Whatever your political views, the spectacle of a populist upsurge confirms the vitality of Indian democracy, whether that upsurge is for the Aam Aadmi Party, or for Narendra Modi and the BJP. But populism is not democracy.
From the context of comparatively stable political loyalties and predictable electoral results, we now have elections where a relatively small number of non-committed voters can swing outcomes decisively and reward parties with disproportionate victories. Victorious parties may thus claim a mandate for their programs based on seat majorities as if these represented popular majorities, though they seldom do. Similarly, party ideology may be modified to appear more widely acceptable. For example, Hindutva, the ideology of the Sangh Parivar, is changing into Hindu populist politics. There is a new relation between publicity and politics here, one that makes older political distinctions inadequate.
Criticism of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as being anti-Muslim has been muted of late because the BJP is supposed to have moved beyond its Hindu ideology, by adopting a more inclusive and developmentalist stance. In fact, the BJP's transformation of its Hindu nationalist ideology into Hindu populism has allowed the party to further some of its old aims in a new and relatively uncontroversial way. At the heart of this success is Hindu populism's claim to be the product of democratic procedure, and to express the will of the majority. But a ruling party without a single Muslim Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha, in the second largest Muslim country in the world, is choosing to interpret its majority in a partisan way.
The term populism refers to a kind of political reasoning where popular mobilisation serves as its own justification. As such, populism can support liberal, revolutionary or even authoritarian forms of government. The political theorist Ernesto Laclau has argued that populism can emerge with a democratic fervour and end up installing dictatorships, as has happened across Latin America. In the U.K., Margaret Thatcher remade the Tories as an authoritarian populist force, winning over Labour Party supporters and refashioning Conservative ideology to have mass appeal. Somewhat similarly, in India, the BJP redefined Hindu identity as both aspirational and nationalist in the face of new challenges from caste democratic forces. As late as the 1980s, many experts used to dismiss the chances of the BJP based on its tiny vote share at the time, and its more upper caste leadership, but the party has clearly changed.
The party's populist transformation has been assisted by the explosive growth of the media. The mediated spectacle of the crowd affirms and reinforces the motives for participation, whether in a demonstration or a political rally. For the media industry, today's spectators will be tomorrow's consumers; investment in populism seems to make good business sense. Mass gatherings used to raise law and order concerns; today such events present opportunities for astute political strategists.
Until recently a category such as Hindu populism was hard to imagine. But Hindu nationalism has reinvented itself, combining pro-business policies with the rhetoric of lower caste empowerment. Today nationalists can claim that capitalism and democracy are thriving in India.
While this is an important achievement, it is also in part, the result of a Cold War era strategy of the U.S., which saw India as a frontline state in the battle against the Communist threat. The Cold War's end, as we know, signalled the defeat of Communism. Religion began to become much more influential directly thereafter in many parts of the world. However, U.S. governments had historically tended to regard religion as an ally against "godless communism." It was also seen as a stabiliser in the transition to modernity. No surprise then that influential studies conducted regarding the RSS by U.S.-based scholars regarded it benignly, as an ascetic form of socialism, as Gandhian volunteerism, or as Hindu revivalism. Their stoking violence as a means of organising Hindus was thus ignored, and the martial character of the organisation was seen as ornamental to essentially pietist tendencies. Violence was ignored because it pertained to local issues, while the optic these scholars brought was shaped by U.S. concerns during this time. Further, Hindu nationalists were reassuringly anti-Communist. They did not appear to pose any threat to U.S. interests.
Beneath this perception was a long-standing assumption that religion could not be politically viable. The post-Enlightenment separation of church from state had led to the belief that religion did not have a place in modern politics.But religion in India has had a different history, and that has unavoidably influenced the shape and direction of modern politics.
Those wishing to promote Hindu identity had a problem that was the reverse of Enlightenment-era Christianity. They first had to assert the existence of a common religion and create the sense of a shared identity that was, at best, weak. For example, Hindus historically did not all share what was supposed to constitute a religion, such as creed, deity, ritual, or text. During the colonial period, however, Hinduism gradually became codified and subject to juridical intervention. It also became a means whereby lower castes claimed public rights they previously did not have.
After a long hiatus, amid the political crises of the late 1980s, Hindu identity began to be used openly again, and yielded electoral dividends in electoral campaigns. It helped win the small but decisive "non-committed vote," as L.K. Advani called it, boosting the BJP's share of seats exponentially. Political Hinduism has grown since then, aided by the Congress's decline. Then how is Hindu politics different from any other religious politics?
In the Hindu tradition, reality is beyond words and the truth has no essence. There is, in fact, no religious doctrine as such to challenge. Hinduism as conjured for the political process today surpasses dialectical materialism; it is the most expansive 'philosophical system' conceivable. In such a context, the category of religion presents an opportunity rather than a problem: to be "Hindu" is an artefact of publicity rather than an expression of ancient mores. It is no surprise that Arun Jaitley has stated that Hindu nationalism is an opportunistic issue for the BJP, a "talking point" rather than a core ideology.
The electoral process has sanctioned a new language of political theology for the BJP. In his Madison Square Garden speech in New York, Narendra Modi referred to the people as sovereign and their verdict as divine. He declared: "Janata Jan Janardhan." But Janardhan is not a secular term for "ruler;" it refers to Lord Krishna. Electoral success provides the supreme redemption in this understanding, negating merely juridical verdicts. It implies divine power in the figure of the elected ruler, who is like the king but sanctified by a formal democratic process.
Political authority is the end towards which this new kind of religious identity is created, applicable across caste groupings that not long ago were excluded, prominently the former Untouchable castes that constitute about a quarter of the population. No previous party has come to power by excluding Muslims so completely. Meanwhile the situation of Muslims has steadily worsened over the last 30 years.
The exclusion of Muslims from political visibility is accompanied by the increasing political visibility of Dalits. The new basis for Hindu unification is the exclusion of Muslims, alongside the formal subsumption of Dalits. The register of exclusion shifts in the process, from untouchability to invisibility. Media expansion enables more coordinated and extensive forms of exclusion than were previously imaginable; political dynamics have both anticipated this development and furthered it. If Hindu populism is to deepen its democratic character, these are issues for it to reckon with.
This piece has previously been published in The Hindu Op-Ed and the Communalism Watch blog. Arvind Rajagopal is the Professor of Media Studies at New York University.
The Ayoreo are the nomadic indigenous people of Eastern Bolivia. They believe in the legend of Direjná, the grandmother of a cricket whose songs can bring rain to this earth. She owned all the waters, and where she was it rained. But one day, she sang and sang in overjoy until the rain fell so hard and the lands were flooded. So, her grandchildren asked her to leave, and she retired to the second heaven. The hot, dry days of famine took over the earth. From the second heaven, Abuela Grillo (Grandmother Cricket) sends rain every time someone tells her story.
In the years 1999 to 2000, there were massive protests in Cochabomba, in Bolivia, against the privatization of municipal water supply. In 2009, eight animators from Bolivia worked with French filmmaker Denis Chapon and The Animation Workshop of Denmark, chose to retell her story. Abuela Grillo sings as she walks the lowlands and mountains in the borders of Paraguay and Bolivia. She settles in a village where she is initially welcomed. Overjoyed, she sings and sings until the valleys are flooded. The villagers get angry and chase her away. While traveling, she is lured by the black-suited, white-collared corporate giants who promise her fame and applause. They harness the rains, bottle water and sell it to the people. Now, the villagers whose lands had plenty start to run dry. Abuela Grillo gradually grows tired of the stage shows, but realizes she cannot leave. The corporates have her in captivity. They force her to sing more and more, until they tap her tears. The villagers come to know of Abuela Grillo's plight and realize their mistake. They march into the city with all utility weapons they can find demanding the corporates let their grandmother go. Unfortunately, the white collars wage war against them with tear gas. Not able to stand it anymore, Abuela screams and her floods wash away the tear gas and destroys everything in the city. Free now, Abuela walks away, and is welcomed back in the village, where she sings and brings harvest all along her way.
Exploitation of natural resources by greedy businessmen in the city. Shows the fear and the symbol of the bad guys as unsympathetic, large in stature, sharp edges around the body, physically abusive, cement gray and black in color as if mechanical or lacking life.
The move into the city being where trouble ensues.The grandmother is taken for granted in her homeland and is forced to wonder into the big city where she is exploited. This is a moral lesson for indigenous people torespect the wisdom of their elders even if they don't initially understand the importance of tradition and song. The people of the countryside who kicked out abuelo grillo later find hardship when no water falls from the sky.
Indigenous knowledge of natural cycles and the old grandmother's traditional skill. Abuelo Grillo's ability to make it rain is a metaphor for her people's inherited, old wisdom and spiritual power to retain balance and good health to their people and land.
Water is the most essential part of life, so the metaphor speaks to all the issues in the world over water and how we are connected. Even water use in British Columbia, a place so blessed with fresh glacial melt, has to be aware of the implications of masses of people who abuse it.
Cycles of nature taking over – the flood. This is reminiscent of the earth fighting back against human destruction and wrong-doing.
On a radio advertisement, a man complains in anxiety that there's no safe place to drink water from, when his friend suggests him to get himself a safe and pure bottle of TATA Water Plus. But, how did our tap water get unhygienic or salty? How did our rivers become sewers? How did our wetlands become homes for high-rise SEZs and gated communities? How did water in a plastic container or anything packaged come to mean 'clean'? How did water become something we pay for?
While Annie Leanord's The Story of Bottled Water gave ideas how an urban middle class and rich audience can ask these questions and react to the privatization and commodification of natural resources like water, this simple beautiful film tells the story of how the indigenous population will react. Examples of this are in plenty. The protests against bauxite mining in the Niyamgiri hills, the anti-nuclear protests in Idinthakarai, the jal satyagrahas against the massive dams, the Jaitapur villagers protesting against the uranium mines, the villagers who want to save their forests in Thervoy Kandigai from SIPCOT, farmers who are trying to preserve indigenous knowledge and systems against genetic modification and industrial farming, the fishermen who are fighting against privatized ports and elevated expressways, and the list goes on to tell the same story.
