The Kindness of Gifting Strangers

"[These] miscalibrated expectations [may impede the likelihood that future] prosocial [behaviours will be performed]."

"Performers are not fully taking into account that their warm acts provide value from the act itself."

"The fact that you're being nice to others adds a lot of value beyond whatever the thing is."

"People aren't way off base. They get that being kind to people makes them feel good. What we don't get is how good it really makes others feel."

"It turns out generosity can actually be contagious. Receivers of a prosocial act can pay it forward. Kindness can actually spread."

Amit Kumar, assistant professor of marketing, Austin McCombs School of Business, University of Texas

earth.com

 

Research published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General concludes that random acts of kindness tend to be relatively rare as a result of people underestimating how satisfying deeds in this category make those who benefit from them are made to feel. This lack of awareness of the beneficial result of an act of kindness to the recipient stems, apparently, from the impression people performing a good deed focus on the action or object they provide when receivers fixate on feelings of warmth the act itself generates.

 

In studying the issue, investigators recruited 84 study subjects from Maggie Daley Park in Chicago whee participants were requested to give a cup of hot chocolate from the park's kiosk to a stranger or alternatively reserve it for themselves. Of the total participants, seventy-five decided they would share the hot chocolate, delivered to the strangers by a researcher informing the recipients of the good deed's source.

 

In exchange, recipients were asked to describe their mood when the beverage was given them, while the givers were asked to rate how they thought recipients would feel -- on a scale from -5 (more negative than normal) to 5 (more positive than normal). Consistent underestimates of how good recipients of such an act of kindness would feel on the part of the givers was general, while rating their own expected mood on receiving the gift at an average of 2.7 compared to the actual average of 3.5 reported by recipients personally.

Another experiment taking place in the same venue saw researchers recruit two groups of 100 people. 50 of those in the control group were given a cupcake for participating, then asked to rate their mood. The remaining 50 participants were asked to rate thoughts of the people who received a cupcake. 50 participants in the second group of 10 were asked to give their cupcake to a random stranger, then to rate their own mood as well as how they felt recipients might feel on receiving a cupcake.

Participants judged, according to the ratings they came up with, that people who received cupcakes would be happy whether the cupcakes came from a researcher or a random act of kindness. In actual fact, whose who benefited from a random act of kindness were more pleased than those who were chosen by a researcher. 

A final experiment was geared to assess the consequences of kindness, where participants in a laboratory were given a gift from either the lab store or another participant before engaging in a game requiring them to divide $100 between themselves and an unknown study participants. Those who received a gift from another participant turned out more generous to others during the game, distributing an average of $48.02 in comparison to $41.02 from those who received a store gift.

People are touched by small kindnesses and led to greater generosity, new research shows.  Based on the research of Amit Kumar, Texas McCombs

COVID Vaccinations During Pregnancy -- No Side Effects

"Our study found no evidence of increased risk of preterm birth, very preterm birth, small-for-gestational-age at birth, or stillbirth following COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy."

"The results of this study provide further evidence for care providers and pregnant people about the safety of COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy."

Dr. Deshayne Fell, scientist, CHEO Research Institute, associate professor of medicine, University of Ottawa 

MothertoBaby

 

A new retrospective study led by the CHEO Research Institute examined thousands of births in Ontario, concluding that being vaccinated against COVID-19 while pregnant does not have the effect of increasing risk of complications, such as giving birth early or having a small or stillborn baby. Their findings were published in The BMJ (British Medical Journal).

Starting with the acknowledgement that acquiring the virus while pregnant links to a higher risk of complications that include admission to hospital, maternal death and both preterm birth and stillbirth, the researchers were interested in settling the conviction that vaccination against COVID during pregnancy truly has demonstrated benefits helping protect mothers and their babies. Limited evidence linking pregnancy outcomes after vaccination drew them to this study.

The CHEO-based BORN Ontario birth registry was used by the researchers to identify infants born following at least 20 weeks or pregnancy or weighing at least 500 g between May 1 and December 31, 2021. The data gleaned was then linked to CO-VaxON, the immunization database of Ontario's COVID-19 program.

It was found that of 85,162 births, 43,099 represented people who received at least one dose of  COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy; 99.7 percent having received an mRNA vaccine, mostly those produced by Pfizer-BioNTech, or Moderna. The study led to the discovery that vaccination during pregnancy was not associated with increased risk of overall preterm birth which was experienced by 6.5 percent of those unvaccinated; spontaneous preterm birth, at 3.7 percent versus 4.4 percent; or very preterm birth, at 0.59 percent versus 0.89 percent.

Findings, reported the researchers, were similar irrespective of when the vaccine was given, how many doses were received during pregnancy, or which mRNA vaccine was used. Extenuating factors such as the mother's age at delivery, pre-pregnancy body mass index, reported smoking or substance use during pregnancy, pre-existing health conditions, previous live births and stillbirths, location and income, were all accounted for.

 

No increase was found in the risk of babies being born small for gestational age, at 9.1 percent in the vaccinated group as opposed to 9.2 percent among the unvaccinated, or stillbirth, at 0.25 percent opposed to 0.44 percent. Research findings were similar irrespective of when the vaccine was given, how many doses were received during pregnancy, or which mRNA vaccine was used.

The mother's age at delivery, pre-pregnancy body mass index, reported smoking or substance use during pregnancy, pre-existing health conditions, previous live births and stillbirths, location and income were all taken into account.

A different study, also co-authored by Dr.Fell, showed infants whose mothers received a second or third dose of COVID-19 vaccine during the late stages of pregnancy were protected against SARS-CoV-2 infection throughout the first four months of life. That research was published in June, in JAMA Internal Medicine.

