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Some thoughts about gender gaps in STEM
Liminary note: I am not a social scientist, but I try to educate myself about some issues facing academia, and this is the result of my inquiries. If you think some elements are incorrect or if you have good resources to share, please let me know!
In this short Life
that only merely lasts an hour
How much – how
little – is
within our
Gender gaps in academia are pretty dire, and while it seems to get acknowledged and addressed, it's not clear whether the root causes – especially social norms – are fully understood and can be solved. The paper Understanding persistent gender gaps in STEM (Science 368, 6497; June 2020, pdf) offers interesting statistics and insights.
Gender gap in physical science majors
The problem does not seem to be a difference in achievement, but social factors rather.
I found this part a bit distressing
For high-achieving students, our analyses suggest that efforts to boost women's PECS aspirations and intentions (i.e., the strongest set of predictors)—such as role-model interventions and Girls Who Code —may work well to eliminate the gender gap in pursuing PECS at the top of the distribution. […] This clearly implies that to close the PECS-pursuit gender gap among the top achievers, the critical piece is in converting all other STEM-positive factors (e.g., confidence and interest) into actual aspirations and intentions. Unfortunately, for average- and low-achieving students, our analyses also revealed that the field's understanding of how to get average- and low-achieving girls into the field is more limited. The same factors that explained the PECS gender gap at the top of the distribution collectively explained less and less of the gap further down the distribution. Thus, the interventions that may work for high-achieving girls are unlikely to work for lower-achieving ones. Moreover, focusing efforts on attracting high-achieving women to PECS may back-fire: Whereas men have male peers to serve as role models throughout the achievement distribution, having only high-achieving role models for women may send signals to average- and low-achieving women that they do not have the necessary STEM skills to succeed (see SM, section 4).
I admire the effort of many to improve representation on wikipedia matters a lot, for it helps already successful women scientists regain the place they deserve, but we must make sure not to see. The same things go for "women panels", where the you-can-have-it-all stance may send the wrong signal (in addition to other issues such related the academic Bechdel test.) From Pérola Milman's "Ceci n'est pas une femme : La Jeune fille, le Trou noir et la Mort" (translation coming soon):
One thing leading to another, telling us about our respective frustrations and small rewards in each of the activities mentioned and in so many others, we end up asking ourselves – me to her, her to me – almost in unison: "but have you seen the last CNRS newspaper? ". And we burst out laughing, together! Yes, we both saw it. And that's why we particularly felt particularly like shit that day. The last issue of the newspaper gave us a portrait. A portrait of a woman. Of a woman who really exists. A woman called "the boss" in the newspaper. A woman covered in prizes, almost a professional musician, mother of six, slim, smiling, and who said "that her status as a woman has never been a handicap" and "doing research is not easier for boys than for girls ". A remarkable person, without a shadow of a doubt. And seeing this fabulous, brilliant person, my friend and I, we immediately saw each other shine, too. But what shone, what stood out, were our disabilities. The holes in us. Our holes, although black, shone brightly. Indeed, this portrait confirmed that our feeling of spending a lifetime rowing – and worse: rowing without direction – may not have just been an impression.
trying hard to fit in that box
What happens in Scandinavian countries is interesting:
The 'paradox' of working in the world's most equal countries (BBC)
In politics, 46% of Swedish members of parliament are women, while the proportion in other Nordic countries is around 40%.
However, there are still surprisingly few women in senior private sector roles. Just 28% of managers in Denmark are female, rising to 32% in Finland and Norway, and 36% in Sweden, according to a report by independent think tank The Cato Institute in 2018.
and later trying to find an explanation:
Last year, researchers in the US and UK found that countries with an existing culture of gender equality have an even smaller proportion of women taking degrees in science, technology and mathematics (STEM).
"It is a paradox … nobody would have expected this to be the reality of our time," says Professor Gijsbert Stoet, one of the report's authors.
He argues that since Nordic countries have a generally high standard of living and strong welfare states, young women are free to pick careers based on their own interests, which he says are often more likely to include working in care-giving roles or with languages. […]
"Girls and boys are different, and have different preferences on the whole," he argues. He believes too much media focus is placed on the lack of women in CEO positions, since these account for such a small proportion of jobs overall, and suggests that more men fill these roles since "the personality traits and ambition to be important and famous is higher in men than women".
But others strongly believe that social conditioning is the major driver when it comes to women's career choices and promotion opportunities, and stress that gender stereotypes persist.
"I don't think it's about choice, it's about structures … to say it's about choice is to 'blame the victim'," says Anneli Häyren at the Centre for Gender Research at Uppsala University.
It seems the issue will not vanish through some flavor of affirmative action (even if useful), but by questioning society as a whole and rewriting some of its rules – though the best approach is not clear.
Social construct
An friend of mine, who immigrated from Iran many years go was telling me how women in Iran, despite an oppressive regime, manage to outperform men in STEM fields, perhaps because the highest positions in politics are barred from them, and that science, being somewhat objective, allows them to avoid some of the traps put in front of them.
The most striking example of this is Maryam Mirzakhani, the only women to be awarded a Fields medal and whose life is depicted in the excellent Secret of the Surface. When she died of cancer at age 40 a few years ago, she became the first women appearing on the front page of Iranian newspaper without a veil.
Another anecdotal evidence is the apparent increase of interest for science in all-girls school, especially in the British islands, where competition between boys and girls is nonexistent, the social factors therefore obeying to different rules.
But it's clear that going to these extremes to close the gap is not an option (and a particularly bad idea.)
Branches of the same tree
Since there is somehow parity at the top but not in the bulk of students, it might be worth consider other avenues to attract women to science. An interesting option to consider is to blend science and arts, with the hope of breaking the walls. The report of the National Academy of Science "The Integration of the Humanities and Arts with Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in Higher Education" (free to download after registration) offers some insights. Here are my reading notes:
Previous articles on the topic of gender in academia
How to promote diversity among scientists
sexism in academia
edit October 6, 2020: I'm extremely glad Andreas Ghez got awarded the Nobel prize for her work. Incidentally, I've learned about the Finkbeiner Test, the equivalent of the Bechdel Test in academia. Fasten your seat belts, you will hear many violations in the next few weeks…
The new Nobel laureate in physics, Andrea Ghez, indirectly inspired an important test in science writing, the "Finkbeiner Test," created to help reporters avoid gender bias. To pass this test….1/7
— Nell Greenfieldboyce (@nell_sci_NPR) October 6, 2020


