Medical marijuana found effective in reducing chronic lower-back pain – Israeli study

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH - Monday

Israeli researchers have found that medical cannabis can significantly ease lower-back pain, but that not all types of marijuana do the job.

Seach medical cannabis farm© (photo credit: SEACH MEDICAL GROUP)

Four out of five people have lower back pain at some point in their lives, making it one of the most common reasons people visit their doctors. It usually gets better within a few weeks but may become chronic, with pain ranging from mild to severe, making it difficult or impossible to walk, work, sleep or carry out routine activities.

People over the age of 30 – especially those who are overweight or have jobs with a lot of lifting and bending, diseases like osteoarthritis or scoliosis and poor posture – are at high risk for such pain. Treatments include cortisone injections, manipulation, physical therapy and even surgery.

Dr. Dror Robinson and Dr. Mustafa Yassin of the Orthopedics Department of Hasharon Hospital of the Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva, and Sivan Ritter of the University of Haifa, published their new study in the Rambam Maimonides Medical Journal published online by the Rambam Health Care Campus under the title “Comparing Sublingual and Inhaled Cannabis Therapies for Low Back Pain: An Observational Open-Label Study.”

Driven by public demand, medical cannabis is growing as a common treatment in medicine, especially for pain relief, despite the lack of established scientific basis, they wrote.


A worker inspects marijuana leaves and care for plants at the Rak Jang farm, one of the first farms that has been given permission by the Thai government to grow cannabis and sell products to medical facilities, in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand March 28, 2021. (credit: CHALINEE THIRASUPA/REUTERS)© Provided by The Jerusalem Post

Two types of cannabis treatment were given to chronic low-back-pain patients. The first was cannabidiol (CBD)-rich sublingual (under the tongue) extract treatment over a period of 10 months.

After a month of no treatment, the same group received Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)-rich whole dried cannabis flowers that were smoked in the form of cannabis cigarettes for 12 months. Oral consumption in the form of edibles such as cookies is reserved for children and was not relevant to this group of adult patients.

The number of participants was small – 24 people, seven women and 17 men, whose MRI or CT scans of the spine showed disc herniation or spinal stenosis – but the results were convincing. The most commonly reported initial side effects were nausea, sore throat, drowsiness, dizziness and fatigue, all of which were transient and disappeared after dose tolerance was achieved. Most of these adverse effects were noted in female patients.

Just three patients dropped out of extract therapy treatment but resumed study participation to receive THC-rich smoking therapy. After a minimum of two years, the sublingual extract treatment was not significant in reducing pain, but it was impressive when the cannabis flowers were smoked.

“Our findings indicate that inhaled THC-rich therapy is more effective than CBD-rich sublingual extract therapy for treating low back pain and that cannabis therapy is safe and effective for chronic low back pain," the team concluded.

A recent survey of over 1,000 North American adults who self-administered cannabis for chronic pain found that 58% of those surveyed used it to ease back pain, 36% used inhalation therapy, 45% used both inhalation and non-inhalation therapy, and 19% used non-inhalation therapy only.

Cannabis use in Israel

The differences in cannabis usage between Israel and North America, suggested the authors, may be attributed to the greater variety of legally available medical cannabis products in the US and Canada such as edibles and high-concentration THC, which are not permitted in Israel.

Currently, active medical cannabis licenses have been issued to 110,971 Israelis, and 56.6% of such licenses were prescribed to treat chronic neuropathic non-cancer pain.

“A major obstacle to the widespread legal use of medical cannabinoid-based (CB) therapy is the lack of sufficient evidence-based data. However, the naturally occurring variation among and between the phytoconstituents of different cannabis cultivars makes it difficult to quantitate and compare studies and subjects,” they wrote.

Treating pain with sublingually administered cannabis extracts is preferred by many doctors, as it may be regarded as easier to obtain from the pharmacy and to consume. Sublingual administration might also have the benefit of a more consistent dosing regimen while avoiding the adverse effects of smoking.

But the authors’ real-world clinical experience “indicates a relative lack of efficiency of sublingual extract treatments compared to smoking.” Most Israeli patients seem to prefer smoking cannabis to extract consumption for pain relief. The Health Ministry’s licenses granted to patients included just 10% for sublingual extracts and 90% for smoked cannabis flowers.

Lawyer for organizers tells inquiry Pat King, others, were using Freedom Convoy for own gains

“memorandum of understanding” that called to overthrow the federal government.

Ryan Tumilty , Christopher Nardi - Yesterday 

Pat King livestreaming from the Ottawa airport during the Freedom Convoy protests in Ottawa. Screengrab from Facebook© Provided by National Post

OTTAWA – Many groups and individuals fought for control over the Freedom Convoy seeking its power, influence and the millions of dollars it fundraised online, said a lawyer for convoy organizers testifying at the Emergencies Act commission.

Keith Wilson, an Edmonton lawyer, came to represent many convoy organizers through the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms. He said he was asked to go to Ottawa shortly after the convoy arrived in the city and took a private plane, picking up other lawyers in different cities. Wilson said he was told the private plane was necessary because several of his fellow passengers were unvaccinated.

He said when he arrived he found several different groups who all wanted to claim credit for the convoy. He said some organizers saw the need for clearer goals and better coordination, but others were in it for their own reasons.

“Other groups seem to want to reshape the Freedom Convoy into their own event, branded theirs and I got the distinct impression from some others that they were trying to get their hands on what at that point was $10 million in donations,” he said.