 

Doctor examine pregnant belly for baby and mother healthcare check up. Getty

"Sharenting" : Posting Child Photos Online

"It's kind of like having bragging rights, but it's sharing to much bigger audiences Much of the fodder for pedophiles is not manufactured. It comes from parents, from these public posts."

"If we saw some random guy peering into our child's window, what would our reaction be? Think of that situation online. The only difference is the physical versus the virtual realm."

"It's very obvious that there's no real consent going on with many of these children."

"The opinion my colleagues and I have is that if the child is not able to understand and give consent -- whatever age that might be for that child -- then all that information should probably be kept private."

"A lot more people have access to information about a minor than I think the world knows. It's the fact that -- No.1 -- there's zero consent. No.2, sharenting information may be used for vile purposes in some cases and there's a commerce component to that."

"So, there is money exchanging hands for these sorts of images and videos. And then No. 3, now it has become even more socially accepted to be commodified."

"Through sponsorships, parent influencers are now profiting from using images of their children online."

Laurel Cook, associate professor, John Chambers College of Business and Economics, University of West Virginia

Studies: kids will have well over 1,000 pictures of themselves on social media before they’re 5.  

Photo Illustration by Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images

 

In actual fact there is nothing new about this at all. People posting photographs on social media of young children have been advised for decades that those photographs have the potential to fall into wrong hands and that caution should be observed. What is now being termed "sharenting", the posting by proud parents of photographs of their clever, adorable, talented children certainly seems innocent enough to those who couldn't begin to imagine the ulterior motives of co-opting such photos for purposes other than parents meant them for.

Laurel Cook, social marketing and public policy researcher, has an article published in the Journal of Consumer Affairs, highlighting the dangers of uploading images of children and the risk such action carries. Questions with respect to consent and privacy, she points out, are in the beginning stages of study, yet to be fully understood. The global pandemic served to drive more face-to-face interactions online, making more people more vulnerable than ever before.

Parents, writes Ms.Cook, make the assumption that privacy settings suffice to protect photos they happen to upload. However, this does not appear to be the case in all instances; once a photo is shared online, it is there in circulation and won't be removed. Candid photographs taken by schools and summer camps are often used as spontaneous examples of situations and environments felt to be of benefit to children, the photographs embellishing a point being made. Without awareness of just what may be the outcome.

 

A lot of parents tend to share too much information about their kids online. (Source: Getty Images)

 

Posting photographs of attractive, active young children on line draws the attention of those that influencers want to attract, leading to a growing trend of social media being used to monetize the concept of a busy social aspirant and their offspring. Forming part of the research undertaken by Ms.Cook is a focus on dark design, a type of deceptive online interface employing design elements to make them attractive to purposefully manipulate users to click an option giving consent to data sharing.

Ppublic policy researcher, Laurel Cook, works with regulators on a shared recognition of what is meant to consent. In so doing, she anticipates being able to give assistance to parents and caregivers in the realization of risks of dark design and its enabling behaviour. Essentially, giving false assurances to parents and caregivers that uploading such sensitively intimate photos of young children is perfectly safe, when clearly that is not always the case.

"What's what makes me wake up excited every day to know that my work isn't just theory."

"It's something that might move the dial a little bit, to help things change or at least bring awareness to the situation and come up with solutions."

"I want this environment for children and teens to be addressed. I'm very passionate about it."

Laurel Cook, social marketing and public policy researcher

A mother is seen taking a selfie with her child. (Pexels)

Wait: Is That Dog Really Crying for Joy?!

"We had never heard of the discovery that animals shed tears in joyful situations, such as reuniting with their owners, and we were all excited that this would be a world first."

"I have two standard poodles and I had one female pregnant six years ago [noticing her face was more tender than usual when nursing her puppies, the realization dawned the dog's eyes were teary]."

"That gave me the idea that oxytocin might increase tears, We previously observed that oxytocin is released both in dogs and owners when interacting. So we conducted a reunion experiment."

Profesor Takefumi Kikusui, Azabu University, Tokyo

"In this study, we demonstrated that dogs secrete tears when reuniting with their owner, and our data suggest that this tear secretion is mediated by oxytocin."

"This is the first report demonstrating that positive emotion stimulates tear secretion in a non-human animal, and that oxytocin functions in tear secretion."

"Unlike any other animal, dogs have evolved or have been domesticated through communication with humans and have gained high-level communication abilities with humans using eye contact."

Research team study, Current Biology

Dogs have been shown to cry when they nurture their puppies and reunite with their owners. Photograph: Manan Vatsyayana/AFP/Getty Images

 

Japanese scientists embarked on a research project to determine whether suspicions that dogs actually cry after a separation and reunion with their owners, found that they indeed do, representing the only other animal aside from humans known to express their emotions in this way. The scientists speculate that the trait developed as a byproduct of the intimate human-canine connection that has developed over tens of thousands of years.

 

Before the outcome of this study, tears of joy were assumed to be the biological monopoly of humans. The outcome of this study now validates just how emotionally adept at expressing themselves dogs are. The study began with the animal behaviour scientists recruiting 22 dogs to test how many tears were expressed, dabbing their eyes with paper. When the dogs were at home with their owners, the baseline was conducted, and followed up when scientists repeated the test in the first five minutes following the owner's return from an absence of at least five hours. 

The volume of tears that were expressed with the return of the owners following a few hours of absence turned out to be the greater amount. How dogs responded to their owners coming home was the major focus, but another familiar person not their owner was tested with a similar scenario and since no tears were forthcoming, it was made manifestly evident that tears of joy were meant to convey happiness related specifically to the return of the owner.

