#(161225)
1. Clustering; 2. Medical Success - failure ; 3. Culture is ??????; 4. Zika; 5. Smog; 6. Antibiotic Resistence; 7. Necrobiome; 8. Marijuana Genie; 9. Anthropology of Infectious Disease; 10. Health Hostages.
-1. Thousands of U.S. Areas Afflicted with Lead Poisoning Beyond Flint's, Are We All Flint. Former Flint Officials Criminally Charged in Water Crisis, Thousands of US Areas Afflicted with Lead Poisoning Beyond Flint's which doesn't even rank among the most dangerous lead hotspots in America. In parademic one notices clusters (topical stubs) of opinions, disease, toxins, news, blame, beliefs and discovery in the weekly Parademic Notes. One of the predictabilities of parademic is that if there is a discovery (unsecured Variola, biolab accidents, disease outbreak, social reaction, anti-social belief) there will be further discovery of the same or related that from clusters. This may be an artifact that when a topic appears in the media I as the curator tend to be aware of it and keep and eye out, or actively search for related material. This may apply to all media that when a new item appears others have related insights and share those. ¶ This phenomena is seen when a group is asked to describe something, like a vase [Photolain ]. One person may start with shape and others will quickly add other shape ideas until that is exhausted. Then someone else adds a new category, such as color, function, how manufactured, material made of, history, artistic merit uses and related ideas are contributed. On the other hand a new perspective may be viewed as disruptive (alternative uses), non sequitur (plant like), ludicrous (ancient aliens), inappropriate (sexual connotations), repetition (hues and saturation). If these are dismissed before the connection can be demonstrated then usually the individual(s) are ejected from the group. This group rejection includes so called interdisciplinary collaborative groups that claim to want new and innovative ones that want new ideas. The fact is new and different is only good and useful so far. New phenomena (that is to the observers, the so called discoverer, in reality existed before being noticed) then needs to be assimilated to be functional, and is accepted without examination until it becomes non_ un_ dis_ dys_functional.
-1.1. Dec 23, 1982, Road Contamination Prompts Evacuation of Town. The Missouri Department of Health and the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) inform residents of Times Beach, Missouri that their town was contaminated when the chemical dioxin was sprayed on its unpaved roads, and that the town will have to be evacuated and demolished. By February, the federal and state governments had spent $36 million to buy every house in town except one (its owners, lifelong residents of Times Beach, refused to sell). In 1985, the city was officially disincorporated. Ill Fated Times Beach. Between 1972 and 1976 the dirt roads were sprayed waste oil that contained dioxin (agent orange). With horses dying in area stables the CDC began an investigation in 1979. The EPA began to visit Times Beach in 1982, taking samples and tests that identified dangerous levels of dioxin in Times Beach soil. A dioxin task force was formed to study the effects of the chemical and in early 1983; the EPA announced the town’s buyout for $32 million dollars. In 1985, the entire population of more than 2,000 residents had been evacuated [Photo, Photo, Photo, Photo]. This would be eight years between contamination and investigation (the hidden phase), and three years before action was taken after panic erupted in 1982 (acceleration phase). The Times Beach Story.
-2. As observed by Kingsley Amis in New Maps of Hell: A Survey of Science Fiction the genre is unique in its ability of exploring what could happen with human technology and behavior, as well as reflecting on the social issues that develop from these. Address: Centauri is a Science Fiction story about medicine which reaches the point that there is no longer any disease and medical technology is so advanced that no matter the degree of trauma people can be saved. Unfortunately these patients have to live with the results which includes being separated from society. This vehicle of an asteroid quarantine hospital is unrealistic, the what a physically perfect human race does with the imperfect are the realistic problems of stigma from a medical condition. We don’t have to wait for a crisis to arise to begin to anticipate and imagine problems and solutions [Meme, Meme]. How Is the World Treating People with Disabilities. Caesarean Births Could Be Affecting Human Evolution is an example of success in medicine that could be having unintended, if not iatrogenic, consequences.
