MILES AXLE Translation. Region: Russian Federation –
Source: Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University – Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University –
An off-site educational seminar for first-year trade union organizers called “Student Perspective 2024” was held at the “Goluboe Ozero” recreation center. For the 26th time, PROF organized a meeting for first-year students so that they could get acquainted with the basics of student self-government at the Polytechnic University, communicate with administration representatives, exchange experiences with activists from various institutes, and outline their development trajectory at the university.
The seminar opened with a video with a welcoming address from the rector of the Polytechnic University, chairman of the St. Petersburg branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Andrey Rudskoy.
Over the course of three days, more than 300 participants — trade union organizers, trainers, representatives of PROF and student associations — were fully immersed in active student life. This year’s theme was “From Moments to History,” and indeed, the participants were able to create many bright moments that formed a fascinating and positive story. In addition to trainings, the trade union organizers attended the events “PROF.festival” and “Catch the Moment: A Journey Through the Stars,” where the institutes demonstrated their unity and creativity.
One of the key events was a meeting with representatives of the university administration: the head of the rector’s administrative office Vladimir Glukhov, the vice-rector for youth policy and communication technologies Maxim Pasholikov, the head of the Youth Policy Department Ivan Khlamov, the director of the SPbPU Student City Vyacheslav Olshevsky, the chairman of the PROF Maxim Susorov. The students asked questions about the educational process and extracurricular activities of the Polytechnic University, as well as about the future of the university.
A separate strategic session with Maxim Pasholikov and Ivan Khlamov was organized for the trade union committee. At it, the participants designed interaction within the framework of the university’s youth policy. On the second day, a festival of student associations was held, where the guys got to know such associations as ReGreen, the School of Cultural Organizers, the Military History Club, the United Student Council of Dormitories, the Polytechnic Community of Physics Students, and others.
“Student Perspective” ended with a warm and pleasant ceremony with sparklers and a group photo session at the Blue Lake.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
MILES AXLE Translation. Region: Russian Federation –
Source: Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University – Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University –
The city of Innopolis hosted the traditional international forum Digital Innopolis Days, which this year was combined with the AI IN conference on artificial intelligence. The topics of the discussions were focused on key areas and technologies: artificial intelligence, robotics, unmanned systems, innovations in education and personnel training.
At the plenary session “Prospects for robotization of Russia: converting problems into tasks,” the following spoke: Minister of Science and Higher Education Valery Falkov, Minister of Industry and Trade Anton Alikhanov, Deputy Minister of Energy Eduard Sheremetsev, representatives of the largest industrial enterprises, such as KAMAZ and Transmashholding.
Valery Falkov spoke about approaches to training personnel for robotics, and also noted important changes taking place in the higher education system. First of all, this is the search for models of its implementation in accordance with the needs of the modern technological structure and training of specialists of the future, reformatting engineering education. The head of the Ministry of Education and Science noted that any educational program related to production should contain a block on automation systems and robotics, and universities need to qualitatively build work in the market of additional professional education.
Vice-Rector for Continuing and Pre-University Education at SPbPU Dmitry Tikhonov noted: The forum platform is very representative and practice-oriented. Based on the results of last year, we launched three new educational projects with new partners, contacts with whom were established precisely at DID. This year there were interesting sections in the field of UAS and AI, which showed the diversity of potential areas of application of these technologies.
The use of artificial intelligence in education and university management, digital development of the education system, and new collaborations in this area were discussed at the forum by Vladimir Tuchkevich, Head of the Department for Development of Portals and Mobile Applications at SPbPU, and Denis Ivanov, Deputy Director of the Institute of Computer Science and Cybersecurity.
Traditionally, an interesting discussion unfolded around the digital departments. This year, a closed session was held for the best students of the project and an HR studio was organized. The Polytechnic was represented by IKNK student Ekaterina Chadayeva, one of the best graduates of the program “Development of digital solutions based on 1C technologies”.
Several useful events were organized for students. This was not only an introduction to various companies, but also a strategic session for graduates of digital departments. There we discussed what a dream digital department should be like, – Ekaterina shared her impressions.
Industrial partners presented their best practices for working with universities within the framework of the Digital Departments project.
At the forum, we exchanged practices and visions for the future development of IT education. Every year, companies’ interest in joint programs for professional retraining of the digital department is growing. For example, the company “1C” presented a joint program with the Polytechnic University, in the implementation of which 15 employers are participating at once. This approach demonstrates the importance of this project and allows us to create programs that are truly relevant for the industry, – said the head of the project office “Digital Departments” of SPbPU Nadezhda Tsvetkova.
The forum also hosted a closed event of Gazprom partner universities, where the curator of the project “PAO Gazprom Flagship University” Yanis Olekhnovich and the head of the employment assistance sector Elvira Tuktamysheva gave a report. They presented the results of the implementation of educational programs and events for training personnel and developing applied IT competencies necessary for an engineer to perform the company’s tasks. Part of the report was a presentation of specialized interactive educational and demonstration complexes based on VR technologies. These complexes allow students to be trained using the example of the industrial partner’s technologies.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
MILES AXLE Translation. Region: Russian Federation –
Source: Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University – Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University –
On October 7, applications for free education at the expense of the budget of the Russian Federation within the quota established by the government of the country for the 2025/26 academic year were accepted. A bachelor’s student from Turkey, Kadir Rende, spoke about his experience at the Polytechnic University. He entered the Institute of Mechanical Engineering, Materials and Transport of SPbPU on a contract basis, but passed the quota selection of Rossotrudnichestvo and continued his education on a budgetary basis.
— Why did you choose to study mechanical engineering at the Polytechnic?
— From an early age, I was interested in how the toys I played with worked. I was constantly taking them apart to understand how they worked. As I grew older, this curiosity grew into a desire to find out why machines move and how it happens. I never doubted that I would become an engineer.
When I decided to study in Russia, I started looking for the ideal university and chose Peter the Great Polytechnic University. It is one of the best universities in the country with a rich history, within whose walls many famous engineers and scientists studied.
Mechanical engineering is a promising direction. Highly qualified specialists like me will be in demand at various enterprises. I am sure that the knowledge and skills I have gained will help me make a significant contribution to this industry and realize my ambitions.
— How difficult is it to communicate in Russian in everyday life?
— I studied Russian at the preparatory department in Kazan before continuing my studies in St. Petersburg. Although it may seem that I speak well, my level is still limited to conversational. In lectures I encounter more complex materials, which sometimes causes difficulties. Fortunately, I have excellent relationships with teachers who understand our problems and are always ready to help. My Russian classmates and other students are also very friendly and willing to explain if something is unclear. I am a sociable person. I enjoy speaking Russian, which I find very rich and beautiful.
Thanks to constant practice, I feel that my level of language proficiency is getting better and better. This year, I even took second place in the Olympiad in Russian as a Foreign Language, which I am very proud of!
— What other Russian cities have you seen?
— I have been to Moscow, Kazan and small towns around it, but to be honest, St. Petersburg is my favorite. It feels like a fairy tale, so I really love walking around the cultural capital. Last year, my relatives flew in from Istanbul to visit me. They were delighted with the city.
— Did you manage to make friends with the locals?
— I was told that Russians can seem “cold”. However, almost all my friends here are Russian. We communicate very well. At first it was difficult to get to know each other because of the language barrier, but as I got to know them better, I realized that they are actually kind and helpful people.
— Do you study on a fee-paying basis or through some kind of scholarship program?
— At first, I studied under a contract and didn’t even think about participating in the competition for free education. I thought that I would have to start studying all over again. But after studying the issue in detail, I made up my mind. In my second year, I managed to transfer to a budget. So I’m very happy.
— What do you do in your free time?
— I try to find interesting and beautiful places in the city. Then I visit them with friends. The Polytechnic also has excellent conditions for doing sports. I am into boxing and go to free training sessions in the evenings, I made new friends there. There is a gym in our dormitory, sometimes I work out there.
— What advice would you give to other international students who are already studying or just entering the Polytechnic?
— There are many organizations for students, including international students, at the university, and I highly recommend visiting them. They offer a variety of activities and events, allowing everyone to find something for themselves. I go to Russian conversation clubs in the PolyUnion space, and at the Interclub I like to get together with friends for games. There are really many opportunities for activities here. It’s a great way to meet new people and improve your knowledge of the language.
— What are your plans for the future?
— After completing my bachelor’s degree, I would like to continue my studies at the Polytechnic University for a master’s degree. I understand that this will be very useful for building my future career.
We remind you that international students can apply forwebsite quota selection until January 15. You can also take part in the international Open Doors Olympics and get the opportunity to study for bachelor’s, master’s and postgraduate degrees at the Polytechnic University for free.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
MILES AXLE Translation. Region: Russian Federation –
Source: Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University – Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University –
The IV International Construction Championship has ended in Yekaterinburg. The Institute of Civil Engineering of SPbPU is a traditional participant of this large-scale event. This year, the Institute performed triumphantly – two gold awards in the team and individual nomination “Information Modeling and Design”.
Our gold medalists in the team category are Dmitry Zharkov, Alina Doroshenko, Mikhail Safoshkin, Alexandra Kulakova and Ulyana Popova.
The winner in the individual nomination is Serafim Zagorodniy.
The experts in the nominations from the Civil Engineering Institute were senior lecturer of the Higher School of Civil Engineering and Construction (HSCECI) Anna Kukina and assistant of the Higher School of Civil Engineering and Construction (HSCECI) Alexander Mitin.
We congratulate the guys on their victory and wish them further professional success!
We are proud of our absolute victory at the international construction championship in the student nomination “Information Modeling and Design”. For the Civil Engineering Institute, this is the highest assessment of our activities in the field of training the engineering elite from the professional community. This triumph once again proves that the Polytechnic is one of the best universities in the country in training engineering personnel, – commented on the success of the Polytechnics, Director of the ISI Marina Petrochenko.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
MILES AXLE Translation. Region: Russian Federation –
Source: State University Higher School of Economics – State University Higher School of Economics –
Photo: Higher School of Economics
Professor at the Higher School of Economics, leading research fellow Institute of Cognitive Neurosciences Vasily Klyucharev successfully defended his doctoral dissertation in cognitive sciences. This is the first doctoral dissertation in this discipline in Russia.
Cognitive sciences began to develop actively in the second half of the 20th century. This is a unique interdisciplinary field of research that opens up new horizons of human consciousness and behavior. Cognitive science studies how the human mind works, functions, and behaves, how people perceive, understand, and react to information received.
The HSE University’s research unit in cognitive neuroscience was established in 2013. Vasily Klyucharev then headed the Department of Psychology and founded new laboratories for cognitive brain research. Over the course of 11 years, the small research unit has grown into the largest research institute in Russia in the field of cognitive neuroscience with a team of scientists who have received global recognition. In 2021, with the direct participation of the HSE University, the new specialty in cognitive sciences. In September 2024, Vasily Klyucharev became the first doctor of cognitive sciences in Russia.
“This is an important step not only for me, but for the entire scientific community,” Vasily Klyucharev noted after his defense. “For a long time, cognitive sciences were not popular in the Soviet Union; the authorities did not like them. This led to a lag in this most important scientific and technological area. Research was conducted, but it was integrated into other scientific fields – biology, psychology, linguistics. The creation of a separate specialty in cognitive sciences and the opportunity to defend candidate and doctoral dissertations in this field is a sign of recognition at the state level.”
Vasily Klyucharev’s research is devoted to the phenomenon of conformism — the tendency of people to adjust their decisions to the opinions of others. The work examines the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying conformism using modern brain scanning technologies such as magnetic resonance imaging, transcranial magnetic stimulation, electroencephalography, and magnetoencephalography.
Neurocognitive mechanisms of social influence appear to be deeply rooted in the biology of the brain. Conformity is not just a social phenomenon. Researchers have found that deviating from the majority opinion activates areas of the brain responsible for automatic behavioral change, which forces people to reconsider their decisions, adapting to others.
“I have been studying the topic of conformism since about 2009, when our research group was one of the first to become interested in this phenomenon. We were the first to discover that the brain automatically adapts to the opinions of others. Using various neuroimaging technologies, we have confirmed that specific areas of the brain associated with the neurotransmitter dopamine are responsible for conformism. If their activity is suppressed, conformism decreases,” explains Vasily Klyucharev. “In this regard, the phenomenon of nonconformism is a very interesting, but still completely unexplored area. Perhaps this is a foundation for future research.”
Vasily Klyucharev emphasizes that cognitive science is a unique scientific field that requires comprehensive knowledge from a wide variety of fields: from mathematics to philosophy.
“To understand how the system, i.e. the human brain, works, we must study literally everything: neurophysiology, biochemistry, social behavior, sociocultural characteristics. It is important to be able to describe all processes mathematically, use various modern technologies of neurovisualization and data analysis. Even such a fashionable topic as artificial intelligence depends on cognitive research. How correctly will we understand AI? How will it understand us? Cognitive science is, in general, the science of understanding everything.”
The defense of a doctoral dissertation in cognitive science marks a new stage in the history of HSE, confirming the university’s status as a leading center for research in the field of cognitive science in Russia.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Angry, accusatory partisan exchanges over the Middle East war have dominated federal politics this week. But for most ordinary voters the issue remains “over there”.
Apart from the minorities for whom it has an immediate impact – Jewish people frightened by antisemitism, the Muslim community, those with families in Lebanon and elsewhere – it’s a tragedy without tangible relevance to their day-to-day lives.
On Thursday however, Treasurer Jim Chalmers warned the foreign crisis could feed directly into the domestic cost-of-living crisis, via the price of oil.
Midway through this week, oil was trading 11% lower than it was a year ago, but 7% higher than a week-and-a-half ago, Chalmers told a news conference.
Treasury estimates that if prices were 10% higher for an entire year, this would reduce Australia’s GDP by 0.1% and increase the consumer price index by 0.4 percentage points.
Nothing is certain about the coming months but the potential implications are obvious. Consumers would feel the effects at the petrol pump of the higher oil prices.