 

The research team has expanded their agenda to another facet of determining dogs' emotional states of happiness expressed in tears, hoping to find out whether dogs shed similar tears of happiness when reunited with other dogs, and whether they cry as well as a result of being sad. 

 

Inspiration for the study arose when the pet poodle of Professor Kikusui gave birth to a litter of puppies. The scientist realized that tears were being emitted from his dog's eyes while she was nursing the newborn puppies, leading him to wonder whether oxytocin was responsible for the lacrimation. Previous research discovered that oxytocin is released in vast quantities both by humans and canines when they are together. 

Witness to Genocide

"My family tried to decide what to do, to join the speedily retreating Russian troops and leave behind the property, the savings, the old furniture and keepsakes, the old books collected by my grandfather, the Torah which was in the  house for more than 150 years when my ancestors came from Germany."

"My family, meanwhile, was forced to go into the backyard and dig a pit. They were buried alive. An SS officer commanded the operation while the  youths of our neighbourhood threw children into the pit."

"[The occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union was] the most obscene decision of the Soviet leaderships in its post-war history, comparable only with the invasion of Afghanistan [statement predating the Russian invasion of Ukraine]."

Ilya Gerol, Born Riga, Latvia November 1940 - Died Montreal, Canada, August 2022

 

Ilya Gerol's family was prosperous, citizens of Riga, Latvia, but originally from Germany. Just before he was born the Soviet Red Army invaded and occupied Latvia. But then, while he was in his infancy, Operation Barbarossa was launched by Nazi Germany when its leadership decided to dissolve the Soviet Union's membership in the Axis Alliance and to invade Russia in June of 1941. 

When the Nazis were approaching the outskirts of Riga with mobile SS death squads, Einsatsgruppen joined by by Latvian auxiliaries shooting thousands of the city's Jewish population, his large extended family, disbelieving the underground news of Jewish slaughter taking place, held emergency discussions among themselves, trying to decide what they should do. In the end, because they believed they would come to no harm, they remained.

Ilya Gerol's mother believed otherwise, fearing for her life and that of her infant. Her trust in the cultured civil Germany that her larger family grasped at, was absent in her opinion. She took her child and rushed into the street where they were picked up by retreating Russians driving a truck. Only later would she learn that her entire extended family, deciding to remain where they felt they would be spared, were all murdered.

Having survived the war, Gerol studied at the University of Moscow and joined the Red Army Reserve. He was active in 1968 when the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia. He set aside his private reservations and remained in Russia, becoming a journalist and by age 25 was chief editor for the Atlantica radio station in Russia. He became senior editor at the Russian language newspaper Sovetskaia Molodezh (Soviet Youth) and published two books on leaders of the Young Communist League.

As a journalist in the Soviet Union he prospered but could honour no principles he held dear: "There is only one condition; do not write what you have seen, write what we ask you to write", he later recalled. Eventually he published articles reflecting the reality in the U.S.S.R.; assaults on minority rights and personal freedoms, leading to his expulsion from the League of Journalists of the U.S.S.R.

Because his wife's father was a senior judge who intervened on his behalf, he was spared prison or forced exile. In 1979 he was allowed to leave the country. First to Vienna, then to Rome where he worked as a translator with the Canadian Embassy. There, he applied for refugee status in Canada, arriving in Vancouver a year later at age 39, fluent in English. 

He found work eventually as a journalist in Ottawa becoming a globe-trotting foreign affairs analyst with a number of significant interviews under his byline with leading world figures such as Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, Poland's Lech Walesa, Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov and Austrian President Kurt Waldheim (former WWII member of the Nazi Youth, and later Secretary General of the UN from 1972 to 1981).

Cannabis + Edibles : Child Poisoning

"Our findings suggest that restrictions on the sale of visually attractive and palatable cannabis edible products are key policy considerations for the prevention of cannabis poisonings among children in the United States and other countries considering legalization."

"[Although edibles by law cannot be marketed as attractions for children and youth] they are still candy and when [an edible] comes out of packaging it is still a circular blue soft chew coated in powdered sugar -- that is candy." 

"As more places around the world consider legalizing recreational cannabis, we need to learn how to better protect children from cannabis poisoning."

"We may need to consider other measures to reduce cannabis edibles' appeal to young children, such as much stricter limits on what edibles can look and taste like after they are removed from their packaging."

"These are serious medical emergency poisoning events, and whether they have long-term impacts or whether they're an acute emergency, we want to have as few or none of these as possible."

Dr.Daniel Myran, public health specialist, Ottawa

"Our data indicate that legalization was associated with marked increases in hospitalizations for cannabis poisoning in children."

"Most of the increase occurred after legalization of cannabis edibles and despite strict regulations aimed at reducing poisonings in children."

Research study authors

After flower-based cannabis products and oils were legalized in October 2018, the study reports an average of seven children visiting the ED for cannabis poisonings per month. After cannabis edibles became available for sale in January 2020 that average jumped to 20-23 kids per month.  CTV News

 

"Simple safety measures and talking to kids about the dangers of cannabis edibles can help reduce the number of children visiting the hospital for cannabis-related reasons."

"The children that I've seen have been primarily preschool to school age, so six and under. Sometimes I've seen multiple children even in the same shift coming in with cannabis exposure."

"It's really important to highlight that legal does not necessarily mean safe."

"Store your cannabis products much like you'd store your medication in a locked cabinet out of reach of kids and pets."

Dr. Melanie Bechard, pediatric emergency physician, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario

A study recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine points out the sharp increase in children being brought to hospital as a result of cannabis poisoning in Ontario and other Canadian provinces. These findings arrive at the very time, points out the study's lead author, that the cannabis industry is lobbying for fewer restrictions on some edible products, heightening his fear that further increases in child poisonings will result.