There is more reading below, which equips a citizen to assess both her luxuries and her part in this dialogue. Today, most of us buy water cans that cost up to Rs. 30, some families need two a day. Even if we remember to carry water with us, sometimes in the city its hard to not to buy a bottle of water (most restaurants or theaters don't allow water brought from outside). The first step is to genuinely acknowledge and recognize the indigenous communities and their rights to hold on to their last pockets of ecological and cultural heritage.
The Cochabamba Water Revolt and its Aftermath. Jim Shultz. University of California Press.
Blue Gold. The Global Water Crisis and the Commodification of the World's Water Supply. Maude Barlow. National Chairperson, Council of Canadians Chair, IFG Committee on the Globalization of Water. Revised edition. 2001.
APEX Express is a "weekly magazine-style radio…committed to building a broader social movement for justice and collective liberation for all oppressed people, including poor & working-class people, people of color, women and queer people." Read more about APEX Express on their blog.
On 18 October 2012, APEX contributor Marie Choi called in activists from the Chennai Solidarity Group for a discussion on the various aspects of the anti-nuclear struggle in Koodankulam and the Government of India's and the state government's reaction to it. What follows is only the transcript of the conversation between V. Geetha and Nityanand Jayaraman (Chennai Solidarity Group) and Marie Choi (APEX). Listen to the full episode here and tune in every Thursday 7-8 p.m. for new episodes here.
The People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy has been picking up steam and they're organizing against the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant in the southernmost part of India. People in Tamilnadu have been organizing opposition to this nuclear power since 1988 when the Indian and Russian governments collaborated with big energy corporations and agreed to build this plant with no public information or input.
So when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, United States stepped in hoping for their own piece of the Indian nuclear pa[indistinct] and eased India's way into Nuclear Suppliers Group. The project was slated to move forward. Last year, the Fukushima nuclear disaster renewed concerns about the impact of nuclear plants on the health and safety of people living nearby. In August 2011, just five months after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, protests in Tamilnadu picked up, with over sixty villages opposed [indistinct] people engaging in hunger strikes. Since then, the protests have escalated, with thousands of fisher people and residents staging protests in the waters around the nuclear plant.
We sat down with V. Geetha and Nityanand Jayaraman, members of the Chennai Solidarity Group, who have been working on the grounds to support the protests against the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant.
My name is Nityanand Jayaraman. I am a writer, researcher and also a volunteer with the Chennai Solidarity Group for the Koodankulam struggle.
My name is V. Geetha. I am writer and historian. I've been working with the Chennai Solidarity Group which supports the struggle against the nuclear plant in Koodankulam.
Marie Choi – There's been opposition to the plant for years and years, but was there something that shifted in August 2011?
V. Geetha – Fukushima of course, which brought to reality what can happen in case a nuclear reactor goes in to danger. Also, what was happening in Japan, I think, that triggered off a major sort of anxiety about the plant. But, prior to that, I think, the people who have been coordinating the People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy have been doing a lot of work on the ground. They've been going from village to village and trying to persuade people that this not such a good thing, and there may be jobs for a few, but in the end it's really going to sort off affect their communities, their resources, their right to livelihood, their future and so on. So, I think, both these things came together and then people decided enough was enough. And they decide to this sort of prolonged sit-ins in their villages. The fishers, of course, have been the most vociferous, because they stand to be immediately affected since their livelihood depends on the sea. But, everyone else has pitched in as well. Those that do farming, small shopkeepers, teachers, just about everybody else that keeps a community going. I think, what has happened is that something which would have been just a routine government decision has become something that people have started talking about. They are talking about the environment. They are talking about safety issues. And they are also raising very fundamental questions about what kind of electricity do we need.
Marie Choi – Can you talk a little about why this particular nuclear power project is so important nationally within India?
Nityanand Jayaraman – I don't know who it is important for. Certainly not for me. For the government, it has become both an issue of prestige and also, I think, it is payback time. With the nuclear deal with India and Russia, where India was seeking a way out of its, kind of, you know, it hadn't planned much of its stake as far as the Nuclear Suppliers Group's concerned. The Americans tried to mediate and tried ease the way for India to join the nuclear club without risks. As a result, it is now payback time. Corporations from Russia, from France, and from America would like a piece of the nuclear vibe. There's supposedly a huge market in India. If all the plants that the government has proposed to build are constructed, there is a lot of money to be made. The Government of India is caught in a diplomatic bind, where it has promised to foreign governments access to India's nuclear markets. This is not about India's energy security. It is about honoring the debt, honoring the legitimate concerns of the corporations that might have bailed India out or helped India, the lobbying capacity of the Government of the United States.
V. Geetha – I would actually see it in the larger context of what is happening in countries like India, which is that a lot of communities dependent on natural resources, whether it's the sea, the forest or the rivers, are being told that they must give over their resources to companies that are interested in mining, that are interested in generating electricity for the industrial use. And these communities are faced basically [with] a very drastic choice – that they give up their traditional ways of living, or they give up their dependence on natural resources, come to the city as cheap labour and work, or they protest and face the consequences.
Marie Choi – I'm curious. Do you see any connection between the nuclear energy projects and broader militarization?
V. Geetha – It may not be easy to make direct connections with absence of public information. But, one can safely say that the nuclear establishment whether it is concerned with civilian uses or for military uses is completely untransparent. You are simply not able to find out who makes decisions, on what basis are these decisions made. And anyone who interrogates the nuclear establishment, even the civilian nuclear establishment stands to be seen as an enemy of the State. So you have this very absurd and menacing scenario, where ordinary fisher folks of a village next to the plant, over 2000 of them have been charged with Sedition. So that should give you a sense of how the Government of India treats nuclear power, you know, capability. It's obviously a matter of State secrecy, it's matter that's beyond civilian control, and the government's, sort of, determined to keep it that way.
Links to Report on the Convention against Sedition and other Repressive Laws. PUCL.
Marie Choi – And, can you explain what Sedition means?
V. Geetha – Well… You know, as I said, it's absurd and menacing. Certainly, because it's ridiculous to charge a 14 year old with Sedition or 75 year old with Sedition, right? That's whats being done! The Sedition law goes back to colonial times. It was used by the British to arrest Indian freedom fighters. And it's a shame that we haven't been able to take the law of our statued books. There's been a campaign by civil liberties, civil rights group to do that. But, that hasn't really ended. What's happened over the years is that it is used by the State to quell dissent of any kind. And once you're booked under Sedition Law, of course you're allowed access to the courts..you may hear, you know, opt to defend yourself, you may have lawyers defending you, but it can mean a very protracted trial. And that can be very despairing for people who are poor, and who don't want to be caught in this scenario, and who are merely protesting their right to, to retain their right to livelihood. So that's on the one hand. On the other hand, you have the entire hysteria that can be whipped up around Sedition by the Media, by right-wingers, by those that are not supportive of people's struggles. So. Whatever happens in the courts is one thing, but in the public eye this can create a lot of discomfort as well.
Marie Choi – If you are tried for Sedition and found guilty, then what happens to you?
V. Geetha – Depending on the actual particular instance, which has earned you this label of being a seditionist. You could be imprisoned for life. You could have a very long jail term. And the worst case scenario is, if your name has been linked, whatever that means, if it has been proved that you've inflicted murder, you could face capital punishment.
Marie Choi – I'm also curious how class is being used? With all that's going around this particular nuclear power plant. I mean, I've been seeing reports that they've been cutting power to people, even in the surrounding areas. But, a lot of it has been appealed to the middle class as well this energy is for you, this is to support your lifestyle, how is that played out? How real are those claims?
Nityanand Jayaraman – In a sense, this kind of fixation on electricity, is essentially a class issue. If you look at what's being talked about here that the nuclear power plant is crucial for India's energy security, not electricity security, but energy security. We need to have efficient policies of how we can conserve on the transportation needs, how we can vamp up our public transportation, subsidize public transportation, and penalize private transportation and cars. I think, that there is a mis-match. I see electricity which is only 12% of the energy basket, to cooking which is a major issue. Our preoccupation if it were on cooking fuel, I think we would say that this is a society that tries towards equity. But the focus is on electricity. I think electricity is important, for people like me it is crucial both to conduct my work and everything else. The power cuts are real. I don't think.. There might be orchestrated to some extent. But there is a scarcity of electricity. Are these electricity cuts equitably distributed? No. Yet, the IT companies, the Hyundai Motors, the Ford car company, these guys have 24/7 electricity. But children who want to study in the evening do not have electricity. The small entrepreneurs, the small, you know, people who run small workshops, they don't have electricity. So the people who are being hardest hit are the people who can least afford it. And the people who are not being hit, are luxury consumers of electricity, like software companies and car manufacturers.
Marie Choi – Why is this something that people who don't live in that area, who come from different class background, why is it something that they should care about?
V. Geetha – It is very, sort of, painful to watch ordinary people being made to go through such difficulties. I think there is a sense of social justice that people in the cities are sensitive to. I mean, this is not a large number obviously. But, there are enough people that feel quite annoyed that their government is doing this to its own people. That's on the one hand. Then of course, I think, there's been a very real concern about nuclear energy. And I must say, Fukushima has played a very important role at least in sensitizing this generation of people to what a nuclear disaster could actually result in. That is also an important aspect to be kept in mind. And thirdly, post-tsunami 2004 there's been a general sense of anxiety about what the sea can do, because the sea really caught everyone unaware. And those that live in the coastline, like in the city where I live, Chennai's a coastal city, there's also a sense that the coast is not something you can treat lightly, it follows rhythms that we don't quite understand and we may not want to tamper with its natural rhythms over much. People also come to that from that understanding.
Marie Choi – Four hundred days of sustained protest. What is it that sustained that?
