RIP

James Lovelock, creator of Gaia theory of ‘living’ Earth, dies at 103

By Brian Murphy
July 28, 2022 

Dr. James Lovelock in 2015. (Nicholas.T.Ansell/AP)


As the British research vessel RRS Shackleton steamed toward Antarctica in 1971, scientist James Lovelock was a familiar presence on deck along with his invention: an ultrasensitive instrument that could detect virtually any trace of pollutants and other environmental toxins.

Even in the most remote reaches of the South Atlantic, Dr. Lovelock’s device found that the air carried chlorofluorocarbons then used in aerosols, refrigerants and other commercial applications.

It was a moment where the major threads of Dr. Lovelock’s groundbreaking work and theories began to braid into one. He was already exploring his hypothesis that Earth itself is a fully interwoven ecosystem — “like a gigantic living thing” — that can self-regulate to sustain life.

The readings from the ship brought a sharper edge to his Gaia theory, named after the Greek goddess who personified the Earth. It showed no place on the planet was untouched by man-made threats to the environment, findings that helped launch Dr. Lovelock’s reputation as a planetary caretaker with an ailing patient.

“The biosphere and I are both in the last 1% or our lives,” Dr. Lovelock told the Guardian in 2020. It was an environmental warning repeated in many variations during a more than 80-year career of remarkable scientific range and originality — winning widespread praise as a visionary and scorn as a doomsday fatalist.

These overlapping roles — inventor, researcher, moralist, provocateur — were worn with pride by Dr. Lovelock, who died July 26 at his home in Abbotsbury, on England’s southwest Dorset coast, on his 103rd birthday.

James Lovelock's work: Climate change personified

British journalist Jonathan Watts called Dr. Lovelock the “Forrest Gump of science”: turning up at just the right times to have major influences on the environmental studies and the understanding of climate change and the interconnectivity of the world’s ecosystem.

“He was the ultimate big thinker on the subject,” said Watts, the global environmental editor of the Guardian who is writing a biography of Dr. Lovelock.

Dr. Lovelock used his sweeping Gaia theory as an entry point for specific challenges to ease a planet under stress. He broke with eco-allies to promote nuclear power, and backed agro-giant farming and genetic modifications for more sustainable crops. He shrugged off policies on renewable energy and carbon-cutting goals as too incremental. Just “faffing around,” he said.

In the end, it’s up to humanity to make huge and revolutionary accommodations to live with Earth — “an ultra-high-tech, low-energy civilization,” he wrote — or the planet to find a way to live without humans.

“The question is not how humanity can retain its planetary dominance, which was always an illusion,” Dr. Lovelock wrote in “The Revenge of Gaia” (2006), part of a series of “Gaia” books over four decades. “It is whether humanity can use science and technology to mount a sustainable retreat.”

Inventor from necessity

James Ephraim Lovelock was born in Letchworth Garden City, about 30 miles north of London, on July 26, 1919. He lived his first years with his grandparents, then joined his parents in London’s Brixton Hill, where his father ran an art shop and his mother worked in the town offices.

He said his early interest in nature came from hikes in the Hertfordshire hills with his father, who taught him the names of various plants and bugs. Dr. Lovelock graduated from the University of Manchester in 1941 during World War II, but he was given conscientious objector status because of his family’s pacifist Quaker beliefs.

This time we've pushed Earth too far, says James Lovelock

He joined the government-run Medical Research Council, where he would spend the next two decades while working toward a doctorate in medicine in 1949 at the University of London. As he took on more projects, he realized the equipment of the era was not up for the tasks. So he designed his own, leading to more than 60 patents ranging from a method to freeze bull sperm to a blood-pressure gauge for scuba divers.

In 1957, he hit on his most far-reaching invention: the electron capture detector, a portable device that looked a bit like a hose nozzle and could detect infinitesimal evidence of man-made chemicals such as pesticides. It was among the most important analytical instruments of the 20th century, likened by French philosopher Bruno Latour to Galileo’s telescope but peering inside our planet rather than to the heavens.

The detector’s data became part of the scientific underpinnings for Rachel Carson’s 1962 book, “Silent Spring,” which helped launch the environmental movement, and later were cited in the banning of chemicals such as pesticide DDT and polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, in some countries.

The device, fitted with a gas chromatograph, was with Dr. Lovelock on his Antarctic voyage, and his findings helped confirm links between chlorofluorocarbons and the hole in the ozone layer. (Chlorofluorocarbons have been banned in most countries, including the United States.)

At the dawn of the space race in 1961, Dr. Lovelock was recruited by NASA for projects that included looking for life on Mars. The first stirrings of the Gaia theory came as Dr. Lovelock and a colleague at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., noticed the stability of the atmospheres on Mars and Venus, while Earth was “in a deep state of disequilibrium,” he wrote in “Gaia: The Practical Science of Planetary Medicine” (1991).

“It was that moment that I glimpsed Gaia,” Dr. Lovelock wrote in 1991. “An awesome thought came to me.” A neighbor in England, “Lord of the Flies” author William Golding, suggested wrapping the ideas around the name of the Greek goddess.