The Reserve Bank will also be watching the possible trajectory of oil prices, together with all the other indicators relevant to its decisions on interest rates. This is against the background of the government’s desperation for a rate cut (or two) before the election.
Although an increase in fuel prices (hitting businesses as well as families) would not be the government’s fault, it would be blamed.
According to Labor, at present there’s a disconnect between, on the one hand, the partisan political heat the Middle East war is generating and, on the other, the public’s lack of engagement with the issue.
Voters not concentraing on the Middle East
Labor sources say focus group research this week, done with swinging voters, found most people aren’t closely following Middle East events.
Beyond that, they are generally satisfied with the government’s stand and don’t think the crisis is distracting it from the cost of living (which is separate from how they think the government is handling the cost of living).
This accords with this week’s Essential poll, in which 56% said they were satisfied with the government’s response on the Israel-Gaza war. Another 30% thought the government had been too supportive of Israel; 14% thought it had been too harsh on Israel.
Except among some of those directly invested, the Middle East crisis is not likely to be a vote changer.
In the domestic political battle, Dutton is trying to use the conflict to paint Albanese as weak. That’s a long bow on the issue itself, although more generally the prime minister and his government have come to be seen as having lost their way.
While Dutton is trying to define Albanese negatively, Albanese is attempting to make Dutton a bigger target.
NBN sale a distraction
Thus on Wednesday the prime minister, shortly before he jumped on his plane to attend the ASEAN-Australia summit in Laos, personally introduced legislation that would ensure the NBN remained in public hands.
If the Coalition didn’t vote for the bill, that would show it would sell the NBN, Labor claimed. It was a crude attempt at scare politics, easily seen through. The Coalition is not suggesting it would sell the NBN and if it did, would most people care? Anyway, originally Labor planned for the NBN to be privatised. Dutton ridiculed the tactic.
As we look to election year, the 2025 parliamentary sitting calendar came out this week. It has a fortnight sitting in February and pencils in a budget for March 25, which would set up a May poll. Of course this doesn’t rule out an earlier (March) election although Albanese has said more than once he plans a pre-election budget.
Regardless, we are already in the election campaign. At caucus on Tuesday Albanese was, for the second time recently, talking about the second term agenda.
Announcements like confetti
Announcements are raining down like confetti especially related to cost-of-living issues. Supermarkets are being heavily targeted. Launching his merger reform legislation on Thursday, Chalmers said every supermarket merger would be screened, regardless of whether it fell under the new arrangements.
Present polls are showing the most likely election result, to be delivered by sour voters, is a hung parliament with a minority Labor government.
Albanese told caucus he was focused on winning majority government. Dutton knows that if the Coalition can’t win, the more crossbenchers it can force Labor to need to rely on, the more unstable a second-term Labor government would be.
Both sides have a great deal of bedding-down to do before the actual campaign.
Key items on Labor’s legislative agenda aren’t just not introduced, they are unseen – for instance, on gambling advertising, social media restrictions for young people, electoral funding.
Major bills are stuck in the parliament – notably on housing, where the Greens may eventually do a deal but are stringing out the pain.
On the other side, the Coalition has released minimal policy. On its controversial nuclear power plan, it has put out minimal details, in particular refusing to produce costings. It can’t hold back everything until the last moment.
Will the campaign even matter?
When the formal campaign comes, how much will it matter?
There is the old saying “you can’t fatten the pig on market day”. In other words, the election result may be decided well before the actual campaign.
What do the last three elections (2016, 2019, 2022) tell us about the importance of the formal campaign? In each case, the result was narrow, a matter of a handful of seats.
In 2022, there was probably nothing Morrison could have done in the last weeks to salvage the situation – to use another farm metaphor, his goose was cooked. In the event, he ran a bad campaign.
In 2016 prime minister Malcolm Turnbull just scraped home; Turnbull’s flawed campaigning maximised the number of seats he lost.
In 2019, when it seemed Bill Shorten was almost certain to take Labor to victory, its defeat may have been sealed in the campaign itself, although its heavy policy load always put it in a precarious situation.
In 2022 Albanese was judged a poor campaigner. Aware of this, Labor strategists will be doing everything to make sure he is fully prepared for “gotcha” questions (on which he faltered last time) and the other hazards that can arise spontaneously.
Dutton’s forte is negativity, his natural style is the attack. But in those final weeks, more will be needed.
One challenge in leaving policy releases late is that holes can slip through, inviting slip ups.
Dutton has far from established himself as a rounded alternative prime minister. Indeed his current approach on the Middle East, completely lacking nuance, raises questions about how he would handle the complexities of foreign policy generally. It has not been reassuring.
Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
The bill aims to set a new “floor” for how much the federal government contributes towards public school funding in Australia.
It would mean the Commonwealth has to contribute at least 20% of the schooling resource standard (how much funding a school needs to meet students’ educational needs) for public schools each year in all states and territories from 2025.
Clare argues it will provide “certainty” to schools, but it also comes in the middle of a standoff between the federal government and some states over school funding policy.
What’s in the bill?
The bill proposes to change the current arrangement, under which the Commonwealth contributes 20% to the schooling resource standard of public schools. As the government explains:
This means the 20 per cent will become the minimum, not the maximum, the Commonwealth contributes to public schools.
The Albanese government says the bill will increase “transparency and accountability” and ensure funding cannot go backwards.
But it cannot be certain of parliamentary support – Greens and independent senators are among those pushing for the government to provide more funding for public schools than is currently on the table.
The bill will remove a 20% cap on federal funding for public schools. Bianca De Marchi/AAP, CC BY
The bigger picture
The bill also comes as the federal government is still trying to sign off new deals with some of the states and territories about their public school funding for next year.
The current agreements will run out at the end of the year. While the new proposed arrangements would increase the federal contribution, it’s not by as much as some states want.
So far, Clare has made agreements with Western Australia and Tasmania to increase the federal contribution from 20% to 22.5%. For the Northern Territory it will increase funding to a 40% contribution by 2029.
So far, it has not signed deals with New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, and South Australia, which are pushing for a federal contribution of 25%.
Clare set a deadline of September 30 for the holdout states to sign on for the 2.5% funding boost, or risk losing an extra A$16 billion in funding. But that has passed without any compromise from either side.
Progress and politics
At the very least, the introduction of the bill to federal parliament is symbolically significant, particularly in light of the Commonwealth’s willingness to increase its contribution to the school resource standard of public schools.
But politics is never far away in school funding policy. Critics could argue the bill is more of a box-ticking exercise, rather than substantive reform. Indeed, the change in wording to a 20% minimum was inevitable given the specifics of the funding agreements already signed with Western Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory.
Critics might also point out national school funding policy is currently a bit of a mess, with four of the five most populous Australian states ignoring the government’s new funding deal. And they could remind us this agreement has already been delayed by a year. The previous one expired at the end of 2023 and was extended for 12 months by the Albanese government.
What happens to schools next year?
The bill does nothing to bring the holdout states any closer to signing on to the new funding agreement.
But this does not mean the federal government will withdraw its funding when school starts next year. Instead, the current funding arrangements will continue for another 12 months. This is why Clare says $16 billion in “additional investment” is on the table for public schools.
With a federal election due next year, it is even possible there will be no resolution before Australians go to the polls. This continues the fight over the schooling resource standard funding for public schools, which has has been ongoing since the so-called Gonski Review was made public in 2012.
Matthew P. Sinclair does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Question for written answer E-001927/2024 to the Commission Rule 144 Dirk Gotink (PPE)
According to an article[1] , there is an Erasmus+ partnership between the Commission and Gaziantep University and the university recently received EUR 250 000 from the EU. The article points to a host of anti-Israeli statements and states that the university rector actively supports the Hamas terrorist organisation. Accordingly:
1.Is this report about the Commission providing EUR 250 000 in Erasmus+ funding for Gaziantep University true?
2.When establishing relations with Gaziantep University, did the Commission also look into the statements by the rector and his possible links with Hamas?
3.Does the Commission concur that, in view of the rector’s statements, the agreement with the university should be immediately terminated? If not, why not?
Released by: Minister for Customer Service and Digital Government, Minister for Multiculturalism
The Minns Labor Government is investing $7.5 million into Multilingual NSW which will deliver the new Multilingual NSW Academy for translators and interpreters to further strengthen NSW’s linguistic diversity and government services.
The Multilingual NSW Academy will support the development and sustainability of translating and interpreting services across the State and fulfil a 2024-25 Budget commitment.
The Academy will explore new opportunities for partnerships and collaborations with leading training organisations, including University of New South Wales, Macquarie University, Western Sydney University and TAFE NSW. The Academy aims to increase the specialist and digital competency of Multicultural NSW’s more-than 1,000 language professionals by providing them with skills to work more effectively on NSW Government assignments.
Digital uplift through technology and training will be a key feature of the Academy supported by an investment in new technology. Additionally, the Academy will embrace the customer-centric way of working as championed by the Department of Customer Service.
At a recent event to recognise the work of NSW Government translators and interpreters and launch the new Multilingual NSW academy, three long serving Multicultural NSW employees were recognised for their 40-year professional commitment to their communities.
Polish translator Czeslaw Olechnowicz, Hindi interpreter Neena Sinha and Thai translator and interpreter Songsri Foran were recognised with medals to commemorate their service.
Minister for Multiculturalism Steve Kamper said:
“Translators and interpreters have a crucial role in ensuring everyone in NSW has access to important information and services, which is why we’re investing in our people.”
“Multilingual NSW is focusing on building the skills and capabilities of our translators and interpreters so that language is no longer a barrier to our multicultural community accessing government services.”
“This significant investment delivers on the government’s plan to build strong, diverse communities and a better NSW for everyone.”
Minister for Customer Service and Digital Government Jihad Dib said:
“With almost 1 in 3 people living in NSW born overseas and more than 280 languages spoken in homes across the state, it is essential we deliver the resources and services our communities need to stay connected.”
“We are working on a Digital Inclusion Strategy which puts people at the centre of how we roll out technological innovations and develop solutions which focus on diversity and accessibility and bridge the digital divide.”
“This digital funding will support the rollout of new technology which will support more effective translation and interpreting services to benefit our linguistically diverse residents.”
“This is about delivering digital for people, with the needs of the community being considered at every step.”
Source: United States of America – Federal Government Departments (video statements)
Select PNNL staff and Washington State University Tri-Cities students participate in entrepreneurial training called Energy I-Corp, funded by the Department of Energy. PNNL research teams are paired with WSU student teams to create a plan to take a PNNL-developed technology to market.
The Middle East is perilously close to all-out war. In the year since the October 7 Hamas-led attacks on Israel, millions of people have been displaced from their homes in Gaza, Israel, the West Bank and now Lebanon, and tens of thousands killed.
In this episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast, we speak to two experts from the Middle East, Mireille Rebeiz and Amnon Aran, to get a sense of the strategic calculations being made by both Israel and its neighbours at this frightening moment for the region.
Mireille Rebeiz is the chair of Middle East studies at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania in the US and an expert on Hezbollah. She says that since launching its manifesto in 1985 Hezbollah has always positioned itself “in opposition to the existence of the state of Israel”.
It affirmed the dedication to the Palestinian cause. It affirmed its commitment to the Iranian revolution and the Shi’ite ideology.
Rebeiz says Iran’s military goals are completely aligned with Hezbollah’s and traces them back to the US’s destabilisation of Iraq.
When Iraq fell into a full chaos and war (it) allowed for Iran to meddle into Iraq and gave a big voice to the Shiite conservative voices.
Then followed the 2011 Syrian civil war, in which Hezbollah stepped in to defend the regime of Bashar al-Assad.
It’s a domino effect – it’s expansion from Iran to Iraq to Syria to Lebanon. And this is clearly visible in Iran’s military goals, which is ultimately the expansion of the Iranian ideology in the region. Honestly, at this point, I would say there is an attempt to hide behind the Palestinian cause to achieve that goal.
Israel’s choices
Amnon Aran is a professor of international relations at City St George’s, University of London, in the UK, and an expert in Israeli foreign policy. Aran says that for Israel, the past 12 months have been described as an “existential moment”, which has informed the war in the Gaza Strip and now Lebanon.
When the question came about how to respond to this existential threat, it was very much from the prism of what I called elsewhere, a form of entrenchment, which really means that Israel only makes peace in exchange for peace. Any diplomatic arrangement has to be dependent upon and subordinate to a military advantageous balance of power towards Israel and that the Palestinians in the West Bank, and now in the Gaza Strip, would remain under Israeli occupation for the foreseeable future.
Aran says there is fierce debate in Israel about what to do now. One side follows the line of thinking of the former Israeli prime minister, Nafthali Bennett, who took to X in early October to say that: “Israel now has its greatest opportunity in 50 years to change the face of the Middle East.” This camp is arguing that with Hezbollah weakened, this is the moment to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities.
On the other side, Aran says, are those in the military establishment arguing against attacking Israel’s nuclear facilities and instead focus on weakening Hezbollah as much as possible. This camp’s reasoning is that:
After a year of being in a prolonged and very difficult conflict, the next question is you are actually starting a war presumably on five or six fronts, including a very vast country, 90 million people, Iran, with a very rich history, and you are actually entering into a very new phase, which could become very prolonged.
To hear the full interviews with Mireille Rebeiz and Amnon Aran, listen to The Conversation Weekly podcast.
This episode of The Conversation Weekly was produced by Mend Mariwany. Sound design was by Michelle Macklem, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Gemma Ware is the executive producer.
Listen to The Conversation Weekly via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our RSS feed or find out how else to listen here.
Amnon Aran does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. Mireille Rebeiz is affiliated with the American Red Cross.