Fisherfolk of this part of the country have a reputation for being fearless and militant. There's that. [indistinct] That's also, they will tell you if you ask them why, "Everyday we face death in the sea, so what do we have to fear?" So there's that sense of romantic disregard for life. But, I also think that there is a certain disciplined organizing that has come about because the local communities have stood by them and the local church groups which have organized fisherfolk in particular have been very supportive. The Catholic church is very strong in these parts. And local members of the Catholic Church, I'm not talking about the Catholic hierarchy, but the local members of the Catholic Church have always been very involved in civic issues. And that has gone both ways. It has also meant that they support they most powerful amongst the fishing groups or they take the part of the more subaltern and the more oppressed. In this case, I think, the fact that everyone rallies around for a meeting when the church bell is struck, you know, that's how they call people for a meeting. It's also meant that they feel a sort of ethical, spiritual sense of doing this together in the name of something that is beyond us, not God so much, but the name of a nature that includes us, includes the natural world that is non-human. So there is that as well.
Marie Choi – If everything goes you'll way, what does that look like?
This English transcript was done by volunteers in Chai Kadai. Feel free to share, copy, distribute and translate this transcript under this Creative Commons license. Please attribute the podcast interview to APEX Express.
Noam Chomsky : Who Owns the World?
Anugundu – The Atom Bomb ( Tamil with English subtitles) – YouTube. 48 minutes.
A film by Manila Mohan, a journalist with a Malayalam literary magazine, who visits the protesters in Koodankulam. The documentary details many pitfalls in the building and commissioning of the nuclear power plant in Idinthakarai, Koodankulam. It interviews many of the villagers, including women and children, who express concerns about their safety, the stupidity of such an unsafe technology, and question for whom is this development and electricity that the States promise.
1 Democratic protest and 8,000 Sedition cases. Is India a free country?
"We have been appealing to the state and central governments that this power plant is not in the best interest of safeguarding the livelihood interests of the people in the area", he said.
Udayakumar added that the entire world was shunning nuclear power, and it was imperative that the government did not drag India in the opposite direction. "We are all for power and development but not this costly and dangerous exercise," he said.
Speaking to the media even as the villagers of Idinthakurai prepare to launch a jal satyagraha 500m away from the site of the Kudankulam plant, PMANE convenor Udayakumar said that they were demanding that the heavy police presence at the village be withdrawn, and that charges against them be dropped.
The protesters are demanding the closure of the plant, citing safety concerns. The locals say they are worried about ecological damage by radioactivity which could affect the livelihood of thousands of fishermen around the plant. Activists have also cited the Fukushima disaster in Japan, triggered by a tsunami last year, to draw parallels about the dangers of a nuclear plant.
The villagers are also demanding the release of those arrested in an earlier protest, and taking back what they term as false cases against activists. They also want the police to be withdrawn from their villages.
The sea siege happened from 10.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m. on 08 October 2012. Over 5000 security personnel, including the Rapid Action Force, had been deployed, besides the five coast guard vessels monitoring the sea.
Sea Siege. Koodankulam 08 October 2012. Photo credits: Amritharaj Stephen.
Some people say that anti-nuclear activists are trying to take advantage of simple-minded and uneducated people who don't understand the benefits of electricity. "(T)he local people who protest in Kudankulam are not those who can analyse the safety issues of the nuclear plant, but they are being carried away blindly by the skillful campaign of their leaders, who appear have an agenda of their own," S Venkataraman wrote in the Deccan Herald.
But Rani and Elsi are neither simple minded, nor raised in the dark. They are modern women — members of the mixer-grinder generation, and are well acquainted with the joys of electrical appliances.
"I have a fridge, a TV, grinder, mixie, fan and iron box," Rani said. Their neighbours, Jayabal Markus and his wife, have their mobile phones lying on their washing machine. They own a DVD player, speakers, induction stove and other gadgets.
But they don't have electricity to power their mixies. It's a conspiracy, they say: whoever controls the power grid will choke their electricity supply until the protesters give up and the plant goes live.
In 2005, 94 percent of households in urban India had electricity, compared with 57 percent in rural areas, according to a World Bank paper. The 2011 India census shows that there has been an increase in households using electricity, and the rural-urban gap is at 37 per cent. And these figures do not include the energy-intensive industries that operate out of urban areas. Contrast this with the fact that 70 percent of India lives in rural areas, and one arrives at a conundrum of supply and demand.
The Kudankulam plant has the capacity to generate 2,000 megawatts of power, about 30 percent of the demand for New York City's more than 8 million people, according to this website.
The locals do not like the idea that the entire burden of middle-class aspiration for more electricity, is being burned onto them. "These power cuts we are facing (are) a pressure tactic." said Jayabal.
There is more than just coercion, real or imagined. On Sept. 10, there was a clash between the police and protesters. The St. Lourdes church was vandalised, allegedly by the police, and police shot a fisherman dead. Another local fell from a pier and died. He panicked after an Indian Coast Guard plane flew in low over the protesters.
At the end of my visit, Rani took me back to the St. Lourdes church from her house. Hundreds of wind turbines dotting the area around Idinthakari, twinkled and twirled. Seeing the natural power of the wind the sun and the tides while talking about an energy crisis invited observations about irony. Behind her, the plant formed a hazy silhouette in the setting sun.
via Kudankulam's neighbours weigh nuclear power fears against living standards | Anoo Bhuyan | India Insight | Reuters 08 October 2012.


I get asked all of the time how to install Python on Windows and Mac so I decided to make a tutorial that shows how to do it. I also show how to set up the Atom text editor so that the code will run in a console inside of it because that is another common request.
This is also going to be needed because I want to answer the most common question I get which is how to start programming. That tutorial will start soon while I continue all the others I've already started. Step-by-step directions follow the video below.
If you like videos like this consider throwing a dollar at me on Patreon.
4. Click continue a few times. Agree to the terms and install. You may have to enter your password.


Nexium helps relieve heartburn and other symptoms of acid reflux by reducing the amount of stomach acid your body produces. It does this by acting as a "proton pump inhibitor" - in other words, it turns off some of the pumps in your stomach that make acid. This, in turn, prevents that acid from damaging your esophagus or from causing pain and indigestion.
Unlike over the counter antacids, Nexium is taken every day, long before heartburn and other GERD symptoms appear. This means you never experience the pain and pressure associated with acid reflux. Since Nexium reduces the amount of acid in the stomach, it helps prevent future damage to the esophagus.
In fact, Nexium even helps heal erosions and other damage caused by acid reflux. Erosions often heal between 4 – 8 weeks after beginning treatment. Nexium is also used to maintain healing and prevent resurgence of erosive esophagitis over longer periods of time.
Nexium also helps people over 60 who have already had an ulcer reduce the risk of another stomach ulcer, especially ulcers associated with pain medications (asprin, ibuprofen, etc.).
In combination with amoxicillin and clarithromycin, Nexium helsp treat patients with duodenal ulcer disease and H. pylori infections.
20mg doses are recommended to help clear up symptoms of GERD, taken once a day for 4 weeks. By reducing the amount of acid in the stomach, it can help alleviate heartburn, as less acid is able to make its way up the esophagus and cause pain and discomfort. Nexium performs well in clinical trials when compared to placebos.
Nexium helps heal erosive esophagitis over a 4-8 week period and also maintain healing over longer periods. It is common for most erosions to heal during that first 4-8 week period. Patients taking Nexium stay in remission from erosive esophagitis significantly longer than those taking placebos. Nexium also helps reduce heartburn and other acid reflux symptoms in patients with erosive esophagitis.
While there are several generic proton pump inhibitors, there are no generic equivalents of Nexium available in the United States. A generic version is available in Canada from Apotex, however, its price is comparable to that of Nexium. Always consult your doctor before trying a different proton pump inhibitor, even if it seems similar to Nexium.
Possible Nexium side effects are headache, diarrhea, flatulence, abdominal pain, constipation, dry mouth, nausea, and others. Adverse reactions to Nexium are uncommon. However, bone fractures are also possible while taking Nexium. Talk to your doctor about the possibility of taking a calcium supplement. As with any medication, if you experience an allergic reaction, contact emergency medical professionals immediately.
While Nexium overdoses are unusual, possible reactions include confusion, drowsiness, nausea, headache, tachycardia, dry mouth, and other reactions similar to possible Nexium side effects. As there is no antidote and Nexium cannot be removed by dialysis, overdose treatment is limited to treatment of the symptoms.
Make sure to tell your doctor if youve ever had any kind of liver disease. This could effect your dosage of Nexium, require monitoring, or even prevent you from being able to take Nexium. Always tell your doctor if you are pregnant or plan to become pregnant before starting to take Nexium. You are not advised to take Nexium while breastfeeding – talk to your doctor. Make sure your doctor has your complete medical history before starting any new prescription medication. Nexium does not require a specific diet or activity schedule unless your doctor recommends it.
Always make sure to let your doctor know about any medication you are taking before starting Nexium. This is particularly important if you are currently taking diazepam (Valium), nelfinavir (Viracept), digoxin (Lanoxin), ketoconaxole (Nixoral), any medication containing iron, or medications containing St. Johns Wort (Hypericum perforatum). It is also important to let your doctor know if youre currently taking clopidogrel, as Nexium can reduce the clopidogrels effectiveness. Antacids do not produce unwanted interactions when combined with Nexium.
OVERDOSE: If someone has overdosed and has serious symptoms such as passing out or trouble breathing, call 911. Otherwise, call a poison control center right away. US residents can call their local poison control center at 1-800-222-1222. Canada residents can call a provincial poison control center. Symptoms of overdose may include: confusion, extreme sweating, blurred vision, or unusually fast heartbeat.


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Scientific Advances In Prosthetic Limbs
The Modular Prosthetic Limb (MPL), developed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory with funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency provides 26 degrees of motion, including independent movement of each finger, in a package that weighs about nine pounds and has the dexterity of a natural limb. ©JHU/APL with funding from DARPA's Revolutionizing Prosthetics program
An estimated 2 million Americans have had an arm or leg amputated from injury or illness. Many chose to wear prosthetic limbs. Ten years ago, most artificial arms and legs were clunky and fragile. But prosthetic technology has advanced significantly since then. A vast body of research gained from treating American soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan has led to robotic knees and ankles that adjust to terrain and activity. Leg amputees now run marathons, climb mountains and even skydive. And a new bionic arm powered by the thoughts of the person wearing it can mimic almost all the movements of a real hand.