Dr. Lovelock began unveiling the theory in the late 1960s in academic papers and conferences. The response was mostly dismissive. Some researchers rejected the contention that ecosystems — from subterranean bacteria to the ice crystals of the stratosphere — could work in some grand network. Evolutionary researchers said it ran counter to the laws of natural selection.

Others wrote off Dr. Lovelock as pushing Age of Aquarius quasi-science with a gloss of Earth Mother spirituality.

“I have a suspicion that the Earth behaves like a gigantic living thing,” Dr. Lovelock said in a 1969 speech, echoing an 18th-century forerunner, Scottish geologist James Hutton, who described the planet as a “superorganism.”

A few colleagues, among them evolutionary biologist Lynn Margulis, became early acolytes and helped bring Gaia into widespread acceptance and the bedrock principles of a discipline known as earth system science.

Lynn Margulis, leading evolutionary biologist, dies at 73

Dr. Lovelock remained a tireless champion of Gaia, giving interviews just weeks before his death. He favored simple analogies to explain what he saw as a world on the brink. One story was his imagined Daisy World: The hypothetical planet’s black daisies absorb light and warm the planet; the white daisies reflect light and keep it planet cool; a change in the balance could be catastrophic.

He married Sandra Orchard in 1991. In addition to his wife, he is survived by four children from his first marriage to Helen Hyslop, who died in 1989; and grandchildren.

At a lecture in 2011, he said he had no plans to retire because of the urgency of climate change. “The need to do something about it now,” he said.

His final years, in a cottage near the sea, were spent vacillating between optimism about mankind’s resilience and dread about its refusal to deal with the perils at hand.

“The Gaia hypothesis is for those who like to walk or simply stand and stare, to wonder about the Earth and the life it bears, and to speculate about the consequences of our own presence here,” he wrote in “Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth,” his seminal 1979 book. “It is an alternative to that pessimistic view which sees nature as a primitive force to be subdued and conquered.”



By Brian MurphyBrian Murphy joined The Washington Post after more than 20 years as a foreign correspondent and bureau chief for the Associated Press in Europe and the Middle East. Murphy has reported from more than 50 countries and has written four books. Twitter

Thousands of dead migrant seabirds wash up on Canada shore, avian flu suspected




Seabirds wash up on shore in suspected avian flu die-off in Newfoundland

Thu, July 28, 202
By Shreya Jain

TORONTO (Reuters) - The carcasses of thousands of migrant seabirds have washed up on the shores of eastern Canada this week and preliminary findings showed that the birds died of avian flu.

Since May 2022, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has confirmed 13 positive cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza in the eastern Canadian province of Newfoundland.

Environment and Climate Change Canada is conducting more investigations to confirm that the seabirds deaths are linked to avian flu, Peter Thomas, wildlife biologist for the center said.

Dead herring gulls, Iceland gulls, common ravens, and American crows are the among the most affected by the influenza, Thomas added.

According to the Canadian Wildlife Service, the avian influenza virus is contagious and can affect domestic and wild birds throughout the world.

Canadian Wildlife Service is working closely with the provincial government of Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative to contain the spread.

The highly pathogenic avian influenza has also been

spreading rapidly in Vancouver Island, the British Columbia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said, infecting birds like great horned owls, bald eagles, great blue herons, ducks and geese, and even crows.

"Every day I receive phone calls saying 10 are dead," Elizabeth Melnick, of Elizabeth's Wildlife Center, BC, said.

"Wildlife centers in the country usually choose to save the dying ones as dead ones are picked up by the city," she said.

According to the World Organisation for Animal Health, avian influenza is a respiratory pathogen that causes a high degree of mortality and becomes a serious threat to the poultry industry. It is naturally spread among wild aquatic birds worldwide and can infect domestic poultry and other bird and animal species.

According to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, pet birds can be infected by avian influenza and spread the disease to humans, so wild birds should not be handled when they are sick or dead.

(Reporting by Shreya Jain; Editing by Sandra Maler)

The Fallout From Apple’s Bizarre, Dogged Union-Busting Campaign

Workers are calling on management to stop inflicting “traumatic” pressure on other workers trying to unionize.



ILLUSTRATION: ELENA LACEY

APPLE WORKERS IN Towson, Maryland, made history last month when they became the first US retail store to vote to unionize, joining the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM). A week and a half later, workers launched a petition on Change.org calling Apple’s union-busting campaign “nothing short of traumatic for many of us.” The petitioners called on the company to refrain from waging similar blitzes at other stores, where several mostly underground campaigns are underway. “We are deeply concerned about our fellow employees’ mental wellbeing because we are all too aware of what awaits them if they decide to organize a union,” they wrote.

Although the pro-union staffers continue to savor their victory, a hangover from Apple’s divisive anti-union campaign lingers. Workers say that some managers who were fed anti-union talking points to deliver during the campaign continue to hold a bias against union supporters, complaining when they miss work and painting them as lazy.

Particularly in smaller workplaces such as Apple stores, fractured relationships are a common casualty of harsh anti-union campaigns. At large workplaces like Amazon warehouses, consultants and far-flung employee relations staff are typically flown in to lead anti-union drives. With smaller teams, management-side law firms often tell companies that “local managers or supervisors will be the most effective anti-union shock troops,” says San Francisco State University labor studies professor John Logan. They have relationships with employees and are generally seen as more trustworthy than outsiders. “But there’s potentially a very high cost to doing that. Because if it’s very adversarial, as these campaigns usually are, it can poison workplace relationships for years to come.”

