, claiming that some factoid rings a bell when, in fact, there are no bells to be rung
  • Self-professed experts were more likely to claim they were very knowledgeable about concepts and places that didn’t exist
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  • Our results suggest that people do not simply consult a ‘mental index’ that catalogues their knowledge but instead draw on preexisting self-perceptions of knowledge to make inferences about what they should or probably do know
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The Trailblazing 18th-Century Woman of Letters Germaine de Staël on Ambition ... - 0 views

  • Of all the passions of which the human heart is susceptible, there is none which possesses so striking a character as the Love of Glory. The traces of its operations may be discovered in the primitive nature of man, but it is only in the midst of society that this sentiment acquires its true force.
  • According to that sublimity of virtue which seeks in our own conscience for the motive and the end of conduct, the love of glory is the most exalted principle which can actuate the soul.
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A High-Tech System to Make Homes More Healthy - The New York Times - 0 views

  • Darwin is operated through a Wi-Fi-enabled tablet that resembles an iPad and displays metrics on conditions across the home. Properties with the system are constructed with air quality sensors and filters that detect and remove impurities like pollution and smoke. They also have water purifiers that get rid of chlorine, heavy metals and other particles from tap water.
  • “We’re indoors for most of our lives, and while we may not be able to change that, Darwin gives you the ability to change your environment,” he said.
  • Not many are equipped with such high-tech systems as Darwin, but these communities offer wellness in other ways: growing produce for residents, for example, or providing outdoor space and fitness classes.
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  • With their high ceilings, tall windows, herringbone floors and granite stone bathrooms, these homes, like the Simonds properties, feel contemporary; the residences on the ground floors have 645-square-foot outdoor courtyards.
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