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Dissertation literature review: "A psycho-educational support group for older adult males with HIV: A grant proposal"
"A psycho-educational support group for older adult males with HIV: A grant proposal"
HIV/AIDS and Older Adulthood
Older adulthood brings with it a set of unique challenges that includes transitions from one's social roles, responsibilities, and an increased risk of having a chronic disease, and overall change in social networks (Brennan, 2008). HIV/AIDS represents a convergence of challenges at the physical, psychological, spiritual and service levels (Emlet & Shippy, 2008). The challenges men over 55 with HIV/AIDS face are compounded due to their age, greater risk of stigmatization, and marginalization by a society inadequate to meet their needs (Linsk, 2000).
HIV/AIDS in the United States has been viewed by society and by most scholars as a disease that primarily affects younger people specifically homosexual men (Martin, Colford, Ngo, & Tager, 1995; Wooten-Bielski, 1999). Indeed, after examining sexual orientation, race, and gender characteristics, the majority of individuals diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in the United States are men between the age of 18 and 45 (Shippy & Karpiak, 2005). White men were the first group disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS, and data suggest that male to male sexual contact did account for 69% of how the disease was originally contracted with heterosexual contact accounting for only 8% of the method of contraction (Los Angeles County Public Health Records, 2008). 8 Because the majority of men infected with the disease are between the ages of 18 and 45, more resources exist for younger men. Therefore, older men infected are at greater risk due to lack of appropriate resources (Ferro & Sallit, 1992). However, men over the age of newly diagnosed with HIV/AIDS have experiences similar to younger people. Men over the age of 55 are infected in the same ways as younger men, live with the same HIV stigma, and they too must learn to obtain appropriate care and to manage complicated treatments (Emlet & Poindexter, 2004).
Older men with HIV/AIDS face some different struggles than younger men. They are being considered the "invisible ten percent" (Genke, 2000, p. 196), and the hidden HIV/AIDS population (Emlet, 1997; Emlet & Poindexter, 2004). Emlet Ph.D., M.S.W., is a renowned scholar who has done extensive research in the area of older persons with HIV/AIDS and issues of stigma and service delivery for person living with HIV/AIDS. Emlet (1997) supplements the idea of Genke (2000) through statistical information, and he estimates that adults over the age of 50 make up 10% of all HIV/AIDS cases within the United States, and this number will gradually increase during the 21st century. Emlet and Poindexter, along with Lieberman (2000), argue that the percentage of HIV/AIDS diagnoses for men over 55 may even be higher because most HIV/AIDS cases are diagnosed in the late stages of the virus.
The focus of this literature review is older males diagnosed with HIV/ AIDS. As increasing numbers of older adults with HIV live longer lives, it is incumbent upon social workers, AIDS service providers, and the health care system in general to better understand the factors that contribute, either positively or negatively, to their quality of life (Emlet & Shippy, 2008).
History of HIV/AIDS in the United States
The AIDS epidemic in the United States emerged in the mid 1970s and was first identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly report in June 1981 (CDC, 2008). Within the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly report the first cautionary report was made regarding an unusual outbreak of Pneumocystis Carinii Pneumonia (PCP) among 5 previously sexually active, healthy, homosexual men in Los Angeles, California. It was these first 5 cases that were documented as the first reported cases of AIDs within the United States. The diagnosis that was presented was a rare type of cancer, and the symptoms being presented were rare and previously found in severely immune suppressed persons (CDC, 2008). However, it was not until 1982, when AIDS was discovered as a blood-related disease, that the term Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome was used for the first time (AIDS Education Global Information System [AEGIS], 2007). Then in 1983, scientists identified the virus that causes AIDS (CDC, 2007).
During the 1990s, a shift occurred in the focus of how HIV/AIDS programs are mobilized. Prior to the 1990s, HIV/AIDS programs were focused on more traditional ideas that promoted the disease as an individualist risk where programs were focused on information focused prevention programs. Since the 1990s, programs focus on HIV/AIDS in an empowerment approach that focuses on community involvement. The empowerment approach is based on social changes in gender and relationships, therefore, establishing the link between social vulnerability and the needs for programs and resources to be offered (Paxton, 2002). As a result support groups have become more widely used approach within the HIV/AIDS community.
In the last 25 years, there has been an unprecedented mobilization of resources to stop the epidemic, and during this time the CDC has supported a vast array of HIV/AIDS prevention programs (Center for HIV Information, 2003). The CDC credits grass root efforts by homosexual men in San Francisco and New York for the first HIV prevention activities. The activities of these early grassroots efforts were primarily designed "to increase AIDS awareness, reduce unfounded fears about transmission, and provide basic information regarding symptoms, likely transmission routes, and risk-reduction strategies" (CDC, 2006a, p. 598). Currently HIV/AIDS educational materials can be acquired by contacting the CDC, state and local health departments and most community based organizations involved with the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS (CDC, 2006b). Most of these materials are aimed at specific at-risk populations. Findings indicated that even printed materials geared toward older adults have remained scare in public health agencies and other HIV/AIDS service agencies charged with the distribution of HIV/AIDS informational literature (Orel, Wright, & Wagner, 2004). Due to the advances in medical prevention and medicine, specifically Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapies (HAART) in the late 1990s, it is likely that men between the ages of 18 and 45 will live longer lives (Manton & Stallard, 1998). HAART allows individuals infected in middle age to live into old age thus creating two populations; those infected later in life and those infected earlier both now aging with HIV/AIDS (Emlet & Shippy, 2008; Mack & Ory, 2003).
HIV and Older Adults
Several factors could account for the increasing numbers of diagnoses of HIV/AIDS among older adults. First and foremost, individuals diagnosed with HIV/AIDS are living longer due to the widespread availability of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) which has enabled infected persons to have increased longevity and a reduced mortality rate (Shippy & Karpiak 2005). At the beginning of the HIV/AIDS epidemic the average newly infective person had a life expectancy of approximately 10 years from initial diagnosis to death (DiClementi, Ross, Mallo & Johnson, 2004). A factor which has increased infections among older males is that older adults are more likely to engage in unprotected sexual activities due to the absence of pregnancy concerns (Williams & Donnelley, 2002). A third factor is the availability of sexual drugs such as Viagra and Cialis which allow men to maintain their sexual performance later in their lives with vigor comparable to their younger years (Vance & Robinson, 2004). Finally, many older adults who remain in long term monogamous relationships assume their partners to be sexually faithful with only them (i.e., one partner) and this may not always be accurate (University of California, San Francisco, 2000). Lieberman (2000) asserts, for example, that older males may be more likely to use prostitutes for sexual activities and thus put themselves and their partners at risk for contracting a sexually transmitted disease.
Chronic Disease and Older Adults
During the 1990s, HIV was transformed for many patients in industrialized nations from a fatal diagnosis to a manageable chronic disease requiring daily medication and occasional visits to the doctor's office (Sepkowitz, 2001; Stoff, 2004). Medication regimens allow individuals to live more normal lives in which HIV/AIDS is no longer a progressive fatal diagnosis but rather a chronic disease that requires managing with pharmaceutical treatment (Palella et al., 1998; Tashima & Carpenters, 2003). However, it was emphasized the importance of consistent management of the disease even in light of the medical advancements because HIV/AIDS is a co-morbid chronic condition (Palella et al). The impact of this rapid increase in numbers of older adults will be felt within healthcare industry specifically due to chronic health conditions. In 2005, 88% of all American older adults had one chronic health condition and 50% had two or more (CDC, 2005). Some of these common chronic conditions include diabetes, heart disease, osteoarthritis, cancer, and stroke (Chodosh et al., 2005). Not all chronic diseases are life threatening but like HIV/AIDS they are all incurable and place significant burdens on health and quality of life for older adults. Chronic diseases can negatively affect the psychological well-being of older adults and they can cause pain fatigue, lack of energy and decreased amount of personal independence (Wolff, Boult, Boyd, & Anderson, 2005). Older adults with HIV/AIDS over the age of 55 are at an increased risk because they are susceptible to an on average 4 times more co-morbid health conditions (Emlet & Nokes, 2006).
Societal Attitudes Regarding Sexuality
Sexuality is a fundamental aspect of life and sexual activities do not disappear as one ages (Wooten-Bielski, 1999). However, the myth that exists in American society is that older adults are neither interested in nor engage in sexual activities (Wooten-Bielski). Contrary to this myth older adults actually make up a population that have unprotected sex and engage in risky behavior to counteract the effects of the inevitable life changes in hopes of feeling a connection to others (Orel, Spence, & Steele, 2005). In 1996, Whipple and Scura found that among senior housing communities older adults did report being sexually involved with other members. In fact older adults between the ages of 60 to 71 which comprised 65% of that community admitted to engaging in various modes of sexual activity. This study suggests that older adults do engage in sexual acts.
This American myth that older adults do not engage in sexual activities has also been a factor in the delayed and even lack of HIV/AIDS diagnosis for this population. Health care providers, including physicians, have been found to not engage in conversations or run lab reports regarding HIV/AIDS because they assume that this population does not engage in sex let alone within risky settings (Drench & Losee, 1996; Orel et al., 2005; Wooten-Bielski, 1999). Williams and Donnelly (2002) found that physicians more often discuss safe sex practices and risk reduction with adults under the age of 30 than with adults over the age of 50. Studies have indicated 40% of primary care physicians do not evaluate for HIV risk in patients over the age of 50 (Orel et al., 2005).
Ageism and Older Adults
The National Institute of Aging (2001) found that older adults living with HIV/AIDS face a double stigma from both ageism and HIV/AIDS. Ageism is a lack of respect or value of an individual based on his age. It consists of negative stereotyping and discrimination (Fowler, 1999). Older adults with HIV/AIDS are more likely to experience social and professional bias regarding health care services and available resources as a result of ageism (Fowler). Ageism exists and can be experienced in the lack of resources and programs available to meet older adult's needs (Emlet & Poindexter, 2004). Social service programs that include case management, support groups, and education exist in large quantities for those living with HIV/AIDS under the age of 50. Social services specifically focused on older adults have greatly increased within the recent years, such as; geriatric case managers, senior centers, and aging services. Ageism is experienced because of the lack of coordination between aging and HIV/AIDS agencies. Many of these two entities have not come together to offer a best practice approach to serving this growing population of older adults living with HIV/AIDS. Anderson (1998) found that HIV case managers and counselors tend to know more about service for older Americans and gerontological workers have insufficiently explored HIV services. Therefore older adult males 55 and older with HIV/AIDS feel as if they do not fit in and cannot identify with others when seeking services which can increase isolative behavior (Emlet & Nokes, 2006; Emlet & Poindexter, 2004). Emlet and Nokes deduced that due to the lack of coordination older adults are more likely to not utilize either organization's resources further increasing their risk of isolation.
Race and Support
The older adult population continues to grow in numbers and diversity. In 1998 16% of older adults over the age of 65 were from a minority group with a projected increase to 25% by 2030 (Hooyman & Kiyak, 2004). Many adults in minority groups receive extensive social support from their informal social systems (Heckman et al., 2000). Heckman and colleagues (2000) examined the influence of race on coping and social support among 72 midlife and older men. The study found that African American men received more support from immediate family members than white men. However Africa American men were less likely to disclose their HIV/AIDS status to their friends. Hooyman and Kiyak asserted that for older adults their church is often an important source of support.
HIV/AID Stigma
Stigma has been identified and recognized as a major concern within the health care human services field across societies worldwide (Mak, Poon, Pun, & Cheung, 2007). Stigma was first identified and defined by one of the greatest American sociologist, Erving Goffman who is best known for his lifelong study of stigma, social identity and symbolic interaction. Goffman (1963) stated that HIV stigma is best defined as a spoiled sense of identity that discredits a person in society. Stigmatization is the process by which individuals experience prejudice, discrimination, stereotyping due to a devalued physical, behavioral, or medical condition that conveys on a social identity (Dovidio, Major, & Crocker, 2000). The negative impact of the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS infection is well documented. The experience of stigma can impact both the overall wellbeing and the behaviors of people living with HIV/AIDS (Brooks, Etzel, Hinojos, Henry, & Perez, 2005; Mak et al, 2007; Preston et al., 2004; Valdiserri, 2002). Older adults face increased risk of HIV stigma, opposed to those under the age of 45, due to their more fearful and daunting feelings regarding their diagnosis (Anderson, 1998; Lavick, 1994; Marr, 1994). HIV stigma has been found to affect one's interpersonal and psychosocial life with feelings of shame, guilt, fear and anger (Bennett, 1990; Laryea & Gien, 1993), mental strain (Green & Piatt, 1997), and feelings of self loathing (Herek et al., 1998). The fear of stigma is so great that older adults are more apt to keep their diagnosis a secret which can create lasting psychological isolation and depression. Lack of disclosure is a highly discussed topic in relation to psychological well being for those living with HIV/AIDS (Paxton, 2002). Furthermore in disclosing, isolative patterns, depression, and anxiety have been shown to be relieved (Paxton).
Since the early 1980s, much focus has been placed on the relationship between stigma and its effects on disclosure amongst those living with HIV/AIDS. A study done by Paxton (2002) found that adults who did disclose their diagnosis experienced fewer social complications such as stress isolation and depression. Paxton (2002) deduced a therapeutic psychological release comes with true disclosure. Older adults with HIV/AIDS are less likely to disclose their diagnosis than younger adults (Emlet & Nokes, 2006). Reasons for less disclosure by older adults mainly include increased amounts of stigmatization. When older adults disclose their diagnosis, they are stigmatized not only for their HIV/AIDS diagnosis but also for participating in behaviors that put them at risk for HIV/AIDS and which are viewed as morally wrong (Solomon, 1996). For older adults their issue surrounding disclosure can become more complicated because their fears of rejection. However, by not disclosing they are unknowingly putting themselves at a greater risk for stress, isolation and mental health problems (Paxton). When a person with HIV/AIDS finds support and discloses his diagnosis to others who understands his diagnosis, the stress associated with holding back is released (Paxton). Therefore, reviewing stigma with those infected and defining the debilitating effects it can have on males are components of treatment for this population.
In fact, Emlet (2006) interviewed 25 older men over the age of 50 regarding their HIV/AIDS diagnosis. 17 of the respondents said they experienced both HIV stigma and ageism. Emlet found that older adults over the age of 55 experience rejection by stereotyping and internalized ageism. The study concluded that older adults who have a social support system with whom they can discuss their diagnosis experience fewer negative effects of stigma.
Social support is needed for older adults males with HIV/AIDS and well documented in literature is the relationship between higher levels of social support among older adults with HIV/AIDS and a more positive lifestyle both emotionally and physically (Crystal et al., 2003; Cox, 2002; Chesney, Chambers, Taylor, & Johnson, 2003). Higher levels of social support lead to an increased overall positive attitude which influences the quality of life for older adults with HIV/AIDS including; feelings of peace, ability to manage stress, and ability to adhere to medication plan (Cox; Chesney et al.; 18 Crystal et al.). Support groups are one effective mean of sustaining a social network to reduce depression and hostility and promote wellness (J. Kelly et al., 1993). Emlet (2005) found the availability of an affective support system and the availability of instrumental social support to be negatively correlated with HIV stigma in a population of 88 older and younger HIV infected individuals. The more social support older adult males 55 receive the better the outcome regarding medical adherence and emotional issues (Catz et al., 2002; Emlet & Nokes, 2006; Emlet & Poindexter 2004; Shippy & Karpiak, 2005).
Older adults with social support are more likely to receive needed empathy, validation and encouragement regarding their illness which can increase overall quality of life (Heckman, Kochmn & Sikkema, 2002). However, the growing population of older adults with HIV may not have available the protective effects of support from family and friends (Emlet & Shippy, 2008). Older adults are more likely than younger adults to live by themselves (Crystal et al., 2003; Emlet & Berghuis, 2002; Emlet & Farkas, 2002) which puts them at an increase risk for social isolation. Older adults who live alone, receive little support from friends, and have limited access to support services can have significantly higher rates of anxiety and depression (Heckman et al., 2002).
According to Emlet and Shippy (2008), those infected with HIV who engage in active coping strategies report improved quality of life. A study by Lee and RotheramBorus (2001) found that a coping style that involved seeking social support was associated with an increased survival rate over a period of 28 months in a population individuals living with HIV. Brennan (2008) suggested that coping mechanisms that involve a group such as a religious or a spiritual group can act as an important coping mechanism for older adult males with HIV/AIDS. In a study of 83 older HIV infected adults, Heckman, Kochman, & Sikkema, (2002) found a significant correlation between coping and social support and decreased social isolation.
Three major psychological issues, social support, stigma and coping for older adult males with HIV/AIDS can be addressed by intervention processes (Shippy & Karpiak 2008). Social support networks have been consistently acknowledged as crucial elements in the lives of those living with HIV/AIDS (Emlet, 2006) with informal social networks playing an important role. Informal social networks can consist of an individual's family and friends. Emotional, informational, and instrumental assistance received by friends and family can lessen the negative effects of HIV/AIDS such as; stigmatization, isolation, and depression (Shippy & Karpiak). Older adult males with HIV/AIDS informal social support networks are more likely to experience more conflicts than younger individuals infected with HIV/AIDS. Conflict compromises their ability to receive the beneficial effects of their needed support (Crystal et al., 2003; Shippy & Karpiak). Older males specifically lack support, and older men with HIV/AIDS are more likely than women to receive inadequate social support whereas women with HIV/AIDS report receiving sufficient amounts of support (Shippy & Karpiak). Schrimshaw and Siegel (2003) interviewed 63 adults ages 50 and older living with HIV/AIDS and found that approximately 26 of these participants felt their informal support networks were inadequate. The reasons for inadequate support included the unavailability of family and death of friends (Scrimshaw & Siegel). In 2002, a study done by Heckman et al. examined 83 males over the age of 50 based on their social support within a quality of life model. They found a relationship between older adult males with HIV/AIDS who receive little to no support from family and friends and increased risk for isolation and mental health issues. The study asserted that the more informal support the adults received the more likely they were to seek out and utilize formal support services including support groups and medical treatment.
Those questions always seems to frighten students, though it is still possible buy a dissertation online.
Support Groups Beneficial for HIV/AIDS
Research indicates support groups offer adults many benefits for all involved that include the opportunity to have face-to-face contact, an opportunity to encounter others who share in similar situations, to offer emotional support to others, to experience mutual aid, to enable dialogue, to improve coping all within a positive and nurturing private forum (Curry, Walker, & Hogstel, 2005). For those with HIV/AIDS social support has been repeatedly associated with psychological functioning, including psychological wellbeing (Catz et al., 2002; Collins, 1994; Cowdery & Pesa, 2002), positive state of mind (Turner-Cobb et al., 2002), coping with the stress of the disease (Crystal & Kersting, 1998), and quality of life (Gielen, McDonnell, Wu, O'Campo, & Faden, 2001).
Many support groups for those infected with HIV/AIDS have been focused on providing education as an intervention. Assistance is offered on such things as safer sex practices and HIV/AIDS disclosure in order to decrease the spread of the disease (Kalichman, Rompa, & Cage, 2005). Promoting safe sex within a support group setting has been found to be an effective and successful intervention as exhibited in the following interventions (Coates, McKusick, Kino & Stites, 1989; Orel et al., 2005). A 1980s, stress management program geared to HIV/AIDS males used practices such as relaxation training, exercise, diet and self management skills for stress reduction (Coates et al., 1989). This mental health approach was specifically used to decrease the sexual risk involved in having multiple sexual partners and unhealthy relationships. This program showed that a mental health approach focusing on support and stress reduction can have positive consequences for males living with HIV/AIDS. Oret et al., (2005) found that older adults who had less social support and decreased amounts of interactions within relationships had an increased likelihood of turning to new relationships that focused solely on sexual encounters thus putting themselves and others at greater risk.
Support groups can train individuals to make positive behavioral changes that can include seeking others for support, increasing awareness about safe sex practices, and encouraging ongoing disease management (Buck, 1991; Kalichman et al., 2005). Older person who maintain membership in a support group demonstrate improved treatment outcomes that include practicing safe sex Using protection and disclosure of disease which can decrease the spread of the HIV/AIDS virus (Messed, Kim, & Whetten, 2003). Support groups can offer both mutual support and education so participants can manage their own health. The mutual aid offered can be crucial for patients with chronic disease like HIV/AIDS (Kalichman et al., 2005).
In such interventions where safe sex practices were the focus, older adults were found to have better overall outcomes when any form of support was sought. Therefore, the argument can be made that an individual with HIV/AIDS can benefit from support group atmospheres because they promote empowerment, mutual support, and an opportunity for personal growth (Marino, 2007). Within this type of a group atmosphere older adults are more likely to share their common challenges, issues, and even common needs in others in order to enhance their own life (Kalichman et al., 2005).
The importance and beneficial effects of support groups for those living with HIV/AIDS has received large amounts of attention and has proven that social support is needed for those with HIV/AIDS. However, Shippy and Karpiak (2005) pointed out that most of this research has been focused solely on younger gay men living with HIV/AIDS. In fact, many studies that have examined social support in HIV/AIDS individuals either did not focus on age or totally neglected age as a variable (Catz et al., 2002; Cox, 2002).
Current Social Service Groups
Social service groups are needed in order to provide specialized support to this marginalized population. AIDS service organizations (ASOs) and community based organizations (CBOs) have been organized to provide support as well as other necessary services to the HIV/AIDS population (Shippy & Karpiak, 2005). However, Linsk (2000) argued that these agencies do not offer age sensitive services for older adults living with the disease. When addressing future social services and funding sources, the specific challenges of stigma, ageism, and increased isolation older adults face should receive necessary attention and funding (Peate, 2007).
Best Practices for Support Groups
Homogeneity is a critical component of successful support groups for males over the age of 55 who have HIV/AIDS because the ability to focus on commonalties that participants live and deal with increases effectiveness of support received (Wood, 2007). The proposed support group will be a homogenous group of males over the age of 55. Data suggest that in general members involved in homogenous groups do to tend to come together more as a team, in such a group becomes more cohesive, offers more immediate support, maintains better consistent turnout, experiences less conflict, and provides more immediate relief from symptoms (Yalom, 1995).
Benefits of Proposed Project
Many studies exist on older adults and HIV/AIDS. Three intervention based approaches similar to the proposed project were found that yielded positive outcomes related to increasing support for older adult males over the age of 50. Heckman et al. (2001) reported on a coping group intervention that was run like a support group which consisted of 10 face-to-face group sessions each lasting 75 minutes. The groups were kept small and homogenous according to gender and a closed group format was chosen. The group had 10 goals which were focused around the issues of building rapport, establishing trust and increasing coping skills and increasing quality of life with HIV/AIDS in later life. The researchers found that participating in this type of cognitive behavioral coping improvement group intervention may enhance coping and adjustment among older adults with HIV. Those that participated reported higher rates of problem solving, increased support from friends, higher perceptions of social well-being, and less stress as a result of AIDS-related loss and health worries (Emlet & Shippy, 2008).
There is no doubt that convictions and opinions regarding the fact that no one is given the right to take a person's life, this important issue was exposed by team of professional writers within dissertations for sale service.
A 2003 telephone based support group which offered a psycho-educational approach in support of older HIV positive individuals focused on staying healthy, managing symptoms, optimizing medication, and coping with loss (Nokes, Chew, & Altaian, 2003). This telephone based intervention was co-facilitated by a social worker and registered nurse with sessions running 50-60 minutes for duration of 10 weeks. Researchers indicated that the inability to have face-to-face contact created a challenge specifically due to the lack of non-verbal cues which inhibited rapport building and respect towards other members. Yet the participants, who were gay and heterosexual males, found that sharing coping strategies created feelings of connection between the other members.
The intervention study of Heckman et al. (2008) involved a 12 session coping improvement group intervention delivered by teleconference. For this group all participants had to be over the age of 50, and had to have a HIV/AIDS diagnosis and a history of depressive disorder. Each of the group sessions was held weekly and lasted 90 minutes. This group intervention focused on problem focused coping, how to increase social support, group cohesion, and emotion focused coping. The researchers indicated that participants reported fewer psychological symptoms, less life stress, and healthier coping strategies at the end of the program.
Similar to the above mentioned three interventions, the project proposed herein combines the benefits of support groups with the added benefits of both an educational group that will focus on older persons with HIV/AIDS who have unique needs. Similar to most face-to-face support groups, the group will meet for 90 minutes once a week and will disband after 6 weeks. This closed, time limited approach will allow for all 5 phases of group development (namely, preliminary, beginning, work, and ending) to progress uninterrupted in sequential fashion. If the grant proposal is successfully funded, participants will receive basic information regarding AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA) resources and other local agencies that offer HIV/AIDS related services. Therefore, for that reason, the proposed project will be coordinated in conjunction with APLA's new client enrollment department which is located in Los Angeles, California.
Older men with HIV/AIDS may soon emerge as one of the largest segments of the HIV population (Brennan, 2008). Social workers and other health professionals must have an increased understanding of the impact of this disease on older adults over the age of 50 (Emlet & Shippy, 2008). It can no longer be accepted that older adults are immune from being infected with the HIV virus. As numbers of older persons at-risk for living with HIV/AIDS increases, clinical research must be combined with clinical practice so that integration occurs and gaps do not exist between research and practice with clients (Emlet & Shippy 2008)
You may also order a research or team of professionals when ask "write my dissertation for me" at concerning topic you need.
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Tom Burnett Sr. and I were on the nationally syndicated Mike and Juliet television show this morning, pointing out Islamic symbolism in the planned Flight 93 Memorial. For now at least, Mike and Juliet have the video up and running on their website. (In case this link is not permanent, Curt from Flopping Aces posted the segment on Google video.)
On with us was another family member, Kenneth Nacke (brother of murdered passenger Louis Nacke II), and John Reynolds, chairman of the Memorial Project. The 10 minute segment accomplishes a lot.
With the help of some very revealing on-screen graphics, Tom and I get a chance to explain the overt Islamic symbolism of the original Crescent of Embrace design. Defenders of the crescent can only resort to denying that they can see what is obvious to everyone else, including the hosts.
I was able to say a little bit about why the very slight redesign, adding a few irrelevant trees, does not affect the Islamic and terrorist memorializing features at all, but was not able to explain fully. [The original Crescent of Embrace design, every particle of which remains completely intact in the Bowl of Embrace redesign, is a terrorist memorial mosque, built around the half-mile wide Mecca-oriented crescent. You can plant as many trees as you want around a mosque and it is still a mosque.]
Tom makes very heartfelt appeals for people to take our concerns seriously and to INVESTIGATE it. Altogether, this is great exposure, with many compelling moments. Good job Tom.
Tom and I have also undertaken a number of radio interviews recently. Two days ago we appeared together for 45 minutes on the Don Kroah show out of Arlington Virginia. (Audio requires Real Player. Scroll down to "Monday August 20, 2007 -- Hour 1".)
The show starts with me going over some central Islamic and terrorist memorializing design features, then Tom comes on and makes his protest against the overt Islamic symbolism, and we both talk for a while with Don, who proved to be a very knowledgeable host (pulling out a quote from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette the moment I alluded to it).
Tom and I also appeared separately on the Fred Honzberger show out of Pittsburgh.
Tom was on for a short interview on Monday. Very powerful. I was on for 45 minutes today: "Critic of Flight 93 Memorial design,") part 1 (streaming/podcast) and part 2 (streaming/podcast).
I have done a couple dozen solo interviews over the last month, most of them a half hour to an hour long. Several are linked at CrescentOfBetrayal.com.
Keep up your good work on this.
You have my many thanks.
Overall, good work, and congrats on the TV coverage.
There are potentially shills in the crowd. If you hadn't noticed, the crowd claps at what would ordinarily be silence during the intro of John Reynolds (and he is the only person whose eyes pick out individuals in the crowd). The only other clapping period comes after the host asks a question about the new "circle" not having an orientation, which biases the debate and effectively blocks an answer, which then is picked up on by the park admin. The clapping is similar in intensity, indicating a tiny audience or a roughly equivalent portion of the audience.
Tactically, Alec, you were too strident about Murdoch's being the enemy. Let the audience figure it out -- you run the danger of the crackpot backfire here.
Most of the TV audience has only heard a bit of the argument and lame graphics. I'd focus in a short forum like this instead that although Murdoch might have made a mistake or meant this as a nice gesture to people of Islam, he surely, as a master designer (pump him up), must have recognized at some point the symbolism of a *red* crescent.
Finesse in that despite that they seem not willing to acknowledge that this was ever a crescent. They want the renaming and the reshaping to appear sufficient while not admitting any mistake was made in the first place. That is a core weakness. A small bandaid does not remedy a fatal flaw. [Though I like the "tainted" meme that Burnett hammered on.]
No one said the design had to embrace a half mile of the site along a ridge. The place is pretty barren now, isn't it? And if the place is truly a bowl, then why wasn't the original design a bowl?
Anonymous is commenting on the point where I explain how this could happen: that we hosted an open design competition in time of war, so of course we should not be surprised if the enemy enters and tries to win a memorial to the terrorists.
This is an important point to make because to a lot of people the idea of an intentionally Islamic or terrorist memorial just seems impossible. How could that happen? But anonymous may well be right that it would have been better in this short interview to keep it simpler.
# posted by Alec Rawls : 10:29 AM