Wilson still represents several of the convoy members. He told the commission he received a waiver from convoy members to be able to testify.

The commission is tasked with determining whether the Trudeau government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act was justified.

In his witness statement, he said Pat King, who is set to testify later on Wednesday, in particular seemed to be using the convoy for his own gains.

“Pat King appeared to Wilson to be an attention seeker and a rabble rouser,” he said. “Wilson did not care to be in the same room with King and had no time for him.”

Wilson said he represented the convoy organizers during injunction hearings and with GoFundMe over the donations the convoy raised. GoFundMe ultimately refused to provide the donations, and the convoy turned to another website to raise funds.

Speaking to reporters after his testimony, Wilson said the Emergencies Act was a complete overreaction. He said police never offered an alternate place to protest. Wilson said despite the divisions in the convoy, he believes organizers could have brought all the truckers into a smaller footprint and reduced the impact of the protest.

“My simple answer to that is, look what happened on the Monday despite all the problems, the police admitted to blocking the movement of the trucks, over 100 vehicles were moved, most of which left downtown and only 23 went up to Wellington,” he said. “The plan that we started to implement was working until it was stopped by the police.”

Tom Marazzo, a former Canadian Forces Member, testified after Wilson. He said he lost his job at Georgian College after the institution brought in a vaccine mandate. He said he assumed medical professionals and lawyers would come forward to oppose the mandates and was disappointed when they were mostly silent.

He said he was inspired by the truckers’ protest and felt they could bring about real change.

“It was the truckers that gave me an opportunity to actually get into fighting for my kids’ rights.”

Marazzo said once he got to Ottawa, he met up with other organizers and worked on logistics for the convoy, including aiming to keep emergency lanes open among other tasks.

He said getting individual truckers to move was not easy and took time.

“I had no legitimate or legal authority to tell anyone to do anything and I wasn’t signing anyone’s paycheque,” he said. “This was a case where you had to use your soft skills to communicate and get people to buy in with what you’re trying to do collectively.”

Marazzo said he cautioned police, including after a raid on a logistic site for the convoy was not to push the protesters.

“My conversations with the Ottawa police the next day was,if you want to provoke a reaction from this organic movement from individual truckers, that’s the best way to go about it.”

Both Wilson and Marazzo spoke about a controversial memorandum of understanding, which some conoy organizers circulated and suggested the Senate, Governor General and a group of convoy participants could take over from the Trudeau government.

Both Wilson and Marazzo said they told other organizers the memorandum wasn’t based on any real legal theory and should be pulled back.

Convoy organizers also took in money through crypto currencies. Wilson’s witness statement said most of the crypto currency donations were controlled by organizer B.J. Dichter, but Wilson doesn’t know where that money is now.

“Wilson does not know where all of the cryptocurrency went. Dichter was removed from the board of directors of the Freedom Convoy non-profit after the protests in Ottawa.”

His testimony comes after another organizer, Christopher Barber, testified Tuesday that there was a real “power struggle” between various factions within the convoy even before it arrived in Ottawa starting Jan. 28.

He also pointed fingers at controversial figure Pat King, as well as another group called “Canada Unity” and their notorious “memorandum of understanding” that called to overthrow the federal government.

Freedom Convoy plagued with 'power struggles,' competing factions: organizer Chris Barber

Watch Tom Marazzo and Pat King’s full testimony:

Public inquiry hears about divisions within 'Freedom Convoy' leadership

OTTAWA — One of the main spokesmen for the "Freedom Convoy" says he did not agree with a proposed deal, struck between organizers and the city of Ottawa, that would have seen truckers move their vehicles out of residential areas.



Benjamin Dichter is on the stand Thursday at the Public Order Emergency Commission, the public inquiry that is tasked with investigating the federal government's use of the Emergencies Act in an effort to end the weeks-long occupation of downtown Ottawa last winter.

He said he came to the capital city in January at the invitation of Tamara Lich, one of the organizers of the "Freedom Convoy," to be a spokesman for the protesters.

But he was not on the same page as Lich about striking a deal with the city.

On Feb. 12, Lich exchanged letters with then-Mayor Jim Watson, discussing an agreement that would see the truckers move their vehicles away from residential streets.

Related video: Convoy protest organizers testify at Emergencies Act inquiry
Duration 2:47 View on Watch

Dichter said he did not think the negotiations should be happening, because they were partially co-ordinated by Ontario Premier Doug Ford's former chief of staff.

"These are the sorts of things that were causing so much anxiety and division," Dichter said.

Dichter said he joined the protests with a goal of ending pandemic-related mandates and spreading a message of "peace, love, freedom and unity."   ROFLMAO

But he ended up in conflict with other organizers over messaging.

Two other protest organizers, Lich and James Bauder, are also scheduled to appear before the commission Thursday, which is holding public hearings until Nov. 25.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 3, 2022.

Laura Osman and David Fraser, The Canadian Press

FRANK ZAPPA

The Mothers of Invention - Were Only in it for the Money 1968 MFSL

We're Only in It for the Money is the third studio album by The Mothers of Invention. 

Released on March 4, 1968 on Verve Records. It was subsequently remixed and re-recorded by Frank Zappa and reissued independently by Rykodisc Records in 1986.

Scientists Just Discovered a Huge River Hidden Under Antarctica

David Nield -  ScienceAlert 


Ice radar scans

Scientists have to factor in all kinds of variables when it comes to predicting ice loss in Antarctica as the world warms up.

