AI makes rich people richer


By Dr. Tim Sandle

DIGITAL JOURNAL
April 22, 2024

Meta in November launched a 'pay or consent' system -- a model that has faced several challenges - Copyright AFP/File ETIENNE LAURENT

Tech giants including Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Jensen Huang have played major roles in the AI revolution, using their resources to create technologies that have completely changed how we work and live. From machine learning and self-driving cars to generative AI.

While innovative, these technologies have brought hundreds of billions of dollars of profit to tech moguls and the companies behind them.

According to data presented by AltIndex.com (and provided to Digital Journal), the world’s eight richest AI billionaires have increased their wealth by $390 billion in the last year.

Mark Zuckerberg’s Net Worth Surged by $112 billion in a year, Jeff Bezos and Jensen Huang Follow with $80 billion and $56 billion gains.

Although the world’s richest AI billionaires already had an impressive net worth, the AI renaissance, which started last year, helped them grow their wealth even more. Since the beginning of 2023, all these technology titans have added tens of billions of dollars to their fortunes, but none is close to Zuckerberg.

His company uses AI algorithms to optimize personalized content, user engagement and advertising, and has also heavily invested in virtual reality experiences in the Metaverse. According to Forbes’ real-time billionaire list, Zuckerberg’s wealth soared by $112.6 billion year-over-year, the biggest increase among top AI billionaires. Facebook shares skyrocketed by 125% in this period, pushing its CEO’s fortune to $177 billion.

Jeff Bezos follows Zuckerberg with an $80 billion net worth increase in the past year. Although Amazon’s owner made his name in e-commerce, Bezos is also a huge name in the AI field. Amazon Web Services, a massive part of his empire, offers a wide range of AI tools and services, helping businesses integrate AI into their operations. However, Bezos diversified his AI influence by investing in AI startup Perplexity, which aims to challenge Google’s dominance in the search engine space. Last year, Bezos was worth $114 billion; now, his net worth is $194 billion.

Statistics show that the CEO of Nvidia, Jensen Huang, has seen the third-largest net worth growth among the top AI billionaires, adding almost $56 billion to his fortune in the last year. His company has become a huge name in the AI field, with its graphic processing units used in everything from large data operations to self-driving cars. Nvidia’s stock value has soared by more than $1.8 trillion since January 2023, helping its CEO’s wealth to hit $77 billion.

Google co-founders and major investors in AI company DeepMind, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, have both added around $34 billion to their wealth in the past year, just like Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. Bill Gates, also a huge name in the AI field, is now worth $128 billion, $24 billion more than a year ago.

PRISON NATION U$A

Texas inmates are being ‘cooked to death’ in extreme heat, complaint alleges

Pooja Salhotra, The Texas TribuneWilliam Melhado, The Texas Tribune
April 23, 2024

Prison - Dan Henson:Shutterstock.com

"Texas inmates are being ‘cooked to death’ in extreme heat, complaint alleges" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.

April signals the beginning of blistering heat for much of Texas. And while the summer heat is uncomfortable for many, it can be deadly for the people incarcerated in Texas’ prison system where temperatures regularly reach triple digits.

With another sweltering summer likely ahead, prison rights advocates on Monday filed a complaint against Texas Department of Criminal Justice executive director Bryan Collier, arguing that the lack of air conditioning in the majority of Texas prisons amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.

The filing came from four nonprofit organizations who are joining a lawsuit originally filed last August by Bernie Tiede, an inmate who suffered a medical crisis after being housed in a Huntsville cell that reached temperatures exceeding 110 degrees. Tiede, a well-known offender whose 1996 murder of a wealthy widow inspired the film “Bernie,” was moved to an air-conditioned cell following a court order but he’s not guaranteed to stay there this year.

Monday’s filing expands the plaintiffs to include every inmate incarcerated in uncooled Texas prisons, which have led to the deaths of dozens of Texas inmates and cost the state millions of dollars as it fights wrongful death and civil rights lawsuits.

The plaintiffs ask that an Austin federal judge declare the state’s prison policy unconstitutional and require that prisons be kept under 85 degrees Fahrenheit. Texas jails are already required to keep facilities cooler than 85 degrees, and federal prisons in Texas have a 76 degree maximum.

Between June and August last year, the average temperature was 85.3 degrees — the second hottest on record behind 2011. And this year does not look to be much cooler. The most recent winter season ranked warmest on record for the contiguous U.S., according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Scientists have found that climate change has resulted in more severe and longer lasting heat waves. In the last decade, Texas has experienced over 1,000 days of record-breaking heat, compared to a normal decade.

In the hot summer months, those concrete and metal cells can reach over 130 degrees, formerly incarcerated Texans said during a Monday press conference. Legal representatives hope to prove those conditions are unconstitutional.