In May, workers at an Atlanta, Georgia, Apple store—the first to file for a US union election— withdrew their petition to be represented by the Communication Workers of America (CWA) following another bitter anti-union campaign. They plan to regroup and refile early next year. Employees from both stores say that managers erroneously attempted to paint organizing committee members as bullies. “The first time that they talked about it, they mentioned that we bullied people into thinking that a union is something that we need without giving them the information,” says Sydney Rhodes, a member of the Atlanta organizing committee. Kevin Gallagher, a Towson organizing committee member, says that after the union won there, managers told workers they expected an apology for “ill words” that had been said about them. Another organizing committee member reviewed the chat history in their workplace communication app, but neither he nor Gallagher could figure out what this referred to.

Apple employees felt especially blindsided by the ferociousness of the campaign, given the company’s stated commitment to progressive values and inclusivity. The experience “was eye-opening for a lot of people in our store,” says Atlanta organizing committee member Derrick Bowles. “There’s definitely a massive lack of trust now.” The drives at both stores were orchestrated by Littler Mendelson, the country’s largest anti-union law firm, known most recently for its aggressive tactics against Starbucks baristas. “When you hire Littler Mendelson, it’s an indication that you’re prepared to do whatever is necessary to defeat the union campaign,” says Logan. “That you’re prepared to play hardball.”

Littler-trained Apple managers carried out a campaign that workers say created an atmosphere of fear and unease, and, given their familiarity with one another, occasionally veered into the personal. Four employees from the two stores spoke to WIRED about the pressure they endured in their attempts to organize for fairer pay, more manageable schedules, protection from the whims of managers, and more say in the policies that impact their day-to-day work. Apple did not respond to requests for comment on this story.

Retail stores begin each day with a “download” meeting, where the managers share company news and prepare them for the day ahead. After the Atlanta store filed its election petition back in April, managers started repurposing download meetings into what are known as “captive audience meetings,” mandatory gatherings where leaders deliver anti-union talking points. Bowles says that managers would share their negative impressions of unions, making remarks like, “I'm from New York. There are a lot of unions there. In my experience, unions are run by bullies and thugs.”

One morning, Bowles attended a meeting in which he says a manager told employees that they were going to practice “nonverbal communication.” The leader told the group to silently line up in order of their birthdays, then by tenure. He then asked each person the same question, starting with the most tenured employee, until four people answered yes. First, he asked each employee whether they wanted a promotion. The first four people said yes. Then he asked whether they wanted priority vacation approval. Again, the first four said yes. How about weekends off? Four yeses in a row. “You could tell that the new people are just completely lost. They don’t know what he’s doing,” says Bowles. Then, as Bowles remembers it, the meeting leader stopped the exercise to say that one of the things he loved about Apple is that it didn’t have a tenure clause, but made decisions based on individual circumstances and performance. “He’s like, ‘You know, some other organizations’”—meaning the union—“‘would like to put in a tenure clause. Man, I’m glad we don’t have that.’”

This appears to have been a creative spin on one of Apple’s anti-union messages. In a list of talking points leaked to Vice, managers were instructed to tell employees that the union would pay more attention to seniority than merit when it came to issues like promotions, desirable shifts, and time off.

Bowles recalls another download in which a manager told employees he’d love them no matter how they voted. When Bowles reassured him that the union campaign wasn’t personal, he says the manager paused, looked at him, and responded, “If my wife and I have a disagreement about something, I want to talk to my wife first. I don’t get a problem with my wife and then go talk to the mistress.” He seemed to be equating the union with an interloping third party.

Since the Atlanta employees had a head start, they would share information with the Towson store so they knew what to expect. Gallagher says managers also tried to co-opt download meetings the day his store announced their union, but he cut them off, saying workers weren’t going to stand for captive audience meetings. Managers did, however, hold “roundtables” in which they discussed the supposed perils of unions, and constantly pulled employees aside one-on-one to criticize the union. According to Rhodes, managers emphasized how grateful employees should be for the pay and benefits they receive from Apple, and suggested that they could lose them if the union won. She says the fearmongering became targeted; one employee was told his immigration assistance could be taken away if the union won.

At a roundtable that Bowles attended in May, a meeting leader said they were going to answer “questions from the team,” despite the fact that he was unaware of questions having been solicited. “If we form a union, could we lose our benefits?” read one anonymous question, to which the leader answered yes. The meeting leaders then listed off individual benefits, such as a generous mental health leave policy, and asked employees to raise their hand if they used it. “Then they’d look at people and say, ‘That mental health benefit you take advantage of, that could be gone.’” Bowles points out that employees would never vote for a contract that stripped them of cherished benefits. (Union contracts must be ratified by a majority of members.)

The CWA union filed an unfair labor practice charge in response to Atlanta’s mandatory captive audience meetings, which the National Labor Relations Board’s general counsel has called illegal. In Towson, Apple continued the practice, but changed the meetings from mandatory to optional, which would technically comply with the law. Nonetheless, employees still felt obligated to attend. The meetings were automatically added to people’s schedules, and they had to opt out if they wanted to skip them.