Now researchers need to take into account a huge river that runs for some 460 kilometers (286 miles) deep beneath the ice; a distance longer than the river Thames that runs through London in the UK.

Experts say the newly discovered waterway and its offshoots have the potential to substantially affect the way that the glacial ice above it flows and melts.

The researchers behind the discovery used a combination of airborne radar surveys that can peer through the ice, plus water flow modeling. The large area under examination includes ice from both the east and west ice sheets in the Antarctic, with water running off into the Weddell Sea.

"The region where this study is based holds enough ice to raise the sea level globally by 4.3 meters [14 feet]," says glaciologist Martin Siegert from Imperial College London in the UK.

"How much of this ice melts, and how quickly, is linked to how slippery the base of the ice is. The newly discovered river system could strongly influence this process."

Scientists have long known that water flows under ice sheets. This happens in two ways: geothermal heat and friction can melt ice sheets from beneath the glacier, while deep crevasses called moulins can channel surface meltwater down to its base. The latter tends to happen much more in the Arctic and Greenland, where there's more seasonal variation in ice thickness.

What the new study shows is in Antarctica, there's enough melting happening at the base of the ice sheets for rivers to form. These channels of high-pressure, fresh water can in turn accelerate the ice melting process as the base of the glacier becomes less stable, at the point where it meets the sea.


Ice melt in Greenland occurs via moulins (left). Different processes are observed in Antartica, where subglacial water flows over hundreds of kilometers (right). (Dow et al., Nature Geoscience 2022)© Provided by ScienceAlert

While we're getting better at measuring just how much ice is melting at the North and South Poles, the processes driving this melting are complicated. Discoveries like the one made here give us a better understanding of the underlying processes, which means more accurate models of future ice loss can be generated.

"Previous studies have looked at the interaction between the edges of ice sheets and ocean water to determine what melting looks like," says glaciologist Neil Ross from the University of Newcastle in the UK.

"However, the discovery of a river that reaches hundreds of kilometers inland driving some of these processes shows that we cannot understand the ice melt fully without considering the whole system: ice sheet, ocean, and freshwater."

The researchers say if melting rates in the Antarctic continue to increase, and summers are warm enough to create surface melt and moulins, this might have a significant impact on the hidden rivers that already exist – potentially making the ice sheet here more seasonal, as is the case with Greenland.

All these factors can lead to feedback loops where additional melting itself creates even faster rates of ice loss. One way this could happen is through deep water flows that cause the ice to move faster over dry land, creating more friction and even more melting.

Now the team wants to use the techniques deployed here in other parts of the continent to see what else scientists might not know about, with knock-on effects possible some 100 kilometers (62 miles) either side of the main rivers flowing under the ice.

"When we first discovered lakes beneath the Antarctic ice a couple of decades ago, we thought they were isolated from each other," says Siegert.

"Now we are starting to understand there are whole systems down there, interconnected by vast river networks, just as they might be if there weren't thousands of meters of ice on top of them."

The research has been published in Nature Geoscience.

UH OH

Related video: Scientists Discover 1 Million Year Old DNA at the Bottom of the Sea in Antarctica Duration 1:10  View on Watch

 

MAKE 'EM PAY WINDFALL PROFIT TAX

Canadian Natural touts its economic contribution against backdrop of soaring profits


CALGARY — Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.'s president Tim McKay added his voice Thursday to the chorus of oilsands executives who in recent days have been pushing back against critics by touting their industry's contributions to the overall economy.



McKay, who heads Canada's largest oil and gas producer, said on a third-quarter earnings conference call on Thursday that CNRL is expected to contribute $11 billion in taxes and royalties to federal and provincial governments this year, a 120 per cent increase from 2021.

"That is an increase of approximately $6 billion or 120 per cent from 2021 levels," McKay said, the same day the company reported a third-quarter profit of $2.81 billion, up from $2.20 billion a year earlier, and hiked its quarterly dividend to 85 cents per share from its previous dividend of 75 cents per share.

Both Cenovus Energy CEO Alex Pourbaix and Imperial Oil CEO Brad Corson also recently used their third-quarter calls to emphasize the size of the contributions their companies make to government coffers.

The new messaging tactic comes as the oil and gas sector is increasingly under scrutiny from critics who question why the industry isn't using more of their hefty profits this year to invest in decarbonization projects. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drove energy commodities to heights not seen in many years in 2022, but critics say the companies reaping the profits are focusing too much on rewarding shareholders and not enough on investing in local communities and the environment.

In particular, the members of the Pathways Alliance — a consortium of oilsands companies, of which CNRL is a member — has been criticized by environmentalists for not moving faster with its own greenhouse gas emissions reduction pledges.

The Pathways Alliance has said it could spend up to $16.5 billion on its proposed carbon capture and storage network in northern Alberta before 2030, but it has not yet pulled the trigger to go ahead with the ambitious project.

Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault has said the industry needs to start using its record-breaking profits to take action on some of its proposals.

But McKay said the idea that the industry has been slow to move on its greenhouse gas reduction plans is a mischaracterization. While the Pathways group is still trying to secure additional federal and provincial support for its headline carbon capture project, it has said it foresees being able to start injecting carbon as early as 2026.

"Spending actually starts this year. There's a lot of environmental work," McKay said on Thursday's conference call.

"Obviously, we'd like to submit the regulatory pieces as soon as possible, hopefully here in 2023. With that, we'd look to order pipe for the trunk line — so there's a lot of work being done by approximately 200 different individuals, between all the companies involved in the project."