“What is truly infuriating is the failure to acknowledge that everyone in the system —all 130,000 prisoners— are at direct risk of being impacted by something that has a simple solution that has been around since the 1930s, and that is air conditioning,” attorney Jeff Edwards told reporters. Edwards was the lead attorney in a 2014 prison rights case that cited the nearly two dozen Texas prison inmates who died from heat stroke over the previous two decades. That case culminated in a settlement, where TDCJ agreed to install air conditioning at the Wallace Pack Unit near College Station.

About two thirds of the inmates housed across TDCJ’s facilities live in areas without air conditioning. Advocates and inmates’ families have long fought to cool prisons in a state where summer temperatures routinely exceed triple digits and pose dangerous conditions to inmates and correctional officers.

Although the state has not reported a heat-related death since 2012, researchers and inmates’ families dispute those statistics. A 2022 study found that 14 prison deaths per year were associated with heat. Last year, a Texas Tribune analysis found that at least 41 people had died in uncooled prisons during the state’s record-breaking heat wave.

Health problems that have been linked to excessive heat include renal diseases, cardiovascular mortality, respiratory illnesses and suicides, Julie Skarha, a epidemiology researcher at Brown University who authored the 2022 study, told reporters on Monday.


Skarha said while death certificates may not list heat strokes — a condition when the body can no longer control its temperature— as the official cause of death, her research indicates that many prisoners have died from heat-related causes.

“Heat deaths haven’t magically stopped,” the lawsuit states. “TDCJ has simply stopped reporting or admitting them after the multiple wrongful death lawsuits and national news coverage.”

TDCJ spokesperson Amanda Hernandez declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying the agency does not comment on pending litigation. But she emphasized that the department has been adding more air conditioning units since 2018.


“Each year we’ve been working to add cool beds, and we’ll continue to do so,” she said.

She also pointed to the departments’ “enhanced heating protocols” which are activated from April to October and include providing ice water to inmates and allowing them to purchase fans and cooling towels from the commissary.

Lawyers argue that these mitigation tactics are insufficient to combat the state’s sweltering temperatures. To survive the heat, incarcerated people report having to flood their toilets or sinks and lie down in the water on the cell floor to try to cool their bodies, the lawsuit states.


“This isn’t an unpredictable event,” said attorney Erica Grossman, who is one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs. “It gets hot every summer, and much like every other building in Texas —including buildings that have animals — we cool the building.”

TDCJ staff who work in the facilities are similarly impacted by the heat, said Michele Deitch, a senior lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin's School of Law and LBJ School. The excessive heat invades all aspects of life in prisons: Staff must do physical work in heavy uniforms in the heat; the heat results in more violence among those incarcerated; and it leads to more use of force against prisoners, she said.

The TDCJ states on their heat mitigation protocols that staff are “encouraged to increase their water intake” during the hot summer month and are allowed to wear cooling towels and dri-fit compression shirts.


New research Skarha has conducted found that the number of assaults that occur in prisons without air conditioning increased as much as five times during summer months compared to that number in climate-controlled facilities.

Prison rights advocates say the state could easily fund air conditioning units across its prisons but has simply been unwilling to do so. During the last legislative session —when the state recorded a record surplus— the House proposed spending $545 million to install air-conditioning in most of the prison facilities lacking it. But the final budget did not include any money dedicated to air conditioning.

The House also passed a bill requiring prisons to be kept between 65 and 85 degrees, which is required already in jails and most federal facilities. But the bill failed in the more conservative Senate.

“We have the resources. We just seem to not have the compassion to do it,” Rep. Carl Sherman, D-DeSoto, said during the press conference. Sherman was one of the authors of the bill that would have regulated prison temperatures.

The Legislature did allocate approximately $85 million for “additional deferred maintenance projects,” in Texas prisons, and TDCJ is using that money to pay for air conditioning units. Hernandez estimated that those dollars will provide air conditioning for an estimated 10,000 inmates.

Disclosure: University of Texas at Austin has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2024/04/22/texas-prisons-heat-deaths/.

The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org

He hippo in Japan zoo turns out to be a she

Agence France-Presse
April 23, 2024 

This undated handout image released to AFP by Osaka's Tennoji Zoo shows "Gen-chan", a 12-year-old hippopotamus who was thought to be male but tests showed was female (Handout)

Betrayed by its DNA and unmanly toilet habits, a hippopotamus in Japan thought for seven years to be a he is in fact a she, the zoo where the wallowing giant lives said Tuesday.

The 12-year-old came to Osaka Tennoji Zoo in 2017 from the Africam Safari animal park in Mexico, where officials attested on customs documents that the then five-year-old was male.