At some point, Gallagher says, management appeared to turn its focus from unions in general to the IAM specifically. They attempted to paint the union as racist, bringing up its history of excluding minorities when it was founded, “without any of the actual historical context of it being the 1880s in Georgia,” notes Gallagher. “Somebody made the point that the union’s run by rich white men,” says Graham DeYoung, a 15-year Apple employee and organizing committee member at the Towson store. “I said, ‘Hey, look at the Apple board of directors.’”

In Atlanta, managers shared a letter written by an employee of the Grand Central Station store in New York City about the union drive there. At the time, Grand Central was affiliated with a different union, Workers United. WIRED reviewed the letter, in which the employee professed to support unions, but wrote, “I do not support THIS union … We’re absolutely allowed to have differences in opinions, we don’t all have to want the same things, or even be friends—but the whispers, the pettiness, the DEATH THREATS, and the straight up ridiculous conspiracy theories, and plots to take each other down has to STOP!”

The idea that organizers were issuing death threats “was an absurd thing in the first place,” says Bowles. “But then when it got posted in our store, it was very clear that the intent was to associate our organizing committee with those kinds of things.”

Employees of both stores say managers amplified the voices of anti-union staff. Gallagher says that when he called employee relations to complain about a coworker who spread false rumors about organizing committee members, he was told that the employee had a right to their opinion. In Atlanta, Rhodes says, a store leader told union supporters they couldn’t discuss the union during work hours, but allowed anti-union staff to freely push their rhetoric.

Ultimately the Atlanta employees withdrew their petition after they weren’t able to marshal enough signatures for a letter they planned to send management, which doubled as a gauge of support. “I feel like the hole in the foundation was, they recognized that our team was young,” says Rhodes. “Those who are new, they’re scared. They’ve never done something like this. They may not know anybody who’s a part of something like this, because in the South, there aren’t a lot of unions.”

“We had so many people being like, I just want this to be fucking over,” says DeYoung, which Logan says is the deliberate purpose of these campaigns. People thought, “If this is what the voting process is like to just say, ‘We want to do this,’ it’s only going to get worse.”

DeYoung is part of a private chat among retail employees nationwide. After Towson won their election, several workers at other stores said in the chat that they started hearing from managers who tried to paint his store as an outlier. “Stuff like, Towson is a special store. They had management problems. It’s kind of a bullying campaign.”

Despite the lingering tensions within the store, Gallagher says, “The hostility that we got from leadership was counteracted tenfold by the support that we got from everybody else … We were able to prove that even one of the most valuable companies in the entire world throwing all their resources at us wasn’t able to stop us.”

Although the union busting campaign ground some workers down, it also mobilized them. When he first heard about the union effort, DeYoung was on the fence about joining. He comes from a conservative background where he was taught not to bite the hand that feeds him. But “seeing the tactics of the company that I put my neck out for 15 years, that sealed the deal for me.”

U.S. Headed for Massive Layoffs: Economist

BY ZOE STROZEWSKI

ON 7/28/22 

Economist Peter Schiff predicted that the U.S. is headed for massive layoffs as a second consecutive quarter of gross domestic product (GDP) decline pushed the U.S. into recession under a common but unofficial definition.

Schiff made the prediction in a Twitter post Thursday, noting how the current state of the labor market has often been cited by those who disagree that the U.S. is in or headed for a recession.

"The Dems claim that we're not in a #recession because unemployment is still low," Schiff tweeted. "But weekly jobless claims continue to rise and mass layoffs are coming. In the meantime, even though most workers still have their jobs, they've all suffered huge pay cuts as a result of #inflation."

GDP, which measures the nation's total output of goods and services, declined at an annualized pace of 0.9 percent in the second quarter, the Commerce Department said Thursday. The first quarter of the year had a GDP decline of 1.6 percent. A commonly held definition holds that two consecutive quarters of GDP decline constitute a recession, meaning that the U.S. is now in one.

However, only a committee of economists at the National Bureau of Economic Research can officially declare the U.S. to be in a recession, and it has yet to do so. Other factors, like the labor market, are taken into account when the NBER makes this assessment.



Schiff told Newsweek that he thinks the U.S. economy has been in a recession for the whole year, "but a lot of companies have kind of been reluctant to admit that."

"Companies generally don't want to just start laying people off, especially if they're kind of optimistic, even if things are getting a little weaker," he said. "There's a lot of costs involved in hiring workers and training workers. Businesses will kind of hold on to them for a while even if there's a downturn."

Economist Peter Schiff predicts that the U.S. is headed for massive layoffs. Above, a "Now Hiring" sign at a Verizon store in Los Angeles on July 26.

MARIO TAMA/GETTY IMAGES

Speaking about the third quarter of 2022, Schiff said "it's pretty obvious that the economy is in a recession and the recession is going to get worse," which means "a lot of companies that were kind of holding on to their workers because they had a more optimistic view of the future are going to have a more realistic view, and I think there are going to be layoffs."

He pointed out that inflation, which in June had its largest year-over-year gain since 1981, has been eating away at workers' paychecks. A graph released by Statista last month showed that U.S. inflation had been outpacing wage increases for more than a year, meaning that many Americans can afford less now than they could before.