SACRAMENTO – Governor Gavin Newsom today announced the following appointments:
Jennifer Troia, of Sacramento, has been appointed Director at the California Department of Social Services. Troia has served as Chief Deputy Director at the California Department of Social Services since 2020. She was a Principal Consultant for the Joint Legislative Budget Committee from 2018 to 2019. Troia was a Policy Advisor in the Office of California State Senate President pro Tempore Kevin de Leon from 2014 to 2017. She held several roles for the California State Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review from 2009 to 2014, including Deputy Staff Director and Principal Consultant. Troia was a Principal Consultant for the California State Assembly Committee on Human Services from 2008 to 2009. She was Director of Advocacy at the California Court Appointed Special Advocate Association from 2006 to 2008. Troia was an Equal Justice Works Fellow and Attorney at the Youth Law Center from 2004 to 2006. She earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration from the University of Florida. This position requires Senate confirmation and the compensation is $244,572. Troia is a Democrat.
Nathan Williams, of Washington, D.C., has been appointed Chief, Immigration Integration Branch of the Office of Equity at the California Department of Social Services. Williams has been Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Affairs at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security since September 2024. He held several roles at the National Security Council in the Executive Office of the President of the United States from 2023 and 2024, including Director for Refugees and Director for Hemispheric Migration. Williams was a Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of International Affairs at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from 2022 to 2023. He served in several roles, including several overseas assignments, at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees from 2010 and 2022, including Senior Liaison Officer, Digital Case Management Officer, Protection Officer, Associate Field Officer, Associate Protection Officer and Associate Resettlement Officer. Williams was an Emergency Officer at the Office of Emergency Programmes of the United Nations Children’s Fund in 2015. He earned a Master of International Affairs degree from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Anthropology from Santa Clara University. This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $142,008. Williams is a Democrat.
Daphne Hunt, of Fair Oaks, has been appointed Chief Deputy Director at the California Department of Community Services and Development. Hunt has served as Deputy Director of Programs at the California Department of Community Services and Development since 2021. She was Deputy Secretary of Legislative Affairs at the California Health and Human Services Agency from 2019 to 2021. Hunt held several roles at the California State Assembly’s Human Services Committee from 2015 to 2019, including Chief Consultant and Senior Consultant. She held several roles at the California State Senate Office of Research from 2012 to 2015, including Deputy Director and Policy Consultant. She held several roles at SEIU Local 1000 from 2007 to 2012, including Senior Research Analyst and Research Analyst. Hunt earned a Master of Arts degree in Social Policy from Brandeis University, a Master of Science degree in Community Development from the University of California, Davis and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology and English Literature from the University of Iowa. This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $176,808. Hunt is a Democrat.
Roy Bucton, of Duarte, has been reappointed to the California State Independent Living Council, where he has served since 2021. Bucton has been an Independent Contractor and Producer for music and performance since 1983. He was a Disability Advocacy Coordinator for Painted Brain from 2021 to 2024. Bucton was Director and Founder of the Filipino Artists Network from 2001 to 2011. He is Chair of the Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness Advisory Council and a member of the Board of Directors of Disability Rights California. Bucton earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in World Music from the California Institute of the Arts. This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation. Bucton is registered without party preference.
Susan DeMarois, of Sacramento, has been reappointed to the California State Independent Living Council, where she has served since 2022. DeMarois has been Director of the California Department of Aging since 2021. She was a Member of the Master Plan for Aging Stakeholder Advisory Committee from 2019 to 2020. DeMarois held several positions at the Alzheimer’s Association from 1999 and 2021, including Director of Public Policy and Advocacy, California Government Affairs Director and California State Policy Director. She was Assistant Director of Government and Community Relations at the University of California, Davis Health System from 2002 to 2009. DeMarois was Associate Director of Public Policy at LeadingAge California from 1993 to 1999. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Liberal Arts from California State University, Chico. This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation. DeMarois is a Democrat.
Ariana “Rian” Dindzans, of San Ramon, has been reappointed to the California State Independent Living Council, where they have served since 2023. Dindzans has been a Volunteer Writer and Outreach Representative for the Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program since 2023. They have been a Research Assistant for Dr. Christina Chin-Newman at California State University, East Bay since 2023. Dindzans is a member of the Disability Justice Club and the Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program. This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation. Dindzans is a Democrat.
Anisa Escobedo, of Eureka, has been reappointed to the California State Independent Living Council, where she has served since 2023. Escobedo has been Owner and Designer at Escobedo Design since 2016. She held several roles at Tri-County Independent Living from 2019 to 2024, including Systems Change & Special Projects Coordinator, Advocacy and Fund Development Coordinator and Advocacy & Outreach Specialist. Escobedo was Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer at the Arcata Chamber of Commerce in 2022. She was Executive Director of the Ravenna Chamber of Commerce in 2020. Escobedo is a member of Kiwanis International. This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation. Escobedo is a Democrat.
M. Lisa Hayes, of Bellflower, has been reappointed to the California State Independent Living Council, where she has served since 2016. Hayes has been Executive Director at Rolling Start Inc. since 2018. She held several positions at Molina Healthcare between 2007 and 2017, including Associate Vice President of Managed Long-Term Services and Supports, Director of Disability and Senior Access Services, Manager of Senior Disability Programs and Manager of Provider Contract Review. Hayes was a Project and Contract Manager at United Health PacifiCare from 2000 to 2007. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Organizational Leadership from Biola University. This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation. Hayes is a Democrat.
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Myanmar’s military authorities must immediately account for the whereabouts and wellbeing of two pro-democracy activists arrested in Yangon on Wednesday, Amnesty International said today.
Paing Phyo Min and Shein Wai Aung were arrested on 9 October and sent to an interrogation centre, Amnesty International understands. Paing Phyo Min’s family has not been able to reach him, while Shein Wai Aung and his father, mother and sister have also been uncontactable.
As many as six additional people are also believed to have been arrested in raids.
“The Myanmar military must urgently account for the whereabouts and wellbeing of Paing Phyo Min and of Shein Wai Aung and his family. Unless they can be charged with an internationally recognized crime, they must be immediately and unconditionally released,” Amnesty International’s Myanmar Researcher Joe Freeman said.
“As leaders from The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meet in Laos and discuss a way out of the crisis brought on by the 2021 coup, the Myanmar military continues to arbitrarily detain people and carry out repression across the country.”
Paing Phyo Min is known for his involvement with a group of young people performing Thangyat, a popular Myanmar traditional art form which fuses poetry, comedy and music to comment on social issues.
In 2019, Paing Phyo Min and other members of an activist group called the Peacock Generation were arrested after performing Thangyat dressed as soldiers. For this, he was sentenced to six years in prison.
In 2020, Amnesty International called for Paing Phyo Min’s release as part of its annual Write 4 Rights campaign, with many people writing letters to him to bolster his spirits. He was released in 2021 as part of a mass prisoner amnesty.
After the military coup, he and others took part in peaceful protests in Yangon, despite enormous risks following violent crackdowns.
Shein Wai Aung, a former student at Dagon University in Yangon, has been active in peaceful protests and in supporting political prisoners in Myanmar.
“Protesting in Myanmar today is not the same as it was before the coup. Anyone involved in any kind of dissent against the military faces long jail terms, torture and other ill-treatment, and even death in custody,” Joe Freeman said.
“In Myanmar’s prison system, there is little hope of fair treatment, no transparency, and extremely substandard conditions. Interrogation centers, where these two activists have likely been sent, are also notorious locations of abuse where torture has been used to extract information before charges are formally brought.”
Myanmar’s military has killed more than 5,000 civilians since seizing power in the coup on 1 February 2021. The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said in its latest report last month that at least 1,853 of those people have died in custody.
In the 2022 report ‘15 Days Felt Like 15 Years’, Amnesty International documented torture and other ill-treatment against people arbitrarily detained by the military and police after the coup.
MILES AXLE Translation. Region: Russian Federation –
Source: State University of Management – Official website of the State –
The 2nd ceremony of awarding scholarship certificates of the financial market program “Investments in the Future” was held in the Congress Center of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation. One of the certificates was awarded to a student of the Institute of Economics and Finance of the State University of Management Khagai Ifraimov.
The scholarship program of corporate and personal scholarships “Investments in the Future” was established in 2022 on the initiative of the Financial Market Council, with the support of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Eurasian Economic Council. The program is designed to provide financial support to talented students and young scientists from universities and colleges of the EurAsEC and the CIS.
In the 2024/2025 academic year, 113 universities and colleges in Russia and Kazakhstan are participating in the program, the “Investments in the Future” fund amounted to 28 million rubles. The scholarship council selected 230 recipients on a competitive basis, 28 of whom were awarded personal scholarships in honor of famous scientists, teachers, government and public figures. The annual scholarship amount is 120 thousand rubles – students will receive 10 thousand rubles per month.
The founders of the scholarships include banks, insurance companies, non-state pension funds, industrial enterprises and humanitarian organizations. The organizations themselves choose the university or secondary specialized educational institution for whose students they are ready to establish a scholarship.
The founder of the scholarship for the GUU student Khagai Ifraimov was the Specialized Depository Company “Garant”. Khagai is a 4th-year student at the IEF in the “Financial Management” program. He shared with us his impressions of the scholarship awarding ceremony:
“Having received a scholarship from the Russian Financial Market Council, I felt an incredible surge of joy and pride. This is not only recognition of my efforts and work, but also an incentive for further self-improvement. I understood that the scholarship would open doors to the world of finance, allow me to meet many key and iconic figures in the Russian financial market. My determination to work even harder only increased, because this support is a step towards achieving goals and strengthening faith in my own strengths.”
We wish Khagai further success in his studies!
Subscribe to the TG channel “Our GUU” Date of publication: 10.10.2024
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Exercise is great for improving heart health. But the thought of hitting the gym or going for a jog might put some people off from doing it. And, if you have a heart condition already, such dynamic exercises may not be safe to do.
The good news is, you don’t necessarily need to do a vigorous workout to see heart benefits. You can even improve your heart health by holding still and trying really hard not to move.
Normally, to build strength and force, our muscles need to change length throughout a movement. Squats and bicep curls are good examples of exercises that cause the muscle to change length throughout the movement.
But isometric training involves simply contracting your muscles, which generates force without needing to move your joints. The harder a muscle is contracted, the more forceful it becomes (and the more forceful a muscle is, the more powerfully we can perform a movement).
If you add weight to an isometric exercise, it causes the muscle to contract even harder. A wall sit and a plank are examples of isometric contractions.
Isometric exercises are associated with a high degree of “neural recruitment”, because of the need to maintain the contraction. This means these exercises are good at engaging specialised neurons in our brain and spinal cord, which play an important role in all the movements we do – both voluntary and involuntary. The greater this level of neural activation, the more muscle fibres are recruited – and the more force generated. As a result, this can lead to strength gains.
Isometric exercises have long been of interest to strength and power athletes as a means of preparing their muscles to generate high forces by activating them. But research also shows isometric exercises are beneficial for other areas of our health – including reducing hypertension and promoting better blood flow.
There are a couple reasons why isometric exercises are so good for the heart.
When a muscle is contracted, it expands its size. This causes it to compress the blood vessels supplying this muscle, reducing blood flow and raising the blood pressure in our arteries – a mechanism known as the “pressor reflex”.
Then, once the contraction is relaxed, a sudden surge of blood flows into the blood vessels and muscle. This influx of blood brings more oxygen and (crucially) nitric oxide into the blood vessels – causing them to widen. This in turn reduces blood pressure. Over time, this action will reduce stiffness of the arteries, which may lower blood pressure.
When blood flow is reduced during an isometric movement, it also reduces the amount of available oxygen that cells need to function. This triggers the release of metabolites, such as hydrogen ions and lactate, which stimulate the sympathetic nervous system – which controls our “fight of flight” response. In the short term, this leads to an increase in blood pressure.
But when an isometric exercise is done repeatedly over many weeks, there’s a reduction in sympathetic nervous system activity. This means blood pressure is lowered and there’s less strain on the cardiovascular system – which makes these exercises good for the heart.
Isometric exercises may be even more beneficial for heart health than other types of cardiovascular exercise. A study which compared the benefits of isometric exercise versus high-intensity interval training found isometrics led to significantly greater reductions in resting blood pressure over the study period of between two and 12 weeks.
How to use isometric exercise
If you want to use isometric training to reduce blood pressure, it’s recommended that you should do any isometric contraction for two minutes at around 30-50% of your maximum effort. This is enough to trigger physiological improvements.
You can start by doing this four times a day, three-to-five times per week – focusing on the same exercise. As you progress, you can start to vary the exercises you do, add weights to the exercise, or add in more than one isometric exercise.
Some good isometric exercises to begin with include a static squat, a wall sit or a plank. Even during these small bouts of exercise, your heart rate, breathing and arterial pressure will all increase – the same responses that occur during more conventional whole-body exercises, such as cycling and running.
The beneficial improvements in blood pressure start to manifest around 4-10 weeks after starting isometric training – though this depends on a person’s health and fitness levels when starting out.
Isometric training appears to be a simple, low-intensity mode of exercise that offers big benefits for cardiovascular health – all while requiring little time commitment compared with other workouts.
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Presenter and wildlife cameraman has date at the Chelmsford Science Festival
TV presenter, wildlife cameraman and Strictly Come Dancing champion Hamza Yassin will be heading to Essex later this month to take part in the Chelmsford Science Festival.
The free event at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) on Tuesday, 29 October, will focus on Hamza’s journey overcoming adversity with his dyslexia to becoming a renowned wildlife cameraman and presenter in My Life Behind the Lens. Hamza will share some incredible photographs and stories from his early life in Sudan and his global travels as a cameraman.
Hamza achieved national stardom when he lifted the famous Glitterball Trophy in 2022 with his professional partner Jowita Przystal, but he had enjoyed a successful and varied TV career before Strictly Come Dancing. Hamza’s first appearance was on The One Show, as one of their wildlife cameramen.
He is known as Ranger Hamza on the hugely popular CBeebies shows Let’s Go For A Walk and Ranger Hamza’s Eco Quest, and is one of the regular presenters on the BBC’s Countryfile and Animal Park.