But zookeepers long scratched their heads, a spokeswoman told AFP.

In particular, Gen-chan did not display the typical male hippo behavior of splattering feces around while defecating -- with a propeller-like tail motion -- in order to mark territory.

Nor did it make courtship calls to females and zookeepers were unable to visually identify any male genitalia, a dangerous task in such a large and potentially aggressive beast.

"Therefore, we requested a DNA test at an external institution, and the result showed it was female," the zoo said in a statement posted last week.

"We will keep doing our best to provide comfortable environment to Gen-chan, so everyone, please come and see," it said.

Melania Trump takes part in campaign event that barely drowns out hotel lobby muzak

Travis Gettys

 April 23, 2024 

Melania Trump (a katz / Shutterstock.com)

Melania Trump returned to the political scene with a low-key solo appearance for Log Cabin Republicans at Mar-a-Lago.

The former first lady had previously joined her husband earlier this month at a high-dollar fundraiser in Palm Beach, but she stepped out without him Saturday at the headliner for the LGBTQ conservative group and was greeted with polite but subdued applause, reported The Daily Beast.

“Melania is a very private figure, and her public appearances never disappoint,” said Sophia Hutchins, a Trump 2024 surrogate and convention delegate.

She was joined by Donald Trump attorney Alina Habba, campaign senior adviser Lynne Patton and Caitlyn Jenner, and she was introduced by Ric Grenell, the former U.S. ambassador to Germany and briefly the acting director of national intelligence.

“I’ve been around Melania for over a decade, socially, and obviously since her husband entered politics,” said Hutchins, who is also Jenner's manager. “She’s always had that mystique about her. But whenever she gets into a room with people… she is electric, and we saw that on Saturday night.”

“She was truly electric,” Hutchins added. “Happy, energetic and, I think, quite frankly, thrilled to be there with a group of people there to support her.”

A source familiar with the planning told The Daily Beast that only about 60 people were present, including staff, and women made up more than half the crowd, who were notably subdued in video clips from the event.

"Throughout the entire clip," The Beast reported. "The crowd is so quiet that you can hear some version of hotel lobby muzak."

Melania Trump announces push to woo gay conservatives during Mar-a-Lago fundraiser, organizer says

Her husband got relatively little support from the LGBTQ+ community in 2020.

BySoo Rin Kim and Lalee Ibssa
April 22, 2024,

Donald Trump raking in a record amount of money at exclusive campaign fundraiser
Organizers said that the GOP fundraiser at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago club raked in $50 million.

Former first lady Melania Trump at a fundraiser on Saturday announced a major voter outreach initiative to garner conservative gay and lesbian support for former President Donald Trump’s 2024 bid -- in an effort to boost his standing with a group that, more broadly, voted against him in 2020 -- organizers of the fundraiser told ABC News.

After having mostly stayed away from her husband’s campaign trail this cycle, Melania Trump made a rare appearance at a political event Saturday night, speaking as a guest of honor at the fundraiser at the Trumps' Mar-a-Lago Club for Log Cabin Republicans, the largest conservative LGBTQ+ organization in the United States.

Addressing conservative LGBTQ+ supporters at the sold-out fundraiser, Melania Trump said money raised that night -- more than $1 million, according to organizers -- would go toward an effort to deploy resources to key swing states in educating voters about conservative LGBTQ+ causes and delivering pro-Trump messages among gay and lesbian communities, said Bill White, one of the co-hosts and a longtime friend of Donald Trump.

MORE: Melania Trump makes rare appearance on 2024 campaign trail

Former First Lady Melania Trump speaks at a fundraiser for pro-conservative LGBT organization 
Andrea Hanks

Richard Grenell, a former U.S. ambassador to Germany and former acting director of national intelligence under Trump, becoming the first openly gay person to hold a Cabinet-level position in the U.S., will be spearheading the new Log Cabin Republicans initiative with help from White, a former president of the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, and White’s husband, Bryan Eure, a senior vice president at insurance brokerage firm Willis Towers Watson.

This initiative is expected to be one of Melania Trump’s top priorities, White said, and she is set to support it with “upcoming activities" -- which would mark a notable contrast given how little Melania Trump has campaigned on behalf of her husband in either 2016 or 2020. (The Trump campaign did not provide more details about possible events for conservative gay and lesbian voters.)

“They hear us, they see us, and they love us,” White said of the Trumps' message to Log Cabin Republicans on Saturday night.

The announcement of Melania Trump's involvement with the Log Cabin Republicans initiative comes after months of her staying away from the public spotlight as her husband's third presidential bid heats up. She has, however, maintained some of her own initiatives -- speaking at a naturalization ceremony for new U.S. citizens in December; some charity work like with a local foster care organization in 2021; and launching a line of digital collectibles, a line of Christmas ornaments and, more recently, a Mother's Day-themed necklace for $245.