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Gorillaz 'Song Machine' Project a New Model for the Music Industry?
By Justin Shamlou
The Gorillaz have been innovative from the start. Damon Albarn's vision of a virtual band resonated with listener's around the globe with hits like 'Feel Good Inc.' and 'Clint Eastwood' among many, many more. The band's visual and sonic aesthetics pushed the envelope with the final product burrowing itself deep in the hearts of younger […]
Photo via Gorillaz.com
#Consumer
The Gorillaz have been innovative from the start. Damon Albarn's vision of a virtual band resonated with listener's around the globe with hits like 'Feel Good Inc.' and 'Clint Eastwood' among many, many more. The band's visual and sonic aesthetics pushed the envelope with the final product burrowing itself deep in the hearts of younger millennials.
With the revolutionary hybrid of hip-hop, electronica, and indie-rock, Albarn created something new. The Gorillaz sold millions of albums world-wide; their second album Demon Days went double platinum in the US and five times platinum in the UK. The band has maintained its fan-base and has consistently put out quality music while the landscape of the music industry has changed.
Staying Afloat in the Shifting Tides of the Music Industry
The departure from physical album sales left many artists and labels without their footing. While most groups maintained their income by focusing heavily on touring, the issue of distribution was still not addressed. The transition from physical to digital sales was a difficult one for most, but the industry has taken an even bigger step away from records and CD's with the rise of streaming platforms.
Artists have struggled to get their fair share with streaming. On top of that, the various different platforms competing with each other — as well as the new ones popping up — have spread artists' revenue thinly across various sources. How are musicians supposed to stay afloat in the saturated music streaming market? It seems like the Gorillaz may have figured out the answer to that question.
Enter the Song Machine
The Song Machine project is a unique audiovisual project that also functions exceptionally well from marketing and business perspectives. The project consists of various "episodes" being released among select streaming platforms.
Each episode gets dropped with little to no notice. This tactic requires fans to subscribe and/or follow the various platforms to be able to catch each release as they come. It also feeds into the word of mouth and social media buzz that drives the project. Music blogs jump on the story of a new episode being released, Twitter and Facebook go nuts, and everyone goes to YouTube or Spotify to catch the newest installment of the series.
The Gorillaz have created a self contained promotional engine that drives listeners to select platforms, a feat which is great for various reasons. Financially speaking, it is an efficient way to drive up numbers and keep your assets from being spread too thin. Creatively speaking, it gets the music straight to the fan base. It also brings back the importance of music videos, an artistic medium which has lost some of its allure over the years. The music videos elevate the artistry of the entire project while also giving the hype machine even more to discuss.
Up and Coming Artists: Take Note!
Yes, the Gorillaz are an established project with a massive following, but the Song Machine project has a distinctly utilitarian ethos. The success of this project relies on fan satisfaction and buzz. It also eliminates the middle man to a certain degree.
The availability of distribution platforms that can get new artists onto streaming services like Spotify could allow up and comers to replicate this model, but realistically, this project could be entirely contained on YouTube and social media. What matters at that point is the creation of a quality product. Then, if the audience is happy, they will like/share/subscribe, and the ball is rolling.
Episode one of the Song Machine, titled "Momentary Bliss", opens with Albarn chatting in the studio, mentioning how "clearly, greed is not good." It then delves into a blend of animation and conventional studio-session videography, bringing the virtual to band to life next to featured artists slowthai and Slaves.
The song itself is an uplifting and rebellious blend of hip-hop and pop-rock, a fun tune that reminds everyone that "we could do so much better than this." The whole track has an energy that a lot of people today need to hear. Episode two has been teased and should be released shortly, if you don't want to miss it you should follow the Song Machine.
Album, amazon, bliss, cd
Justin Shamlou is a Senior Staff Writer at Grit Daily. Based in Miami, he covers international news, consumer brands, tech, art/entertainment, and events. Justin started his career covering the electronic music industry, working as the Miami correspondent for Magnetic Mag and US Editor for Data Transmission.