For Channel 4, Hamza has presented Scotland: My Life in the Wild and Scotland: Escape to the Wilderness, and the highly regarded BBC One documentary Hamza: Strictly Birds of Prey. He is currently filming a new BBC One series titled Hamza’s Hidden Wild Isles.
Hamza has a particular passion for birds and is a skilled ornithologist and birds nest recorder. His first book, Be a Birder: The joy of birdwatching and how to get started, was published last year, while his second book, Hamza’s Wild World, was published by Macmillan Children’s Books and is out now.
Professor Laurie Butler, Dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), said:
“We are absolutely thrilled to be welcoming Hamza to ARU on 29 October as part of the Chelmsford Science Festival.
“Hamza achieved national treasure status when he danced his way to victory on Strictly two years ago and we are excited to learn more about his passion for wildlife and nature.
“As well as being a talented wildlife cameraman, Hamza is also a knowledgeable conservationist and ornithologist, so the event should be perfect for anyone with an interest in natural history.”
Hamza will be bringing his cameras to ARU, offering visitors an exclusive, close-up look at his equipment, and will host a short Q&A session, so attendees should come armed with questions. Hamza will also be available to meet attendees following the talk and Q&A.
Due to exceptional demand, the organisers have arranged a free live stream of Hamza’s talk on Tuesday, 29 October (6.30-8pm).
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Harsh Trivedi, Associate Teacher, School of Languages and Cultures, University of Sheffield
The multiverse has become an essential part of pop culture. The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) brought this shared universe style of storytelling to global prominence with Iron Man (2008), where a post-credit scene hinted at a larger interconnected universe.
Over time, this expanded into a cinematic multiverse, particularly with the 2016 film Doctor Strange. Films like Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) and Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness (2022) introduced audiences to parallel universes where different versions of the same character coexist. The multiverse has also been embraced by other films, like Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022), which won multiple Academy Awards and Stree 2, which became the highest-grossing Bollywood film of all time in September 2024.
This style of storytelling has deep literary roots. I believe the first person to master the fictional multiverse was the 19th-century French novelist, Honoré de Balzac, in his monumental work La Comédie Humaine (The Human Comedy, 1829-1847).
In the 1920s, German physicist Werner Heisenberg challenged Newtonian physics, positing that particles can simultaneously occupy multiple states – he called this the Uncertainty Principle. Later, in the 1950s, American physicist Hugh Everett proposed the Many Worlds Interpretation, suggesting that all possible outcomes of a quantum event occur, each in a separate parallel universe.
While this theory was developed in physics, the term “multiverse” was introduced into literature by British science fiction writer Michael Moorcock. In The Eternal Champion (1970), he envisioned characters existing in parallel worlds with multiple avatars.
However, Balzac’s La Comédie Humaine, written over a century earlier, already contained the seeds of multiverse storytelling. Comprising nearly 100 novels and short stories, it features thousands of characters who reappear across different works, creating a shared universe that allows for complex narrative interconnections.
Balzac’s innovation was not merely in these recurring characters, but in the thematic and conceptual unity he established across his fictional universe.
This cohesion is built through his “typology” of characters. Balzac’s “types” are characters who embody universal traits while retaining their individual personalities – making them instantly recognisable across different stories.
In his preface to Une Ténébreuse Affaire (An Historical Mystery, 1841), Balzac defends his use of types: “A type … is a character who summarises in himself certain characteristic traits of all those who more or less resemble him; he is the model of the genre.”
Hungarian philosopher Georg Lukács expanded on this idea, stating that Balzac’s types represent a synthesis of the individual and the universal. These characters are universal enough to represent broader societal forces, while remaining distinct individuals within their own narratives.
The moment Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man saves the love interest of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, MJ.
This balance between the universal and individual is a cornerstone of multiverse storytelling. For instance, the climax of Spider-Man: No Way Home highlights the interplay between the universal and individual aspects of characters, as seen when three versions of Spider-Man (Toby Maguire, Andrew Garfield, Tom Holland) from parallel universes unite. Garfield’s Spider-Man finds redemption by saving MJ (Holland’s Spider-Man’s love interest), a moment that mirrors his own tragic loss of Gwen – emphasising both their shared trauma and divergent fates.
In much the same way, Balzac’s recurring characters evolve across La Comédie Humaine, reflecting different facets of their personalities and situations. Although not planned as a shared universe from the beginning – Balzac retrofitted earlier works to fit this framework – the coherence of his fictional world is remarkable.
Mobilising the multiverse
The French philosopher Alain wrote that Balzac’s literary universe can sometimes feel like a “crossroads where characters from La Comédie Humaine meet, greet each other, and pass”. This creates a sense of disjointedness, due to its lack of strict chronological order, allowing readers to enter Balzac’s universe from any of the nearly 100 novels or short stories.
Balzac addressed these concerns in his prefaces. He engaged in a meta-discourse similar to the post-credit scenes in modern Marvel films, where future plot-lines and character arcs are hinted at.
Balzac’s use of prefaces as a space to preempt criticism and engage with his readers anticipates the dialogue between creators and fans in the MCU. Just as Marvel balances creative vision with fan demands, Balzac used his prefaces to address concerns from his readers about the trajectories of beloved characters.
One of many such instances occurs in the preface to Pierrette (1840), where Balzac reveals that Maxime de Trailles, a notorious bachelor who ruins many women’s lives in La Comédie Humaine, is finally getting married. Despite criticisms from readers who wanted De Trailles to meet a tragic and painful end, Balzac defends his decision, humorously remarking: “What do you want me to do? That devil Maxime is in good health.”
Both Balzac and Marvel deal with the challenge of catering to a wide and diverse audience. The multiverse model, however, offers a solution to the limitations of a shared universe. While Balzac struggled with the impossibility of creating a completely coherent world – La Comédie Humaine was unfinished at his death – the multiverse allows modern creators to explore multiple realities and satisfy diverse audience expectations without making irreversible narrative choices.
In 2019, Marvel faced a backlash to the film Captain Marvel from conservative fans, for casting a female actor in a lead role – and then, in 2022, another backlash for casting a Muslim Pakistani actress as Ms. Marvel. Rather than directly addressing the criticism, which could have alienated both conservative and liberal audiences, Marvel used the multiverse to cater to a wide range of expectations.
Across the Spider-Verse (2023) is a prime example. This animated film features over 600 versions of Spider-Man, from the “traditional” white Spider-Man to black, Indian and even animal versions of the character (notably Peter “Porker”, the Spider-Pig). In doing so, Marvel catered to diverse global markets without committing to a single interpretation.
Balzac’s La Comédie Humaine laid the groundwork for modern multiverse storytelling. This approach allowed him to explore different dimensions of his characters across various stories. His visionary storytelling anticipated the fluidity and complexity found in today’s shared cinematic universes, demonstrating his enduring influence on narrative structures.
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Harsh Trivedi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Emily, a finance manager, has been working 60-hour weeks for several months to meet deadlines. She starts feeling constantly exhausted, both physically and mentally. Work that she once found engaging now seems overwhelming, and she’s easily irritated with her colleagues. Despite putting in more hours, her productivity declines. Eventually, she starts calling in sick frequently and considers quitting her job, feeling like she just can’t keep going any more.
Emily is a victim of burnout. For 2024, World Mental Health Day is focused on workplace health, with the aim of helping people like Emily recognise when work is affecting their wellbeing, so that they can take steps to address it.
Burnout happens when the demands of a job are high for a long time, and are not offset by sufficient mental and physical resources. In this situation, people are no longer able to recover from their demanding job. Their energy is gradually drained, resulting in a state of mental exhaustion, a cynical and negative attitude towards their work, as well as a declining performance.
In other words, people affected by burnout are neither able nor willing to fully function in their job. Burnout can occur in any job, but is most likely in workplaces where demands are high and resources low. It is a widespread phenomenon.
A report by the charity Mental Health UK asserts that the country is on the verge of becoming a burnt-out nation, with 91% of the working adults surveyed reporting high or extreme levels of pressure and stress at some point in the past year.
According to the same report, 20% of workers in the UK even took time off work due to poor mental health caused by stress last year.
Research has consistently shown that the primary causes of burnout are excessive and prolonged job demands. This includes, for example, high workloads, job insecurity, role ambiguity, conflict, stress or stressful events, and work pressure.
Burnout has severe consequences, most of all for people affected by it. Burnout impacts people differently, but even mild cases – which could linger for several years – can lead to a multitude of negative health outcomes. This includes work-related anxiety and depression, increased risk of cardiovascular diseases, Type 2 diabetes, insomnia, headaches and perhaps most alarmingly, increased mortality.
People with mild cases of burnout are also at risk of developing more severe burnout that will keep them off work sick for long periods.
Burnout is also worrying for organisations as it has a negative impact on creativity, leads to higher employee turnover, increased absenteeism and poor job performance.
The symptoms of burnout differ from one person to another, and sometimes people might not even fully realise they’re burnt out until they are no longer just tired but too exhausted to function.
People who experience burnout are drained of energy and may be overwhelmed even by
small tasks. They distance themselves from their work, struggle with self doubt and develop cynical, negative attitudes regarding their job or the people they work for.
When looking for symptoms of burnout, it might help to ask yourself questions like: Do you mostly talk about your work in a negative way? Do you tend to think less about your work and do your job almost mechanically? Do you sometimes feel sickened by your work tasks? Are there days when you feel tired before you arrive at work? Do you often feel emotionally drained during your work? Do you usually feel worn out and weary after your work?
Burnout recovery and prevention needs to help minimise the job demands which cause
exhaustion and disengagement. For example, reducing workload and work pressure, and establishing clear boundaries between life and work can help to reduce stressful job demands.
Job resources can also help to mitigate the impact of job demands. This includes things like job control, having a variety of tasks, social support, performance feedback, opportunities for professional development and the quality of a worker’s relationship with their supervisor.
When people have an abundance of these resources, the link between the demands of the job and burnout is greatly reduced because they help workers to cope better.
Recovery is possible
Opportunities for recovery from work-related stress are an especially important job resource in this context. Recovery means that employees have non-work time where they can relax and detach themselves from work. This may include leisure activities that allow people to simply experience pleasure without competitive pressures.
Research has also shown that job crafting is an effective burnout intervention. Job crafting means that employees make small adjustments to both their job demands and resources. Employees can decrease their job demands by taking steps to minimise the emotionally, mentally or physically demanding job aspects or by reducing their workload.
For example, this might involve looking for a calmer place to work. They can also increase job resources by engaging in professional development, gaining more autonomy at work and by asking others for support, feedback and advice. Over time, engaging in job crafting will lead to lower burnout.
Organisations also need to play their part to reduce burnout. A range of intervention strategies such as stress management training, mindfulness-based approaches or policies that allow employees to disconnect from work outside of normal working hours are useful tools for combating burnout in an organisation.
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
A neural network is a computational model consisting of layers of interconnected neurons. Like the neurons in your brain, these neurons process and send along a piece of information. Each neural layer receives a piece of data, processes it and passes the result to the next layer. By the end of the sequence, the network has processed and refined the data into something more useful.
While it might seem surprising that Hopfield and Hinton received the physics prize for their contributions to neural networks, used in computer science, their work is deeply rooted in the principles of physics, particularly a subfield called statistical mechanics.
As a computational materials scientist, I was excited to see this area of research recognized with the prize. Hopfield and Hinton’s work has allowed my colleagues and me to study a process called generative learning for materials sciences, a method that is behind many popular technologies like ChatGPT.
What is statistical mechanics?
Statistical mechanics is a branch of physics that uses statistical methods to explain the behavior of systems made up of a large number of particles.
Instead of focusing on individual particles, researchers using statistical mechanics look at the collective behavior of many particles. Seeing how they all act together helps researchers understand the system’s large-scale macroscopic properties like temperature, pressure and magnetization.
For example, physicist Ernst Ising developed a statistical mechanics model for magnetism in the 1920s. Ising imagined magnetism as the collective behavior of atomic spins interacting with their neighbors.
In Ising’s model, there are higher and lower energy states for the system, and the material is more likely to exist in the lowest energy state.
One key idea in statistical mechanics is the Boltzmann distribution, which quantifies how likely a given state is. This distribution describes the probability of a system being in a particular state – like solid, liquid or gas – based on its energy and temperature.
Ising exactly predicted the phase transition of a magnet using the Boltzmann distribution. He figured out the temperature at which the material changed from being magnetic to nonmagnetic.
Phase changes happen at predictable temperatures. Ice melts to water at a specific temperature because the Boltzmann distribution predicts that when it gets warm, the water molecules are more likely to take on a disordered – or liquid – state.
Statistical mechanics tells researchers about the properties of a larger system, and how individual objects in that system act collectively.
In materials, atoms arrange themselves into specific crystal structures that use the lowest amount of energy. When it’s cold, water molecules freeze into ice crystals with low energy states.
Similarly, in biology, proteins fold into low energy shapes, which allow them to function as specific antibodies – like a lock and key – targeting a virus.
Neural networks and statistical mechanics
Fundamentally, all neural networks work on a similar principle – to minimize energy. Neural networks use this principle to solve computing problems.
For example, imagine an image made up of pixels where you only can see a part of the picture. Some pixels are visible, while the rest are hidden. To determine what the image is, you consider all possible ways the hidden pixels could fit together with the visible pieces. From there, you would choose from among what statistical mechanics would say are the most likely states out of all the possible options.
In statistical mechanics, researchers try to find the most stable physical structure of a material. Neural networks use the same principle to solve complex computing problems. Veera Sundararaghavan
Hopfield and Hinton developed a theory for neural networks based on the idea of statistical mechanics. Just like Ising before them, who modeled the collective interaction of atomic spins to solve the photo problem with a neural network, Hopfield and Hinton imagined collective interactions of pixels. They represented these pixels as neurons.