The last two times she was seen publicly on the trail were at a major Palm Beach, Florida, fundraiser for Donald Trump and Republicans earlier this month, where organizers said they raised more than $50 million; and last month at a Palm Beach polling location where the former president voted in the Florida Republican primary.

White told ABC News the initiative for gay Republicans is expected to involve “digital footprints in all of the key swing states,” as well as “extensive research and development into who we need to be communicating with and how we will communicate with them” -- an effort to persuade the gay and lesbian community in America that “Donald Trump is the best choice for all of us.”

Polling shows that he has notably lagged with those voters in the past. Rival Joe Biden won self-identified members of the LGBTQ+ community over Trump, 64-27%, exit polls showed. But that was a slight improvement for Trump compared with 2016, when he got only 14%.

While the former president differentiated himself from some other leading conservatives in embracing gay people, his anti-trans positions have drawn broader outcry from the LGBTQ+ community.


Former U.S. ambassador to Germany and acting director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell 

White claimed the pro-Trump voices within the LGBTQ+ community have grown exponentially since Donald Trump’s first presidential bid, noting efforts by national-level pro-Trump LGBTQ+ coalitions.

“We are gay Republicans and we are voting for Trump,” he said. “He is the best and only choice in this election for our health, prosperity, safety and security."

Parts of Melania Trump’s speech at the fundraiser Saturday night will be put out in Log Cabin Republicans’ digital ads, White said.

“We are so grateful to Mrs. Trump for her strategic leadership and making this initiative one of her top priorities for the 2024 presidential campaign and for the successful election of her husband,” he said.

MORE: Trump's Palm Beach fundraiser, joined by Melania Trump, rakes in $50 million, organizers say


Former president of the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum Bill White, former U.S. ambassador to Ge..
Andrea Hanks

Ahead of the fundraiser on Saturday morning, Grenell, another gay conservative ally, on X threw support behind Donald Trump as “the best candidate for our safety, security and prosperity.”

"He sees you as 100% equal - it's up to you to be responsible, hardworking and successful,” he continued. “Anyone telling you that you are oppressed in America or that you need special side agreements because you're gay is only seeking to control you."

Over the years, both Melania and Donald Trump have maintained a close relationship with Log Cabin Republicans. In 2021, Melania Trump headlined their annual gala at Mar-a-Lago and received the group's Spirit of Lincoln award for her role in "helping children reach their full potential" and "championing a more inclusive Republican Party."

In 2022, Donald Trump headlined Log Cabin Republicans' Spirit of Lincoln gala held at Mar-a-Lago, where he told the audience, "We are fighting for the gay community, and we are fighting and fighting hard."

Asia hit hardest by climate and weather disasters last year, says UN

Agence France-Presse
April 23, 2024 

A man with his camel wade across a flooded street after heavy monsoon rains in Pushkar, in India's Rajasthan state on July 10, 2023. © Himanshu Sharma, AFP


Asia was the world's most disaster-hit region from climate and weather hazards in 2023, the United Nations said Tuesday, with floods and storms the chief cause of casualties and economic losses.

Global temperatures hit record highs last year, and the UN's weather and climate agency said Asia was warming at a particularly rapid pace.

The World Meteorological Organization said the impact of heatwaves in Asia was becoming more severe, with melting glaciers threatening the region's future water security.

The WMO said Asia was warming faster than the global average, with temperatures last year nearly two degrees Celsius above the 1961 to 1990 average.

"The report's conclusions are sobering," WMO chief Celeste Saulo said in a statement.

"Many countries in the region experienced their hottest year on record in 2023, along with a barrage of extreme conditions, from droughts and heatwaves to floods and storms.

"Climate change exacerbated the frequency and severity of such events, profoundly impacting societies, economies, and, most importantly, human lives and the environment that we live in."

The State of the Climate in Asia 2023 report highlighted the accelerating rate of key climate change indicators such as surface temperature, glacier retreat and sea level rise, saying they would have serious repercussions for societies, economies and ecosystems in the region.

"Asia remained the world's most disaster-hit region from weather, climate and water-related hazards in 2023," the WMO said.

Heat, melting and floods

The annual mean near-surface temperature over Asia in 2023 was the second highest on record, at 0.91 degrees Celsius above the 1991-2020 average, and 1.87 C above the 1961-1990 average.

Particularly high average temperatures were recorded from western Siberia to central Asia, and from eastern China to Japan, the report said, with Japan having its hottest summer on record.


As for precipitation, it was below normal in the Himalayas and in the Hindu Kush mountain range in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Meanwhile southwest China suffered from a drought, with below-normal precipitation levels in nearly every month of the year.