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Final Impacts from Project Redirection
A Program for Pregnant and Parenting Teens
| Denise Polit, Janet Kahn, David Stevens
Project Redirection was a demonstration program of services for low-income teenage mothers and pregnant teenagers. The major purpose of the demonstration was to assess the feasibility and impacts of a comprehensive service program that attempted to "redirect" the lives of young women whose early parenthood placed them at high risk of welfare dependency and poverty. Project Redirection sought to promote eventual economic self-sufficiency among these young women.
The original Project Redirection demonstration was put into operation in Boston, Massachusetts; New York City (Harlem), New York; Phoenix, Arizona; and Riverside, California. The program, which was implemented in community-based organizations in these four sites, began enrolling participants in mid-1980. The original demonstration was concluded in 1983. The demonstration was expanded to include seven new replication sites in 1983. This document focuses on program impacts during the initial demonstration.
Low-Income PopulationsPopulations with Barriers to EmploymentFamilies
Focus Population:
High School DropoutsWelfare RecipientsSingle-Parent Families
Arizona, California, Massachusetts, New York
Intervention:
Case Management, Employment Services, GED Completion, Job Training, Parenting Skills Programs, Welfare-to-Work
Solutions We're Working On
Questions We're Asking
Issues We Focus On
Populations We Work With
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2020 MDRC®
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All tuition policies can be found in the Parent Handbook. Tuition is due in two equal payments on May 1st and November 1st. Monthly payments are 15% more and they are due on the 15th of the month before to reserve your child's space for the following month.
Age 3 months until walking.