Just as in statistical physics, the energy of an image refers to how likely a particular configuration of pixels is. A Hopfield network would solve this problem by finding the lowest energy arrangements of hidden pixels.
However, unlike in statistical mechanics – where the energy is determined by known atomic interactions – neural networks learn these energies from data.
Building upon Hopfield’s work, Hinton imagined another neural network, called the Boltzmann machine. It consists of visible neurons, which we can observe, and hidden neurons, which help the network learn complex patterns.
In a Boltzmann machine, you can determine the probability that the picture looks a certain way. To figure out this probability, you can sum up all the possible states the hidden pixels could be in. This gives you the total probability of the visible pixels being in a specific arrangement.
My group has worked on implementing Boltzmann machines in quantum computers for generative learning.
In generative learning, the network learns to generate new data samples that resemble the data the researchers fed the network to train it. For example, it might generate new images of handwritten numbers after being trained on similar images. The network can generate these by sampling from the learned probability distribution.
Generative learning underpins modern AI – it’s what allows the generation of AI art, videos and text.
Hopfield and Hinton have significantly influenced AI research by leveraging tools from statistical physics. Their work draws parallels between how nature determines the physical states of a material and how neural networks predict the likelihood of solutions to complex computer science problems.
Veera Sundararaghavan receives external funding for research unrelated to the content of this article.
LONDON, Oct. 09, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — WTW (NASDAQ: WTW), a leading global advisory, broking, and solutions company today announced a new scientific partnership with the University of Colorado Boulder to transfer scientific advances in seasonal climate prediction to the insurance and risk management industries. Through this collaboration, WTW and its clients will be able to anticipate how weather events will affect their operations and portfolios over the next quarter and prepare for forecasted climate risks.
Natural fluctuations in the Pacific Ocean – known as El Niño and La Niña – are the leading cause of year-over-year changes in the global climate. The reach of these patterns extends far beyond the Pacific and affects the odds of drought, wildfire, heatwaves, and hurricanes across much of the world. Because meteorological agencies are now able to predict El Niño and La Niña episodes several months ahead of time, these forecasts provide advance warning of severe weather events and likely climate impacts over large parts of the globe.
Historically, the state of the tropical Pacific has cost trillions of dollars in direct damages and reduced economic growth. But most businesses have only begun to take advantage of the strong predictability offered by El Niño and La Niña. WTW has teamed with the University of Colorado Boulder to harness the ongoing ‘climate prediction revolution’ for business use and improve our ability to predict global climate for the coming season, year, and decade. At CU Boulder, the collaboration will be led by Prof. Pedro DiNezio, a leading expert in long-term climate forecasts, the effects of El Niño, and climate extremes under global warming.
Scott St. George, Head of Weather and Climate Research for the WTW Research Network, said, “What happens in the tropical Pacific certainly does not stay in the tropical Pacific. El Niño and La Niña can reach across the entire globe to affect local weather and the risks of catastrophic perils. We are excited to work together with Prof. DiNezio so our clients know well in advance how to prepare their business when El Niño and La Niña are on the horizon. These insights will be especially valuable for sectors that depend strongly on natural resources, such as energy producers, food and beverage, and transportation.”
Pedro DiNezio, Associate Professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at CU Boulder, added, “Making predictions is one of the most thrilling parts of my work. Every prediction tests our understanding of the inner workings of the climate system. In addition, El Niño and La Niña happen every several years, therefore we do not fully know everything about these complex, sometimes chaotic phenomena, keeping our research fresh and exciting. This collaboration with WTW adds a new layer to this challenge as we learn how to produce predictions that are useful for the insurance sector and vulnerable communities around the world”.
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At WTW (NASDAQ: WTW), we provide data-driven, insight-led solutions in the areas of people, risk and capital. Leveraging the global view and local expertise of our colleagues serving 140 countries and markets, we help organizations sharpen their strategy, enhance organizational resilience, motivate their workforce and maximize performance.
Working shoulder to shoulder with our clients, we uncover opportunities for sustainable success—and provide perspective that moves you.
At the foot of the Rocky Mountains, the University of Colorado Boulder is nationally recognized as one of only 38 AAU public research universities. Established in 1876, CU Boulder is an R1 public research university with five Nobel laureates, nine MacArthur fellows and is the No. 1 public university recipient of NASA awards. CU Boulder is a leader in many fields, including aerospace engineering, earth and environmental science, physics, and environmental law. The school partners with many notable federal research labs, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Learn more.
Seoul (Agenzia Fides) – North Korea has cut off road and rail access to South Korea with the aim of “completely separating” the two countries. The North Korean army has announced that it is proceeding to “permanently isolate and block the southern border”, reinforcing the fortifications as a “self-defense measure to prevent war”. Signs of closure such as this – with high symbolic value – mark a historic moment in which tensions between the two parts of Korea have reached their highest levels in recent years. This has not left southern society untouched either, and “the desire for reunification is diminishing”, says Peter Soon-Taick Chung, Archbishop of Seoul and Apostolic Administrator of Pyongyang, in an interview with Fides, in which he examines the issue of North-South relations.”I think many young people in the South are beginning to believe that reconciliation or reunification are not viable paths. Hope is fading”, he notes. Therefore, he adds, “I think it is appropriate to continue to dream of peaceful coexistence and to keep the light of hope burning in Korean society, especially today, in the current stalemate, with the total blockade of communication routes, the situation is very bleak”. He adds that “our task is to continue with prayer and education for peace: the Church continues to ask what can and must be done for peace”. “We are approaching the Holy Year, which has as its theme hope: we are pilgrims of hope, also with regard to relations with the North”, he stresses.Simon Kim Ju-young, Bishop of Chuncheon and president of the Episcopal Commission for Reconciliation, meanwhile notes with bitterness that “both sides view each other with a certain hostility and all channels are closed, even that of humanitarian aid, which was kept open in the past. And even if the Korean public opinion is still quite divided on policy towards the North, all Koreans are united when it comes to sending humanitarian aid to North Korea. But North Korea keeps all channels closed, including humanitarian ones.”There is another reason for this attitude, according to political observers: in the current international context, marked by wars in Europe and the Middle East, the arms market has grown and North Korea is one of the countries that sell equipment from its war arsenal. This sector acts as a driving force for the North Korean economy, which is thus less dependent and less reliant on external aid.In this period of closure, “we pray above all for the doors to open. All the faithful of the Church in Korea participate in this prayer,” says Bishop Simon Kim Ju-young. “In some dioceses, for example, the faithful gathered at nine o’clock in the evening to ask God for reconciliation and peace. In Seoul, a Mass is celebrated every week for this intention, and in my diocese of Chuncheon, we hold a special prayer on the 25th of every month.”In all the dioceses of Korea, there is a Commission for Reconciliation and Unification of the Korean People, where religious priests, nuns and lay people come together “to talk about peace and continue to raise people’s awareness of the issue of peace, with initiatives aimed at the Catholic faithful but also at non-Catholics,” the bishop continued.Another way, which practices a kind of “culture of welcome,” is proposed by Benedictine Abbot Blasio Park Hyun-dong, OSB, Apostolic Administrator of the Territorial Abbey of Tokwon in the province of Hamkyongnam in North Korea: the building of the Tokwon Abbey is now used as a University of Agriculture. In 1952, Benedictine monks and nuns fled the North because of the Korean War and founded a new monastery in Waegwan, South Korea. Today, the Abbot of Waegwan, who is also Apostolic Administrator of the Territorial Abbey of Tokwon, reports: “We can continue to show concrete solidarity and welcome the refugees who make it from the North to the South. As religious communities, we do our best to help these refugees, at all levels. Even if reunification is still a long way off, for us this is a kind of preparation for living together and keeps the hope of reconciliation alive.”Looking back, the bishops recall that the Commission for Reconciliation within the Episcopal Conference visited Pyongyang in December 2015 to meet with the local Catholic community and celebrate a Mass in the Changchung Church. “On that occasion,” recalls the then priest Simon Kim Ju-young, “we told the local faithful that South Korean Catholics pray for reconciliation every day at nine in the evening. We asked them to participate in this prayer and they assured us that they would do so.” He added: “I remember their faces and their words. They were people who professed Christianity and I felt in my heart that they said it with a sincere heart and the authenticity of the Holy Spirit. Today, listening to the stories of the refugees, even if we have no news from across the border, we nourish the hope that there are still believers there. We hope that one day we will be able to come together again and pray together”. (PA) (Agenzia Fides, 9/10/2024)
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For Pennsylvania residents like me, there is no escape from the record-breaking number of political attack ads disrupting our favorite shows and filling our social media feeds.
A projected US$10.7 billion is being spent nationwide – but particularly in battleground states – on political ads this election season.
For those who are feeling election fatigue and just want to stream in peace: Buckle in, because it’s about to get worse.
As of late August 2024, over $1.7 billion in political ads had been reserved nationwide to run between Labor Day and Election Day. Over $400 million of that is just for presidential election ads in seven key battleground states.
With Pennsylvania widely considered the most decisive state in the 2024 presidential election, it may be no surprise that the Keystone State has the most presidential ad reservations, totaling $137 million.
As a political communication expert and professor of media and social influence who lives in Philadelphia, I am often asked: “Why are there so many political ads, why are they so negative, and more importantly, how do we make it stop?”
I’ll answer the first two below. For the last, the truth is we don’t.
When voters perceive ads as unfair or manipulative, they are less likely to vote for the candidate or party producing the ads. And when subjected to repeated unwanted exposure to political ads, they can experience “psychological reactance” and behave opposite of what the ads intended.
Some studies also suggest that negative ads create election stress, which can reduce voter turnout among the less politically interested.
Historically, political advertising was considered an effective tool for educating voters, building momentum and engaging the politically uninterested.
Political ad spending has monumentally increased over the past several election cycles, and hit the billions after the landmark 2010 Citizens United case.
In that ruling, the Supreme Court decided that limiting spending from corporations or outside groups violated those groups’ First Amendment right to free speech. Prior to Citizens United, corporations and other groups like nonprofits and labor unions were subject to prohibitions on campaign donations. Individual campaign contribution limits, which currently stand at $3,300 per candidate per election, kept spending relatively level across the electorate.
Following the ruling, however, the influx of corporate and outside money completely changed the campaign finance landscape.
In 2010, political ad spending reached $3.3 billion – an 11% increase from the 2008 election that took place pre-Citizens United. A decade later, total spending on political ads soared to $9 billion in the 2020 election.
Significant portions of this spending come from political action committees that are not bound by traditional campaign contribution limits as long as they do not donate the money directly to a candidate or coordinate with a candidate’s campaign.
These groups, known as super PACs, can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money from undisclosed donors. While super PACs have to disclose identities of people who donate over $200 in a year, donors can use shell companies to hide their identities.
During the 2024 election cycle, over $2.4 billion has been raised by super PACs. This is where much of the funding for the political ad barrage that voters experience in the weeks leading up to the election comes from.
For example, in the weeks following President Joe Biden leaving the race, 95% of pro-Trump ads focused on attacking Vice President Kamala Harris rather than promoting policy, according to the Wesleyan Media Project, which tracks political advertising.
But the media environment has changed drastically, and voters are growing resentful.
Voters resent microtargeting
Unlike traditional voter segmentation where an entire group of voters would receive similar messages, campaigns now use data analytics to microtarget messages for specific voters.
Microtargeting enlists the help of social monitoring companies to identify voters’ psychometric data – their hopes, fears, likes, dislikes and so on – so that campaigns can finely tune messages to target them on social media.
A 2020 Pew survey found that over half of voters believe tech companies should not allow political ads on social media. Three-quarters oppose campaigns using their personal data to target them with political ads.
Put simply, the political ad barrage coupled with microtargeting strategies is not an effective campaign strategy that sways voters’ minds. Meanwhile, there is growing evidence that this level of negativity is harming the electorate and undermining trust in democracy.
Heather LaMarre does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Democratic candidate Tim Walz, during the vice presidential debate in which he said he ‘misspoke’ about being in Hong Kong during Tiananmen Square protests.Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
During the Sept. 24, 2024, debate, Democratic vice presidential hopeful Tim Walz said he “misspoke” when asked to clarify his story of being in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square crackdown in June 1989.
To many, Walz’s use of the word misspoke came across as an attempt to weasel out of what was at best an embellishment and at worst an outright lie.
The word misspoke has certainly long been used to politically backpedal after verbal inaccuracies or blunders, as Ronald Reagan learned in 1981 after he said that Syrian surface-to-air missiles placed in Lebanon were “offensive weapons,” when they were in fact defensive weapons. Both Presidents Bill Clinton and the much “misunderestimated” George W. Bush likewise were deemed to have misspoken after making mistakes, big and small.
For instance, a spokesperson for Clinton claimed he had misspoken when the then-president said that North Korea would not be allowed to develop a nuclear bomb – after there was reason to believe they had already developed them. During George W. Bush’s term in office, verbal errors were so common they earned a nickname of their own: “Bushisms.”
But misspoke’s extension to factual fabrication is one step further down the semantic road. In using it in this way, Walz joined other “misspoken” politicians, such as Hillary Clinton, who used it after falsely recollecting having landed in Bosnia under sniper fire.
As a sociolinguist who writes about how language changes over time, misspoke’s euphemistic recasting of lying as an inadvertent mistake calls for deeper linguistic scrutiny.
Tim Walz, being pressed on a statement he made and whether it was true, during the vice presidential debate.
From mumble to mea culpa
To understand how and why words morph like this, linguists like to trace them to their very beginnings.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “misspeaking” is quite old in the history of English, appearing as “missprecon” in a Northumbrian text dating before the 11th century. Its original sense was one of “to grumble” or “to mumble,” a meaning now obsolete.
But after the 11th century, its meaning shifted from inarticulateness to that of speaking amiss or disparagingly, often mentioned in reference to saying something improper or upsetting. Chaucer makes use of this sense in the “Miller’s Tale”: “And therfore if that I mysspeke or seye, Wyte it the ale of Southwerk, I you preye,” where the Miller handily blames a bit too much ale for whatever impropriety might fall from his mouth.