The High-Mountain Asia region, centered on the Tibetan Plateau, contains the largest volume of ice outside of the polar regions.

Over the last several decades, most of these glaciers have been retreating, and at an accelerating rate, the WMO said, with 20 out of 22 monitored glaciers in the region showing continued mass loss last year.

The report said 2023 sea-surface temperatures in the northwest Pacific Ocean were the highest on record.

'Urgency' for action

Last year, 79 disasters associated with water-related weather hazards were reported in Asia. Of those, more than 80 percent were floods and storms, with more than 2,000 deaths and nine million people directly affected.

"Floods were the leading cause of death in reported events in 2023 by a substantial margin," the WMO said, noting the continuing high level of vulnerability of Asia to natural hazard events.

Hong Kong recorded 158.1 millimeters of rainfall in one hour on September 7 – the highest since records began in 1884, as a result of a typhoon.

The WMO said there was an urgent need for national weather services across the region to improve tailored information to officials working on reducing disaster risks.

"It is imperative that our actions and strategies mirror the urgency of these times," said Saulo.

"Reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to the evolving climate is not merely an option, but a fundamental necessity."


(AFP)

Belgian whose body brews alcohol beats drink-driving rap

Agence France-Presse
April 22, 2024 

A Belgian man proved that he has auto-brewery syndrome (ABS), which causes carbohydrates in his stomach to be fermented, increasing ethanol levels in his blood and resulting in signs of intoxication © Adem ALTAN / AFP

A Belgian man with a very rare metabolic condition that causes his body to produce alcohol had a drink-driving charge against him dismissed in court on Monday.

The 40-year-old proved that he has auto-brewery syndrome (ABS), which causes carbohydrates in his stomach to be fermented, increasing ethanol levels in his blood and resulting in signs of intoxication.

His lawyer, Anse Ghesquiere, confirmed the unusual case to AFP after Belgian media reported on it.

She said scientists believe that the number of ABS cases in the world is under-estimated. Currently, only some 20 people globally have been officially diagnosed with the condition.

She stressed that her client -- whose identity was not given -- gave evidence of his ABS after tests run by three doctors.

The court recognised that factors unforeseen by law applied to the man's case and acquitted him of the charge.

He ended up in court after police in April 2022 pulled his vehicle over and registered him giving a breathalyzer reading of 0.91 milligrammes of alcohol per litre, and again a month later when his breath contained 0.71 milligrammes.

The legal limit in Belgium is 0.22 milligrammes per litre of air exhaled, which corresponds to a blood alcohol level of 0.5 grammes per liter.

Previously, in 2019, the man had received a fine and a driving license suspension despite protesting that he had not drunk any alcohol.

He was apparently unaware of his syndrome before his latest run-in with police.

Ghesquiere said she and her client were awaiting formal notification of the acquittal. She noted that the prosecution service had a month to lodge an appeal if it wished to do so.

The man meanwhile was following a carbohydrate-light diet to avoid his stomach producing more alcohol.


At his initial court appearance in March, the prosecutor requested he avoid any alcoholic beverages, the Belgian state television channel VRT reported.

© 2024 AFP

Thai trans people push to be 'truly' accepted

NOT JUST LADY BOYS

Agence France-Presse
April 23, 2024 

Thai doctor Kachisarah Sridakhot (Lillian SUWANRUMPHA/AFP)

Stethoscope over her white coat, Thai doctor Kachisarah Sridakhot walks hospital corridors hoping to beat a path for other trans women to be fully accepted in the kingdom.

LGBTQ activists won a major victory last month when Thai lawmakers passed a bill that should see same-sex marriages become legal later this year -- a first in Southeast Asia.

Now campaigners are hoping to push the government to allow trans men and women to have their gender recognised in official paperwork.

Kachisarah knows the problem all too well -- despite identifying as a woman, she is still identified by the government as a man.

"This is discrimination," she told AFP.

The 26-year-old said she has fought for years to be able to express her true gender.

"At medical school, they didn't allow me to dress how I wanted to based on my gender, so I had to wear the male outfit," she said.

"The reason they gave me was that 'patients couldn't accept it', but in fact, (patients) just wanted to get better and they respected us for who we are."

It is not currently possible for a person to change their gender on documents such as ID cards and passports.


This can make even routine tasks like visiting the bank or passing through airport immigration a challenging or humiliating experience for transgender people.

- 'Feel like they really exist' -

Thailand has long enjoyed a reputation for tolerance of the LGBTQ community, hosting yearly pride events attended by locals and visitors from around the world.

But advocates have worked for decades to ensure LGBTQ rights become enshrined in law, struggling against traditional attitudes in a largely conservative Buddhist society.