Once layoffs begin, Schiff said, some Americans will go from seeing a partial pay cut because of inflation to a full cut if they lose their jobs. Even those who are able to keep their jobs will still be affected by the elevated costs, he added.

"This is going to be a brutal recession," he said. "I think it's going to be more of a depression by the time it's over."


Ahead of the release of the GDP numbers, government officials pushed back on the opinion that the U.S. is in a recession and cited the NBER's specific definition, which is "a significant decline in economic activity that is spread across the economy and that lasts more than a few months."

The White House Council of Economic Advisors stressed in a July 21 blog post that it is "unlikely" that a second consecutive quarter of decline would indicate a recession.

"Recession probabilities are never zero, but trends in the data through the first half of this year used to determine a recession are not indicating a downturn," the post read.

Brian Deese, director of the U.S. National Economic Council, said during a press briefing Tuesday that the totality of the current economic data "is not consistent with a recession."

Additionally, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen last Sunday told Meet the Press that the country isn't in a recession because we're creating "400,000 jobs a month.

U.S. employers added 372,000 jobs in June, according to Labor Department data.

As Schiff indicated in his tweet, unemployment is low. According to the Labor Department, the jobless rate in June was 3.6 percent for the fourth month in a row. This is sharply down from the 14.7 percent peak in April 2020, after the coronavirus pandemic's onset, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics said was the highest on record.

The Labor Department also released data Thursday that showed U.S. jobless claims fell for the first time in four weeks—for the week ending July 23—but they were at one of their highest levels since November 2021, Bloomberg reported. In another tweet, Schiff said unemployment applications fell because the previous week's numbers were revised upward.

The Labor Department initially reported 251,000 jobless claims for the week ending July 16, but the number was later bumped up to 261,000.

American Crystal Sugar workers reject 17% raise over 4 years


MOORHEAD, Minn. (AP) — Workers at the largest sugar beet processor in the U.S. have rejected a contract offer that includes a 17% pay increase over four years.

Union president John Riskey said the offer from American Crystal Sugar was recently rejected by an overwhelming margin, but he did not provide details on how many members voted or the margin of rejection.

The Moorhead-based cooperative said that it negotiated for 10 days with the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers’ International Union.

The company said in addition to the pay increase, the contract offered more vacation, increased pension benefits and a $1,000 ratification bonus if the new contract was approved by July 31, when the current contract expires.

Riskey said workers felt they deserved a bigger pay increase after helping the company weather the COVID-19 pandemic.

“They kept it running, kept getting the product out, helped keep the company profitable and they just feel like they just aren’t getting ahead,” he said. “We have the inflation issue, too, with inflation going up where you know with the offer that the company has, it just isn’t keeping up.”

Riskey said workers want contract talks to continue, Minnesota Public Radio reported.

American Crystal said the new deadline for an agreement is Sept. 15. It agreed to continuing contract talks with a federal mediator at the table.

The company’s factories process sugar beets grown by about 2,600 farmer-shareholders on 425,000 acres of land in the Red River Valley of northwestern Minnesota and eastern North Dakota.

Why the UK’s only gender identity clinic for children is closing and how the NHS plans to replace itEXPLAINED

The NHS said it is taking ‘immediate steps’ to establish two services led by specialist children’s hospitals instead

The Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) clinic at Tavistock 

Tavistock and Portman NHS foundation trust, the UK’s only dedicated gender identity clinic for children and young people, is to close after an independent review criticised its services

 (Photo: Peter Nicholls/Reuters)

By Joe Duggan
July 28, 2022

The NHS is closing Britain’s only gender identity clinic for children and young people after a critical report found that having only one provider was “not a safe or viable long-term option”.

Instead, the health service will replace the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) at the Tavistock & Portman NHS Foundation Trust in London with a regional network.

The NHS is aiming to close the clinic by next Spring following an interim review led by Dr Hilary Cass. It intends to build a “more resilient service” by expanding provision through the network.

The NHS said it is taking “immediate steps” to establish two services led by specialist children’s hospitals in London and the North West, with a view to build a national regional network of around eight services “given the urgent requirement to stabilise current service provision for patients”.

It said the network will take a more “holistic” approach to treatment and examine other mental health or medical issues patients may present alongside any gender work.
Why is the clinic closing?

The Tavistock GIDS clinic opened in 1989 to help children under 18 who were struggling with their gender identity.

Thursday’s announcement of its closure comes after recommendations from Dr Cass, who is leading an independent review into gender identity services for children and young people.

Earlier this year, Dr Cass found that the number of children seeking NHS help “is now outstripping the capacity of the single national specialist service” and there was a need to move away from the model of a sole provider.

In her interim report, released in March, she wrote: “It has become increasingly clear that a single specialist provider model is not a safe or viable long-term option in view of concerns about lack of peer review and the ability to respond to the increasing demand.”
What problems have previously been identified?

Dr Cass’s interim report found the rise in GIDS referrals at the trust had left staff overwhelmed and under “under pressure to adopt an unquestioning affirmative approach”.

This had left young people “at considerable risk” of distress and deteriorating mental health, with the service struggling with long waiting lists.