It's been five years since Superstorm Sandy struck the Eastern seaboard late during the 2012 hurricane season. Recently, local city and government officials were interviewed to give their perspective on the storm in a five-year overview video created by James Miller for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
The storm hit the Atlantic seaboard on October 29, 2012. Record storm surge was recorded along the coasts of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts, according to NOAA.
Officials discussed their perception of preparedness before the storm and whether that perception changed after Sandy's destruction.
According to Adam Schneider, the mayor of Long Branch, New Jersey, the warnings prompted evacuations and set up of emergency shelters."We had an idea of what was coming, we'd been through storm, but for a week we'd been told this was the big one. This was bigger than anything else you've ever seen," said Schneider.
Jerome Hatfield, former deputy director of the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management, said they were more than prepared for Sandy.
"I think that some of the challenges we faced had a lot to do with mother nature on taking course into the equation and really changing the complexity of the impacts of Sandy to the coastline," said Hatfield.
The mayor of Stafford Townships in New Jersey, John Spodofora, agreed that they were adequately prepared for the storm.
Bill Vogel, FEMA's federal coordinating officer in New Jersey at the time, stated they were as prepared as they could be.
"I've got to tell you though, that thing was the Perfect Storm," added Vogel.
After the storm had cleared and losses were tallied, Sandy edged in at number four on the list of the top 10 costliest catastrophes in the U.S. The late season storm caused almost $19 million in insured losses (in 2012 dollars), according to Property Claim Services, a Verisk Analytics business.
Despite massive preparations in cities along the East Coast, many were surprised by the sheer force and damage caused by the storm.
Tony Vaz, the mayor of Seaside Heights, N.J., explained his shock at the devastation.
FEMA's coordinating officer in New York, Michael Byrne, was surprised by the flooding.
Vogel said that what made it so bad was that the storm occurred at high tide.
"It was a very significant storm but technically it was not nearly as bad as what it could have been. But because of the tidal surge, because of the perfect storm, because of the phase of the moon, it had landfall within 10 minutes of the highest point of high tide in Sandy Hook. So, therefore with the high tide and the surge and the waves on top of that there was so much devastation on the beach," Vogel explained.
There was a lot of structural damage in his town, Spodofora said.
The Stafford Townships mayor said the town's community center was destroyed. He said one lesson learned is that a new community center was built outside the flood zone with the aid of FEMA grant money.
Though recovery is a long process, according to Vogel and Schneider, if it's done right it will lead to better resilience in the wake of future storms.


Please join us tonight (Monday, April 9th) at 5:30pm at the Martinos Auditorium of the Granoff Center for the Creative Arts, for an evening lecture by Will Allen, CEO of Growing Power and MacArthur Foundation Grant Recipient. Mr Allen will be speaking on the topic of "A Good Food Revolution," on the occasion of the exhibition A Natural Order by Lucas Foglia, curated by Jo-Ann Conklin at the David Winton Bell Gallery.
Mr Allen's visit has been made possible by the support of the Creative Arts Council, the Visual Arts Department, the Center for Environmental Studies, the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities & Cultural Heritage, and South Side Community Land Trust.
Will Allen, son of a sharecropper, former professional basketball player, ex-corporate sales leader, and longtime farmer, has become recognized as among the preeminent thinkers of our time on agriculture and food policy. The founder and CEO of Growing Power Inc., a farm and community food center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Allen is widely considered the leading authority in the expanding field of urban agriculture. At Growing Power and in community food projects across the nation and around the world, Allen promotes the belief that all people, regardless of their economic circumstances, should have access to fresh, safe, affordable and nutritious foods at all times. Using methods he has developed over a lifetime, Allen trains community members to become community farmers, assuring them a secure source of good food without regard to political or economic forces. In 2008 Mr. Allen received the prestigous MacArthur "Genius grant" for his efforts to promote urban sustainable food systems. Later, in 2010 Mr. Allen joined First Lady Michelle Obama as she launched the White House's "Let's Move" campaign to address issues affecting American youth and the risk of obesity and later that year was also recognized as one of TIME magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World. Since then, Mr. Allen has received numerous awards and recognitions, including the James Beard Award in 2011 and the NCAA Theodore Roosevelt Award in 2012.
Growing Power was started in Milwaukee, Wis., in 1993 by Will Allen, a 2008 winner of a MacArthur "Genius Award" who has long worked to produce and deliver healthy food to low-income communities. It is a national nonprofit organization and land trust supporting people from diverse backgrounds, and the environments in which they live, by helping to provide equal access to healthy, high-quality, safe and affordable food for people in all communities. Growing Power implements this mission by providing hands-on training, on-the-ground demonstration, outreach and technical assistance through the development of Community Food Systems that help people grow, process, market and distribute food in a sustainable manner.