A 2021 Human Rights Watch report found Thailand provides limited legal protection to trans people, who face harassment, discrimination and stigma.

A growing number of countries around the world allow people to change their legal gender on official documents and Thai activists are keen to enact similar changes in the kingdom.


A first attempt to pass a gender recognition bill, submitted by the progressive Move Forward Party (MFP), was voted down by parliament in February.

Activists say they are eager to push another draft -- this time from scholars and campaigners themselves.

The proposed bill would allow individuals the right to declare their gender, rather than be made to be identified by the gender assigned at birth.

Crucially, such a law would also allow trans people easier and safer access to vital medical care.

"People can say if they are male, female or non-binary," Nachale Boonyapisomparn, a trans activist who worked on the draft bill, told AFP.

More than 10,000 people -- the minimum legal requirement -- have signed a petition in support, and the bill is set to be submitted to parliament later this year for consideration.

MFP lawmaker and LGBTQ activist Tunyawaj Kamolwongwat said it would be a monumental step for Thailand.

"It will make LGBTQ people feel like they really exist in the society," he told AFP.

- 'No Sex Stigma' -

It is an issue that is especially close to Kachisarah's heart.

Hailing from Ubon Ratchathani province, the heartland of Thailand's rural rice-growing northeast, Kachisarah says she was a shy child whose parents were uncomfortable with her self-expression.

She attended medical school -- beginning her transition at 17 -- eventually becoming a doctor specialising in sexual health.

"I tried to prove myself to be accepted by the majority of society," she explained.

Now, she uses her platform –- a TikTok account called "No Sex Stigma" -– to try to counter a dearth of medical knowledge among the LGBTQ community in the kingdom.

Known as "Dr Bruze" to her 6,000 followers, she shares information about safe sex practices, as well as advice on hormone supplements.


"Some people I know had problems with their liver because they didn't take medication correctly," she said.

Ultimately, she hopes improving education about and for the LGBTQ community will change perceptions.

"If Thai society truly accepts us, we wouldn't have to struggle or prove ourselves."

Secret U.K. women's codecracking army gets belated recognition for WWII work

Agence France-Presse
April 23, 2024

The women from Newnham College, Cambridge, worked at the secret British codebreaking base at Bletchley Park during World War II

 (Justin TALLIS/AFP)

During World War II, dozens of women Cambridge University students worked around the clock in complete secrecy to crack Nazi codes, but only now are the unsung heroes getting recognition.

At least 77 women from the women-only Newnham College were drafted to Bletchley Park, the code-breaking centre north of London, during the conflict.

It was there that mathematician Alan Turing decoded messages encrypted by the Nazis' Enigma machine, in particular those sent by German U-boats submarines in the North Atlantic.

Historians widely acknowledge that Bletchley played a key role in bringing down Adolf Hitler.

But the story of the Cambridge women has only recently been revealed thanks to research started by Sally Waugh five years ago.

The 69-year-old former Newnham student and teacher said she wanted to highlight the role of women in this period, often ignored in history books.

"Nobody was ever able to say thank you," she told AFP.

"I had no idea that people from Newnham went to work at Bletchley Park".

Then one day, she came across an article mentioning the name of an old friend, Jane Monroe, who died in 2005.


When Monroe, a mathematician from Newnham, was asked what she had done during the war, she replied unfazed: "Oh, I made tea," said Waugh.

"She was in reality a code breaker. She was a friend but she didn't tell me."

Monroe was unable to talk about her role as she had signed the Official Secrets Act, which restricts the publication of government information deemed sensitive.


- D-Day -

The article mentioned three other women, whom Waugh tracked down in the university's archives.

"I thought, if there are four of them, I wonder if there are any more?" she recalled.

In fact, Waugh found around 20 names and then cross-referenced her information with Bletchley Park.

Together they were able to identify almost 80 women.

The only one whose name has so far gone down in history is mathematician Joan Clarke, who was recruited in 1940 and worked with the celebrated Enigma decoder and computer scientist Turing, to whom she was briefly engaged.

She became deputy head of her unit and after the war continued to work in intelligence. Keira Knightley won an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Clarke in the 2014 film "The Imitation Game".

Also on the list is Violet Cane, another mathematician with a gift for statistics. She worked at Bletchley's naval section between 1942 and 1945.

German speaker Elizabeth Langstaff was given the tasks of reconstructing German messages from raw decryptions, interpreting abbreviations and analysing the results over months.

At the end of 2023, a Newnham archivist uncovered a letter dated January 28, 1939, in which the head of the university confirmed to Bletchley Park that "in the event of emergency we should be able to find for you about six students proficient in Modern Languages, in order for work to be carried out at the Foreign Office".