-3. Culture Not a Factor in Management Styles Globally. Management type is determined more by circumstances than individual or cultural differences. Geert Hofstede's "Culture's Consequences" is one of the most influential management books of the 20th century. With well over 80,000 citations, Hofstede argues that 50 percent of managers' differences in their reactions to various situations are explained by cultural differences. Now, a researcher at the University of Missouri has determined that culture plays little or no part in leaders' management of their employees; this finding could impact how managers are trained and evaluated globally. I have not read the source document but suspect that it will have nuanced insights but does not refute culture and personality theories of management. My first question would be how the terms of culture, situation, individual, personality, style, society, circumstances, organizational culture and structure are being defined. There are likely to be universal management practices that have proven out over time and multiple contexts, so these are likely to be global in nature. Would not be surprised that this paper is simplifying lby umping categories together in comparison to the splitting and getting into details of earlier research, see Zipf’s Law(Search). I also suspect that this was a study under “normal” conditions. Culture and personality differences become more pronounced in disasters and abnormal conditions where habitual behavior can be dangerous.
-3.1. Media Coverage of Studies Needs More Independent Commentary. Media coverage of medical studies frequently includes comments from independent experts who lack expertise in the subject or who have undisclosed academic and financial conflicts of interest. This is the problem of Science Journalism(Search). But what if there are no experts, or means to identify if someone has the expertise to comment on a topic and how their comments are valid and reliable. In addition, an expert can be totally wrong, while a novice may not have the biases and habits that hinder new insights.
-3.2. Once a Year, Scientific Journals Try to Be Funny. Not Everyone Gets the Joke. Holiday editions add a much needed dose of humor to boring journalese. But is entertaining readers worth the risk of misleading them. Parademic weekly notes justifies its use of humor as a break from a depressing topic, data about parademic, part of the educational process of critical thinking (knowing something is not real) yet able to see the relation of the ludicrous to the real. The Millennial’s Doctor Releases a Handbook on Bodies.
↕4. El Niño Fueled Zika Outbreak. A change in weather patterns, brought on by the 'Godzilla' El Niño of 2015, fueled the Zika outbreak in South America. In some ways this is a modification of the miasma theory of disease. In fact another mosquito borne disease Malaria literally translates as “bad air”. It's an Ill Wind That Blows No Good 160904-4.5A↓.
-4.1. Half of Adult Women in Brazil Put off Pregnancy by Zika Virus. There is an urgent need for Brazil to reconsider its policies on family planning and abortion, to help women who want to avoid the risk of having a baby with brain malformation. The survery reflects the geographical impact of the epidemic, with a higher proportion of women from the hard-hit north-eastern region (66%) trying to avoid pregnancy than in the south (46%). Black (64%) and brown (56%) women were more likely to report avoiding pregnancy than white women (51%), which also likely reflects the disproportionate impact of the epidemic among the most vulnerable racial groups. The pregnancy/contraception/abortion(Search) issue has been covered before in parademic weekly notes. What was of interest here is that Racial Classification and Terminology in Brazil is different than in the US, implying a different public health and social response. Pardo, loosely meaning brown or mixed race, preto (black), branco (white), amarelo (yellow or Asian) and indio (Indian/Native). The term pardo can have several meanings including brown, mulatto, mestizo, or any combination of mixed race. The term includes a wide variety of phenotypes and any combination of racial admixture. H5N1 Comment. Titrating* Warnings: A Zika Example. *Titrate.
-5. As said before changing the name does not change natural phenomena, follow up on 161218-9↓*: Beijing Smog: Pollution Red Alert Declared in China Capital and 21 Other Cities, China Limits Cars and Closes Factories in Smog Red Alert, Smog Chokes China Cities, Grounding Flights, Closing Roads. Smog Refugees Flee Chinese Cities as 'Airpocalypse' Blights Half a Billion, Students in China Were Made to Take Exams Outdoors in Toxic Smog. The Images Are Shocking, Smog Linked to Third of Deaths in China, Life in China, Smothered by Smog. ¶ This is also known as Harvard’s Law, Canute (Knud) The Great. * Last weeks notes had an error in the table of contents on the top, 9 is Smog and 10 is Quacks.