The Pathways proposal would capture CO2 emissions from more than 20 oilsands facilities in northern Alberta and store them safely underground, delivering an estimated 10 million tonnes of emissions reductions per year.

Other companies involved in the project include Cenovus Energy Inc., ConocoPhillips Canada, Imperial Oil Ltd., MEG Energy Corp., and Suncor Energy Inc.

On Thursday, CNRL said its revenue for the quarter totalled $10.46 billion, up from $7.71 billion in the third quarter of 2021, while production in the quarter averaged 1,338,940 barrels of oil equivalent per day, up from 1,237,503 a year ago.

The company's adjusted profit from operations totalled $3.09 per diluted share in its latest quarter, up from $1.77 per diluted share a year earlier.

CNRL also reported all-time record total quarterly production of 1.3 million barrels of oil equivalent per day for the three months ended Sept. 30.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 3, 2022.

Companies in this story: (TSX:CNQ)

Amanda Stephenson, The Canadian Press

Eco-activist attacks on museum artwork ask us to figure out what we value

Sally Hickson, Associate Professor, Art History, University of Guelph - 

THE CONVERSATION

In the last few weeks climate change activists have perpetrated various acts of reversible vandalism against famous works of art in public galleries.


Police officers patrol the entrance of the Tate Modern gallery, in London, Oct. 15, 2022, after climate protesters threw soup over glass covering Vincent van Gogh's 'Sunflowers' in London's National Gallery.© (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

In the latest incident on Oct. 27, two men entered the Mauritshuis gallery in the Hague. After taking off their jackets to reveal t-shirts printed with anti-oil slogans, one proceeded to glue his head to glass overtop Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring, while the other bathed the head of his partner-in-crime with what appeared to be tinned tomatoes before gluing his own hand to the wall adjacent to the painting.

This was just the latest in a series of similar art attacks that have peppered the news.

The motivation of the eco-activists involved is to draw attention to the crisis of climate change, the role of big oil in hastening the deterioration of the environment and the necessity to save our planet.

By attacking a famous and high-value cultural target like Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring — it even starred in its own movie — the protesters are asking us to examine our values.



Johannes Vermeer’s ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring,’ c. 1665, was recently targeted by climate activists in a protest at the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague.© (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Big oil protests

The first Vermeer painting to come to auction for almost 80 years sold for almost $40 million in 2004. Today a Vermeer (there are not that many) could easily be valued at twice that. Whether you like Vermeer or not, the monetary value of the targets under attack enhances the sheer audacity and shock value of the current art attacks.

The eco-activists want to appear to desecrate something that people associate with value and with culture. Their point is that if we don’t have a planet, we’ll lose all the things in it that we seem to value more.

As activist Phoebe Plummer of Just Stop Oil told NPR after being involved in the attack on Van Gogh’s Sunflowers at London’s National Gallery:

“Since October, we have been engaging in disruptive acts all around London because right now what is missing to make this change is political will. So our action in particular was a media-grabbing action to get people talking, not just about what we did, but why we did it.”

Note, the idea is disruption, not destruction. As acts designed for shock value, the activists did draw immediate public attention.

Attacking art

By staging their attacks in public galleries, where the majority of visitors carry cell phones, activists could be assured film and photos of the incidents would draw immediate attention. By sticking to non-corrosive substances and mitigating damage to the works under attack, they don’t draw the kind of public ire that wilful destruction would evoke.

In recent news, attacking art as a form of public protest has largely been limited to public monuments outside the gallery space, like the destruction and removal of Confederate or colonial statues.

But it’s also true that works of museum art have come under attack before. Over the course of its history, Rembrandt’s Night Watch in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam was stabbed in two separate incidents in 1911 and 1975; in 1990, it was sprayed with acid; but all of those attacks were ascribed to individuals with unclear and less clearly rational motives.

Related video: Climate activist glues his head to Vermeer's painting "The Girl with a Pearl Earring"

Duration 1:48   View on Watch

Just Stop Oil protesters throw tomato soup over an outdoor sign at the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in London, Oct. 17, 2022.© (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

I see a few issues at stake with assessing what these recent art attacks could mean.

1. How effective is the messaging?

The activists have been articulate about their objectives, but those objectives haven’t been obvious to everyone who sees via social media, but doesn’t stick around to hear the explanation. When a broad range of media outlets all perceive the need to publish editorials on why eco activists are targeting art, something is getting lost in translation.

People see the endangerment of the works of art, but may ascribe that to the activists, not to the planetary erosion wrought by climate change. I don’t think everyone is getting the message.

2. Possible misplaced outrage

The incidents up until now have been pretty effective and harmless acts. But what if something is irreparably damaged? People will be outraged, but they’ll still be outraged about the art, not about the planet.

And while there will be a call for stiff prison sentences, precedent suggests that’s an unlikely outcome.

A man who damaged a Picasso valued at $26 million USD at the Tate Modern in London in 2020 was sentenced to 18 months in jail.

3. Violation of public trust

The third effect is what I consider a violation of the public trust, and this gives me pause. Works of art, even the most famous ones, lead precarious lives of constant endangerment; war, weather, fire, floods. The protesters are destabilizing the idea that public galleries are “safe” spaces for works of art, held in public trust.

As fari nzinga, inaugural curator of academic engagement and special projects at the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, KY, pointed out in a 2016 paper:

“The museum doesn’t serve the public trust simply by displaying art for its members, it does so by keeping and caring for the art on behalf of a greater community of members and non¬members alike, preserving it for future generations to study and enjoy.”