So as far as Dr. Daniel Myran is concerned, research, including that just published, demonstrates the need for increased, not fewer, restrictions. Restrictions on edible should be considered by countries considering their own legalization of cannabis, as Canada has done. The Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario has been warning of the risk of cannabis poisoning since the legalization of edibles was permitted. CHEO has experienced a rate of hospitalization for children under ten with cannabis poisoning to have increased six-fold since legalization.

The research examined hospitalizations of children up to three years of age for cannabis poisoning in Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec between the years 2015 and 2021. Edible products such as gummies, chocolates and baked goods with THC were legal for sale by January 2020, with strict restrictions on packaging, content and shape of product. All provinces required to permit cannabis flower sale, but given latitude to prohibit sale of edibles -- which Quebec chose to do.

Hospitalization in periods before cannabis flower legalization sales in the fall of 2018, before edibles were legalized and after edibles were approved in four of the five provinces went under study with researchers finding hospitalizations increased in all provinces following legalization yet before edibles became legal.

Hospitalization rates in provinces permitting the sale of edibles was 7.5 times higher than it was before legalization, while in Quebec which did not permit the sale of edibles, saw its hospitalization rate of minors increase to three times higher than prior to legalization. There were 561 hospitalizations for cannabis poisoning among the demographic studied, during the seven-year study period.

Limiting the amount of THC in an edible package, requirements for plain and child-resistant packaging and consumer education campaigns rate among restrictions on edibles which may not be specifically marketed in the shape of animals or cartoon characters, as example, to make them more attractive to the  young. Where the sale of edibles was allowed, the number of hospitalizations turned markedly higher. 

Dr. Myran spoke to a legally mandated review of cannabis legislation for the purpose of assessing  health impacts of the government's cannabis policy, noting that hospitalizations represent "the most sever outcomes" among children who ingest edibles, including some children whose condition was serious enough to be placed on ventilators.

Legislation, he pointed out, with tight regulations to prevent 16-year-olds acquiring criminal records was fine, but what wasn't needed was "sugar-coated candy being sold in cannabis stores" to achieve that end.

 

Various edible cannabis products are shown at The Bakery cannabis store on Thursday, May 12, 2022 in Regina. KAYLE NEIS / Regina Leader-Post

No, Really!

"Our study provides a rare insight into human likeness by showing that people with extreme look-alike faces share common genotypes."

"We provided a unique insight into the molecular characteristics that potentially influence the construction of the human face."

"It would be very interesting to follow up the potential application in forensics, using the genome of unknown people to prepare bio-informatic strategies to reconstruct the face from DNA."

"And in medicine, we may be able to deduce the genome of a person from facial analysis and hence use this as a pre-screening tool to detect the presence of genetic mutations associated with disease and apply preventive strategies at an early stage."

Dr.Manel Estelier, Joseph Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute, Barcelona, Spain

Four pairs of "human doubles" included in the study Courtesy of François Brunelle

 

Imagine that someone you don't know, have never before met, looks so identical to you, they could be your twin. Facial features just so exactly alike. Would you ever imagine that this same unknown person is alike to you in many other ways? Their personal inclinations, value system, choices in life to the extent that their experiences are uncannily like your own. You may live on a different continent, have a different culture and language, a heritage unlike that other person, but research seems to indicate that you and this person share an amazing trajectory in life.

Sounds like fiction, but Spanish researchers appear to have looked deeply enough through an in-depth study of the genetics and behaviour of completely unrelated people whose facial features are very alike to feel confident that their finding is fact, not fiction. They recruited 16 pairs of doubles, taken from photographs representing the work of a Canadian artist who collects photos of unrelated look-alikes. Study participants completed a detailed questionnaire of factors ranging from education and smoking habits to alcohol consumption and marital status.

When the results were tabulated, a strong correlation was recognized between people who appeared as lookalikes and their lifestyles and behavioural traits. Furthermore, when genetic profiles were studied the research team discovered that people who look alike actually possessed similar DNA. Pairs of lookalikes were found to share 20,000 genetic variants reflecting facial features and relating to bone structure, skin texture, body fat, liquid retention, and even characteristics of personality, such as addictions.

 

Not only was it found through this study that the doppelgangers reflected similar lifestyles and facial features, but genetic analysis indicated that nine of the 16 pairs had many single nucleotide polymorphisms, the most common type of genetic variation among individuals. The research study saw publication in the journal Cell Reports.

Interestingly enough, the perception that character can be determined through analysis of facial characteristics has a storied past, dating to ancient Greece, when Aristotle claimed it to be "possible to infer character from features". What can be inferred is prejudices. The practise of physiognomy was taught in British Universities back in the Middle Ages, to assess a person's character from their outward appearance. The theory was eventually put to an end in 1530 by Henry VIII.

Revisited however, in the 19th century, believed by early criminologists that felons could be identified through certain facial features. A low-sloping forehead, long arms and handle-shaped ears identified as indicative of a criminal mind. As in reference to knuckle-dragging Neanderthals, a species of hominids as a subspecies of homo sapiens. That view of grunting, brainless subhumans has been rectified with the discovery of Neanderthals' likeness to modern humans, the size of their brains, their appreciation of art, their ability to make weapons, their burial ceremonies and much more.

Hope for New Diabetes Treatment

"We consider the research novel and an important step forward towards developing new therapies."

"[Our research shows that a diabetic pancreas is] not incapable of producing insulin [their proof of concept addresses] unmet medical needs in Type 1 diabetes."