Michael McLoughlin Engineer and principal investigator at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab.
Johnny Matheny Amputee patient working with researchers at Johns Hopkins University on robotic prosthetic arms.
Mike Corcoran Expert in prosthetic limbs. He is a Certified Prosthetic Orthotist and co-founder of Medical Center Orthotics and Prosthetics, a Maryland-based company that works with injured veterans at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
Peggy Chenowith Advocate at Amputee Coalition, a national organization. She blogs about being a parent and an amputee on her website AmputeeMommy.com.
Watch The Full Broadcast
Photos: Revolutionary Prosthetic Limb
The Modular Prosthetic Limb (MPL), developed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory with funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency provides 26 degrees of motion, including independent movement of each finger, in a package that weighs about nine pounds and has the dexterity of a natural limb. In 2012, a patient at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center successfully demonstrated that the arm could be controlled by the user's thoughts. Several patients, including a decorated Afghanistan war hero, are helping researchers further develop the prosthesis. In 2013, the MPL will continue to be tested and refined in a clinical trial at the California Institute of Technology.
© JHU/APL with funding from DARPA's Revolutionizing Prosthetics program
Thought-Controlled Technology For Wounded Warriors
On Jan. 24, Air Force Tech Sgt. Joe Delauriers became the first patient at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to begin using the Modular Prosthetic Limb. With nearly as much dexterity as a natural limb, 22 degrees of motion, and independent movement of fingers, the MPL was developed as part of a four-year program by Johns Hopkins University.
<iframe width=620″ height="400″ src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/YnJmgNhJ25w?rel=0″ frameborder="0″ allowfullscreen>
Robotic Arm Grasps The Future
At Johns Hopkins, Michael McLoughlin demonstrates a robotic arm capable of restoring an amputee's sense of touch.
Bimanual Dexterous Robotic Platform (Robo Sally)
The Bimanual Dexterous Robotic Platform (also known as Robo Sally) developed by The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., is a robotic system designed to replicate human capabilities to safely remove the human performer from life threatening operations.
MS. DIANE REHMThanks for joining us. I'm Diane Rehm. More than 1,600 American soldiers have lost limbs in Iraq or Afghanistan namely due to bombs like the ones that injured hundreds of people in Boston last month.
MS. DIANE REHMOver the last ten years, research on treating troops with amputated limbs has led to scientific advances in robotic arms and legs that are changing people's lives. Here with me in the studio to talk about bionic limbs, Michael McLoughlin of Johns Hopkins University, John Matheny, an arm amputee patient, Peggy Chenowith, an advocate with the Amputee Coalition and Mike Corcoran, an artificial limb expert who works with veterans.
MS. DIANE REHMDo join us, 800-433-8850. Send us your email to drshow@wamu.org. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter. And to let you know, this hour of "The Diane Rehm Show" is also being video-streamed so you can see these artificial limbs at work yourselves. Good morning to all of you and welcome.
MR. MICHAEL MCLOUGHLINGood morning.
MR. JOHNNY MATHENYGood morning.
MR. MIKE CORCORANGood morning.
MS. PEGGY CHENOWITHGood morning.
REHMGood to see you all. Michael McLoughlin, if I could start with you, tell me about this robotic arm. I understand, and correct me if I'm wrong, that it's actually controlled by the mind.
MCLOUGHLINThat's correct. So the goal here was to create a prosthetic that could be controlled very naturally. And so we made an arm that's able to do virtually everything that your natural arm can do. The challenge then is how do I control that in a way that's very natural?
MCLOUGHLINSo we do very complex things, we don't really think about them. And so what we've developed is a way of interfacing with the brain, whether that be connecting to the nerves that remain after an amputation or actually doing an implant in the brain with small electrodes that can pick up signals for somebody who, say, has a spinal cord injury that can no longer use their arms because the information doesn't get there anymore.
REHMHow does that differ from the kind of deep brain stimulation activity that doctors are implanting for say Parkinson's patients?
MCLOUGHLINOkay, so there are a couple of differences. One is we're working in a different area of the brain...
MCLOUGHLIN...so we work in what's known as the cortex so this is the area of the brain closest to the surface of the skull. It's associated with our higher level thought and we also are just listening. To move the arm, we're just listening to what the brain is doing as opposed to deep brain stimulation, which is actually stimulating the brain.
REHMWhat do you mean listening to what the brain is doing?
MCLOUGHLINSure, so every time you think about moving your arm, there's areas of your brain that are associated with that motion and you basically get little electrical impulses with the nerves in that area. So that we can put in an electrode near those nerves, or actually sets of electrodes, near those nerves so that every time one of those nerves fires one of those little electrical impulses we can hear it.
REHMSo how long did it take to develop this robotic arm?
MCLOUGHLINWell, we've been working on this for seven years now.
REHMSeven years?
MCLOUGHLINSeven years.
REHMAnd I gather it has some 100 sensors?
MCLOUGHLINYes, so that's the other half of the challenge here. So we take sensors that are on, say, the fingertips, and when the arm touches an object, we can actually then make measurements which then we try to then feed back to the wearer so they actually get some sense of touch.
REHMI see, all right, and that was the voice of Michael McLoughlin. He's an engineer and the principal investigator at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab. And now, turning to you, Johnny Matheny, I gather you had your arm amputated because of cancer. Tell us what happened.
MATHENYWell, I had a knot that was growing up on my forearm, very close to my wrist and it was not bothering me, but my wife told me I need to have it looked at and just as soon as they cut it open to check out what it was, it was a fast, spreadable cancer.
MATHENYAnd it ended up being Fibrosarcoma and it's a muscle that grows on -- a cancer that grows on the muscle. And by doing this, once they opened it, it started spreading up. Well, they ended up doing five surgeries and 39 radiation treatments trying to cut it out and burn it out.
MATHENYAnd it didn't slow it down. It just kept progressing up my arm. So the only final thing they had to do was try to take the arm above where the last known place the cancer had been in hopes of getting it so it wouldn't get to my (word?) I mean, my body.
REHMYour stomach, your intestines?
MATHENYYes, once I got it in there, they said you would be -- you'd have probably six months.
REHMSo they said if we take your arm at which joint?
MATHENYWell, they asked me. They said, you know, what do you feel would be comfortable for you? I said, I don't care. You can take it off at the shoulder if you have to. I just want it above the cancer. And so they did their study and this is the way they found that it would be best to take it just above the elbow.
REHMJust above the elbow, so now this robotic arm allows you to do what? And you can hold it up so that those who are seeing the program on video-streaming at drshow.org can actually see it. What can you do with that arm?
MATHENYWith this arm, you're able to do just about anything you can do with your regular hands, wrists or elbow.
REHMCan you move your fingers?
REHMAnd you can move those fingers by?
MATHENYJust thinking about it.
REHMThinking about it.
MATHENYThe old style prosthetics, they would tap into your bicep and tricep muscles only and as you worked those, that would tell the arm what to do. But now that they've done the targeted muscle reinnervation surgery that Dr. Albert Chi at Johns Hopkins has taken over in this area, that it taps in.
MATHENYThey take muscles that normally would go down to your hand and they would tap it in different places on your muscles in the upper arm and each time that your brain wants to do something like open the hand, well, you know, it's a mind intellectual impulse that comes down. It will wiggle that muscle.
MATHENYWell, then the sensor within the padded cell then tells the computer this is what I want to do. And therefore, the hand then operates that way and it's no different than, you know, just like this. The more you use it, the more fluid you're going to get and it grows with you.
REHMAnd how long did it take you to adjust to that?
MATHENYAh, it comes gradual. You can't do everything at once because like with myself, it's been three years since I lost it. I had my arm before we started doing this and what it needed to do was retrain the brain. But now you can send signals down. It's actually going to work and through visual tells the brain this is moving and you start opening pathways more and more and more.
MATHENYIn the meantime, I took home a computer that has a virtual arm on it and it's based on the same principle as this arm here so that I could work with it at home. This way you can train your muscles, you know, fine tune them down to the point because when you first start, you may have a group of three muscles working to try to do the same thing and it gets confused and, you know, it doesn't work properly.
MATHENYThen as you fine tune down to the final muscle that you need, then you usually get more fluid and more opening and closing with it.
REHMNow, are the muscles in your upper arm working?
MATHENYAh, they work to a degree. In some aspects, you know, you're just thinking, well, it just, you know, it automatically jiggles. The sensor takes it and goes on with it.
REHMSo how do you feel about all this?
MATHENYOh, I love it. I've been threatening the AP Lab I just want to take this thing home with me every time I go down and work with it.
REHMWell, it's certainly looks as though it moves well. Could you drive with it?
MATHENYYes, eventually as you get more fluid with it you can actually drive with it.
REHMCan you cook with it?
MATHENYOh now, this is something you're talking a mile away. ,I am a cook and, yes, we've already tried this on different aspects of cooking and it works out very well.
REHMPut your arm up again so that people can see it and see it moves and see those fingers flex. It's just remarkable. I congratulate you.
MATHENYThank you.
REHMAnd have you tried catching a ball?
MATHENYNo, I haven't tried catching a ball yet, but we had a side effect that came on when they did the TMR surgery. In this case, it was a good side effect. I got the sensation on my pointer finger and my pinky finger so that anytime like you put something in my hand, like a softball, I can tell you it's a softball or a hardball.
MATHENYWhenever you go to reach or shake somebody's hand -- because most of the time, that's the first thing anyone will do, shake my hand. They want to see if you can control it or if you're going to crush their hand or what. And so I reach out and the sensation, I can feel just about when to quit and it shakes their hand and give them a good shake but not being too soft.
REHMAnd of course, when you came in this morning, because it's your left arm that has been amputated, I put out my right hand to shake your right hand, but I promise you before you leave, I'll shake your left hand.
MATHENYOkay.
REHMWe'll take a short break here and when we come back, we'll talk with our other guests, Peggy Chenowith and Mike Corcoran. Stay with us.
REHMAnd welcome back. I have four wonderful guests this morning. Michael McLoughlin is an engineering principal investigator at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab. Johnny Matheny had his arm amputated because of cancer in 2008. He is certainly helping researchers at Johns Hopkins University develop a robotic arm. And as you have seen, he uses that quite effectively.