Right now these acts, no matter how well-intentioned, could lead to increased security and more limited access, making galleries prisons for art rather than places for people.

At the same time, part of the activsts’ point is that economy that sustains big oil is entwined with arts infrastructure and the art market.

The thing that saves us?

The pandemic taught us, I think, that art could be the thing we share that saves us; think of people during quarantine in Italy singing opera together from their balconies.

Eco-activists engaged in performance protests ask us to question our public institutions and make us accountable for what they, and we, value. Their climate activism is dedicated to our shared fate.

If you’re willing to fight for the protection of art, maybe you’re willing to fight to protect the planet.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.

Read more:
Eco-art, design and architecture can be agents of environmental change in the public realm

Mike Pence’s fly: From Renaissance portraits to Salvador Dalí, artists used flies to make a point about appearances

THEY USED TO BE 'RUSSIAN'
Most UFOs are 'Chinese surveillance' drones and 'airborne clutter,' Pentagon officials reveal

Intelligence agencies in the U.S. have spent the last few years analyzing footage of hundreds of recent UFO encounters, and they want the American people to know: It's still not aliens.


Government officials are beginning to explain several recent UFO encounters

 Bettmann/Getty Images

According to several U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) officials who spoke anonymously to The New York Times last week, many recent sightings of UFOs — or unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs), as the government prefers to call them — are likely just observations of foreign surveillance operations or airborne clutter, such as weather balloons.

Several UAP incidents have been officially identified as "relatively ordinary" Chinese surveillance drones, the anonymous officials said. China has previously stolen plans for advanced U.S. fighter planes, and is interested in how the U.S. trains its pilots, the DoD officials added.

Other UAP sightings recorded by military aircraft, which appear to show airborne objects moving in seemingly physics-defying ways, are likely the results of optical illusions. This includes the infamous video known as "GOFAST," which was recorded by a U.S. Navy aircraft and leaked to the media in 2018. (The video, along with two other leaked films of military encounters with UAPs, was eventually declassified by the government.)

While the object in the GOFAST video appears to be zooming over the water at incomprehensible speeds, this is just an optical illusion created by the angle of the recording relative to the water, the DoD officials told The Times. In reality, the object is moving at no more than 30 mph (48 km/h), the officials added.

A classified UAP report delivered to Congress this week by the DoD's intelligence agencies likely includes the findings reported by The Times. The new report adds new details to cases described in a document that officials publicly released in June 2021, describing 144 alleged UAP incidents reported by U.S. government personnel between 2004 and 2021.

The 2021 report acknowledged that, due to a lack of high-quality data, most alleged UAP encounters could not be conclusively explained. However, the report offered several blanket explanations for UAP in general, including "technologies deployed by China, Russia, another nation, or a non-governmental entity," as well as "airborne clutter" such as birds and weather balloons.

Nowhere in the report were aliens or extraterrestrials mentioned — however, that did not stop alien conspiracy theories from arising, due in part to the government's general lack of transparency about UAP incidents.

Sue Gough, a DoD spokesperson, told The Times that the government was committed to sharing whatever UAP information it could without putting national security at risk. Government officials also tend to refrain from discussing UAP incidents publicly because there is simply not enough data to conclusively explain them, Gough added.

"In many cases, observed phenomena are classified as 'unidentified' simply because sensors were not able to collect enough information to make a positive attribution," Gough told The Times. "We are working to mitigate these shortfalls for the future and to ensure we have sufficient data for our analysis."

As the DoD continues its investigation into UAP sightings, NASA has also launched an independent UAP study team, which will operate from October 2022 to mid-2023. According to NASA, the team will focus on collecting and analyzing as much UAP data as possible, in order to develop new methods for identifying the unidentifiable objects in America's skies.

Prepare for alien encounter now before it's too late, warn scientists

Sarah Knapton - Yesterday - The Telegraph

Aliens could get in touch tomorrow and we must know what to say to them, scientists have warned, as they launched a new research hub to prepare humanity for first contact.

The University of St Andrews has joined forces with the UK SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Research Network to establish protocols and procedures if aliens are found.

The team warn that although there are measures in place for dealing with threats posed by asteroid impacts, there is no agreed response if a radio signal were picked up from another intelligent lifeform.

The Seti Post-Detection Hub will bring together experts from around the world to decide how to decipher methods, enact space law and anticipate societal impacts.

Dr John Elliott, honorary research fellow in the School of Computer Science at St Andrews and coordinator of the Hub, said: “Will we ever get a message from ET? We don’t know. We also don’t know when this is going to happen.

“But we do know that we cannot afford to be ill prepared – scientifically, socially, and politically rudderless – for an event that could turn into reality as early as tomorrow and which we cannot afford to mismanage.

“We need to coordinate our expert knowledge not only for assessing the evidence but also for considering the human social response, as our understanding progresses and what we know and what we don’t know is communicated. And the time to do this is now.”

Truth is out there

The potential for problems in communicating with alien life was explored in the fourth instalment of the Star Trek film franchise, The Voyage Home.

In depicts an alien probe sending out a message that inadvertently plays havoc with human technology with the crisis only resolved when Kirk and his crew realise it is trying to communicate with the planet's whales.

Many scientists now think that intelligent life elsewhere in the universe is a real possibility, and Nasa recently launched an eight-month inquiry to investigate hundreds of unexplained UFO sightings.

The investigation into "unidentified aerial phenomena" is being led by Dr Thomas Zurbuchen, of Nasa’s Science Mission Directorate, and is due to report back next summer.