Around the time Chaucer was composing “The Canterbury Tales” in the late 14th century, the word “misspeak” branched off down yet another semantic path, taking on the meaning of “to speak incorrectly or misleadingly.” It is this sense that gave birth to the modern political mea culpa used when backtracking on a misleading prior statement, such as by Sen. John McCain after he claimed President Barack Obama was directly responsible for terrorist attacks on Americans.
Expanding meaning
These shifts in the meaning of a word over time fall under what linguists refer to as “semantic broadening.” Semantic broadening, which means expansion of a word’s meaning, is incredibly common, generally occurring when a word becomes used more frequently and across more situations. As a result, its core sense can expand to take on supplemental or tangential meanings.
Semantic shift like this is constantly at work, pushing and pulling senses in related but new directions to stay relevant to the needs of speakers.
The word “soon,” for instance, at first carried a meaning of “immediately,” but human nature being what it is, its meaning began to creep in the direction of “as immediately as possible” as people took their merry time.
Some new meanings, such as the nonliteral use of “literally” and Walz’s use of “misspeak,” are sites of contest, with multiple meanings at play.
The semantic broadening of misspeaking to cover not just misleading but knowingly false information didn’t start with Walz, nor did it begin with Clinton. In fact, this politically expedient expansion seems to go back at least to the Nixon administration.
There’s been a lot of misspeaking by politicians over the years, as these stories show. The Guardian US; The Hill; Wall Street Journal; Politico; Washington Post.
‘I misspoke myself’
In 1973, Nixon and his advisers were called to task in a Time article accusing them of a tendency to “make flat statements one day, and the next day reverse field with the simple phrase, ‘I misspoke myself.’” Given the Watergate scandal, it’s safe to say that misspoke as used by his administration had already shifted into deceptive speech territory.
Perhaps misspeaking’s semantic slippery slope started even further back, when the prefix “mis,” with its sense of “badly,” combined with “speaking.”
Consider other potentially weaselly words that are also formed by “mis” prefixation: misunderstood, misinterpret, mishear, mistake. These are all examples of words, like misspeak, that can and have been used by politicians to avoid taking responsibility for the false or “misleading” things they say.
Even if led astray by its prefix, from a linguistic perspective, the broadening of misspeak to cover not just incorrect but fabricated statements turns out to be not such a surprising development given the tendency of words to take on new senses over time, particularly in the world of political doublespeak.
The bigger surprise might be how this new meaning translates with voters, but that’s one surprise that will have to wait for the ballot box.
Valerie M. Fridland does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Members of the white militia group Proud Boys march on the Ohio state capitol in Columbus on Jan. 6, 2024. Paul Becker, CC BY
The first time many Americans heard about Springfield, Ohio, came during the September 2024 presidential debate when Donald Trump falsely claimed that Haitian immigrants in the city were eating other residents’ cats and dogs.
Though shocking, these harmful rumors had been spreading on social media since the beginning of the summer and had gained more notoriety when JD Vance, a U.S. senator from Ohio and Trump’s running mate, made similar statements on X, the social media platform formerly called Twitter.
But what has gone mostly overlooked is the effect these racist lies have had on energizing Ohio’s nearly 50 white extremist groups.
Members of the white supremacist group Blood Tribe marched through Springfield on Aug. 10, 2024, with with swastikas on their signs.
Since then, members of the Ku Klux Klan and the right-wing extremist group Proud Boys have each marched in separate demonstrations through Springfield.
In our research, we have found that the rapidly changing social conditions in Ohio have played a significant role in the growth of extremism.
Between 1990 and 2019, for instance, manufacturing jobs shrank from 21.7% of all employment in the state to 12.5%, a loss of nearly 360,000 jobs. As a result, income disparities between the professional and working classes have widened – as has the heightened sense among some alienated white men that white conservatives are the real victims of bias in a society growing more racially and culturally diverse.
A neo-Nazi group speaks under heavy police protection at a 2005 rally sponsored by the National Socialist Movement at City Hall in Toledo, Ohio. Bill Pugliano/Getty Images
For many of these alienated men, particularly those in rural areas that lack significant numbers of Black and Hispanic residents, extremist ideologies offer easy answers to complex questions that involve their sense of disenfranchisement.
In 2020, for example, the population of Springfield was about 60,000. But over the past three years, city officials estimate that the population has grown by about 25%, partly fueled by the arrival of as many as 15,000 Haitian immigrants during that time. Many of them are legally living in the U.S. under a special federal program.
Similar demographic shifts are occurring throughout the state. Between 2010 and 2022, the percentage of the white population dropped from 81.2% to 77.3%, a loss of about 250,000, putting the state’s white population at about 9.1 million. During the same time, the Hispanic population, for instance, grew from about 357,000 in 2010 to nearly 525,000.
For some of these white extremists, these population changes will lead to an inevitable race war between white people and nonwhite people. We have found that the attraction of belonging to a group that promises strength, protection and a source of identity can be particularly compelling.
The Ohio connection
In recent years, white extremism in Ohio has received attention as a result of the extremist rhetoric of and often violent crimes committed by white men who call the state home. Consider just a few examples:
James Alex Fields Jr., a white nationalist from the Toledo area, was sentenced to life in prison in 2019 for the murder of Heather Heyer in Charlottesville, Virginia. Fields was convicted of driving his car into a crowd of counterprotesters during the white nationalist Unite the Right Rally in August 2017.
Prior to the attack, Fields frequently posted the hashtag #Hitlerwasright on his social media accounts and called for violence against nonwhites and Jews.
In the summer of 2022, Ohio law enforcement officers shot and killed Ricky Shiffer after the armed Navy veteran fired a nail gun at the FBI field office in Cincinnati. On his social media accounts, Shiffer had called for violence against federal law enforcement officials after the FBI searched Donald Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago as part of the federal probe into Trump’s handling of classified documents.
Tres Genco, a self-described incel – short for “involuntary celibate” – who hated women and believed he was owed sex from them, was from the Cincinnati area and pled guilty in 2022 to plotting a mass shooting of women at Ohio State University. Law enforcement officials in Ohio stopped the planned attack before it happened.
On April 21, 2023, Christopher Brenner Cook, 20, of Columbus, Ohio, and others were sentenced to nearly eight years in prison for his plan to attack power grids across the U.S. Cook and his accomplices believed that they were starting a race war and used neo-Nazi propaganda and white supremacist ideology to recruit young people to join their group.
Online recruitment tactics
Leaders of white supremacist and militia groups often use both traditional outreach and digital platforms to recruit people to their groups. Traditional outreach includes recruitment in conversations, attending events, and sharing books, pamphlets, flyers and posters.
At the same time, social media has become a critical tool for extremist groups to spread their message, recruit members and organize events.
These online platforms create echo chambers that reinforce extremist beliefs in debunked conspiracy theories, such as the assumption that the federal government is part of a plot to eliminate the white race.
In addition to the increased traffic on social media, we have seen a rise of extremist groups in Ohio known as active clubs, where members engage in physical fitness, combat training and emotional support that encourages the development of a warrior mentality in preparation for what followers believe is an inevitable race war.
Countering extremism in Ohio
Though the emergence of white extremist groups goes far beyond the borders of Ohio, we have found that community-based, educational initiatives are effective in understanding and ultimately eradicating the root causes of racial and ethnic hatred on the local level.
In our view, community engagement that emphasizes dialogue and understanding across different racial groups is crucial for demonstrating the dangers of intolerance – and the benefits of diversity.
Paul J. Becker is part of a team at The University of Dayton that received funding from the Department of Homeland Security for the Preventing Radicalization to Extremist Violence through Education, Network-Building and Training in Southwest Ohio (PREVENTS-OH) project. Funded by the Department of Homeland Security under the Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention (TVTP) Grant Program, PREVENTS-OH recognizes that domestic violent extremism and hate movements pose a serious threat to the realization of human rights.
Art Jipson is part of a team at The University of Dayton that received funding from the Department of Homeland Security for the Preventing Radicalization to Extremist Violence through Education, Network-Building and Training in Southwest Ohio (PREVENTS-OH) project. Funded by the Department of Homeland Security under the Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention (TVTP) Grant Program, PREVENTS-OH recognizes that domestic violent extremism and hate movements pose a serious threat to the realization of human rights.
Source: The Conversation – USA – By C. Michael White, Distinguished Professor of Pharmacy Practice, University of Connecticut
In just a few years, brand-name injectable drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound have rocketed to fame as billion-dollar annual sellers for weight loss as well as to control blood sugar levels and reduce the risk of heart disease.
But the price of these injections is steep: They cost about US$800-$1,000 per month, and if used for weight loss alone, they are not covered by most insurance policies. Both drugs mimic the naturally occurring hormone GLP-1 to help regulate blood sugar and reduce cravings. They can be taken only with a prescription.
The Food and Drug Administration announced an official shortage of the active ingredients in these drugs in 2022, but on Oct. 2, 2024, the agency announced that the shortage has been resolved for the medicine tirzepatide, the active ingredient in Mounjaro and Zepbound.
Despite the soaring demand and limited supply of these drugs, there are no generic versions available. This is because the patents for semaglutide – the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, which is still in shortage – and tirzepatide don’t expire until 2033and 2036, respectively.
As a result, nonbrand alternatives that can be purchased with or without a prescription are flooding the market. Yet these products come with real risks to consumers.
The dietary supplement market has sought to cash in on the GLP-1 demand with pills, teas, extracts and all manner of other products that claim to produce similar effects as the brand names at a much lower price.
Poison control centers have seen a steep rise in calls related to off-brand weight loss medications.
The role of compounding pharmacies
Unlike the dietary supplements that are masquerading as GLP-1 weight loss products, compounding pharmacies can create custom versions of products that contain the same active ingredients as the real thing for patients who cannot use either brand or generic products for some reason.
These pharmacies can also produce alternative versions of brand-name drugs when official drug shortages exist.
These products may come in versions that differ from the brand-name companies, such as vials of powder that must be dissolved in liquid, or as tablets or nasal sprays.
Just like the brand-name drugs, you must have a valid prescription to receive them. The prices range from $250-$400 a month – still a steep price for many consumers.
Compounding pharmacies must adhere to the FDA’s sterility and quality production methods, but these rules are not as rigorous for compounding pharmacies as those for commercial manufacturers of generic drugs.
In addition, the products compounding pharmacies create do not have to be tested in humans for safety or effectiveness like brand-name products do.
Proper dosing can also be challenging with compounded forms of the drugs.
Companies that work the system
For people who cannot afford a compounding pharmacy product, or cannot get a valid prescription for semaglutide or tirzepatide, opportunistic companies are stepping in to fill the void. These include “peptide companies,” manufacturers that create non-FDA approved knockoff versions of the drugs.
From November 2023 to March 2024, my team carried out a study to assess which of these peptide companies are selling semaglutide or tirzepatide products. We scoured the internet looking for these peptide companies and collected information about what they were selling and their sales practices.
We found that peptide sellers use a loophole to sell these drugs. On their websites, the companies state that their drugs are for “research purposes only” or “not for human consumption,” but they do nothing to verify that the buyers are researchers or that the product is going to a research facility.
By reading the comments sections of the company websites and the targeted ads on social media, it becomes clear that both buyers and sellers understand the charade. Unlike compounding pharmacies, these peptide sellers do not provide the supplies you need to dissolve and inject the drug, provide no instructions, and will usually not answer questions.
Peptide sellers, since they allegedly are not selling to consumers, do not require a valid prescription and will sell consumers whatever quantity of drug they wish to purchase. Even if a person has an eating disorder such as anorexia nervosa, the companies will happily sell them a semaglutide or tirzepatide product without a prescription. The average prices of these peptide products range from $181-$203 per month.
Skirting regulations
Peptide sellers do not have to adhere to the rules or regulations that drug manufacturers or compounding pharmacies do. Many companies state that their products are 99% pure, but an independent investigation of three companies’ products from August 2023 to March 2024 found that the purity of the products were far less than promised.
One product contained endotoxin – a toxic substance produced by bacteria – suggesting that it was contaminated with microbes. In addition, the products’ promised dosages were off by up 29% to 39%. Poor purity can cause patients to experience fever, chills, nausea, skin irritation, infections and low blood pressure.
In this study, some companies never even shipped the drug, telling the buyers they needed to pay an additional fee to have the product clear customs.
If a consumer is harmed by a poor-quality product, it would be difficult to sue the seller, since the products specifically say they are “not for human consumption.” Ultimately, consumers are being led to spend money on products that may never arrive, could cause an infection, might not have the correct dose, and contain no instructions on how to safely use or store the product.
Instead of its traditional injection pen products that cost more than $1,000 for a month’s supply, this product comes in vials that patients draw up and inject themselves. For patients who take 5 milligrams of Zepbound each week, the vial products would cost them $549 a month if patients buy it through the company’s online pharmacy and can show that they do not have insurance coverage for the drug.
After a grilling on Capitol Hill in September 2024, pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk came under intense pressure to offer patients without prescription coverage a lower-priced product for its brand-name Wegovy as well.
When new pharmaceutical companies enter this market, they will have to offer patients lower prices than Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk in order to gain market share. This is the most likely medium-term solution to drive down the costs of GLP-1 drugs and eliminate the drug shortages in the marketplace.
C. Michael White does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Source: The Conversation – USA – By Elena Jackson Albarrán, Associate Professor of History and Global and Intercultural Studies, Miami University
Demonstrators make graffiti reading ‘Columbus Out, Long Live the People’ on a fence protecting a statue of Christopher Columbus in Mexico City on Oct. 12, 2020. Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images
This is the season of patriotism in Latin America as many countries commemorate their independence from colonial powers. From July to September, public plazas in countries from Mexico to Honduras and Chile fill with crowds dressed and painted in national colors, parades feature participants costumed as independence heroes, fireworks fill the skies, and schoolchildren reenact historical battles.