REHMAnd now to my Mike Corcoran. He's co-founder of the Medical Center Orthotics and Prosthetics. That's a Maryland-based company that works with injured veterans at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. And Peggy Chenowith. She's an advocate with the Amputee Coalition, a national organization. She blogs about being a parent of an amputee on amputeemommy.com.
REHMAnd, Mike Corcoran, tell us about what you do and how artificial legs and feet had changed in the last few years?
CORCORANWell, I work primarily at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. We provide lower extremity prosthetics for injured service members. And over the past eight years, technology has been -- come forward in great leaps and bounds from the first microprocessor or the only one eight, nine years ago to now we have multiple microprocessor knees and ankles, and now powered prosthetics, which is motorized knee joints and ankle joints to propel the user.
REHMNow, how do they work differently from, say, an individual who has to have a knee, an ordinary knee replacement? How does that prosthetic knee work differently?
CORCORANWell, so the amputees that we deal with are combat injured and typically blasted or similar to those in Boston. And so when an amputee loses two joints, say, an ankle and a knee, the knee joint becomes very important for stability and also efficiency in walking. The big difference in lower extremity prosthetics currently to upper extremity prosthetics, let's sat Mike and the people at Johns Hopkins are developing is, they use user intent or the user thought control. Correct, yes.
CORCORANCurrently, lower extremity prosthetics, all the sensors are actually on board the device. So they're all built in to, say, the knee joint or the ankle joint. And...
REHMSo how do they work?
CORCORANThere's like accelerometers, gyroscopes and load sensors.
REHMYeah. But you got to explain to me what those..
CORCORANOkay. So basically an accelerometer is something that measures the velocity of the legs moving forward. The gyroscope measures the angle of the joint itself.
CORCORANAnd the load sensor is how much weight has been put on the joint.
CORCORANAnd what that does is a compute -- onboard computer is programmed to let the knee perform certain things if all these criteria is met. And so essentially it's not thought controlled. You teach the user, the patient how to trigger the device. And it sounds complicated, but it's actually -- it's so well designed. It's actually, with powered knees, we just tell our patients just to get up and walk.
REHMSo what each patient then would have to have these computer calibrated to his or her pace of walking, the weight, the strength and so on?
CORCORANCorrect, yes. As a process, we fabricated a license to, but we also programmed the knees or the ankles to the individual user. However, technology and the manufacturers of these components have made it fairly simple to program. So the devices are quite intuitive to the user.
REHMSo, the user, him or herself, could calibrate the device or must it be calibrated by a professional?
CORCORANYeah, the process calibrates. Now there are some devices that use artificial intelligence that you the -- actually to walk and then the device learns the gait of the amputee and then it's kind of locked into that knee joint.
REHMMike Corcoran, he's co-founder of Medical Center Orthotics and Prosthetics. That's a Maryland-based company working with injured veterans at Walter Reed National Military Center. And now to you, Peggy Chenowith. Talk about how you became part of this community.
CHENOWITHI was injured in 1988. I was at a conference right out of college, my dream job. And a computer fell on top of my foot and crushed the bones and nerves on the top of my foot. And we tried for five years to try to save my foot, and eventually I opted to amputate so that I could get rid of the pain and crutches.
REHMSo you had lots of pain in this foot after the computer fell on you?
CHENOWITHCorrect. We tried for over 20 surgeries in that five years to try to save the limb. And finally, when I was first injured, I wanted to save it at all costs. And after five years, I just -- I literally was in front of a judge begging to have my foot amputated so I could move on with my life.
REHMSo where exactly was the foot amputated?
CHENOWITHI am below knee. So I have about five or six inches below my knee.
REHMAnd then what?
CHENOWITHSo this was 10 years ago. And I was fit with a prosthetic and went about living my life and thought, okay, I'm walking. And then one day my prosthetist called me into the office and said, I think we can do better. I want you to try this new bionic ankle. And I tried it and everything changed. I realized that all of the little things that I was taken as accepting that I'm an amputee, so my back's going to hurt.
CHENOWITHI'm an amputee, so my gait is going to be limited. But all of a sudden that was corrected by this device. And it just opened up a whole new world for me.
REHMMay I see?
CHENOWITHI'm not wearing it today.
REHMWhere?
CHENOWITHI'm not. I'm not. I'm wearing a different foot today.
REHMWhat are you wearing? A different foot today.
CHENOWITHYes.
REHMWhy?
CHENOWITHI chose to not wear the bionic foot today because we were taking the Metro in and I was worried if I was going to have to run between trains. You can't really run in a bionic foot.
REHMOh, I see.
CHENOWITHSo that's one of the limitations. Although they're great devices for every day walking, they're not really high-impact devices. So I'm worried that I'm going to be running or jogging or kicking a ball or getting dirty. I have to wear different foot.
REHMI see. And what does this foot allow you to do?
CHENOWITHThe one that I'm wearing now?
CHENOWITHThe one that I'm wearing now is a basic do-everything foot. I can -- last night I was in the stream catching tadpoles with my little boy wearing it. And today I'm on a radio show. So you can kind of live your whole life with it. It doesn't have the features that the bionic foot offers. So my gait is different when I wear this foot. I'm more cognizant of walking than I am with my bionic foot. I'm thinking a little bit more about the steps and where I'm walking.
CHENOWITHWhen I'm wearing the computerized foot, I can just kind of put it on and walk.
REHMAnd tell me why you decided to establish the blog, amputeemommy.com.
CHENOWITHWhen I was pregnant with my little boy, I tried to find information on how pregnancy was going to be impacted by my amputation and prosthetic and I could find nothing. And I just decided that there was no use to reinventing the wheel. And once I figured it out, I was going to put it out there and see if I could help other parents.
REHMAnd?
CHENOWITHSo, and that's how it started. And I've been blogging now for five years. People have seen my little boy grow up and I talk about everyday issues. I write about prosthetic issues. I write about concerns within the community and how my amputation and prosthetic impacts not just me but the family because really it's not just the amputee that's affected by this, it's everybody around them.
REHMAnd, of course, so many veterans coming home and needing these kinds of amputations, Mike.
CORCORANYes. Well, actually there's 1,800 amputees since the start of -- since 9/11.
CHENOWITHAnd there are 500 every day in this country.
REHMEvery day.
CHENOWITHEvery day in this country there are 500 amputations in this country alone.
REHMAnd that has nothing to do with war, Iraq, Afghanistan.
CHENOWITHNothing to do.
CORCORANI think the visibility of amputees -- it has become more visible because of our service members. And there are actually, you know, they survived life threatening injuries. So it's not a stigma being an amputee. I don't see it as a stigma. So most of these young guys and gals are proud to wearing a prosthesis and they don't want it covered and they want to showcase the technology that's enabling them to live their lives.
REHMI detect that lovely Irish...
CORCORANYeah, I'm from Dublin.
REHMI thought so. I thought so. And how long have you been here?
CORCORANI've been here 20 years.
REHMAnd why did you initially get into this work?
CORCORANOkay. I came over here to train for the Olympics. And I kind of got into prosthetics because Olympic athletes don't make any money. And so I did some technical work for a prosthetic prosthetist in Virginia and she asked me if I'd like to, you know, learn this field. And so I said sure. And then after my sporting days are over, I went to Northwestern University in Chicago for prosthetics and orthotics.
REHMI see. All of this cost a lot of money. Michael, how much?
MCLOUGHLINWell, we've spent -- this has mostly been supported by the Department of Defense and it represents an investment by the government, over $100 million in development of this technology.
REHM$100 million. And Johnny Matheny, what do you think this arm of yours would cost?
MATHENYWell, right now I'm not sure. But one thing I am sure of, it cost me an arm.
REHMIt cost you an arm.
MATHENYAnd I mean, it's -- to see this come about, I mean, this is nice, especially with the servicemen coming back. I got into this because I don't like negatives. I lost my arm, it was a negative. I wanted something positive to come out of this. So I told my prosthetist that I want to do something, some studies or whatever. I said, you know, I'm an old fart, it ain't going to hurt me if you failed, if you cut half my arm off or cut the rest of it off. I'd rather me than the young guys coming back.
REHMAnd you're listening to "The Diane Rehm Show." But cost in dollars for this prosthetic arm, Michael?
MCLOUGHLINWell, this is still in the research stage.
MCLOUGHLINAnd so one of our challenges is really looking at how we move to really a commercially available version of your arm. And one of the challenges that we face is although there are 500 amputations a day in this country, a very small percentage of them are upper extremity. Most of our work, okay.
REHMAnd how did they occur for the most part?
MCLOUGHLINFor most of lower extremity amputations, it's frequently due to cardiovascular issues, diabetes or other circulatory...
REHMI see.
MCLOUGHLIN...issues. And so we have something that is very complex and we have very small numbers of potential users of it. So the challenge then is, you know, how do you develop a sustainable business model that makes it -- that supports the long-term usage of the technology.
REHMBut surely an arm like this would cost what, at least?
MCLOUGHLINWe don't really know. But it's certainly going to be more expensive than what's currently available.
REHMLike $100,000?
MCLOUGHLINWe expect to get it less than that.
REHMYou want to?
MCLOUGHLINYeah, maybe half that. So we're looking at options, for example, you know, start working with not-for-profits to enable people to get the technology.
REHMGood. All right. We're going to open the phones, take our first call from Dallas, TX. Good morning, Mike, you're on the air.
MIKEGood morning, Diane. I just want to say thanks for taking my call. I have a quick question regarding the relative strength of these prosthetics versus the normal strength of a hand, how they relate, how much you can lift versus how much you can lift before the arm falls of the stub versus how strong the prosthesis, et cetera.
REHMJohnny Matheny.
MATHENYWell, with the strength of the arm, it has the same capabilities as your normal hand. It can be as soft as you want to be, crush hands. It can lift. The one that I'm wearing right now is like a military style arm. And it's supposed to be able to pick up 200 pounds.
REHMTwo hundred pounds?
MATHENYCorrect.
REHMAnd you could, of course, with your other arm lift that much if you needed to.