Ehelepola Kumarihamy and children who were in the Walawwe, the present Kandy Remand Prison were taken in a procession to Deva Sanhinda for execution. The eldest son Loku Banda having seen the executioner ran and hid under the mothers saree when the seven-year old Medduma Bandara the child hero marched up to the executor and said, "Do not fear death Ayyandi. I will show you how to die" and turning to the executors said "cut my neck with one shot."
It was the reign of Keerthi Sri Rajasinghe in Senkadagala. The King's Prime Minister was Ranmalaka Adhikaram of Udunuwara.
After two hundred and twenty years yet another son of Udunuwara from the Peradeniya dynasty, Konoppu Bandara, ascended to the Senkadagala throne as Wimaladharmasooriya. It was exactly four hundred years after Wimaladharmasooriya that Dingiri Banda Wijetunga assumed duties as the third Executive President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka - an uncrowned king.
Ranmalaka Adhikaram was the most trusted official of Keerthi Sri Rajasinghe's court that when the Adhikaram was advancing in age and getting feeble the King requested Adhikaram to nominate a suitable successor for the post. Adhikaram with no hesitation named a cousin of his Punchirala as his successor.
When Kannasamy ascended the throne as Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe, Punchirala was later to become his chief Adhikram or Prime Minister who was later to create an indelible mark in the history of Sri Lanka as Ehelepola Maha Nilame.
The events that led to the annihilation of the Ehelepola dynasty is so intertwined with each other like the pearls in a necklace. The story which unfolds will show the reasons for the greatest catastrophe recorded in Kandyan history and the nature of Sri Wickrama.
The King once desired to pay a visit to Punchirala's father Mudiyanse who was then known as Ehelepola Dissawa of Uva. As the king set on his journey on his entourage was a young lad Appuhamy. Half way the king asked Appuhamy to go in advance and inform Mudiyanse (Ehelepola Dissawa of Uva) of his courtesy call. Appuhamy ran ahead and informed the Disawa of the royal visit.
The Disawa who was now aged, but with bright eyes and a broad forehead immediately ordered a servant to bring a suitable dress to go in advance to receive the royal party. Appuhamy intervened and said "Disahamuduruwo you have no time to dress. Deiyo is closed by" and persuaded the old Disawa to come out of his house. Mudiyanse who had developed a strange power to foresee future happenings was unhappy and said "Appuhamy one day you will pay for your haste. You will be beheaded under a Keppetiya Tree." (Croten Lacciferum). This Appuhamy was later to become the Pilamathalawe Maha Adikaram who was beheaded in 1812. Punchirala assumed the position of 1st Adigar or Prime Minister, in todays parlance.
Pilimatalawes group made various allegations against Ehelepola but the King did not take them seriously or at least show any signs of displeasure.
The wedding presents given to the King by his Prime Minister Ehelepola did not please the King as he had expected more valuable presents. The refusal by the king to accept the presents brought the crisis overtly.
It was at this time that a revolt was staged in the Sabaragamuwa Disawe by the people refusing to pay the taxes to the royal treasury. Ehelepole was sent to quell the rebellion. Ehelepola went to Sabaragamuwa and lodged in the same house at Batugedara where the king also used to spend his time when he visited Sabaragamuwa. This action of the Disawa was not to the king's liking. This house is today known as Ehelepola Walawwe.
Like some of the present day Ministers there were Ministers at the time too who will carry tales to get special favours from the king. Molligoda Adikaram was chief among them. He informed the King that Ehelepola was preparing a golden sword and a crown to become the king.
The king immediately summoned Ehelepola to Kandy. When Ehelepola received the talipot of summons he replied the king that he was engaged in some irrigation channel construction and also preparing some gifts as presents to the king and that he will be soon back in Senkadagala. Molligoda waited in a kadawatha (guard place) and got hold of Ehelepola's reply and interpolated to say "Oh king I am not your slave.
I am not bound to do as you dictate. I also want time to finish my work" and gave the message to be delivered to the king. The king was furious when he read the reply. He immediately dispatched another ola with the message "all your health is in Senkadagala and the lives of your children are in my hands".
Ehelepola was surprised to receive such a reply from the king. He thought that there is some misunderstanding and immediately sent back a reply asking for pardon if there is any misunderstanding and that he will soon return to Senkadagala.
Molligoda once again sent a distorted ola. It said, "Oh King if you want to kill my children and eat their flesh you may do so I don't mind." Is this not enough reason for the wrath of the King? Not only Molligoda there was another tale carrier in the court who added fuel to the fire. He was Basnayake Nilame of Kandepola.
He told the king that whenever the chief Adigar sees a man from udarata he questioned, "how is the Tamil fellow in Senkadagala getting on?". When these events were unfurling the king also reminisced the past. On such occasion was the visit to Gangasiripura, now Gampola.
When the king visits it was customary for his four queens, the Ministers and their spouses to join in these visits, (modern day field/inspection/visits). One day the king observed that Ehelepola's wife was not in the group and asked why she has not come. One of the four queens replied thus, "Oh king do you expect women of such advanced stage of pregnancy to join you in this trips?".
Another incident was where the king had seen a "heelekam mitiya" the records of revenue collected by the Portuguese in some villages in Sabaragamuwa now abandoned by them. The king had sent Ehelepola to collect this revenue for the king but Ehelepola did not collect this revenue as he said that the revenue from these villages were not collected during the reign of several kings of Senkadagala.
Culmination of these incidents led to the king sending Molligoda to capture Ehelepola and bring him to Kandy. By now Molligoda was appointed Adikaram of Pallegampaha which post was held by Ehelepola.
Molligoda went to Sabaragamuwa with a crowd to capture Ehelepola but in a confrontation that ensued, with the help of Hakurugammana Mohottala Ehelepola was able to escape and fled to the British.
It was the May 17th, 1814. Molligoda brought forty-seven chiefs of Sabaragamuwa as prisoners to be executed on this day. Nuwara Kalaviya Dissawe Pussella who is supposed to have brewed a special red arrack for the king was also executed with other members of his family.
The crowds gathered to witness this scene. The daughters were put into a mortar and the mother was ordered to pound them. Ehelepola Kumarihamy holding her hands to the four deities requested that the king be punished for the misdeed. The wrath fell on Sri Wickrama when exactly nine months after this gruesome butchery on 17.02.1815 he was captured prisoner thus ending over two thousand years of rule by the kings. It is recorded that the household in Senkadagala lamented these gruesome murders without kindling a fire or lighting a lamp for three days.


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A new kind of geriatrician – introducing interface geriatricians
Posted on 28/10/2013 by Webitor
Gillian Fox, Alison Cracknell, Sadia Ismail and Eileen Burns are all Consultants in Interface Geriatrics at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
Leeds Teaching Hospitals has a 60 bedded general adult medical admissions unit and a 60 bedded Elderly Admissions Unit with comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) embedded to either facilitate discharge to community services with ongoing assessment and/or rehabilitation where needed or begin treatment and investigation before transfer to an elderly care ward.
As part of the Leeds acute care model, 2012 saw the introduction of Interface Geriatricians (IGs). This service was developed with initial funding from the PCT (later CCGs) aiming to avoid admission where appropriate. We have developed a model for working for the IG that covers 3 key areas of interface – community, PCAL (primary care access line) and the emergency department (ED).
Emergency Department (ED) Work
In response to high admission rates for older people from the Emergency Department there was a recognition that an early assessment by a specialist with the key skills and knowledge of community services could avoid some admissions and provide a high quality early assessment to others who require admission.
We developed a service offering Consultant Geriatrician review of older people presenting acutely to the ED. In conjunction with our early discharge assessment team (EDAT) the interface geriatricians perform an early CGA beginning within the first hour of presentation.
The results of our ED service in its first year:
590 patients seen and received CGA from expert clinicians
60 per cent of these were discharged from ED
For comparison- the usual ED discharge rate is 20-25 per cent in the over 85s and 28-33 per cent of 75-85 year olds.
We monitored the rate of readmission (as a balance measure) for all the patients reviewed and found no difference in the readmission rate for this group discharged from ED (18 per cent) compared with the overall readmission rate after discharge from our Medicine for Older People wards (17 per cent).
Feedback from patients and the ED staff has been overwhelmingly positive.
Primary Care Access Line work
The Primary care access line (PCAL) is a nurse-led telephone service enabling GPs and other community staff (e.g. Matrons, ICT) direct access to specialty beds. Interface geriatricians are available to provide clinical advice on older patients using a conference call between the GP and PCAL nurse. We provide advice to general practitioners and other community staff, where appropriate considering alternatives to admission, including ICT, advance care planning and access to early Specialist outpatients review.
For the PCAL patients we have provided expert advice on 209 older patients of which:
19 per cent did not require an admission;
2 per cent were admitted directly to an intermediate care bed;
5 per cent had attended the acute trust for assessment only ; and
A total of 26 per cent admissions were avoided.
Moreover, early outpatients use was lower than predicted, but has been a vital tool in appropriately investigating older people. (10 appointments used)
We monitored all the patients discussed for admission at a later date and found 19 per cent did not need admission at all.
An additional 7 per cent who were not admitted then were admitted later (within 28 days) – often to another specialty (i.e. likely unrelated) and this compares favourably with the average readmission rate for older people. (17 per cent).
Leeds is acknowledged nationally as one of the forerunners in the Integration of health and social care. A citywide transformation project is currently ongoing. The city has been divided into 12 neighbourhoods with an Integrated Health and Social Care (IHSC) team for each neighbourhood. These comprise a core team of social workers, district nurses and community matrons, who are co-located in the new teams. There are then strong links to other community services such as general practice, heart failure nurses, respiratory nurses etc.
For the community work there is clearly a real appetite for interface geriatricians, as feedback from community teams and general practitioners has shown, along with rising numbers of referrals to us as relationships are established. GPs and community staff really value our skills in CGA.
We have attended 40 risk stratification MDTs, we have provided 40 domiciliary visits and we have established case review meetings with the integrated teams in our areas, giving the chance to review patients who everybody within the team knows, but whose care has not been joined up until now.
A robust evaluation is taking place across the whole of the integration project looking at length of stay, admission rates, admissions to long term care and crucially patient and carer experience. Evaluation of the isolated impact of the geriatrician is challenging but activity data and feedback from community staff and patients has been collected, and the GP commissioners have funded the service for a further year of evaluation. A key aspect is the supportive relationships that have developed, and accessibility for GPs and other community staff to contact IGs about a patient who may be causing concern.
Our novel integrated acute care model has delivered high quality early assessment to frail older people and developed good multi-disciplinary working practices across traditional boundaries. It is already bringing efficiency improvements in terms of reduced admissions and a contribution to reducing length of stay.
New community working practices have led to improved staff support, and provided older people in the community with expert assessment by geriatricians, but it will take time for benefits such as admission avoidance and increased time spent in the community to be realised.
We continue to develop and refine our assessment processes. We are encouraged by our early successes and by reports from our patients and their carers of the improved experience of integrated care.
For the full article on the Leeds acute care model which incorporates Interface Geriatricians, click here.
This entry was posted in Interface Geriatrics, News and tagged Acute care, Age, Care homes, Community, Continuing Care, Dignity, discharge, End of Life Care, Geriatrics, Health, Hospital, interact geriatrics, interface, multi-disciplinary by Webitor. Bookmark the permalink.