Newnham, which was founded in 1871, eventually sent Bletchley mathematicians, linguists, historians and even archaeologists to analyse aerial photographs.

"Newnham women were represented in most key areas of Bletchley Park's work," Jonathan Byrne, Oral History Officer at Bletchley Park Trust, told AFP.

That included decrypting German signals encrypted by Enigma, producing intelligence reports, understanding the activities of the Nazis by analysing signal networks and studying diplomatic signals.

Around 50 of women were believed to have been on duty on June 6, 1944 -- "D-Day", when Allied forces landed on the beaches of Nazi-occupied northern France.

"Although the work they were involved in contributed to Allied planning for the liberation, most would have not known when the invasion was happening," explained Byrne, though some may have suspected.

"German signal traffic in France increased in response to the invasion, making early June 1944 a busy time at Bletchley Park," he explained.

 

First Nations patients leave ED without completing treatment more than comparable non–First Nations patients

CANADIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION JOURNAL

First Nations patients in Alberta leave emergency departments (EDs) without completing treatment more often than comparable non–First Nations patients, due in part to anti-Indigenous racism expressed by providers, found new research published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.231019.

Higher proportions of incomplete ED care for First Nations patients compared with non–First Nations patients occurred even in cases of serious diagnosis, and were found across all parts of Alberta. Provincially, 6.8% of First Nations visits end without completing care, compared with 3.7% of non–First Nations visits.

Results from sharing circles with First Nations patients, and interviews with health care providers, show that racism and stereotyping are a reason First Nations patients leave care, which members from Alberta’s White majority do not face. The study also identified that patient–provider communication issues, transportation barriers, long wait times, and perceptions of being made to wait longer than others were additional reasons why First Nations patients leave EDs.

Leaving without completing care matters because it delays needed treatment and interrupts care journeys. About 1 in 20 patients in the study required hospitalization within 72 hours of leaving. We do not know what proportion of patients may miss needed care entirely, because they do not return to the ED.

The work was conducted with the Alberta First Nations Information Governance Centre and involved 7 other First Nations organizations.

“There are multiple factors that influence the decision to leave the emergency department without being seen. Some of these include how First Nations [patients] are treated while waiting to be seen, such as minimizing and dismissing the urgency of presenting symptoms, feeling unsafe and the use of inappropriate language directed at them while in the emergency department,” explains Lea Bill, RN, executive director of the Alberta First Nations Information Governance Centre.

“Although leaving care seems like a purely personal decision, more First Nations patients are making that decision than non–First Nations patients. This shows that those personal decisions are actually driven by overarching social factors and health system inequities,” notes Patrick McLane, PhD, Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta.

Higher rates of First Nations patients leaving without completing care is of immediate concern as “crowding continues to worsen in emergency departments across Canada, and the proportion of patients leaving emergency department care has risen in several jurisdictions,” the authors write.

The authors hope that study findings will encourage EDs to work with local First Nations to find ways to reduce disproportionate premature departures from care.

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JOURNAL

Canadian Medical Association Journal

DOI

10.1503/cmaj.231019. 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Leaving emergency departments without completing treatment among First Nations and non–First Nations patients in Alberta: a mixed-methods study

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

22-Apr-2024

 

3 in 5 parents play short order cook for young children who don’t like family meal

Kids’ diets: Just 1 in 3 parents think the standard American diet is healthy but few try alternatives; 1 in 8 pressure kids to eat everything on their plate

MICHIGAN MEDICINE - UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

 

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PARENTS DESCRIBE THEIR BIGGEST CHALLENGES WITH MAKING SURE THEIR CHILD GETS A HEALTHY DIET AS THE CHILD BEING A PICKY EATER, THE HIGHER COST OF HEALTHY FOOD AND FOOD WASTE. FEWER SAY THEY DON’T HAVE TIME TO PREPARE HEALTHY FOOD.

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CREDIT: SARA SCHULTZ, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN HEALTH C.S. MOTT CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL NATIONAL POLL ON CHILDREN’S HEALTH

While most parents of preschool and elementary aged children strive to give their children a balanced, nutritional diet, some of their strategies to promote healthy eating may backfire, a national poll suggests.

A top example from the report: Three in five parents customize meals if their child doesn’t like what everyone else is eating.

Meanwhile, one in eight parents require children to eat everything on their plate, according to the University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health. And while just one in three believe the standard American diet is healthy for kids, few have tried alternative, potentially more nutritional menus at home.

“Feeding young children can be difficult due to general pickiness, hesitancy to try unfamiliar foods and constantly evolving food preferences,” said Mott Poll co-director and Mott pediatrician Susan Woolford, M.D.

“The preschool and elementary age is an important time to establish healthy eating patterns. Yet parents’ concern about whether their child is eating enough or if they’re getting the nutrients they need may lead them to adopt practices that actually sabotage their efforts to get kids to have healthy eating habits in the short and long term.”  