Sam El-Osta, diabetes expert, Monash Department of Diabetes, Melbourne, Australia

Type 1 diabetes used to be referred to as Juvenile-onset diabetes. It is always insulin-dependent because the beta cells of the Isles of Langerhans located in the pancreas are destroyed in a presumed attack by the immune system erroneously; theoretically the result of the bodily entry of a foreign substance; for example a vaccine of some kind that provokes the body's immune system to attack, but it mistakes the beta cells for a foreign substance to be destroyed. 

 

Until Banting and Best's discovery in a small makeshift laboratory at University of Toronto in 1921 of injecting missing insulin to achieve blood-glucose control by delivering blood-glucose to body cells, the diagnosis of diabetes onset for young people was a death sentence. They would simply waste away, the delivery of converted food sugars from the body's bloodstream by insulin to body cells to feed the brain and muscles gone completely awry.

 

Adult-onset diabetes (Type 2) on the other hand, was considered to be a lifestyle-disease, the result of sedentary practices and poor nutritional choices leading to overweight and the weakening of the production of insulin, usually treated by appropriate medication to tweak insulin production, unlike the more severe Type 1 for which multiple-daily insulin injections are required to maintain life. Both must test blood-sugar levels frequently to avoid both hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia. Both types have a genetic component.

 

In Canada alone, the Diabetes Canada group claims that one in three Canadians live with prediabetes or diabetes where the body is no longer capable of producing insulin, or is unable to properly utilize the insulin that is produced. That describes Type 2 diabetes. Chronic diabetes takes a dreadful toll on the body, even when the condition is under strict control through a combination of insulin injections, adequate exercise and an appropriate diet plan.

 

In the province of Ontario alone it is estimated that there are more people living with diabetes than elsewhere in Canada; rates of both Type 1 and 2 diabetes have risen by 42 percent in the last decade. The national economic burden for the treatment of diabetes is estimated at $30 billion in 2019, which represented an increase of $14 billion over 2009 figures.

 

Medline Plus

 

Now a major breakthrough reflecting the results of new research out of Australia affecting both Type 1 and 2 diabetes promises to completely turn diabetes management on its head. The study reflects the discovery of a treatment that would replace insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. The study, published in the journal Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy, saw researchers able to reactivate pancreatic stem cells from a Type 1 diabetic donor with the use of a drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, not licensed for diabetes treatment.

 

The beta cells, upon reactivation, once again become capable of expressing insulin, functionally resembling the beta cells that produce insulin in non-diabetic people. The new therapy could one day -- according to the team behind the study -- allow insulin-producing cells destroyed in Type 1 diabetes to be replaced with new cells functionally capable of producing the same result. 

 

Once it was believed that a diabetic pancreas was too damaged to be corrected. Now, although more research is required before the therapy can be applied to human subjects, the research team is optimistic about the potential for an entirely new game plan in responding to the chronic disease that threatens peoples' lives with the prospect of a reduced lifespan, an increased chance of diabetic retinopathy, amputations caused by nerve damage, heart failure, strokes and kidney failure.

WebMD

"A Total Act Of Bastardry"

"Typically, we would only see fentanyl being detected in quantities of one gram or less. To have a detection that is 11 kilograms pure is just quite frankly extraordinary."

"The audacity of the group behind this is just ... outrageous, I'd describe it as a total act of bastardry."

"Th base of the lathe had poor quality welding and touch-up paint applied to it, which frankly just looked out of place."

"[Fentanyl] is one of the more dangerous drugs our officers can come into contact with." 

"We were absolutely shocked by the size of the detection and the audacity of this attempted importation."

"[Generically border force officers] work with its partners both here in Australia and internationally to ensure illicit drugs don't reach our communities."

James Watson, Australian Border Force commander

"Our concern is that if such a large amount of fentanyl was in the hands of Australian-based criminal networks driven by greed, it could have passed uncontrolled and hidden into the community with possibly deadly results."

"Someone out there in the community knows something. We are at a crucial stage in the investigation and would appreciate some more information."

"The interception of this amount of drugs would be a significant blow even to a well-resourced criminal syndicate and prevents millions of dollars of drug profit flowing back into the syndicate to fund their lavish lifestyles or next criminal venture."

Anthony Hall, Australian Federal Police acting commander

Investigators were forced to wear bio-hazard suits as they inspected the shipment.(Supplied: AFP

 

Canada, like the United States, is experiencing a public-health crisis fuelled largely by fentanyl use -- along with fentanyl mixed into street drugs, unknown to users but the cause of many overdoses. Between January of 2016 and December 2021, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada, a total of 29,052 deaths attributable to fentanyl took place.

Australian authorities seized the largest ever fentanyl cache being smuggled from Canada into Australia recently. A public warning was issued several days ago relating to the dangers of the opioid known for its explosive potency. Designed to medically treat pain, its use as a street drug often leads to lethal overdoses. Never before has the illicit drug been known to be available for drug users in the bulk and purity the recently seized drugs represented. 

Although Australia has some familiarity with fentanyl drug seizures, none have been in large quantities, about 30 grams being the average. Fentanyl street sales are more generally derived from stolen drugs or medical patches diverted from medical use. The latest discovery came about with suspicions over a shipping container sent by the Australian Border Force for further scrutiny.

Suspicions increased when a forklift raised the lathe out of its shipping container and what followed was a two-week operation to remove and analyze the suspected contents. Officers drilled into the base revealing a light brown substance on the end of the bit, field-testing positive for fentanyl.  Further work was done by officers in full biohazard protection, a decontamination zone, ambulances and naloxone within easy reach. Altogether, 60 kilograms of powdered substance was revealed.

The powder was wrapped in plastic sealed with zip ties, stuffed into metal ammunition cases stacked inside the undercarriage of the lathe. Enough of the substance to produce 4.5 million doses. Along with the fentanyl was found 30 kilograms of methamphetamine, with an estimated street value of $27 million.