See, Shop, Love!: New Subscription Alert: Hasbro Gaming Crate!
New Subscription Alert: Hasbro Gaming Crate!
Hasbro has launched the first-ever gaming subscription, Hasbro Gaming Crate! Subscriptions are now open for this service that will deliver exclusive games right to your door.
The Party Crate: Games geared towards college students, young adults, and parents looking to enjoy "adults only" game nights. New games include Judgmental, Box of Rocks, and Speak Out: Joe Santagato Edition.
The Family Crate: Offers games designed to be played and enjoyed by kids and adults. New family games will include Mask of the Pharoah, Leo Goes to the Barber, and Tricky Wishes.
Starting today, June 19th, you can sign up at the Hasbro Gaming Crate website. You'll receive one crate every three months for $49.99 plus shipping per crate. The first crates will ship in early fall and you can cancel at any time. This service is currently only open to U.S. subscribers.
Visit Hasbro Gaming Crate to subscribe!
Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog! I love any and all feedback and I read every comment.
Welcome to See, Shop, Love! I'm Danielle and I post product reviews for subscription services, beauty and skincare, and some occasional other things, too. Thanks for stopping by!
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Exploded View, a new four-piece fronted by political journalist-turned-musician Anika, will release their self-titled debut album, via Sacred Bones this August, and, above, you can check out the video for single 'Orlando' right now.
The single was completed in 2014 and the video captured shortly before the recent shootings at the LGBTQ nightclub, Pulse, in Orlando, Florida earlier this month. "Quoting from Virginia Woolf's iconic novel Orlando: A Biography (1928), 'Life, it sings, or croons rather, like a kettle on a hob, Life, life what art thou?', as the main character has become a symbol to all those who believe they can free themselves from the restrictions imposed on our bodies, on our freedoms, to or from," says Anika.
"The song is a celebration of life's simple pleasures; of union in our differences. In the wake of our pain, when some have downplayed the chosen identity of the victims, while others may have concentrated solely on that, it is important to remember that this affects all of us. Whatever happens, dance floors should continue to be a space for freedom of expression, for life's simple pleasures and a safe haven for so many communities around the world."
Exploded View play Green Man Festival in Wales on August 21 and London's Shacklewell Arms on August 23 while their debut album will be released on August 19.


text:
import React, { Component, PropTypes } from 'react';
import { observer } from 'mobx-react';

import { api } from './parity';

import Button from './button';
import Modal from './modal';

import styles from './index.css';

const MAX_CHARACTERS = 160;

@observer
export default class ModalNewQuestion extends Component {
  static propTypes = {
    store: PropTypes.object.isRequired
  }

  state = {
    question: '',
    questionCharactersLeft: MAX_CHARACTERS
  }

  render () {
    const { store } = this.props;
    const { question, questionCharactersLeft } = this.state;

    if (!store.showNewQuestionModal) {
      return null;
    }

    let submitLabel = 'ask';
    if (store.questionFee.gt(0)) {
      submitLabel =
{ submitLabel } ({ api.util.fromWei(store.questionFee).toFormat(3) } ETH)
;
    }

    return (
      <Modal
        buttons={ [
          <Button
            disabled={ questionCharactersLeft >= 156 || questionCharactersLeft < 0 }
            icon='question'
            label={ submitLabel }
            onClick={ this.onSubmit } />
        ] }
        title='submit a new question'
        onClose={ this.onClose }>
        <textarea
          placeholder='The actual question to ask'
          value={ question }
          onChange={ this.onChangeQuestion } />
        <div className={ `${styles.textareaInfo} ${questionCharactersLeft < 0 ? styles.error : ''}` }>
          { questionCharactersLeft } character{ questionCharactersLeft === 1 ? '' : 's'} remaining

      </Modal>
    );
  }

  onChangeQuestion = (event) => {
    const value = event.target.value;
    const question = `${value.trim()}${value[value.length - 1] === ' ' ? ' ' : ''}`;
    const questionCharactersLeft = MAX_CHARACTERS - question.length;

    this.setState({ question, questionCharactersLeft });
  }

  onClose = () => {
    this.setState({ question: '', questionLength: 0 });
    this.props.store.toggleNewQuestionModal();
  }

  onSubmit = () => {
    this.props.store.newQuestion(this.state.question.trim());
    this.onClose();
  }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Today's post, luxury IWC watches in sport! That was NBA Great Michael Jordan Wearing An IWC Big Pilot While Receiving The Presidential Medal Of Freedom.
Make way outside the five NBA MVP trophies, MJ. at the White House, Michael Jordan in NOV 22, 2016- you know, the guy who won six NBA championships (where he was the MVP of the Six Finals) and who is the absolute leader in the league in points per game – received the Medal President of Freedom by President Obama. And what MJ was on his wrist while receiving the highest civilian honor of the nation? This appears to be an IWC Big Pilot Platinum Limited Edition, ref. 5002-02.
The petition was made by the IWC in limited quantities, from about 2003 to 2006. Michael Friedberg, the IWC historian, wrote that references 5002-02 (blue line) and 5002-03 (black sphere) were made In very small quantities for each year of production, and the IWC does not officially have figures published in numbers with blue or black dial. The reference 5005-02 was initially announced at Baselworld in 2002.
Click here to learn more: High quality replica IWC watches!