Beneath these nationalist displays ripples an uneasy tide: the colonial legacies that still tie the Americas to their Iberian conquerors. And as the calendar turns to October, another holiday highlights similar tensions – Columbus Day.
Since 1937, the U.S. has observed the holiday on the second Monday of the month, commemorating the explorer’s 1492 arrival in the New World. It remains a federal holiday, even as many states and cities rename it “Indigenous Peoples’ Day,” rejecting Christopher Columbus as a symbol of imperialism.
Indigenous groups protest in front of a statue of Christopher Columbus on Oct. 12, 1997, during marches in Mexico against ‘Dia de la Raza’ celebrations. David Hernandez/AFP via Getty Images
Most Latin Americans, meanwhile, know Oct. 12 as “Día de la Raza,” or Day of the Race, which also celebrates Columbus’ arrival in the New World and the tide of Iberian conquistadors that followed. But commemorating the event is all the more charged in these countries, home to the Spanish Empire’s most lucrative territorial assets and sweeping spiritual conquests. Days before taking office in September 2024, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum reiterated her predecessor’s demand that the king of Spain apologize for the genocide and exploitation of the conquest 500 years ago.
As a historian of Latin America, I’ve paid attention to the ways calendars signal a nation’s “official” values and how countries wrestle with these holidays’ meanings.
This moment of contact began Mexico’s 500-year transformation into a “mestizo” nation: a hybrid identity with largely European and Indigenous roots. During the colonial period, racial differences were codified into law, and those with “pure” Spanish bloodlines enjoyed legal privileges over the racially mixed categories that fell below them. The 19th century ushered in independence from Spain and liberal ideas that promoted racial equality – in principle – but in reality, European influence prevailed.
It was Spain that first proposed the Día de la Raza, held on Oct. 12, 1892, to commemorate the 400-year anniversary of Columbus’ arrival in the Americas – implying a celebration of Spain’s contributions to the mestizo racial mixture.
The celebration was part of a bid to fortify nationalism in Spain, as the waning colonial power continued its retreat from the hemisphere it controlled for the better part of four centuries. Spain also hoped to export the invented holiday to the Americas, strengthening trans-Atlantic cultural affinities tested by the United States’ growing sway. Across the Americas, Día de la Raza came to be synonymous with celebrating European influence.
In Mexico, the 1892 commemoration empowered members of the political elite who promoted European investments and culture as the model for modernizing the country. They used the occasion to extol the civilizing influence of the “madre patria,” or motherland, justifying the conquest and colonialism as a period of benevolent rule.
Mestizo nationalism
Only a few years later, however, the U.S. victory in the Spanish-American War swept the last vestiges of Spanish empire from the hemisphere. Spain’s exit made way for dual – and dueling – phenomena: rising patriotic spirit in Latin American countries, even amid increasing economic pressure and cultural influence from the U.S.
The 1910 Mexican Revolution ignited mestizo nationalism, which soon extended to other countries. In 1930s Nicaragua, Augusto Sandino started a revolution to oust the occupying U.S. Marines while calling for the unification of the “Indo-Hispanic Race.” Meanwhile, Peruvian intellectual José Mariátegui envisioned a modern nation built upon the ideals of a collective, reciprocal society, modeled by the Incan ayllu system. And in Mexico, beauty pageants celebrating native features gained popularity among the social classes accustomed to perusing department stores for Parisian imports.
Yet a tendency to emphasize Spanish cultural ancestry rather than Indigenous ones persisted. In the late 1930s, for example, October issues of Mexican children’s magazine Palomilla celebrated Columbus’ arrival as a heroic entry that provided the region with a common language and religion.
Pan American Day
Meanwhile, the U.S viewed Pan-Hispanic sentiments as a threat: Spanish economic goals, cloaked in racial and cultural solidarity.
The Pan American Union, an inter-American organization headquartered in Washington, saw the new date as an opportunity to forge common traditions across the hemisphere. It vigorously promoted Pan American Day celebrations, primarily among schoolchildren, exhorting teachers to implement games, puzzles, pageants and songs created in Pan American Union offices.
The holiday met enthusiastic reception in the United States. Midwesterners donned sombreros for parades, and Spanish language clubs in California hosted pageants celebrating the flags of American nations.
But Latin American commemoration was tepid at best. The Organization of American States, the successor to the Pan American Union, still recognizes Pan American Day. However, it never gained traction in Latin America and faded in the U.S. during World War II.
Recent shift
Latin America’s ambivalence toward holidays to commemorate the colonizers has taken a turn since 1992. The 500-year anniversary of Columbus’ arrival corresponded with yet another form of colonialism, in many Latin Americans’ eyes, as a new wave of multinational corporations colluded with heads of state to tap the continent’s oil, lithium, water and avocados.
Activists used the commemoration to call attention to lingering economic, social, racial and cultural inequities. In particular, the anniversary inspired Indigenous rights movements – some of which commemorated an “anti-quincentenary” to celebrate “500 years of resistance.”
A statue in honor of ‘women who fight’ has replaced an effigy of Christopher Columbus on Paseo de la Reforma Avenue in Mexico City. Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images
In some places, renaming the holiday has drawn attention to Indigenous rights and culture. Bolivians, for example, draped a statue of a European monarch in a traditional “aguayo” garment, transforming her into an Indigenous woman. However, critics suggest that removing the holiday’s reference to the colonizers erases an important reminder of the conquest and its painful legacy.
As in the U.S., monuments to colonizers are coming down – including the monument to Columbus that occupied a conspicuous spot on La Reforma, one of Mexico City’s most-traversed thoroughfares.
In its place is a new installation: a purple silhouette of a girl with her fist raised, in honor of Latin America’s women activists. She heralds a new era of statues lining La Reforma, and heroes for the future – not mired in the colonial legacies of the past.
Elena Jackson Albarrán does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Source: The Conversation – USA – By Richard Flory, Executive Director, Center for Religion and Civic Culture, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Evangelicals may share the same basic theology, but they are not a monolithic group.Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Yet, the reality is much more complex. In 2016, for example, evangelical leaders such as Jerry Falwell Jr. and Robert Jeffresscelebrated Trump’s victory and evangelicalism’s role in bringing America back to God. Others – such as Russell Moore, currently editor of the evangelical magazine Christianity Today – saw Trump as the opposite of what evangelicalism represents.
We have identified and described five varieties, or “types,” within the broader evangelical movement.
Evangelicals and their beliefs
At its core, evangelicalism is characterized by a belief in the literal truth of the Bible.
For example, evangelicals believe that the world and humans were created by God; that Jesus was literally God’s son and also born as a human; that Jesus died and physically rose from the dead; and that God currently acts through humans to achieve his ends for humanity. A hallmark belief for evangelicals is having a “personal relationship with Jesus Christ” and a focus on encouraging others to be “born again” or “saved” through Jesus.
Despite sharing the same basic theology, there are differences within evangelicalism politics and social engagement.
We used three criteria to develop our five categories: First, each type shares a basic agreement on evangelical theology. Second, they each understand themselves as existing within the larger tradition of American evangelicalism. And third, their theology motivates how they act in the world, including appropriate social and political actions.
Typologies simplify in order to explain, but they also can blur some of the finer distinctions between categories. Still, the perspectives these different varieties of evangelicals maintain shape not only who they will vote for but also why they vote a certain way.
1. MAGA-vangelicals
MAGA-vangelicals consist of the white Christian nationalist core of the “Make America Great Again” or MAGA, movement, with some Latino, Asian and Black American pastors aligning themselves with this movement.
MAGA-vangelicals have been the most vocal and visible group of evangelicals since the 2016 election.
The origins of this group trace back to the 1980s – the time of the emergence of the religious right. MAGA-vangelicals echo many of the same issues – such as opposition to abortion and LGBTQ+ rights and support for anti-immigration policies. One significant shift, however, since the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, is an increased acceptance of political violence. “Jan. 6 was not an insurrection,” evangelical leader Lance Wallnau has falsely asserted. “It was an election fraud intervention.” The baseless election fraud myth was the pretext for the violence on Jan. 6.
2. Neo-fundamentalist evangelicals
Neo-fundamentalists are evangelicals who are as theologically or politically conservative as MAGA-vangelicals but maintain a [theological commitment] to remain separate from any relationships – whether personal, social or political – that would, in their view, compromise the teachings of evangelical Christianity and their own identity as evangelical Christians.
For example, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Albert Mohler and Christianity Today editor Russell Moore have opposed Trump due to his, by evangelical standards, lack of values and amoral lifestyle.
However, they support how the Trump administration furthered the political goals of evangelical Christianity. In particular, they support the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade and supporting evangelicals’ religious freedom to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people in their businesses.
Yet there has recently been some qualified support among neo-fundamentalists offered for Trump himself, despite their opposition to his personal morals. For example, Mohler has argued that Trump is the better candidate to achieve their goals in 2024, despite his personal shortcomings. Mohler takes the position, though, that this support largely depends on Trump remaining committed to evangelical goals on issues such as abortion.
3. iVangelicals
iVangelicals are evangelicals primarily focused on personal faith and the weekly worship experience in their churches. They are mainly concentrated in the evangelical megachurch movement.
iVangelicals want to reach large numbers of people through their popular worship services, varied social programs and small group ministries.
There is, however, a range of beliefs and commitments among iVangelicals, with some being attracted to groups such as Evangelicals for Harris, a new effort to mobilize evangelicals to move away from Republicans, Trump and MAGA and to vote for Harris. Their approach uses biblical examples and references to argue that true Christian teachings and actions are more aligned with Democrats than Republicans.
Evangelicals for Harris.
4. Kingdom Christians
Kingdom Christians are evangelicals who, in their churches and ministries, strive to mirror the demographic and socioeconomic mix of the neighborhoods where they are rooted.
They tend to have a more diverse racial and ethnic mix of members than other evangelical churches. Their focus is to be a part of, and to serve, their local communities in a manner that mirrors their conception of the kingdom of God on Earth.
Leaders among Kingdom Christians often critique the economic and political systems that produce poverty and racial injustice. The focus of their efforts, however, is on creating relationships with local businesses and activists in the local community and contributing to policy through engagement with local officials.
Kingdom Christians are present-oriented; the kingdom of God is to be realized in the communities where believers live, as well as in some future spiritual world.
5. Peace and Justice evangelicals
Peace and Justice evangelicals are a loose network of pastors, nonprofit leaders, professors and activists. They are a small segment within evangelicalism often embedded in larger organizations, and they focus their work on key social and political issues such as racial justice, immigration reform and environmental issues. They seek to have a wider impact than just a focus on the local community.
Peace and Justice evangelicals trace their origins to the late 1960s publication, The Other Side, originally Freedom Now, which represented a freshly emerging evangelical social consciousness around issues of racial justice. Following close behind was the Sojourners community, and Sojourners magazine, which is still active today.
This is a small but growing minority in the larger evangelical world, with many belonging to traditional evangelical institutions. For example, Alexia Salvatierra, at Fuller Seminary, is a longtime “faith-rooted” community organizer and has more recently been instrumental in forming Matthew 25/Mateo25, a group that aids immigrants and “defends the vulnerable.” Shane Claiborne, a long-time urban activist, is currently head of Red Letter Christians, a movement that combines “Jesus and justice” and seeks to “live out Jesus’ counter-cultural teachings.”
Following historical evangelical voting patterns, it is likely that most white evangelicals will vote for Trump in 2024. I believe many will do so with enthusiasm, while others will vote for him because of his policies, while remaining troubled by his rhetoric.
Of the evangelicals who oppose Trump, some will refuse to vote for either Trump or Harris, refusing to cast a vote for president. Others will vote for Harris, following the example of many Republican leaders who are seeking to move beyond the damage that Trump and the MAGA movement have done to the Republican Party and to conservatism.
Meanwhile, for the Kingdom Christians and Peace and Justice evangelicals, the true values of evangelical Christianity will be supported by the more progressive policies of the Democratic Party.
Regardless of how they vote in the 2024 election, evangelicals in all of these categories will continue to promote their distinct vision of evangelicalism and educate members on how they should bring their faith to bear on important social and political issues in American culture.
Richard Flory has received funding from the John Templeton Foundation and the Lilly Endowment.
Think of your favorite fantasy or science fiction novel. You’ll know the author and title, of course. But can you think of its editor or publisher?
In publishing, the people who work behind the scenes rarely get their due. But on Oct. 1, 2024, at least, one industry pioneer got the limelight. On that day, PBS aired “Judy-Lynn del Rey: The Galaxy Gal,” the first episode of its new documentary series “Renegades,” which highlights little-known historical figures with disabilities.
A woman with dwarfism, Judy-Lynn del Rey was best known for founding Del Rey Books, a science fiction and fantasy imprint that turned fantasy in particular into a major publishing category.
As a scholar of fantasy literature, I had the good fortune to serve as research consultant for the PBS project. Due to time constraints, however, the episode could tell only half of del Rey’s story, passing over how she affected science fiction and fantasy themselves.
Judy-Lynn del Rey, you see, had very clear notions on what kind of stories people wanted to buy. For some critics, she also committed the unforgivable sin of being right.
The Mama of ‘Star Wars’
Over the course of her career, del Rey earned a reputation as a superstar editor among her authors. Arthur C. Clarke, who co-wrote the screenplay for “2001: A Space Odyssey,” called her the “most brilliant editor I ever encountered,” and Philip K. Dick said she was the “greatest editor since Maxwell Perkins,” the legendary editor of Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
She got her start, though, working as an editorial assistant – in truth, a “gofer” – for the most lauded science fiction magazine of the 1960s, Galaxy. There she learned the basics of publishing and rose rapidly through the editorial ranks until Ballantine Books lured her away in 1973.
Soon thereafter, Ballantine was acquired by publishing giant Random House, which then named del Rey senior editor. Yet her first big move was a risky one – cutting ties with Ballantine author John Norman, whose highly popular “Gor” novels were widely panned for their misogyny.