In a highly critical report, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) told GIDS that their services and waiting times “must improve significantly”.

The CQC demanded a report of the number of patients on the waiting list, including monthly figures of new referrals awaiting an assessment.

A High Court case was brought against the Tavistock challenging its use of puberty blockers, a treatment offered to children and young people questioning their gender.

The case was led by Keira Bell, who was referred to the service at 16 and prescribed hormone blockers to pause her puberty. She underwent further treatment as an adult before deciding she no longer identified as transgender.

How will people get treatment after GIDS closes?

The NHS said it intends to build a “more resilient service” by expanding provision into a regional network, and is taking “immediate steps” to establish two services led by specialist children’s hospitals in London and the North West.

The health service hopes to have the services fully up and running by spring, 2023.

It described the two new services as the “first step” in a national regional network “given the urgent requirement to stabilise current service provision for patients”.

Altnough the final number in the network has not yet been confirmed, up to eight services could ultimately be put in place.
Where will the services be based?

One London-based service will be led by Great Ormond Street Hospital and Evelina London Children’s Hospital, with South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust providing specialist mental health support.

A second service in the North West will be led by Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust and the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, with both trusts providing specialist mental health services.

These two services will take over clinical responsibility for all GIDS patients, including those on the waiting list.

How much demand has there been for GIDS?

Over the past decade there has been a sharp increase in referrals to the clinic, with more than 5,000 in 2021/22, compared with less than 250 in 2011-12.

But as demand surged the waiting times for assessments lengthened, and the Cass review was commissioned in September 2020 to ensure that children and young people are able to access the best possible support from the NHS.

The NHS also highlighted a “lack of clinical consensus and polarised opinion” around the best model of care for children questioning their gender, as well as a “lack of evidence to support families in making informed decisions about interventions that may have life-long consequences”.

The NHS said the clinic in London is set to be replaced by regional centres which it hopes to open fully in the spring (Photo: Reuters/Peter Nicholls)

There had been a “dramatic change” in who was being referred, with more children registered female at birth, neurodiverse children and children with mental health needs.

The review’s interim report warned that many of those being referred have complex needs but that, once they are identified as having gender-related distress, other healthcare issues “can sometimes be overlooked”.

Its final report is expected in 2023.

What has the reaction been?

A Stonewall spokesperson said the organisation was pleased that “the NHS has acted decisively to address the unacceptable waiting times faced by trans young people in accessing specialist gender identity-related healthcare, by expanding the support it provide” following the interim Cass Review.

“The creation of new specialist regional centres in London and Manchester next year, with more to follow, will go some way to addressing the strain experienced by having just a single, centralised service,” the spokesperson added.

Ms Bell said she was “over the moon” at the announcement the clinic would close.

A GIDS spokesperson said the service appreciated how difficult long waits are for young people seeking treatment, and the new measures represent “significant progress in expanding capacity” and that the trust supports the need for a more sustainable model amid the rise in referrals.

Following recommendations by Dr Cass, the NHS also said it will carry out clinical research to track under-16s who are on puberty blockers into adulthood in order to counter “polarised opinion and conjecture” with evidence.”

The NHS said it will ensure greater transparency around “the uncertain clinical benefits and longer-term health impacts surrounding their use”.

While the research is ongoing patients will continue to be able to access treatment, it added.

 

Labour members launch petition telling SIR Keir Starmer to back striking workers and reverse Sam Tarry sacking

JULY 28, 2022LABOUR HUB EDITORS

By the Labour Assembly Against Austerity

Thousands of Labour members and affiliates are expected to support a petition to Keir Starmer launched by the Labour Assembly Against Austerity which argues that workers taking industrial action during the cost-of-living crisis “deserve all of the Labour Party’s wholehearted support.”

Addressing Keir Starmer’s refusal to support RMT and other recent strikes, it says that, “As leader of the Labour Party – which was founded by the trade unions – you [Keir Starmer] should stand by those taking action to protect the future of us all,” adding that this “also means reversing the disgraceful sacking of Sam Tarry.”

Speaking in support of the launch of the petition, Labour NEC member Gemma Bolton said: “Born of the unions, Labour is the party of workers. With the cost-of-living crisis biting hard, it’s incomprehensible that Keir Starmer is not standing firmly in solidarity with those in dispute over demands for fair wage rises and job security.”

Jess Barnard, Young Labour Chair and NEC candidate said: “Labour’s leadership should be backing workers fighting the Tories, not sacking shadow ministers for showing solidarity.”

Ben Selby, Fire Brigades Union (FBU) Vice-President said: “At a time when we are seeing workers having to resort to taking industrial action to fight for decent pay, and make ends meet, we see a Labour Party led by Keir Starmer obfuscating. The Labour Party was founded by the trade unions, it needs to demonstrate whose side are they on? The workers or the bosses?”

Fraser McGuire, secretary of Derbyshire Young Labour and part of the Socialist Future Slate for the upcoming Young Labour elections said: “It’s absolutely critical that Keir Starmer and the Labour Party support working people’s right to strike. The Tory assault on Trade Union legislation and the cost of living crisis make it clear that we need total solidarity with workers across the UK and throughout the Labour Movement.”

Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, part of the Grassroots 5 Left slate for Labour’s NEC said: “Labour was created to be the political voice of the organised working class. Be that voice!”

The full text of the petition reads as follows:

“To: Keir Starmer

From rail and transport to the communications sector, to education workers and beyond, more and more working people and their trade unions are taking industrial action to protect jobs, livelihoods, and public services during this deepening cost-of-living crisis. There is growing public support for these actions.

As leader of the Labour Party – which was founded by the trade unions – you should stand by those taking action to protect the future of us all. That also means reversing the disgraceful sacking of Sam Tarry.

Neither Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss will help the millions suffering during this crisis – those workers doing something about it deserve all of the Labour Party’s wholehearted support.”

The Labour Assembly Against Austerity is one of the largest campaigning groups in the Labour Party, and brings together Labour Party members, trade unionists and others to support campaigns for economic justice and against cuts, such as the Peoples Assembly Against Austerity. Over 150,000 people have signed its online petitions and statements since 2020.

You can find LAAA on social media at www.twitter.com/LabourAssembly and www.facebook.com/Labour.Assembly.Against.Austerity

You can see the Keir Starmer – Back Workers Taking Action! Petition at https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/keir-starmer-back-workers-taking-action

Image: Sam Tarry MP. Source: https://members-api.parliament.uk/api/Members/4829/Portrait?cropType=ThreeFour. Author: David Woolfall, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

British Gas owner Centrica profits increase five-fold to £1.34 billion as millions face fuel poverty

Basit Mahmood

 Today

"We need action now.”

British Gas owner Centrica’s profits have increased five-fold to £1.34 billion, as energy bills soar and millions of families live in fuel poverty across the country.

Centrica’s record profits for the first six months of 2022 are five times the amount from the same period last year of £262m.

Oil company Shell also reported record profits of $11.5bn, doubling its earnings in a single year amid surging energy prices.

The record profits come amid a cost of living crisis driven by soaring energy bills, with more than 8 million households, one in three in the UK – expected to be in fuel poverty following October’s price cap increase, according to National Energy Action (NEA) – the national fuel poverty charity.

Meanwhile British households face annual energy bills of £3,850, three times what they were paying at the start of 2022.

News of the record profits while millions struggle was met with much backlash.

Reacting to the news, LFF columnist Prem Sikka tweeted: “British Gas owner Centrica profits increase five-fold to £1.34bn

“Household bills rocket.

“Cost of producing energy hasn’t changed substantially, selling price has.

“Must end corporate profiteering.

“Nationalize energy, limit price rise to inflation.”

Labour MP Kate Osborne tweeted: “British Gas owner Centrica has seen a 5 x increase of profits to £1.34 billion.

“Yet we are paying 3x more than they were this time last year (annual bills of £3,850!)

“We need action now.”

The Trades Union Congress tweeted: “British Gas owner Centrica has just posted £1.34 billion profit in the first six months of this year.

“This is a FIVE times increase on last year.

“Time to take energy companies into public ownership.”

Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward

Robots and chess
by Albert Silver

7/27/2022 – By now it is almost impossible to not have heard the tragic tale of the 7-year-old boy whose finger was broken during an exhibition by a chess playing robot. It was certainly the least likely incident one would have imagined, but Murphy's Law was in full swing that day. Still, the history of robots and chess has been ongoing for over 250 years now, with robot chess players today in the homes of proud owners.

It really is no exaggeration to state that our fascination for chess playing robots goes back over 250 years. The first such example was the famed 'The Turk', a machine that purported to be a fully functioning chess automaton. Although this was in fact an amazingly elaborate hoax, it was not so fictitious as to be P.T. Barnum level.
The Turk

Constructed and unveiled in 1770 by Wolfgang von Kempelen to impress Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, the mechanism appeared to be able to play a strong game of chess against a human opponent. However, The Turk was in fact a mechanical illusion that allowed a human chess master hiding inside to operate the machine.



Although it was a smash hit, it was a curious tale of being a victim of its own success. Kempelen was understandably delighted by the success and popularity of his device... at first, but he soon began to balk at showing or sharing it with anyone for years on end, in spite of financial incentives. We are talking royal incentives no less.

The interior of the machine was very complicated and designed to mislead those who observed it. It was designed in such a way that when the front doors were open, people would see elaborate cogs and gears, and if both the back and front doors were opened at the same time one could see through the machine, even with the full-sized adult operator in the machine.

Take a minute to let that sink in. The degree of ingenuity of the entire project is truly staggering.

The story goes that in 1769, a famous French illusionist, François Pelletier, was performing one of his acts at the court of Maria Theresa of Austria at Schönbrunn Palace. Pelletier was famous for his employment of magnets to power many of his illusions. An exchange afterward resulted in Kempelen promising to return to the Palace with an invention that would top the illusions. And in 1770 he unveiled his astounding creation.



A full recreation can be seen at the Heinz Nixdorf Museum on permanent display

Consider that he needed to not only meticulously design the entire contraption before even tightening a single cog, but designed it to be both functional and illusion at the same time. He then needed to produce each and every piece that it was made of, and of course test it. Much has been made of the fact that it was a 'hoax', but it really was a work of genius.