MATHENYYeah. This one was built so if they were in the field and they were bunkered down and they need to move quick, the machine gun that sits on the ground that has to stay and everything, they'd be able to reach down with the prosthetic, pick it up and walk off with it and never slow down.
REHMI would surely hope that someone with a prosthesis of this sort would not be going back into battle.
MATHENYWell, you know, we have soldiers that have gone back to the field with lower extremity prosthetics.
REHMReally?
MATHENYSo, absolutely. I someday would like to see our military members be able to go back to service if that's what they would like to do.
REHMMike Corcoran?
CORCORANYeah, we found a number of lower extremity amputees return to active duty and some in combat. There's also been some upper extremity amputees that have returned and transradial amputees are below elbow amputees. It's not advertised. These -- they're professionals. This is what they're trained to do. And they suffered these injuries. They want to regain the ability to do what they're trained to do.
REHMPeggy Chenowith, are you limited in any way by your prosthetic foot?
CHENOWITHI don't think that I'm limited by my amputation. I am limited by activities. I have a foot for different purposes. But there's not really one foot that's great for absolutely everything yet. So I have to plan ahead and I'm not real good at that all the time.
REHMAnd you did plan ahead.
CHENOWITHI did plan ahead today.
CHENOWITHBut, you know, if we're going to the park, I have to really make sure that I have the correct leg with me. If we're going to go on vacation, I have a bag full of legs that I have to pack.
REHMA bag full of legs.
CHENOWITHI do. But I'm lucky because I can get a bag full of legs. There are a lot of amputees in this country who can't get one.
REHMI have to tell you a terrible experience I have. I was flying to Pittsburgh. I picked up my suitcase off the motorized lane, got in hotel, open my suitcase and there was a prosthetic leg. I had picked up the wrong suitcase. And of course that person needed her suitcase. Short break.
REHMAnd we've got lots of callers waiting. We'll go first to Layton, Utah. Good morning, George.
GEORGEGood morning, Diane, and thank you for taking my call.
GEORGEI lost my hand in 1964.
REHMOh, I'm sorry.
GEORGEWell, it's neither here nor there, but thank you. And I've watched the progress of hands coming along. And I've seen that they've made incredible progress over the years, but they seem to be weak. They seem to be vulnerable. And I wonder if anything is solved yet. Mine is fiberglass and I've been through five of them now that have broken. And I wear a hook, but I don't go with the other ones because they're even more vulnerable.
REHMWhat do you think, Michael?
MCLOUGHLINYeah, so one of our challenges in building this arm was to make a limb that would be more robust. And so we've actually used this one quite a bit. Johnny's put it through its paces. We've put a lot of effort into making it function like a human hand. You're still not going to be able to do things like, for example, you can't immerse that in water. It wouldn't like that.
REHMInteresting. Interesting. Why not? What would happen?
MCLOUGHLINWell, it's just -- yeah, it's just not sealed up...
MCLOUGHLIN...as well as it would -- it would need to be.
MCLOUGHLINBut we can put a covering over the arm.
REHMWhat kind of timeframe do you believe will transpire before this is available to the general public?
MCLOUGHLINYeah, so the challenge right now is really just designing this really for commercial use. So I think we could be there in a couple of years.
REHMI see. And, Mike Corcoran, what about George's concern that the hook he's wearing seems to have more strength than perhaps what is available in a prosthetic hand?
CORCORANRight. Well, the hook has less moving parts.
CORCORANSo you -- and it tends to be -- a lot of amputees say that it's most versatile because they can actually see what they're going to pick up. Sometimes a hand when you go to pick up an object and you can't see through the hand and you don't have sensory feedback, it's hard to -- it's hard to see where the hand is in relation to what you're trying to grasp. So typically, again, when manufacturers develop hands, they want to have as much motion in a hand as possible and then so that's more moving parts. And it's difficult to make robust, you know, a hand with many joints robust.
CORCORANSee our own hands that we have, we have the -- we have cells that replenish. If we injure ourselves, you know, we heal ourselves. But with a prosthetic hand, it doesn't do that.
REHMWell, are you saying that as far as strength is concerned that George is better off with a hook as opposed to a prosthetic hand?
CORCORANNo. I'm saying George and every amputee needs to keep pushing for better technology, make the process talk to wonderful institutions like Johns Hopkins to develop stronger, more mobile joints, better artificial hands. Because the end user is the amputee. And we all here, apart from Johnny, are trying to develop it. But if there's no one pressing us to, you know, continue this development...
REHMGood point.
CORCORAN...then we'll be -- we won't see any advancements.
REHMGeorge, you've got to do your part.
GEORGEMay I make a suggestion then?
REHMCertainly.
GEORGEThere's a physicist from Arizona, his name is Patrick Flannigan, he developed something called a neuro phone back in the late '50s. He's gone through 16 generations of it now. And it actually reads thoughts by compressing square waves. Now, he was teaching dolphins to put the submarine mines underneath Soviet submarines back in the '80s. And they were learning to do that by the technology that he had. It was a nine year fight to get that out of the hands of the Navy and get it patented.
REHMAll right. Have you heard anything about that, Michael?
MCLOUGHLINNo. Actually I'm not familiar with that particular set of work.
REHMYeah. Well, I urge you, George, to get on this issue and push your own medical center to be developing something a little more sophisticated and user friendly perhaps than that hook. Good morning, Tom, in San Antonio, Texas. You're on the air.
TOMWell, good morning and thank you for taking my call.
TOMThe thing that I wanted to observe was that in the last year I've been able to take advantage of microprocessors in both my knees and my feet. I am over 60 and typically in a category that the people who make decisions as to who these things are available to would decide he won't benefit from it, he's too old. But what happened to me was, by having these new knees and feet that I now have...
REHMOh, dear. What happened? Did we lose you? All right. Well, I'm sure you were shaking your head, Mike Corcoran.
CORCORANYeah, I think that the people that make decisions as well as funding. CMS, Medicare and insurance companies will look at these big ticket items and say, oh, that's awfully expensive and he's not going to -- he doesn't need this, he could get by with something more basic. Well, we've seen is if you provide basic feet and knees that are inadequate, you're going to basically condemn that amputee to a sedentary lifestyle and that's going to lead to more costs for healthcare, because they're going to have a lot more issues cardiovascularly, greater hospitalization. Mobility is vitally important for humans. We have two legs. We have to -- we stand, we walk.
CORCORANSo a prosthesis that seem expensive that allows the amputee to be more mobile is actually healthier. It's a healthier lifestyle.
REHMAll right. Here's an email from Jeff in Baltimore. What about people who were born without limbs and not able to develop that portion of the brain that controls movements of those limbs? Would they be able to utilize such mechanical limbs?
MCLOUGHLINThat's a great question. And it's something that we've had an opportunity to do some very limited work with congenial amputees. And we have found that we've been able to give them the ability to control the limb. It's not -- you know, it's not natural for them because they've never done it before, but they are able to do it. And so it's -- there's more of a learning curve involved in it, but we think that this would work for congenial amputees also.
REHMAnd here's another question from Cape Cod, Mass. Hi there, Richard.
RICHARDHi. Thank you for taking my call.
RICHARDI wanted to ask your guests whether any of this technology might have some application in the future for those of us who are polio survivors from the epidemics of the '40s and '50s.
RICHARDI've been walking on crutches for now almost 60 years and leg braces. And, you know, the people like me, we have the limbs, we have the joints, we have the muscles, what we don't have is the original wire that ran from the brain to the muscle telling it to contract. And, you know, obviously we're all getting older at a rapid clip. And I just hope that we're not a forgotten generation and that maybe someday in the not too distant future some of this technology may help us do things that many of us haven't done since our early childhood.
REHMMike Corcoran.
CORCORANWell, actually the company that developed the powered ankle, iWalk, are developing, it's a motor that generates the power for that ankle. They're using applications on orthotics or orthoses, which this caller probably wears, that would replace -- a motor essentially is a muscle, so there is development taking place for powered orthoses, which would enable post-polio sufferers to be more mobile.
REHMMichael McLoughlin.
MCLOUGHLINYeah, well, we're focused on upper extremity use.
MCLOUGHLINAnd -- but for patients that, due to a spinal cord injury or other neuro degenerative condition, can't use their natural limbs, what this potentially provides is a way for them to use a prosthetic limb in order to interact with their environment and pick things up and do all the activities of daily life.
REHMJohnny Matheny, is there something further that you wish to learn to do with this arm that you have not yet learned?
MATHENYWell, there's a lot of possibilities of, like you say, where there's a lot of sensors that you can put on it. You can tell when you brush up against something. You can tell when something's cold or something's hot, all these different things. Sensors that, you know, that goes in the fingers, you know how much pressure you're actually putting on something, whether, you know, you're barely touching something or, you know, you got enough grip on yourself to crush a can, just like snap.
REHMCould you hold a pencil and write with it?
MATHENYYes. With this type hand, you're able to be able to do that. And it has different grasps that you can do, which I have not programmed in right now.
REHMOkay. So if I were to hand you this pen right now, could you grasp it?
MATHENYNot at this time.
MATHENYWhat we got to do each day is we're going to figure out what we're going to be doing today. And we program into the computer we're going to make -- we will possibly make these moves today, so then as we go through that we can do that. Now, coming here to the show, you know, I wasn't ready to start grasping pens or we would've -- we would've incorporated that in. But the computer, what you do is you do the moves and the computer tells the hand or the wrist this is what I want to do.
REHMAnd you keep adding...
MATHENYYes.
REHM...I gather movements...
REHM...that you are anticipating and would like to do. And then is there a permanent memory of what you've incorporated?
MATHENYAt this time, no, but...
REHMYou have to do it all over again each...
MATHENYEach morning. Each morning.
REHM...each morning.
MATHENYYes. But we've got the smartest techs at APL lab. They'll soon have that problem licked.
REHMSo it's like you, Peggy, sort of figuring out each day.
CHENOWITHIt takes a lot of planning to be an amputee. It really does.
REHMA lot of planning.