Last year, the Pentagon's Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force released a report into 144 UFO incidents between 2004 and 2021, many of which were spotted by military pilots.

Although investigators concluded that there was no evidence the objects had come from outer space, or a foreign adversary, they said that most could not be explained.

Protocols need updating

Currently, the only existing agreed "contact" protocols for encountering alien life were drawn up by the SETI community itself in 1989, and have not been revised since 2010. But they focus entirely on scientific conduct.

The Royal Society held a Scientific Discussion Meeting on "The detection of extra-terrestrial life and the consequences for science and society" in 2010 but there has been no global agreement on how to handle contact.

Learning how to decipher an alien language or method of communication is likely to be one of the major hurdles that experts will need to consider.

In a recent BBC documentary First Contact: An Alien Encounter, scientists admitted it may never be possible to understand what aliens are trying to tell us.

Dr Alexander Rehding, professor of music at Harvard University, said humans had still not learned how to translate animal communication.

“Whales are a really good study, and they are in some ways the closest thing that we have to aliens here on Earth,” he said.

“Whales are highly intelligent, and their environment is entirely different from ours. The patterns that we hear are purely patterns that we recognise as music, repeated patterns.

“It is a form of vocalising but we don't really know what it's for. Is it music, is it a language? What does it mean? It can give us a sense of how difficult the task at hand is.”



Mr Spock and whale

Dr Elliott admitted that deciphering an alien language would be tricky without some kind of extraterrestrial Rosetta Stone.

“Nevertheless, much can be gleaned, without this. Language for intelligent species has a structured system that is multi-layered and has internal structure," he said.

“By identifying any patterns within the signal and calculating how these patterns interact, we will then be able to know if it passes this initial surface structure test for displaying evidence of being language-like.

“If so, we will then be able to move on to identifying internal structures displayed by all known intelligent species. Once this is done, we can then move onto deeper levels of ‘syntax’ to ultimately where it ‘meets’ semantics.”

William Borucki, a former Nasa space scientist, added: “When I look at how Hollywood portrays contact, one of the things that I think is unreal, is that people that can readily communicate and have similar ambitions, similar responses.

“But when I think about intelligent life, and the variety of it on Earth, we've got dogs, we've got apes, we've got octopi that have their intelligence in their arms, not in their head.

“We can't talk to most of the creatures on Earth in an intelligent way. How are we going to talk to intelligent civilisations? I'm not sure we'll ever understand.”

Black Women Share The Unseen Suffering Of Sickle Cell Disease

Sometimes the chronic pain that Precious Gaza experiences is so severe that she has to be hospitalised. While she cries in agony and screams in pain, nurses tending to her sometimes question the severity of her sickle cell anemia symptoms.




“It’s hard to get people to understand the pain sufferers like me go through. I’m not visibly ill, so people often assume I’m healthy and well, and because I look fine my pain is downplayed,” Precious explains. “People sometimes think we are lazy or are just exaggerating about the pain.”

Those suffering from invisible health conditions like sickle cell disease are accustomed to this pernicious scepticism. Yet the stark reality is that this denial is further intensified for Black women and other women of colour.

Black Equity Organisation commissioned a study that revealed how a significant number of Black people living in the UK face discrimination by healthcare professionals. Over 65% said that they had experienced prejudice from doctors and other staff in healthcare settings. And this figure increased among Black people aged 18 to 34 to 75%.

Systemic racism is so deeply entrenched in our healthcare systems that it is leading to deadly consequences. Cue: the Black Maternity Scandal last year. Rochelle Humes went undercover with UK broadcaster Channel 4 Dispatches to discover that Black women in the UK are four times more likely to die in pregnancy and childbirth than white women.

Reflecting on these shocking statistics, Precious urges: “healthcare racism needs to be taken more seriously and formally addressed. It’s endangering lives and causing complications for people like me who just want to get better.”

Precious is just one of approximately 15,000 people suffering from sickle cell disease, an inherited blood disease prevalent in the Black community. At least 25% of West Africans and 10% of Afro-Caribbeans are affected, while it is uncommon amongst white Europeans. Those originating from the Mediterranean, Asia, and the Middle East are also more susceptible to the condition.

As the fastest-growing genetic condition in the UK, the demand for blood donors in the Black community has increased significantly. Just recently, the UK’s national health service (NHS) made an urgent call for blood donations from Black donors to help sickle cell patients. Often those from the same ethnic background are more likely to have the same blood groups. And for blood transfusions to work, you need well-matched blood groups.

To address this demand, the NHS Blood and Transplant recently launched a new campaign titled ‘Not Family, But Blood’ to recruit more donors of Black heritage.

Red blood cell transfusion treatments are essential for sickle cell sufferers to help treat and prevent their condition. These treatments decrease the concentration of sickle haemoglobin in a patient’s bloodstream, helping them to avoid any further health complications.


Growing up, the fear of having an unexpected episode affected Precious’ ability to live an active social life. “As a child, I always had to shield myself to avoid risks to my health. I could never travel on my own and I couldn’t go anywhere without a chaperone. Whether that’s through making friends or being unable to attend regular social events like birthday parties or sleepovers, she is always in fear of having an episode.”

When dating, she would worry about disclosing her health condition and being seen as a burden when a relationship would get serious. A crucial factor for people with sickle cell trait is that in case they may want children, they need to be aware of their partner’s genotype so they can ensure a healthy pregnancy. This is something she has had to always consider when getting into a serious relationship.