In 1804, after Kempelen passed away, his son sold it to Johann Nepomuk Mälzel, who went to work restoring and improving it as an exhibition piece, even going so far as to add a voice box in 1818 that would say "Échec!" (French for "check") during matches.

Though it was indeed a hoax inasmuch as it was not a genuine automaton, those who paid to play it were still being serviced with a game by a proper chess master. The last and longest one to man it was the European chess master, William Schlumberger, known to have taught Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant, one of the greats of the 19th century.

The first true automaton

It would be 140 years before the first true chess automaton would make its appearance. In 1912 a Spanish engineer, Leonardo Torres y Quevedo, built what is widely considered not only the first true computer chess machine, but the first computer game of any kind. His chess machine 'Ajedrecista', was able to automatically play the endgame rook and king against the lone king using electromagnets under the board.


Gonzalo, Torres's son (left), showing his automaton to Norbert Wiener at the 1951 Paris Cybernetic Congress

In fact, not only could it play with no outside assistance, but if an illegal move was made by the opposite player, the automaton would signal it by turning on a light. If the opposing player made three illegal moves, the automaton would stop playing.

The commercial chess robots

Boris Handroid (1980)

The first commercially available chess robot was a curious device called the Boris Handroid. This curious device was announced in 1980 and was only available via special mail order. For many years it was a genuine unicorn of a device, and many collectors and aficionados wondered whether it even existed until a single copy surfaced, owned by a Swiss, Rolf Bühler.



A photo of the Boris Handroid (source: Rolf Bühler)

This singular device not only recognizes the movement of the figures controlled by the human opponent, but is also able to execute its own moves via a robotic arm controlled by three servomotors. The device has 7 game levels and contains the same chess program Sargon 2.5 as the MGS multi-game system.

Novag Robot Adversary (1982)

The first chess robot that became available in department stores and specialty shops came out in 1982, the legendary Novag Robot Adversary. This machine came with a very modern looking mechanical arm that will fold and unfold as its pincers pick up and move its pieces. It was a sight to behold, but unfortunately the failure rate was quite high and only some 2000 were produced.


Milton Bradley "Grandmaster" (1983)



Fat Fritz 2

Fat Fritz 2.0 is the successor to the revolutionary Fat Fritz, which was based on the famous AlphaZero algorithms. This new version takes chess analysis to the next level and is a must for players of all skill levels.

Shortly after, Milton Bradley came out with its own version of the robot chess machine, the Milton Bradley "Grandmaster". This machine instead operated with magnets under the pieces as it slid the pieces across the board to play the game.

This would prove to be extremely popular, and it led to a slew of machines by the company using this same core technology, and the defunct company Fidelity acquired the patent to produce their own and in 1988 out came the Fidelity Phantom, a very respectable machine, very similar in appearance, which sported a strong program by the Spracklens.

Though not the last of the robot machines, these were the most significant and pioneering contributions. The dedicated chess computer makers have all but disappeared, but you can still produce your own!

The Raspberry Turk

In the world of DIY (Do-It-Yourself) electronics, the inexpensive and immensely versatile Raspberry Pi, a small single-board computers (SBCs) developed in the United Kingdom is the swiss army knife of computer and electronic hobbyist projects. This is because of its low cost, modularity, and open design, not to mention its adoption of the HDMI and USB standards.

Sure enough, someone not only created a set of detailed plans to build your own chess robot, but teaches you how to do it.

Josh Meyer, the creator, has set up a website dedicated to showing how anyone can build their own, and it is entirely open source. If you are looking for an advanced but intriguing project, this is surely one for your shortlist.
Technological demonstrations

Needless to say, there are also much more advanced machines designed to not only play chess, but demonstrate advances in robotics. When it comes to chess and robots it is no surprise that the main sources are Russian.

Ten years ago, a public demonstration between a fully automated robot playing on a normal chess board and clock was arranged between top GM Alexander Grischuk and the machine. While the games went fine, it wasn't without some slightly startling moments...



Unfortunately, as was bound to happen, an accident happened a few days ago in a story that has gone viral, reported by the major media outlets around the world, such as The Guardian, CNN, and so many more.

The Guardian - Chess robot grabs and breaks finger of seven-year-old opponent

A 7-year-old boy was playing in one such demonstration, but his finger was caught by the machine and because of its strength, was broken. Understandably this caused surprise and alarm as is warranted, but it is incredibly rare and no doubt further safety measures will be put in place as a result.

Regardless of one's feeling on the matter, there is little doubt that robots will be playing an every greater role in our lives, though we are not quite at the stage where Isaac Asimov's Laws of Robotics will be a factor.

Albert SilverBorn in the US, he grew up in Paris, France, where he completed his Baccalaureat, and after college moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He had a peak rating of 2240 FIDE, and was a key designer of Chess Assistant 6. In 2010 he joined the ChessBase family as an editor and writer at ChessBase News. He is also a passionate photographer with work appearing in numerous publications, and the content creator of the YouTube channel, Chess & Tech.

 Why The Biggest Chess Match Ever Was Played In Iceland

Jul 27, 2022

Chess.com

Bidding wars, disagreements, protests and threats of forfeit. This is why the 1972 World Chess Championship between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky was played in Iceland.