A shipment of fentanyl and methamphetamine was hidden inside a wooden lathe, which is a machine for shaping wood or metal.(Supplied: AFP)

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire!

"Traditional police practices in deception detection stem from early theories on lying that assume liars will exhibit stress-based cues because they fear being caught and feel guilty about lying. This theory led researchers to search for reliable behavioral indicators of deception. They examined behaviors such as posture shifts, gaze aversion, and foot and hand movements, without much success.

"There really is no Pinocchio's nose," says Judee Burgoon, PhD, a professor of communication at the University of Arizona

American Psychological Association

 

"People tell white lies when telling the truth would be overly complicated, uncomfortable, or tedious." 

"[These types of fibs allow people to] reframe harmful truths and reframe socially awkward facts [we tell white lies to avoid hurting others and save ourselves from embarrassment]."

Dr. Christian Hart, Psychology Today

Lies of that variety are harmless and they pass the social test of civility, They don't pop up from a wellspring of malice. They are quite ordinary social interactions in normal people with a sense of social conscience. Most of us would be surprised to read that a study found six of ten Americans are committed to telling the truth, always. Liars on the other hand fib roughly 17 times daily; it has become 'second nature' to them. Actually, lying is in and of itself a human characteristic. There are studies indicating that people begin to lie at an early age until we become quite skilled at it.

 

Trinity University in Texas undertook a study to clarify what distinguishes a real lie from a white lie. The latter to be shrugged off as inconsequential, the former having unsavoury origins and consequences in the deeper recesses of a primitive mind possibly lacking social conscience and how to distinguish one category from the other. 

• It is a serious lie if the intent is malicious;
• the consequence of the lie is serious;
• the liar is the one who benefits most from the lie;
• the lie is mostly untrue -- compare the 'bending of the truth' that tends to define a white lie; 
• the lie is considered unequivocally wrong.

There is a kind of urban myth that a lie can be revealed when the person lying moves their eyes to the left or the right, though no evidence exists to support this belief. A study done in 2012 examined the notion that people tend to look up and to the right when lying, and up and left while telling the truth; finding nothing supportive of the claim.

On the other hand, a 2015 study at University of Michigan took into account 120 videos of high-stakes court cases when they set out to construct a prototype of lie-detecting software. Part of the study was experiments that turned out 75 percent accurate in identifying liars. Close to 70 percent of liars tended to stare straight at their interrogator. 

 

Scowling or grimacing with the entire face was interpreted as an indicator of deception. Only 30 percent of liars scowled, but virtually none of the people telling the truth did. Another: close to 50 percent of truth tellers closed their yes during questioning, while merely 20 percent of liars tended to close their eyes. Head-shaking usually reflected someone telling the truth at about 50 percent, compared to only35 percent of people who lied.

People telling the truth often raised their eyebrows, while those lying had a tendency to wave their hands about during questioning. When someone's physical movements fail to match their statements; saying yes while shaking heads 'no'; almost like involuntary movements, may indicate deceit. And then, there are cultural differences to be considered. Voice pitch can reveal much.

The American Psychological Association found Chinese people had a tendency to raise the pitch of their voices when lying, whereas Hispanics spoke in lower tones when lying, compared to their normal voices while telling the truth. What research also tends to tell us is that humans generally are not very good at deciphering fact from fiction. 

People  tend to detect someone who is lying only about fifty percent of the time. According to some studies, emotionally intelligent people are more readily convinced by liars. Their personalities making them more trustful of other people.

Pleasing Your Gut

"It's certainly not as black and white as a single number [of plant foods to include in a weekly diet for optimum gut health], but in my clinic 30 has shown to be an effective target to increase gut microbe diversity."

Dr. Megan Rossi nutrition expert, author

"Basically different types of fibre and polyphenols feed different microbes and that is the reason why we need variety."

"Things like spinach and berries are much higher in their nutritional value when they are frozen because vitamin C degrades after a vegetable or fruit has been harvested."

Eve Kalinik, nutritional therapist, author of Happy Gut, Happy Mind

"What that means is any food that comes from a plant."

"Yes, fruit and vegetables, but also beans and pulses, nuts and seeds, grains such as oats, quinoa and brown rice and whole-grain cereals."

Dr. Hazel Wallace, founder, The Food Medic educational platform

Photo World Cancer Research Fund

 

The World Health Organization advocates that to achieve optimum health, a minimum of 400g of fruit and vegetables is required for a healthy daily diet to lower risk of serious health problems. The theory is that poor outcomes in heart disease, stroke and some types of cancer are to be avoided when the body is adequately armed with a healthy diet. Now there's a challenge to the recommended five servings of vegetables daily.

A new standard agreed upon by nutritionists and medical scientists calling for an average of 30 different plant foods a week seeks to surpass the five servings a day generalization for optimum health, by emphasizing that the plant-derived foods ideally be different, chosen from a wide range of food derived from plants to achieve that optimum gut health.

According to the results of studies, people who consume at minimum 30 different plant-based foods weekly boast more diverse gut microbes than do those who eat fewer than ten. And the more varied the diet, the stronger the microbiome will turn out. There are close links with the quality of gut microbiome and inflammation, immune system function, mental health and metabolic health.

All of the various chosen fruits and vegetables that fall into the 30-weekly goal, merit one point, while herbs and spices also count, but each as a quarter-point. If chives, basil, parsley and oregano appear in a dish as herbal flavourings, all four would constitute a full point in the 30-point goal. It is not required that herbs be fresh; the herbs can be dried. And as well, plant-based food can come from a can, a jar or the freezer.