CHENOWITHAnd I think what you're seeing is that we're on the verge of some great technology, but I don't think it's really there yet for everyday functional life. It's not -- I don't think the technology is there, especially, in the upper extremity, somewhat in the lower extremity. Certainly not available to every amputee.
REHMBut it has sure come a long way.
CHENOWITHBut it's -- if you're going to be an amputee, this is the best time in history to be one.
REHMAnd you're listening to "The Diane Rehm Show." Let's go to Houston, Texas. Good morning, Tom.
TOMGood morning, Diane. I'm glad I got through to you in time because I know it's short. I'm just wondering why that this has never been addressed before. Apparently a British engineer produced some kind of gadget that prevented a signal of these IEDs from going off. And the Pentagon being bloody minded as they are, they didn't want to use the gadget because it was a British invention and they didn't think of it first and -- but it would've prevented a lot of unnecessary amputees in the last...
REHMI think you've got the wrong audience to address the military and IEDs, Tom. The fact of the matter is when they go off and they do take limbs, it's pretty awful. Here's an email from Brian in Detroit, Mich. wanting to ask you, Johnny Matheny, whether you've had phantom limb pain before getting the prosthetic and has the prosthetic alleviated that phantom pain?
MATHENYOh, yes. Phantom pains, I'm very well aware of it. My hand would just throb. I can tell you exactly how my hand was being at that time. Whether it be a fist like this or like that or like this...
REHMAfter the amputation.
MATHENYAfter the amputation. Now once we got into the prosthetics where the brain is starting to see things move, it's forgetting about the pains and going more...
REHMThe path to pain.
MATHENYIt's going more into movement. That's what it's wanting. That's what it's searching for. And when you get your arm amputated, what it is, when they cut the nerve endings, it scars over. And that's what causes the phantom pain.
REHMHow about you, Peggy? Did you experience phantom pain?
CHENOWITHI have phantom sensations at times. When the weather is really changing, I'll have pain. If I switch sockets, I'll feel it. But I don't have a lot of issues like other amputees do.
REHMAll right. And finally to Orlando, Fla. Good morning, Robert.
ROBERTHi, guys. I have kind of a two-part question I suppose, but I'll keep it brief I promise. The first part is that I think it kind of goes without saying that we're in the digital age and I wanted to -- I wanted to ask you about your thoughts on whether or not the technology for robotics and autonomous machines that we're trying to make more and more like humans, is that technology perhaps interchangeable with that of prosthetic's technology?
CORCORANYeah, I think that actually the motor that drives the powered knee is the same motor that came off the Mars rover that propels that device in Mars. So there's -- yes, there is collaboration between robotics and prosthetics. I think there's...
REHMMichael.
MCLOUGHLINYeah, absolutely. So some of the technology that we've developed here, we're using on robotic systems for dealing with IEDs. So that ultimately we'd like to send the robot out to deal with an IED, so the robot gets injured as opposed to a human.
REHMAnd finally a lot of people are wondering about cost, whether insurance covers any of this. Mike Corcoran.
CORCORANInsurance covers most lower extremity advanced prosthetics. Once Medicare recognizes that it is a viable device, they issue it with a code. And then private payers tend to adopt that same policy.
REHMOh, I see. And what about the development of something as sophisticated as this, Michael?
MCLOUGHLINSo the cost reimbursement is a significant issue and hindrance to upper extremity prosthetics. And so we're looking at options for dealing with some private entities, nonprofit foundations that would essentially fill in that gap, so that somebody needs a prosthetic can get it.
REHMWell, I congratulate you all on your efforts, your endeavors. And I know that this work is going to help thousands, millions of people. Thank you for being here.
MCLOUGHLINThank you.
CORCORANThank you.
CHENOWITHThank you.
REHMMichael McLoughlin, Johnny Matheny, Peggy Chenowith and Mike Corcoran. And thanks to all of you for listening. I'm Diane Rehm.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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As Virginia EV sales slowly climb, auto dealers still haven't given up on rebates
The fight over incentives isn't over
By: Sarah Vogelsong - August 17, 2021 12:01 am
An electric vehicle charges at a public station in Henrico County, July 2020. (Sarah Vogelsong/Virginia Mercury)
Don Hall has put his money on electric: specifically, the Volkswagen ID.4, which he bought this summer.
The president and CEO of the Virginia Automobile Dealers Association sparked surprise this winter when he threw his influential organization's support behind a law that aims to move Virginia drivers away from the internal combustion engine toward cars powered by electricity.
Initially wary of the proposal to embrace California emissions standards, Hall became one of its most enthusiastic cheerleaders at the 2021 General Assembly. "We shall go forward and sell EVs in the future," he declared to lawmakers during one hearing.
The Democrat-led legislature this winter pushed through a package of laws intended to do that. A "clean cars" bill pledged to adopt California vehicle emissions standards and electric car sales targets. Another measure established a rebate program to cut down on the high sticker price of the vehicles, although lawmakers left it unfunded amid questions about the tool's effectiveness.
In Virginia, EV sales are growing. According to numbers from the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, electric vehicle registrations grew by 44 percent between June 30, 2020, and June 30 of this year. Hybrid registrations over the same period went up by 12 percent.
Still, they remain a fraction of the state's more than 6.8 million passenger vehicle and light-duty truck registrations. And Virginia's increases are far below the more than 200 percent rise in electric vehicle sales that auto services firm Cox Automotive, owner of Kelley Blue Book, found occurred nationwide between the second quarters of 2020 and 2021.
"The U.S. auto market has seen growth this year in nearly every segment, but no segment is growing more quickly and more relentlessly than electrified vehicles," Cox reported last month.
Nationwide, "the uptick is certainly there, but we have not really experienced it in Virginia," said Hall.
Charging infrastructure
For state policymakers aiming to spur greater adoption of electric vehicles, many of the same challenges that existed a decade ago remain today.
"Since EVs began to hit the market, surveys have repeatedly identified barriers to consumer purchase of these vehicles," the Virginia Transportation Electric Vehicle Readiness Study completed this January for the Office of Transportation Research and Innovation found. "Over time, the perceived barriers remain consistent despite progress to address them."
Charging infrastructure is one example. "Despite the number of available EV charging stations more than tripling" in the U.S. between 2012 and 2019, "EV infrastructure-related concerns remain as three of the top four barriers to EV adoption," the study noted.
In Virginia, availability of charging stations continues to cause problems. Fifty-nine percent of current EV owners called the difficulty of finding a charging station a very important concern. (The number rose to 81 percent among those considering an EV.)
"That's why it's so important for us to have publicly accessible charging stations throughout the commonwealth," said Chris Bast, deputy director of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. "Because when people see a charging station in their community, even if they're not an EV driver, if they see it, they're more likely to consider choosing an EV."
In Virginia, much of the state's infrastructure push has been funded by the state's "Dieselgate" allocation of $93 million that resulted from a settlement between the federal government and Volkswagen over allegations that the company deliberately evaded Clean Air Act emissions limits between 2009 and 2016.
Of that settlement, $14 million has gone to a state partnership with EVGo that will install roughly 200 fast chargers around Virginia. Expected to ensure that 95 percent of Virginians live within 30 miles of a fast charger, the project is about 60 percent complete.
"Our initial focus has been on building out the state's public charging backbone that the private sector and utilities and other folks can add to and fill in the gaps," said Bast.
President Joseph Biden's administration has been vocal in its support for EVs, setting a national goal that half of all passenger vehicles sold in the U.S. by 2030 be electric. A massive infrastructure deal passed by the U.S. Senate earlier this month would put $7.5 billion toward a national charging network, with "a particular focus on rural, disadvantaged and hard-to-reach communities," as well as billions more toward bus electrification.
"The sausage is still being made," acknowledged Alleyn Harned, executive director of Virginia Clean Cities, the state chapter of a nationwide coalition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy to promote alternative fuel use. But, he added, "it would be incumbent on us to have competitive projects that are not just asking for federal money but are pushing forward collaborative partnerships."
Several Democratic state legislators say federal support is necessary to cut down transportation emissions given the scale of climate change.
"We can do everything we can in the commonwealth of Virginia, but these issues don't just stay within our borders," said Del. Mark Keam, D-Fairfax, during a virtual event hosted by the Virginia League of Conservation Voters last week to call for national investments in EV infrastructure. "We need our federal government to step up."
In the meantime, said Bast, the state isn't planning for federal funds "because you never know what's going to happen. So we've been focused on executing the projects we have now and working on the clean cars regulation."
Ongoing conflict over incentives
For Virginia's auto dealers and some environmental groups that see EVs as an effective immediate lever to reduce transportation emissions, infrastructure isn't enough. Both point their finger at two state policies that they say are hampering adoption: a lack of funding for a state rebate program and an $88 highway user fee on vehicles that use "alternative" fuels.
"Electric vehicles are likely to be more expensive than their traditional counterparts until at least 2027 for new vehicles," said Harned. "So we're currently in a phase where if we'd like EVs in Virginia, we should incentivize them."
Hall too has long argued that without incentives, demand is likely to lag, pointing to findings that electric car sales in New York surged 74 percent when the state established an electric car rebate and dropped 90 percent in Georgia when that state got rid of its incentive.
Hall was frustrated that the General Assembly did not commit money to the rebate program out of the $4.3 billion the state will receive under the American Rescue Plan Act. That budget, which was passed by the legislature in a special session in Richmond this August, largely adhered to a proposal laid out by Gov. Ralph Northam.
"To say I was let down was an understatement. … I think they had a golden opportunity and they absolutely didn't act on it," Hall said.
But Del. David Reid, D-Loudoun, the sponsor of the bill establishing the rebate program during the winter legislative session, said the omission was due to U.S. Treasury guidelines governing how the relief funds could be spent.
"It was not for lack of trying," he said. "It was just a recognition that it didn't meet the acceptable use for what was coming from the federal government."
Alena Yarmosky, a spokesperson for Northam, said that the governor and Democratic leadership had been "intentional about prioritizing" federal funds "for areas directly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic" and that "the governor will consider this and other important issues for inclusion in his upcoming budget this December."
Reid also said he had been involved in discussions with Northam and House Appropriations Chair Luke Torian, D-Prince William, about including rebate funding in the next budget, although "nothing definitive" had been decided.