Before she met her current partner, guys would assume that they’d have to become her primary caretaker. “A lot of people worry about the responsibilities and sacrifices they might have to make, so they back away. I’m lucky that I have finally found someone who truly loved me for me.”

Many suffering from health conditions like sickle cell also struggles to work typical 9-5 hours while handling chronic pain. It’s clear workplaces are failing those with chronic illnesses by not making the necessary arrangements to support them or, in most cases, just not hiring them. Out of fear of being seen as a liability, many like Previous suffer in silence. “For someone that has sickle cell, working 8 hours long every single day is not sustainable. I kept getting pushed out of jobs because I would have endless episodes, and this had a huge impact on me financially.”

This left her with no choice but to build her own business and become self-employed. Her previous employers have been unwilling to adjust working practices and she often found herself dismissed on the basis that her condition was too ‘unpredictable.’

Even when onboarding for a new role, Precious would go for medical examinations, and as soon as her sickle cell condition was identified, she’d be eliminated from an application round. “Sometimes they would make up an excuse or say that they don’t have the financial capacity to hire me.”

Frustratingly, sickle cell awareness is low and often overlooked, unlike the more prominently known illnesses and diseases, like cancer and leukaemia. Concerted efforts have been made to change this, but they don’t go deep enough to create a true impact. September is recognised by many organisations, including the WHO (World Health Organisation) as Sickle Cell Awareness Month, but this month does little to give the condition visibility.

“Sickle cell awareness often goes unseen. We need a bigger platform to raise funding, research, and a spotlight for people to tell their stories,” says Precious. “There needs to be reorientation for healthcare workers. Partner with sickle cell charities and get sickle cell advocates to train and educate. There’s so much more to be done.”

Growing up awareness of sickle cell was virtually non-existent, so it is a relief for Precious to see that some strides are being made to change this. She has created a social media community where she calls herself and her peers ‘sickle cell warriors,’ sharing infographics, videos, and posts educating users on the condition.

“I’m always making sure to be active in raising awareness among my friends and family,” she continues. “I create content on social media as much as possible to create as much awareness. Every opportunity that comes my way to bring awareness, I jump on it.”

Precious has hope that one day that she will be cured of sickle cell and finally be able to live pain-free. She is currently fundraising for a bone marrow transplant which could provide her with healthy cells and replace her damaged blood. Such procedures are costly and invasive, but it is the opportunity that could finally give Precious the life she dreams of.

Meanwhile, the online community of sickle cell warriors has been a powerful source of strength and comfort for her. “Sometimes we meet in person, or we catch up via zoom to share our daily struggles, be vulnerable and encourage each other to keep going.”

“When it comes to sickle cell and sickle pain, no one else understands, except another person who also suffers from sickle cell. We use this understanding to be there for each other, and this experience truly makes us feel finally seen.”

This article was originally published on Unbothered UK

STILL A DEATH SENTENCE

Man jailed 30 years for crime he didn't commit dies soon after release

Postmedia News -



A Tennessee man who spent 30 years in jail for a crime he didn’t do died not long after finally being released from jail, according to reports.

Claude Garrett, 66, died in his sleep after just six months of freedom, earlier this week.

He had been released from Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in May, according to his friend Liliana Segura, as reported by the Daily Star .

“Since then, and over the past 5 months, Claude relished his freedom. He enjoyed every moment with his daughter, Deana, and especially his grandson, who he absolutely adored,” Segura wrote.

Garrett had been convicted of the 1992 murder of his girlfriend Lorie Lance, who died in a fire in their home after they had gone to a bar.

Garrett said he’d fallen asleep and tried to save Lance, who he said he woke up and tried to take to the front door. Instead, he said, she went to the back door and he went out the front and called firefighters.

As firefighters tried to get the fire under control, Claude kept telling them “I don’t understand why, I don’t understand why she didn’t follow me out the door,” according to the report.

After the fire was eventually extinguished, firefighters later found Lorie’s body in a utility room. She had died from smoke inhalation.

On Aug. 20,1993, after two and a half days of deliberations, the jury found Claude Garrett guilty of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison because of alleged signs of arson.

Earlier this year, after years of appeals, Criminal Court Judge Monte Watkins wrote that Claude had shown “actual innocence”.

The forensic finding that suggested arson was dismissed as “junk science.”

The US federal government wants to stop your boss from spying on you

jzinkula@insider.com (Jacob Zinkula) - 

ljubaphoto/Getty Images© Provided by Business Insider

Companies are using surveillance technologies to keep tabs on remote workers.

But a top government labor lawyer says some employers have gone too far.

Under current law, some level of employee surveillance is generally allowed.

With more of their employees working from home, many companies are taking steps to keep tabs on them. But the federal government says some of this surveillance has gone too far.

In a memo released Monday, the top lawyer for the National Labor Relations Board, a federal government agency dedicated to protecting worker rights, said she will work to protect US employees from "intrusive or abusive electronic monitoring and automated management practices."

This "omnipresent surveillance" is happening almost everywhere, wrote the NLRB's General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, as employers "closely monitor and manage employees."

In warehouses, some employers "record workers' conversations and track their movements," she said. On the road, some drivers are subjected to "GPS tracking devices and cameras." In the office, some companies are monitoring employees with "keyloggers" that track what a worker types into their computer and software that "takes screenshots, webcam photos, or audio recordings" over the course of the work day. And even at home, many companies continue to monitor workers with "employer-issued phones or wearable devices."