The nationally representative report is based on 1,083 responses of parents of children ages 3-10 surveyed in February.

More on poll findings:

Parents’ beliefs on nutritional diets vary

Just a third of parents think the standard American diet is healthy compared to half who seem to rank the Mediterranean higher in nutritional value. Still, few have tried alternative diets for their child.

“Parents may recognize the standard diet in the U.S. includes high amounts of saturated fats, added sugars, sodium, and refined carbohydrates, which can generate an excess intake of calories beyond nutritional needs and contribute to health problems,” Woolford said.

“However, despite this recognition and evidence suggesting that other diet options may help avoid many illnesses, only about 9% have tried the Mediterranean diet for their children and fewer have tried giving their children a vegetarian diet.”

Parents should ensure children are still getting adequate nutrition if they do try diets that eliminate certain food categories, she adds. Diets that limit animal products, for example, will require alternative protein sources such as meat substitutes, tofu, or legumes for children.

And while ketogenic diets have become popular among adults, they are generally not appropriate for children.

Family dining rules may promote or hinder a child’s healthy diet.

Fifteen percent of parents say their family rule is that kids finish what’s on their plate, while more than half say children must try some of everything and a little less than a third say no to dessert if meals go unfinished.

But parents who try to force kids to eat may encourage portions that go beyond feeling full, Woolford cautions.

“Requiring children to eat everything on their plate, or withholding dessert unless all other foods are eaten, can lead to overconsumption, especially if portion sizes are too large for the child’s age,” she said.

She agrees with the recommendation that “parents provide, and the child decides.” This makes parents responsible for providing healthy options while allowing children to select which foods they will eat and the amount they want to consume.

Parents often play personal chef

Sixty percent of parents will make something separate if their child doesn’t like the food that’s on the dinner table – and this often leads to a less healthy alternative, Woolford says.

“Rather than allowing the child to choose an alternate menu, parents should provide a balanced meal with at least one option that their child is typically willing to eat,” she said.

“Then if their child chooses not to eat, parents should not worry as this will not cause healthy children any harm and they will be more likely to eat the options presented at the next meal.”

She points out that children learn through watching and imitating, so it’s beneficial for parents to model healthy eating through a well-balanced diet while their child’s eating habits and taste preferences mature.

Avoiding snacks between meals may also help children have a better appetite and increase willingness to eat offered foods.

Picky eating and protesting veggies among biggest battles

Parents describe their biggest challenges with making sure their child gets a healthy diet as the child being a picky eater, the higher cost of healthy food and food waste. Fewer say they don’t have time to prepare healthy food.

Nearly all parents polled report trying at least one strategy to get their child to eat vegetables as part of a healthy diet, such as serving vegetables every day, fixing vegetables how their child prefers, trying vegetables their child hasn’t had before and letting children pick out vegetables at the grocery store.

Others involve children with preparing the vegetables, hide vegetables in other foods or offer a reward for finishing vegetables.

“Unsurprisingly, parents said pickiness and getting kids to eat veggies were among major challenges during mealtimes,” Woolford said.   

“Parents should try to include children in meal decisions, avoid pressuring food consumption and provide a variety of healthy options at each meal so kids feel more control.”

Right sizing food may be difficult

Portion size is key to mitigating the risk of childhood obesity, but it can be hard for parents to “right-size” a child portion.

In determining portion size for their child, nearly 70% of parents polled give their child slightly less than adults in the family while fewer let their child choose how much to take, use predetermined portions from the package or give their child the same portions as adults.

Woolford recommends parents seek sources to help. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, for example, provides a visual called “MyPlate” that can help parents estimate the recommended balance of the major food groups and offers guidance on estimating portion size.

Healthy eating starts at the grocery store

When grocery shopping or planning meals, parents polled say they try to limit the amount of certain foods to help their child to maintain a healthy diet, with more than half limiting foods with added sugars and processed foods.

But it may be difficult to identify unhealthy food. Added sugars or processing may be present in foods marketed or packaged as healthy, Woolford says.

Parents should read labels, avoiding the marketing on the front of packages and focusing instead on the details on the back. They should pay particular attention to nutrition information and ingredient lists – especially if they’re long with unrecognizable items – as well as sodium, added sugars, and fat.

Woolford also encourages involving children in grocery trips, spending time in the produce section and asking them what they may like to try.

“Have them help in the process of choosing the healthiest options, not ones that necessarily directly advertise to children, but foods that they are willing to try that are lower in sugar, fat and salt,” she said.

“Spend most of the time in the produce section and try to make it fun by maybe selecting new options from different parts of the world that they haven't tried before.”