Other state commitments could be on the way. Marshall Herman, a spokesperson for the Virginia Department of Transportation, said the agency "is working to determine where electric vehicles can be incorporated into our own fleet" and where it could install charging infrastructure on state property.
"Electrifying the state's fleet is an important thing for us to do," said Bast. "The administration is currently considering the best path forward."
CORRECTION: This story has been corrected to reflect that the state partnership with EVGo will install roughly 200 fast chargers. To date, about 120 have been installed.
by Sarah Vogelsong, Virginia Mercury
Sarah Vogelsong
Sarah is Editor-in-Chief of the Mercury and previously its environment and energy reporter. She has worked for multiple Virginia and regional publications, including Chesapeake Bay Journal, The Progress-Index and The Caroline Progress. Her reporting has won awards from groups such as the Society of Environmental Journalists and Virginia Press Association, and she is an alumna of the Columbia Energy Journalism Initiative and Metcalf Institute Science Immersion Workshop for Journalists. She is a graduate of the College of William and Mary. Contact her at [email protected]
Republicans again attempt to roll back Democratic carbon… by Charlie Paullin January 16, 2023
California's 2035 ban on new gas-powered cars set to apply… by Sarah Vogelsong August 26, 2022
Amid major federal investment in electric cars, it's time… by Robert Zullo November 8, 2022


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Core Memory Music
An evening with Robin Giesbrecht
Johann Sebastian Bach Italian Concerto, BWV 971 1735
Robert Schumann Carnival Scenes from Vienna, Op. 26 1839
Frédéric Chopin Preludes, Op. 28 (1-12) 1839
Sergei Rachmaninoff Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 36 1913
Pianist Robin Giesbrecht has been celebrated internationally with a career reaching mature artistry. Since winning the International Grotrian-Steinweg Competition at age seven and the NDR Arts Prize subsequently, Mr. Giesbrecht has enjoyed performances with in recitals and as a soloist with orchestras throughout Europe, North America and Asia, including debuts with the NDR Radio Philharmonic and the Southwest German Philharmonic.
Robin Giesbrecht's recital performances include critically-acclaimed debuts at the Hamburg Philharmonic Hall, Carnegie Hall's Weil Recital Hall, and in 2015, he gave a performance of his own piano concerto at Lincoln Center. His chamber music collaborations include performances with the famed Szymanowski Quartet. He has performed at music festivals such as the Music Academy of the West, Oxford Philharmonic Piano Festival, Piano Texas, Menuhin Festival in Gstaad and Sommerakademie Mozarteum Salzburg.
An internationally renowned pianist from a young age as a prizewinner at the Rotary International Competition in Essen and National Junior Competition of Germany, Mr. Giesbrecht became a student of famed pedagogue Karl-Heinz Kämmerling at the age of 8. In 2006, the Austrian TV channel ORF filmed in honor of Mozart's anniversary a movie in which Mr. Giesbrecht, dressed as Mozart, performed on Mozart's original pianoforte in Salzburg, an event that was broadcasted worldwide. In 2008, the German TV channel WDR made a documentary about the life of the young pianist.
Robin Giesbrecht was awarded the Vladimir Horowitz scholarship at the Juilliard School as a student of Jerome Lowenthal and Joseph Kalichstein, where he received his undergraduate degree. He also studied at the Yale School of Music with Peter Frankl, graduating in 2017 with a masters degree in performance.
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Page updated on 2021-01-19 04:04:23 -0500
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Just because we live in a world governed by science and technology doesn't mean there are no more monsters. They're real, they're dangerous, and they need to be stopped. In Monster of the Week you and your intrepid friends are the only thing keeping the horror from the rest of humanity!
In Monster of the Week, you take on the role of monster hunters, the brave few who seek out danger where others would run. The game uses Powered by the Apocalypse mechanics, which are focused on creating dramatic tension. You can take inspiration from your favorite fictional settings or build your own. If you've ever wanted to create your own horror adventures, Monster of the Week may be right for you.
Monster of the Week is a standalone action-horror RPG for 3-5 people. Hunt high school beasties ala Buffy the Vampire Slayer, travel the country to bring down unnatural creatures like the Winchester brothers of Supernatural, or head up the government investigation like Mulder and Scully.
Suitable for First-Time Gamemasters: The rules include materials to help guide gamemasters (known as Keepers in Monster of the Week) through creating a mystery, running the first session, and taking a campaign forward from there.
Built for Customization: Whether you want to emulate a book, TV show, or movie, you can tailor the game to suit your needs. Unsure of where to start? Get rolling with the Damn Dirty Apes mystery scenario included in the rulebook.
Powered by the Apocalypse: The game uses the core mechanics first introduced in Apocalypse World and used in a variety of popular games, from Dungeon World to Night Witches. Learn one and learning the rest is straightforward.


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HomeEntertainmentBlitz Movies – "Coming 2 America"
Blitz Movies – "Coming 2 America"
March 5, 2021 Entertainment, Featured, Film, Movie Review
By Jay Betsill
"Coming 2 America" has finally arrived!
The long-awaited sequel (33 years to be exact) to the 1988 classic stars Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall reprising their iconic roles of Prince Akeem and his best friend Semmi in what amounts to getting to catch up with old friends for those who hold a special place in their heart for the original "Coming to America."
"Coming 2 America" picks up on Akeem and Lisa's 30th anniversary and with his father King Jaffe Joffer on the verge of dying, Akeem is ascending to the throne as King Akeem of Zamunda.
Akeem is dealing with a myriad of issues including threats of military intervention from General Izzi (Wesley Snipes) who just happens to be the brother of the woman Akeem bypassed as his wife in order to marry Lisa of neighboring Nexdoria. There's also the small detail that he and Lisa have three daughters and Zamunda law says his heir to the throne must be a male.
On his death bed, King Jaffe Joffer informs Akeem that he indeed has a grown son from his trip to New York City from an encounter that Akeem does not recall do in no small part to alcohol and Semmi's own search for female companionship.
This news leads the two friends back to the Big Apple to track down Akeem's son Lavelle (Jermaine Fowler) and bring him and his mother to Zamunda. While Akeem thought this revelation would solve all of his problems, it only serves to open up new wounds with his wife and his oldest daughter, who has been groomed to be queen since she was born.
The fish-out-of-water story this time has a New Yorker in Zamunda and Akeem's innocence from the original has been replaced by his desire to do what is best for Zamunda as opposed to what is best for his family.
Oftentimes when a sequel to a classic comedy waits too long to be made (Example: Dumb and Dumber To), the second edition turns out as a complete failure, but in the case of "Coming 2 America," director Craig Brewer gives it just the right vibe and Murphy and Hall still have their amazing chemistry. Another positive note is the nostalgia of seeing Cleo McDowell (John Amos) and the barbers from Queens.
Of the new characters, Tracy Morgan in particular shines as Uncle Reem, Lavelle's uncle from New York City who joins the fun in Zamunda.
Brewer previously worked with Murphy and Snipes on "Dolemite is My Name," the popular biopic on Rudy Ray Moore.
The original "Coming to America' is a special movie that has prospered over its three decades, and in spite of everything good about "Coming 2 America," it is not special. In the end, it's actually a little above average and the biggest reason for recommending the movie harkens back to my original thoughts of it being so great to catch up with old friends and the joy of seeing Murphy and Hall together again.
"Coming 2 America" was produced by Paramount Pictures and due to the COVID 19 impact on theaters, the movie was purchased by Amazon to run on Prime Video and is now available on Amazon Prime. The original "Coming to America" is also currently available for streaming on Amazon Prime, so if you are feeling nostalgic, you can have a double feature.
COMING 2 AMERICA (Rated PG-13)
Scale of 1-10 – 6 1/2
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The day is conducive to the questioning of certain achievements, whether in your lifestyle or even friendships until then unshakeable, but of which you now doubt sincerity. Observing your daily environment can provide you with useful and surprising answers.
The advice of the people you trust is welcome. It's an ideal day to visit your parents and the elderly of your family.
If you are married or in a couple, stay tolerant whatever happens. If you're single and have secret feelings for someone, go straight to the point: if it doesn't work, you shall finally move on. The only thing you can loose is someone who doesn't love you.


Government special advisers are having more lunches with the Daily Mail than any other newspaper.
Whitehall departments were last week forced to reveal details of hospitality received by special advisers', as part of a new Government 'transparency' drive. It is the first time such records have been made publicly available.
A comprehensive analysis of the new data by PRWeek finds that special advisers across government enjoyed breakfast, lunch or dinner paid for by the Daily Mail on 11 occasions. This compares with just two lunches with journalists from The Independent, and no such meetings with journalists from the Daily Express.
Westminster insiders said the figures could reflect the coalition's ongoing battle to win over the paper seen as the voice of conservative Middle England. Yet there was also a strong sense the figures revealed more about the size of various expense accounts on Fleet Street.
The records released last week cover the period from 13 May to 31 July.
The second most lunched newspaper was The Guardian, with eight such meetings showing up in the records. Significantly, all of these meetings were with special advisers working for either David Cameron or Nick Clegg.
Specials advisers across Whitehall registered a further seven lunches with The Times and five with each of The Sun, Daily Mirror and The Daily Telegraph.
Overall, the BBC features more prominently than any other individual media outlet, having provided hospitality to special advisers on 22 occasions. But upon closer examination, Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation gives the BBC a run for its money - the combined total of lunches and dinners provided to advisers by News Corproation outlets also stands at 22.
Alongside the data on special advisers, the government last week released details of hospitality provided to ministers.
- Andy Coulson (No 10) Lunch with The Times, The Daily Telegraph, Sky News, BBC, The Wall Street Journal and the Daily Mirror. Dinner with The Sun and the Daily Mail.
- Gabby Bertin (No 10) Lunch with News International, Sky News, the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday. Dinner with the Daily Mail.
- Jonny Oates (No 10) Three lunches with The Guardian. Lunch with The Times, The Economist, ITN, Sky News, The Sunday Times and the Daily Mirror.
Additional reporting by James Cowling.