But Abruzzo says each of these practices deserves scrutiny.

"An employer's right to oversee and manage its operations with new technologies is not unlimited," she said.

As remote work has emerged, companies ranging from Amazon to Microsoft to JP Morgan have expressed concerns that workers are slacking off when they're not in the office. In a September Microsoft survey of 20,000 people across 11 countries, 85% of managers said it was difficult to tell whether remote workers were being productive. Some experts have called this "productivity paranoia" a sentiment that's led some companies to expand the use of various surveillance technologies. But worker advocates like Abruzzo are concerned that this practice has gone too far.

Along with infringing upon workers' privacy, the General Counsel said this surveillance could also be used to disrupt union organizing — something Amazon has been accused of in the past — and collect vast amounts of data on workers.

"Some employers use that data to manage employee productivity, including disciplining employees who fall short of quotas, penalizing employees for taking leave, and providing individualized directives throughout the workday," she said.

These are among the reasons Abruzzo's memo called on the NLRB to review companies' surveillance technologies and assess whether they restrict workers' rights. In the meantime, she recommended that employers be required to disclose the technologies they are using to their employees, as well as the reasons they are doing so.

While the emergence of remote work has brought this surveillance into the spotlight in recent years, the legal landscape remains murky.

In October, a Florida-based company was forced to pay $73,000 to a Dutch worker who was fired for refusing to turn on his webcam during a virtual training program.

But while the Dutch court sided with the worker, legal experts told Insider a US worker would have likely faced a different outcome. That's because most Americans work in states with at-will employment, meaning either they or their employer can end their employment agreement at any time and for almost any reason.

Though there are some reasons for which firing an employee can be illegal, "the scope for what's illegal is narrow," Cody Yorke, an associate at employment law firm Outten & Golden's New York office, previously told Insider. Therefore, it's "probably not" illegal, Yorke said, to make a US employee leave their camera on all day, adding that federal laws around employee privacy are "kind of outdated."

The Monday memo suggests that the National Labor Relations Board is working to get up to speed. Going forward, the agency is expected to utilize laws already in place to protect workers, as well as push for more comprehensive legislation if necessary.

Prison watchdog raises concerns again about conditions at Edmonton Institution

Madeleine Cummings - CBC


Correctional Investigator Ivan Zinger has once again singled out the Edmonton Institution in his office's annual report, describing "oppressive" confinement conditions and staff shortages observed by his staff last year.


Correctional Investigator Ivan Zinger wrote about problems at Edmonton Institution in his annual report.© Nathan Gross/CBC

The federal maximum security prison was the only one in the country to have its own section in the annual report, which is dated June 30 but was released publicly last week.

As CBC News reported in January, staff from Zinger's office visited the prison over three days about a year ago and spoke with prisoners, staff and managers.

The investigators found the prison was overpopulated and understaffed, with no programs or meaningful work opportunities for inmates. More than 250 prisoners shared a single computer visitation station and the wait for accessing mental care was a year long.

Zinger said Correctional Service of Canada Commissioner Anne Kelly responded to his concerns on Dec. 8 and assured him that corrective measures were underway.

These measures included reinstating population management and citizen advisory committee meetings, establishing an inmate welfare committee, installing more video visitation consoles and addressing staff recruitment and retention problems.

"Though the situation at Edmonton Institution is still far from ideal and the systemic problems brought forward are far from resolved, the collaboration and responsiveness of the commissioner in trying to address office findings and concerns is encouraging," Zinger wrote in his annual report.

He said his office will continue to closely monitor the prison and intervene as necessary.

Edmonton Institution was also mentioned in a section of the report about discrimination and differential treatment.

One individual, who had spent time at the Edmonton prison, reported intentional and pervasive discrimination and racism toward Black prisoners and staff.

In a response to the report, Kelly wrote that she would continue to try to improve correctional environments. She suggested CSC create an action plan addressing the relationship between use-of-force and systemic racism against Indigenous and Black individuals and expand staff diversity training that is "oriented to practical and lived experiences of Black people."

In a statement on Tuesday, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said he looked forward to seeing CSC "step up efforts to support the mental wellness of inmates" and that he would ensure progress is made on the issues mentioned in the report.

Union sees problems persist in Edmonton

James Bloomfield, prairies regional president for the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers, said conditions for staff at Edmonton Institution have declined since June.

He said there has been a lack of stability in management and officers are demoralized. Between 20 and 30 per cent of them are on leave due to mental and physical injuries sustained at work, he added.

He called the correctional investigator's report "just the tip of the iceberg," and said the investigators would have heard a fuller story had they spoken with the union.

The union is asking the commissioner to train managers and improve communication between management and staff.

"We'd like to see some tangible actions at that site that prove that they are making it better for their staff," he said.

Consider rehabilitation goals: advocate

Chris Hay, executive director of the John Howard Society of Alberta, said further punishing inmates goes against the goal of helping them become law-abiding citizens.

"If you treat someone like an animal, they will behave like an animal," he told CBC News on Wednesday.

He said inmates need social and community supports to succeed once out of prison so limiting video call opportunities doesn't make sense.

He said it would be unrealistic to expect that people locked up in cells for 21 hours a day, with no access to programs, could successfully reintegrate into society upon their release.

"I am not condoning their behaviour," he said. "I'm just saying, put on your logical thinking cap and think about the outcomes you want to achieve."

Hay said he was happy to see CSC has announced some changes and hopes the correctional investigator follows up to see if conditions improve.

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