 

The Gut Stuff

• Fruit and vegetables are obviously plant foods: each variety can count as one – so a cos lettuce is different to watercress, rocket and iceberg. As with 5 A DAY, sweet potatoes are good, and – unlike 5 A DAY – the good old-fashioned King Edward potato does count.
• Legumes: so we’re talking beans, such as black, cannellini or kidney, chickpeas, and lentils.
• Grains: oats, buckwheat, millet, wheat, brown rice, wholemeal pasta and quinoa. White pasta and rice aren’t included, because the industrial processes used to remove the whole grains strip them of many of their nutritional benefits.
• Nuts and seeds: almonds, hazelnuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, cashews – so many to choose from.
• Herbs and spices: Obviously they’re plant-based but, because the quantities we eat tend to be fairly small, each is only counted as one-quarter.

A Procedure That Kills People

"[Such a measure -- upturning the Criminal Code ban on doctor-assisted suicide -- would violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms] underlying hypothesis [of the sanctity of human life]."

"Given the concerns about abuse and the great difficulty in creating appropriate safeguards, the blanket prohibition on assisted suicide is not arbitrary or unfair."

Supreme Court of Canada 1992 ruling 

"[The Supreme Court agrees] that a permissive regime with properly designed and administered safeguards was capable of protecting vulnerable people from abuse and error."

"We should not lightly assume that the regulatory regime will function defectively."

Supreme Court of Canada, 2015

"The risk we have is sending a message to the country that life is expendable, that we are prepared to say that we do not care enough for people to take care of them."

Member of Parliament Joe Comartin, NDP

Vancouver man Ray Chwartkowski holds up a picture of his sister Cheryl (seen as a child in the picture with her mother, Rose). Cheryl received medical assistance in dying in 2019 at age 50 and Chwartkowski believes his sister (who suffered from lifelong mental health issues) should not have been eligible as she did not have a terminal illness.  Photo by Jason Payne/ PNG

It's a long and wicked, winding road that leads to federal legislation legalizing assisted suicide. Most Canadians weighed their thoughts over the grave issue involved...should people suffer horribly from end-of-life pain and anguish when it is clear they haven't much longer to live and see no value to them in continuing to live out the very last days, weeks or months of an existence that promises them nothing but pain and misery until mind and body can absorb no more and nature takes its course?

 

That same empathetic public could not have foreseen that enacting legislation for assisted suicide would gradually undergo 'adjustments' in widening eligibility from those suffering from untreatable conditions in agony with a foreseeable end, to accepting requests for an expedited death from an increasingly wider group of people dissatisfied with life itself and looking for state agency in ushering them out of existence. To the point where people with mental illness that is treatable, including youth, are given the option of medical assistance in dying. 

Criminal Code bans on doctor-assisted suicide was enabled by a 2015 Supreme Court decision. A decision that led the current government to encode legal euthanasia into law. This, after two decades earlier the Supreme Court unequivocally rejected the legal concept of assisted suicide.  Until the Supreme Court interpreted the denial to citizens of an option to end their own lives, violated Charter guarantees against the "security of the person", after all.

Belgium had already experienced years of legalized euthanasia. And there a number of controversial cases where state-sanctioned death was extended to citizens with no terminal illnesses had arisen. When the Supreme Court was debating within itself the direction it should take on the issue, it sought consultations. One of which was Belgian bioethicist Etienne Montero, flown in to speak before the Court.

"Strict safeguards", he averred, was illusory. "Once euthanasia is allowed, it becomes very difficult to maintain a strict interpretation of the statutory conditions." A forewarning gained through unfortunate experience. Enter this gate and expect to remain there; for there is no exit. The Canadian justices chose to dismiss the Belgian experience as "the product of a very different medico-legal culture", offering no lessons for Canada.

Consequently, federal legislation extended medical assistance in dying (MAID) only to "competent adults whose deaths are reasonably forseeable", meant to defend the "interests of vulnerable persons in need of protection". A non-partisan cross-section of Members of Parliament during parliamentary debates over the bill spoke to their fears of green-lighting an assisted suicide regime that might over time extend to the disabled or the mentally ill.

 

In 2019, the Quebec Superior Court ruled that a violation of the "security of the person" was in fact a fault of the legislation in extending assisted suicide only to Canadians with terminal illnesses. "The fact that doubts have been raised is one thing, but any possible slippery slope' remains theoretical", read the court statement. The federal Supreme Court took notice and so advised the government.

 

The government reaction was to remove terminal illness as the qualifying requirement for MAID. Beginning in 2023 MAID will extend assisted death to Canadians with a sole underlying condition of mental illness. People with severe disabilities have already joined the roster of eligible candidates for euthanasia, to the shock and horror of disability advocates.

 

In June, Trish Nichols whose suicidal and severely mentally ill brother was granted assisted death at a British Columbia hospital when MAID was still theoretically limited only to those with terminal illnesses, spoke to the Medical Assistance in Dying Committee. His family had brought her brother to hospital following a psychiatric episode. Minutes prior to a lethal injection he screamed uncontrollably though the hospital gave assurances he had chosen a medically assisted death "of sound mind". 

 

In this 2020 photo, Minister of Justice David Lametti gives a thumbs up as he rises to vote in favour of a motion on Bill C-7, which dramatically liberalized euthanasia access in Canada. Photo by The Canadian Press/Justin Tang

"Would you feel safe now, bringing your suicidal loved one to seek medical care for recovery when there are no oversights or stringent safeguards surrounding a procedure that kills people?"

Trish Nichols testifying before the Medical Assistance in Dying Committee

Vulnerability Discovered in Virus Causing COVID-19

"We're always looking for well, is there a chink in the armour? Is there a spot that is not changing so much, that we can direct antibodies to that spot?"