-6. Antibiotic resistence(Search) AKA the more colorful Superbug(Search) – which unfortunately does not seem as threatening due to its comic book referent – has been a known problem that has not garnered much response as it has yet to accelerate. Stop the Spread of Superbugs (2014), Deadly 'Superbug' Is Spreading in US Hospitals (2014), Superbug Forecast: Infections Will Increase in US (2015), Superbug 'Phantom Menace' Increasing in U.S., ‘Superbug’ Scourge Spreads as U.S. Fails to Track Rising Human Toll, Superbugs Are on Track to Kill 10 Million People by 2050 If Things Don’t Change—Fast*. Sharing information is one of the means to slow antibiotic diseasespread, unfortunately it appears that medical organizations, like countries, are reluctant to share the information based on non medical priorities, How Hospitals, Nursing Homes Keep 'Superbug' Outbreaks Secret. ¶ Another reason may be the usual trying to save money in ways that eventually cost more MRSA Linked to Outsourced Cleaning in NHS Hospitals. Medicare Penalizes Hospitals in Crackdown on Antibiotic Resistant Infections. Despite Pledges to Cut Back, Farms Are Still Using Antibiotics, Antibiotics Sales for Use in U.S. Farm Animals Rose in 2015.
* 10 million in 30 years will not be an acceleration but will be normalized by that time. Especially in the context of there no longer being antibiotics, 'Last-Resort' Antibiotics Fail Against New Superbugs (2015) and the World Population Projected to Reach 9.7 Billion by 2050 (2015).
-7. #Neologism. Necrobiome may become a useful concept for biodisaster. Essentially microbiomes and biomes show characteristic increases of life forms after death of a living organism or ecosystem, Meet the Necrobiome: The Waves of Microbes That Will Eat Your Corpse, Time of Death. Check the Body's 'Necrobiome'. There are characteristic microbes and macrobes of decay, vultures and other scavengers gathering around dead, possibly characteristic organisms that appear with a biome or environment die. There may also be parademic analogies to necrobiome, behavior and consequences that typically appear when a society or group is dying, and after it has died. The appearance of these indicators are when a healthy society is diminished if not extinct. Such parademic analogues are probably going to be features, voids filled by something else. Breakdown of communications, more migration, more self isolation, public safety funds decreasing, law enforcement being diverted and misdirected How 'Broken Windows' Helped Shape Tensions Between Police and Communities, government and infrastructure eroding, lack of maintenance, mistrust.
-8. Why It's So Hard for Scientists to Study Medical Marijuana (2013). Now that it is legal it can be researched, mpore findings are that it is a health hazard. Marijuana: Health Effects of Recreational and Medical Use. The irony is that when marijuana was illegal, finding supporting evidence for it being illegal was also illegal. Now we are in the situation of putting the genie back in the bottle.
-9. #Book. Overlaps with parademic, though more focused on the interactions of the socialsphere and the microsphere. A Key to the Realm: My thoughts on the Anthropology of Infectious Disease. One of the reasons why infectious disease as a medical speciality has so much more allure, to me, than all other aspects of Medicine is that it is explicitly connected to many facets of the world. A person's social history – what they do for a living, who they do it with, where they travel, their habits, their pets, where they live, and their hobbies – all condition what microbe they encounter and whether that microbe can damage them. [Cover]
-10. Been awhile since this type of biopolitics has been used, the holding of a population’s health as ransom for other needs. Villagers Announce Boycott of Polio Vaccines for Their Demands. Residents of twenty villages in Lakki Marwat district have announced to boycott anti-polio immunization campaign as a protest against government’s inability to resolve their longstanding issues of electricity load shedding, road and tube wells. This is also called emotional blackmail (FOG), human shields, hostage holding. Frequently an indicator of perceiving terrorism works as a form of leverage for the weak, and a lack of understanding that threatening others is also threatening oneself. [Postcard]
-10. Typically this time of year there is less parademic data. Probably due to the holidays and people taking a break, or focusing on summing up the year, Protecting the Public from Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism. Parademic data is incidental to the focus of authors who have no idea that they are reporting on parademic beyond the focus of their topic. For parademic this has been an exciting year, though parademic still has not found a voice, or an audience. Frankly I have qualms if it does find an audience as it would indicate that the concept is being seen as somehow relevant because the biodisaster problems are accelerating, compounding, accumulating into a dangerous time when previous ideas are no longer functional and new ones are needed. One difference this year is that material related to parademic usually falls to less that half, and since the 2014 Ebola analogies for parademic are nearly unnecessary and there are sufficient direct and real examples.
-Quote: "An idea, like a ghost, must be spoken to a little before it will explain itself". – Charles Dickens, attributed to in Many Thoughts of Many Minds
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