Nonetheless, del Rey’s mission was to develop a strong backlist of science fiction novels that could hook new generations of younger readers, not to mention adults. One early success was her “Star Trek Log” series, a sequence of 10 novels based on episodes of “Star Trek: The Animated Series.”
This savvy gamble led to years of lucrative tie-in products for Ballantine such as calendars, art books, sketchbooks, the Star Wars Intergalactic Passport and, of course, more novels set in the Star Wars universe – so many different tie-ins, in fact, that del Rey dubbed herself the “Mama of Star Wars.”
Afterward, she became someone who, as reporter Jennifer Crighton put it, radiated “with the shameless glee of one of the Rebel forces, an upstart who won.”
A big player in big fiction
Del Rey’s tendencies as an editor were sometimes criticized – often by competitors who could not match her line’s success – for focusing too much on Ballantine’s bottom line. But she also chose to work within the publishing landscape as it actually existed in the 1970s, rather than the one she only wished existed.
In his book “Big Fiction,” publishing industry scholar Dan Sinykin calls this period the “Conglomerate Era,” a time when publishing houses – usually small and family run – were being consolidated into larger corporations.
One benefit of this shift, however, was greater corporate investment in the industry, which boosted print runs, marketing budgets, author advances and salaries for personnel.
Ballantine’s parent company, Random House, was also known as an industry leader in free speech, thanks to the efforts of legendary CEOs Bennett Cerf and Robert L. Bernstein.
Accordingly, Random House gave their publishing divisions, including Ballantine, immense creative autonomy.
And when del Rey was finally given her own imprint in 1977, she took her biggest risk of all: fantasy.
The Del Rey era
In prior decades, fantasy had a reputation for being unsellable – unless, of course, your name was J.R.R. Tolkien, or you wrote Conan-style barbarian fiction. Whereas the top science fiction magazines often had distinguished runs, fantasy magazines often folded due to lack of sales.
In 1975, though, del Rey hired her husband, Lester del Rey, to develop a fantasy line, and when Del Rey Books launched two years later, it landed major successes with bestsellers such as Terry Brooks’ “The Sword of Shannara” and Stephen R. Donaldson’s “The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever.” Yet even though Lester edited the fantasy authors, Judy-Lynn oversaw the imprint and the marketing.
Today, most people know the 1987 film, but the movie originated as a much earlier novel by William Goldman. The original 1973 edition, however, sold poorly. It might have faded into obscurity had del Rey not been determined to revive Ballantine’s backlist.
She reissued “The Princess Bride” in 1977 with a dazzling, gate-folded die-cut cover and a new promotional campaign, without which the novel – and the film – might never have found its later success.
Accolades accumulate
Thanks to these efforts, Del Rey Books dominated genre publishing, producing more bestselling titles through 1990 than every other science fiction and fantasy publisher combined. Yet despite complaints that the imprint prioritized commercial success over literary merit, Del Rey authors earned their fair share of literary accolades.
The prestigious Locus Poll Award for best science fiction novel went to Del Rey authors Julian May and Isaac Asimov in 1982 and 1983. Other Locus awardees include Patricia A. McKillip, Robert A. Heinlein, Larry Niven, Marion Zimmer Bradley and Barbara Hambly.
Barry Hughart’s “Bridge of Birds” was one of two winners for the World Fantasy Award in 1985 and won the Mythopoeic Society Award in 1986. Even more impressively, Del Rey ran away with the Science Fiction Book Club Award during that prize’s first nine years of existence, winning seven of them. The imprint’s titles also won three consecutive August Derleth Fantasy Awards – now called the British Fantasy Award – from 1977 through 1979.
Yet despite these accolades, Del Rey’s reputation continued to suffer from its own commercial success. Notably, Judy-Lynn del Rey was never nominated for a Hugo Award for best professional editor. When she died in 1986, the Hugo committee belatedly tried granting her a posthumous award, but her husband, Lester, refused to accept it, saying that it came too late.
Although the current narrative continues to be that Del Rey Books published mainly formulaic mass-market fiction in its science fiction and fantasy lines, the time may be ripe to celebrate the foresight and iconoclasm of a publisher who expanded speculative fiction beyond the borders of a small genre fandom.
I was research consultant for the PBS episode mentioned in the article, but I am not an employee of PBS or any other organization mentioned in this article.
The news drew strong reactions from critics: 25 Republican lawmakers sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland protesting any changes to federal marijuana laws. They argued that the decision “was not properly researched … and is merely responding to the popularity of marijuana and not the actual science.”
As a philosopher and drug policy expert, I focus on assessing arguments and evidence rather than politics or rhetoric. So, what are the arguments for and against rescheduling cannabis?
Scheduling under the Controlled Substances Act
The Controlled Substances Act places each prohibited drug into one of five schedules based on known medical use, addictive potential and safety. Schedule I drugs – which, along with marijuana, also includes heroin, LSD, psilocybin, ecstasy (MDMA) and quaaludes – is the most restrictive category.
Schedule I substances cannot be legally used for any purpose, including medical use or research, though an exception for research can be made with special permission from the DEA. The criteria for inclusion in the Schedule I category is that the substance has a high potential for abuse, is extremely addictive and has “no currently accepted medical use.”
Schedule II, which is slightly less restrictive than Schedule I, includes drugs that are addictive and potentially unsafe but also have some accepted medical use. These include strong opioids such as fentanyl, as well as cocaine, PCP and methamphetamine. Though they are still tightly regulated, Schedule II drugs can be used medically with a prescription or administered by a licensed physician.
Schedule III is much less restrictive and is intended for substances with legitimate medical use and only moderate risk of abuse or dependency. This category includes low-dose morphine, anabolic steroids and ketamine.
Schedule IV – which includes the sedative valium, the weak opioid tramadol and sleep medicines such as Ambien – is even less restrictive.
The least restrictive category is Schedule V, which includes cough syrups with codeine and calcium channel blockers such as gabapentin and pregabalin. All scheduled drugs require a doctor’s prescription and can be distributed only by licensed pharmacies.
What rescheduling would mean for marijuana
The push to reschedule is largely to make federal laws consistent with state medical marijuana programs that – as of October 2024 – are legal in 38 states plus the District of Columbia.
Moving marijuana to Schedule III would not change its legal status in states where it is banned. It would make marijuana legal at the federal level but only for medical use. Recreational use would still be federally prohibited, even though it is currently legal in 24 states plus Washington.
Rescheduling, however, might not make medical marijuana any easier for patients to access and could even make it much harder for some. Currently, getting a medical marijuana card is quite easy in most states. In Washington D.C., where I live, patients can self-certify.
Reclassifying marijuana as a Schedule III drug would legitimize its medical use.
If marijuana is reclassified as Schedule III, medical marijuana programs will have to start requiring a doctor’s prescription, just like with all other scheduled substances. And it could be distributed only by licensed pharmacies, which would put medical dispensaries that are now selling it without a license from the Food and Drug Administration out of business.
Rescheduling, however, would give medical marijuana legitimacy as a bona fide medicine. And the intent of the move is to increase access, even if it is unclear how rescheduling would achieve that.
So, assuming that rescheduling would have the intended effect of expanding access to medical marijuana, should it be rescheduled?
Medical uses of marijuana
Though there are three criteria for Schedule I in the Controlled Substances Act, the DEA in fact relies on only the medical use criterion. This was the basis of the DEA’s proposal to reschedule marijuana. The fact that almost 75% of Americans live in a state with a medical marijuana program suggests that marijuana has an accepted medical use.
More importantly, Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act already includes dronabinol, which is delta-9 THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. Although dronabinol is synthesized in the lab rather than extracted from the cannabis plant, it is the exact same molecule. The FDA approved THC in the form of dronabinol in 1985 for treating anorexia caused by HIV/AIDS as well as nausea and vomiting due to chemotherapy. Placing marijuana in the same schedule as its primary active ingredient makes a lot of sense.
Another argument in favor of rescheduling is that it would open up new opportunities for medical research into marijuana’s effects, research that is currently hampered by its Schedule I status. This work is critical because the system of cannabinoid receptors through which marijuana causes its therapeutic and psychoactive effects is crucial for almost every aspect of human functioning.
There is also good evidence that marijuana can help treat other conditions, including Lou Gehrig’s disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS), glaucoma, irritable bowel syndrome, insomnia, migraine, post-traumatic stress disorder and Tourette syndrome. Keeping marijuana in the Schedule I category severely hampers research that might establish more effective treatments for these conditions.
Researchers have been extremely limited in their abilities to study marijuana because of its Schedule I classification.
Balancing risks and benefits
Those opposed to rescheduling cite possible health risks associated with marijuana consumption. Heavy use is linked to an increased risk of developing schizophrenia. However, the increased risk of schizophrenia from cannabis use is comparable to that caused by watching excessive television, eating junk food or smoking cigarettes.
Long-term marijuana use can also lead to sleep problems and diminished visuospatial memory. It can also cause gastrointestinal trouble, such as cannabis hyperemesis syndrome, which is characterized by nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. The symptoms, while extremely unpleasant, are temporary and occur only after consuming marijuana. The condition disappears in people who stop using.
Marijuana use can also be addictive. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about three out of every 10 regular marijuana users meet the diagnostic criteria for cannabis use disorder.
All of the concerns above are legitimate, though it is worth noting that virtually no effective medicine is free from undesirable side effects. And although marijuana can be habit-forming, it is not as addictive as alcohol, tobacco, oxycodone, cocaine, methamphetamine or benzodiazepines. None of those other drugs are categorized as Schedule I, and alcohol and tobacco are not scheduled at all.
Unlike most other prescription medications, marijuana use is associated with many benefits. For example, in states where marijuana has been legalized, worker’s compensation payments have fallen by an average of 21% among people over 40. Researchers think that this is because marijuana helps workers better manage chronic pain. The use of marijuana for pain management also helps to reduce dependency on opioids. One study found that U.S. counties with one or two marijuana dispensaries had an average of 17% fewer opioid-related fatalities compared with counties with no dispensaries.
Research also shows that marijuana use can help to prevent Alzheimer’s by blocking the enzymes that produce amyloid plaques. It also shows promise for reducing a person’s risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by helping the body regulate insulin and glucose levels.
Chris Meyers does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region
Chinese Film Panorama 2024 opens tonight (with photo) Chinese Film Panorama 2024 opens tonight (with photo) *****************************************************
The opening ceremony for the Chinese Film Panorama 2024 was held tonight (October 9) at Hong Kong City Hall, followed by a screening of the opening animated film “Into the Mortal World” (2024) directed by Zhong Ding. The Acting Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism, Mr Raistlin Lau; the Film and Television Artistic Director of the Bauhinia Culture Group, Mr Deng Wugui; the Deputy Director-General of the Department of Publicity, Cultural and Sports Affairs of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Mr Lin Nan; the Chairman of the Southern Film Culture Foundation, Mr Ding Kai; the Director of Leisure and Cultural Services, Mr Vincent Liu; the Chairman of the South China Film Industry Workers Union, Mr Cheung Hong-tat; and the executive producer of the opening film, Mr Huang Long, officiated at the opening ceremony. The Panorama is presented by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) and the Southern Film Culture Foundation in association with Sil-Metropole Organisation Ltd, the China Film Foundation and the South China Film Industry Workers Union, and supported by the Bauhinia Culture Group. Ten distinctive feature-length animated films and two short film programmes produced on the Mainland will be shown at the Theatre of Hong Kong City Hall, the Cinema of the Hong Kong Film Archive, and lecture halls of the Hong Kong Science Museum and the Hong Kong Space Museum, the East Kowloon Cultural Centre (EKCC), Cine-Art House (Maritime Square) and the Rayson Huang Theatre of the University of Hong Kong from today to November 16. The opening film, “Into the Mortal World”, is a reinterpretation of the mythology of “The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl”. The weaver girl’s son is reconnected with his long-lost sister when he is demoted to the mortal world and embarks on an adventure in the divine realm. Other selected films include “Princess Iron Fan” (1941) (4K restored version), “The Monkey King: Uproar in Heaven” (First and Second Parts) (1961-1964), “Peacock Princess” (1963), “Nezha Conquers the Dragon King” (1979), “The Legend of Sealed Book” (1983) (4K restored version), “To the Bright Side” (2021), “Chang An” (2023), “The Storm” (2024) , and “Boonie Bears: Time Twist” (2024). Apart from animated feature films, two collections of animated short films will also be screened. “Into the Mortal World” is in Cantonese while other films are in Putonghua. “Chang An” will be screened on October 14 at Rayson Huang Theatre of the University of Hong Kong and on November 16 at the EKCC for free. Cine-Art House (Maritime Square) will offer a free screening of “Peacock Princess” on October 12. The admission tickets for the screening at Rayson Huang Theatre of the University of Hong Kong have been available at The University of Hong Kong Staff Association located at 5/F, T T Tsui Building of the University of Hong Kong starting from September 30. The admission tickets for the free screenings at Cine-Art House (Maritime Square) and the EKCC are available at the respective screening locations from September 30 and November 1. Each person can obtain up to two tickets per screening on a first-come, first-served basis. Other film tickets priced at $70 are now available at URBTIX (www.urbtix.hk). For telephone bookings, please call 3166 1288. For programme details, please call 2734 2900 (LCSD) or 2780 5355 (for screenings at Cine-Art House (Maritime Square) and the University of Hong Kong) or visit www.lcsd.gov.hk/fp/en/listing.html?id=66. The Chinese Film Panorama 2024 is one of the activities in the Chinese Culture Promotion Series. The LCSD has long been promoting Chinese history and culture through organising an array of programmes and activities to enable the public to learn more about the broad and profound Chinese culture. For more information, please visit www.lcsd.gov.hk/en/ccpo/index.html.
Ends/Wednesday, October 9, 2024Issued at HKT 21:28