"That is the value of the new finding, that it tells us where to focus our attention."

"[The weak spot and master key 'unlock a whole new realm of treatment possibilities [having the potential to be effective against current or future variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus."

"The existence of a large number of mutations made it a much more effective escape artist from our immune system."

"We used very advanced imagining tools to literally zero in and cast a spotlight on the interaction of the spike protein with antibodies."

"It [antibody fragment] actually puts out a couple of fingers that still block the binding. So it achieves this effect by sitting next door." 

"It's an interesting physical block that sits close by, but not exactly at that site. And that may well be why [the site] has not mutated so much over time."

Dr.Sriram Subramaniam, study senior author

A nurse provides information to parents and children during the first week of COVID-19 immunization for children over six months at a Vancouver Coastal Health clinic in Vancouver on Aug. 4. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

 

The discovery of a "weak spot" in the virus causing COVID-19 has been isolated by researchers at the University of British Columbia. This discovery is seen as a potential avenue to pave the way for new treatments to be effective against all strains of the virus. Published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Nature Communications, the study asserts the "key vulnerability" is found in all major variants of the COVID virus.

Anticipating the future, researchers feel that exploiting that weakness could lead to new ways of fighting the disease that has caused the death of close to 6.5 million people worldwide since it was identified over two years earlier. Dr. Subramaniam is a professor in the faculty of medicine at the University of British Columbia who explained that his team studied the virus at an atomic level in hopes of finding that weak spot and to identify an antibody fragment attaching to it across the many mutations of the virus including surging Omicron subvariants.

Antibodies are are naturally produced by the body's immune system triggered to fight infection. They counteract viruses through attaching to them much like a key in a lock. Antibodies can be produced in a laboratory for administration to patients as a treatment, though over time as viruses mutate they become less effective.

The weak spot that Professor Subramaniam's team identified however, is constant in all seven major variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, so that one antibody could conceivably act as 'master key' which would be capable of overcoming the creation of extensive mutations of the virus. With the knowledge that the immune system typically responds to what it senses on the surface of the virus (the spike protein), the researchers began their search.

The concern with each new variant of COVID-19 has revolved around whether the immune system would be capable of recognizing the mutated form. The researchers discovered the weak spot to be located on the spike protein, leading the antibody fragment to neutralize the virus attaching to the spike protein, blocking the virus from entering human cells. 

It was also seen that the identified antibody fragment is special in that it attaches next to the site where the spike protein binds with human cells, and not directly on it. It then becomes in some ways, less like locking the door than stretching out an arm to block entry, to begin with.

An image from cryo-electron microscopy performed by University of British Columbia researchers shows how an antibody fragment, red, attaches to a weak spot on the virus that causes COVID-19, grey, to block the virus from binding with the human cells, blue. (Supplied by Sriram Subramaniam/University of British Columbia)

Gently Suggesting End-of-Life

One of Canada's leading death causes in 2021? Why, euthanasia! Only it's not called that, it goes by a much gentler, persuasive term: Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID). As in; maid, at your disposal. To make life easier by transiting into death. So thoughtful. A report by the Parliamentary Budget Office in 2020 gave n estimation of a saving of about $17,000 in medical care and costs ("end of life costs") through each MAID death.

In the year 2021 there were 10,064 euthanasia cases representing 3.3 percent of all national deaths. Representing a 32.4 percent increase compared to the previous year in assisted deaths. Health Canada reported: "All provinces continue to experience a steady year-over-year growth". This is a bonus to health care in an atmosphere prevailing of health-care-worker shortages. Shortages that have led to emergency rooms closed as a result of understaffing.

Ergo, the federal government identifies euthanasia as a potential cost saving enterprise.

 

The health-care practitioner-patient relationship  (Shutterstock)

In 2016, Canada became one of a handful of jurisdictions globally legalizing doctor-assisted suicide. Initially access to MAID was limited to Canadians with terminal illnesses whose death was "reasonably foreseeable". Until a Quebec Superior Court ruled that the "reasonably foreseeable" proviso was unconstitutional and it was struck down.

Green-lighting the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau to enact a series of 'reforms' effectively giving Canada the most permissive euthanasia standards in law globally. Euthanasia in fact will become available from the coming March to patients with mental illness and no other conditions of a physical nature. 

A veteran attempting to find help in his recovery over a traumatic brain injury suffered during his military service, including combat deployment, was confronted by a Veterans Affairs Canada service agent suggesting the man could choose to opt for a medically assisted death. Entirely not what the veteran was looking for, or expected. The encounter demoralized and disgusted him, derailing his gradual positive shift toward recovery.

Other patients have reported unsolicited, unprompted offers of euthanasia to 'cure' their medical problems. When one man suffering from a degenerative brain disorder, spoke of euthanasia regularly being offered to him. He recorded those recommendations by hospital staff. One of the recordings showcased a hospital ethicist informing the man his care cost the hospital "north of $1,500" daily, asking whether he has "an interest in assisted dying".

"While we have been advocates of death by Medical Assistance in situations where there is a terminal diagnosis or death is imminent, we had no idea that Canada's laws leave considerable room for interpretation by activist doctors", wrote a family who lost a family member approved for medically assisted death after years of declining mental health along with a chronic inability to access psychiatric care. She was put to death without her family's knowledge until the event was done.

A patient in British Columbia was euthanized days after his family brought him to hospital to recover from a psychiatric episode. He had been approved for death by health authorities after four days in the hospital's psychiatric ward.

Several factors ranging from personal spiritual beliefs to patient relationships to medical legal issues can influence whether a health-care practitioner participates in providing medical assistance in dying (MAID). (Shutterstock)