The new millennium has witnessed a staggering rise of the South. During 2003-08, the average growth of developing economies (DEs) exceeded that of advanced economies (AEs) by some 5 percentage points, compared to around one point in the 1980s and 1990s. The difference widened further during 2008-11 as most DEs proved resilient to the crisis while growth collapsed in AEs.
This growth divergence has widely been seen as the decoupling of the South from the North. However, the evidence does not show the desynchronisation of cycles between DEs and AEs, and deviations of economic activity from underlying trends continue to be highly correlated. The more significant question is whether there has been a durable shift in the trend growth of the South relative to the North. Such a view is widely held, including among policy makers in DEs. However, a closer look suggests that the growth surge in the South owes as much, if not more, to exceptional and unsustainable global economic conditions as it does to improvements in their own fundamentals. There is, consequently, no room for complacency in policy circles in DEs.
Latin America: On the road to neo-extractivism?
Last week Argentina's president Cristina Kirchner nationalized 51% of the Spanish (majority) owned oil company Repsol-YPF. Madrid threatened reprisals but Kirchner reaffirmed her decision with nationalistic undertones. Many in Latin America saw the Argentinean resolve as an example of the region's quest to recover control over its natural resources.
Progressive movements interpreted this act as proof that winds of change in Latin America are definitely moving away from the dark history of neoliberalism. But one question remains in the horizon: is Latin America returning to a form of extractivism?
Extractivism represents the time of enclaves, appalling social and labor conditions and the submission of central governments to the power of big international firms. It epitomizes the unfair and asymmetric integration of Latin America to the world economy at the end of the 19th century. The import substitution development strategy implemented between 1940 and 1978 was designed to escape from this trap. The debt crisis detonated in 1982 and the neoliberal policy package implemented in many countries in the region destroyed the industrial tissue built during the import substitution strategy.
Last week, U.S.-nominee Jim Kim was elected to be the next president of the World Bank group. Some well-known US economists and World Bank "insiders" criticized the choice – and supported Kim's opponent Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala — because Kim is not an economist. From that criticism, one would surmise that the majority of World Bank presidents have indeed been economists.
1. To repeat: Jim Kim does not hold a graduate degree in economics. How many of the eleven World Bank presidents do have graduate degrees (masters or doctorate) in economics?
ANSWER: None. While you would not know it from the criticisms of Kim, had Okonjo-Iweala won, she would have been the first. She holds a Ph.D. in regional economic development from the MIT.
Labor market coordination is the lynchpin of high-performance societies that maximize economic growth and equality, yet why does business ever cooperate? In a story replete with unintended consequences, The Political Construction of Business Interests recounts employers' struggles to define their collective social identities at turning points in capitalist development, to understand why coordinated capitalism emerges in some countries but not others. The book tells of the construction of peak employers' associations at the beginning of the Twentieth Century, the efforts to sustain these associations at century's end, and the impact of these institutions on employers' preferences for the welfare state.
In our blog in December we provide a quick critique of the 'fiscal compact' for the Economic and Monetary Union ('euro area') (now to be embodied in the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance). The fiscal compact is more rigorous in terms of the constraints on budget deficits of the member states in relation to those that were contained in the Stability and Growth Pact and the requirement for a 'structural balanced budget'. The proposed Treaty (signed by all the European Union members with the exception of the UK and the Czech Republic, and currently under a process of ratification by national parliaments) makes no mention of the role of the 'independent' European Central Bank.
The ministerial meeting of the UN Conference on Trade and Development kicked off to a good start last Saturday with a opening session marked by a modern play and dance depicting the inequalities of the modern world, and with speeches by an impressive group of political leaders, including the Emir of Qatar, the President of Tunisia who came to power in the wake of the Arab Spring, and the Prime Ministers or Presidents of Turkey and Bangladesh.
Most of them stressed the need to rethink the model of economic growth that was driven by a financial system that is now seen as dysfunctional and by a pattern of development that may be economically and environmentally unsustainable.
UNCTAD—the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development—is holding its 13th quadrennial conference in Doha, Qatar this week (April 21–26). As South Centre Director, Martin Khor, underscored in his Triple Crisis blog last Friday, the meeting has generated considerably controversy, the first time UNCTAD has created such waves in more than a decade. Created in the 1960s as a forum for developing countries to explore global and regional macro-economic issues independently of the Western country-dominated Bretton Woods institutions, UNCTAD has never had an easy ride from the U.S., UK and other major powers. But for the first 20 or so years of its existence, UNCTAD received the resources and respect it needed to make a big contribution to supporting initiatives that supported development, from preferential trading schemes, to commodity agreements, to what were called "rules to control restrictive business practices" (today more commonly referred to as competition policy).
On 21 April, the UNCTAD ministerial conference known as UNCTAD XIII begins in Doha. It is shaping up as an important milestone to reaffirm – or not – the mandate given to UNCTAD to work on key global economic issues, including finance and macro-economic policy.
In fact, UNCTAD enjoys that mandate already, given its role in the UN system to organize an integrated perspective on trade, finance and economic issues.
However, some developed countries have attempted to dilute the specific issues that the UNCTAD secretariat has highlighted in recent years, especially in the wake of the global financial and economic crisis.


text:
About Studio Andrew Todd
Kengo Kuma Global Awards Portrait
Chapter in the book 'Sustainable Archtecture 5', portrait of Kuma on the occasoin of him winning the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture in 2017
Download PDF • 1.01MB
Historians looking back at us in 200 years may note that -at a time of obvious, profound, spiraling danger for our environment- almost none of the Champions League of taste-making, competition-gobbling architects exhibited anything remotely close to an acknowledgment of the scale and meaning of this crisis. There might be lip service paid to a certain new eco-decorum through the presence of an extra consultant around the design team table, specifying a bit of ground-sourced heating, solar paneling and rainwater harvesting; but -squinting at any contemporary review, or listening to the authors occupying the top of the League- it would be almost impossible to detect anything other than an 18th-Century notion of nature as something to be contemplated for picturesque reasons, or a 22nd-century notion of extra technology saving us from our addiction to technology, a nostalgia for the future as a better place with snazzier, smarter gadgets.
Despite wide awareness of the problem, the failure of eco-conceptual trickle-up to the loudest voices in the profession has deep consequences in terms of emulation by the young and the construction of the mindset of publicity-hungry commissioning bodies. Some hide behind the fig leaf of eco-ratings, which are commonly skewed towards industrial, off-the-shelf, box-ticking solutions, and which give overwhelming importance to designed energy consumption. Such ratings rarely provide any reliable mechanism for monitoring post-occupancy behaviour and consumption, which can have huge leverage on actual performance. The elephant in the room -embodied energy from the construction process itself- is up to 50 times bigger than the annual consumption of an average building, meaning that how (and why) the building is made are vastly more important -in the short to medium term- than how it 'performs'. This gives the lie to tragedies such as Masdar City, an eco-utopia that nobody wants.
Kengo Kuma is a relatively new arrival in the Champions League, perhaps squinting a bit in the floodlights, still deciding what position to play on the pitch; he has also been roughed up by his co-Leaguer Zaha Hadid over the Tokyo Olympic Stadium contest. He is a vastly important addition to the League -and to the Global Award squad- because of his patient, modest attention to materials which are not just more sustainable, but have myriad social, historical and philosophical benefits. His embodied energy elephant is a baby Dumbo compared to some of his team-mates' mammoth footprints and -perhaps more importantly- he points us towards a haptic, craft-based, sensual occupation of the world which expresses nature not as something needing to be cured scientifically, but as a complex system with which we have innumerable common points, sympathies and synergies. The occasionally tiny scale of his work (one project is listed as 'total size: 87.88 m2') would cause a system crash for any of his co-Leaguers' business model algorithms.
Kuma very rarely -if ever- uses the familiar, do-gooding rhetoric of the eco-responsible architect, which is all about problem-solving, demonstrable performance and progress. He has, however, developed a subtle and original discourse concerning this question of 'progress' and how it relates to nature. In his book 'Natural Architecture / Small Architecture' he argues that architectural history is far from the forward-marching, technology-enabled smooth ascent that mainstream accounts would have us believe. It is, rather, a succession of irrational spasms spawned by nature's occasional outbursts at our expense, whether the earthquakes of Lisbon (1755) or Tokyo (1923) or the great fires of London (1667) or Chicago (1871). In each case -he argues- society responded by trying to get architecturally bigger, more apparently strong and enduring, in an obvious exercise of denial. The case of Tokyo he takes personally, crediting it with sweeping aside the city's wooden heritage in a regulatory paranoia, resulting in the steroidal city we know today. He told me:
I was born in a small wooden house, a very flexible building which we expanded over time, we changed the partitions very easily. I still remember the smell of the house, obviously very different from a concrete apartment. I studied at an elementary school of wood as well, something which hardly exists any more. I really want to go back to Tokyo as it was before the second world war, a city with a low silhouette, an amazing street activity. This is the basis of Japanese culture. The Japanese mentality is based on this kind of intimate city: culture, space and material are very much related. Now that we have the cityscape you see through my office window, this totally changes the mentality and the way of thinking. It's not good for Japan: our sensitivities, our delicacy are killed by concrete. This is my motivation.
The litany of past disasters is certainly nothing compared to those yet to come as nature bites us back for having brought her down; we might eventually assimilate nature's future assaults on our coastal cities and agriculture to another paradigm of paranoia, the 'war' on terror, which -following Kuma's reasoning- involves rearing up like a wounded Godzilla and throwing vast resources at a 'problem' which is unlikely to be thus solved.
What should we do, then? Kuma -admirably, especially for a Champions League player- advocates that we get smaller, and do more with our hands; and he leads by example. He writes -regarding the Tohuku earthquake of 2011 and the attendant Fukushima disaster:
The world is beginning to scale down from big to small. We humans are starting to wean ourselves off big systems (like nuclear power), we're transforming ourselves, actively using our hands and animal wiles to create our nest and energy.
Kuma credits the stagflation episode of 1990s Japan with liberating him personally in this sense. Having emerged as the author of the overbearingly postmodern M2 building, he was cut down to size and forced to continue through a series of modest regional projects throughout the downturn. These brought him into contact with local craft and vernacular traditions -something he had already explored in west Africa with his teacher Hiroshi Hara- and gave him skill in using locally available and produced materials, especially adobe, hinoki cypress, thatch, bamboo and washi hand-made paper. It should be noted that these materials can have an outlaw quality, existing in a slightly anarchic grey economy beyond the confines of catalogues, markets and standards. Kuma -perhaps uniquely for an architect working at his level- energetically engages government figures to advance regulations and develop acceptance of new materials such as cross-laminated timber.
He literally had to roll up his sleeves and work experimentally in order for buildings such as the astonishingly modest (87.88m2!) Takayanagi Community Centre to see the light of day -a light which is now lustrously filtered through its painstakingly crafted paper facade. The same goes for bamboo, which he has used as entire culms in the Great (Bamboo) Wall house outside Beijing, employing ancestral (and industrially 'imprecise') oil treatments. A self-described 'guadua gaga,' he even imported containers of the massive Columbian bamboo just to mess around with, to see what could be done (I confess to having followed his crazy example with the Balinese Dendrocalamus Asper I imported for the Hardelot Theatre in northern France). Kuma's marvelous use of abobe bricks in the Toyoura-cho Buddha Statue Repository had a great deal to do with the skill of craftsman Akira Kuzumi, himself a different kind of repository -of millenial knowledge relating to earth construction.
This could appear as a kind of nativist, conservative return to 'roots,' but Kuma actually goes far beyond this, conceptually and materially. He advocates a 'particulate' approach to architecture, meaning that one starts -like the painter Georges Seurat- with the smallest indivisible quantity of an element, and through build-up, repetition and variation, one forms a whole which can never be detached from this smallest module. This is not the British 'high-tech' veneration of the perfectly-conceived, optimised, polished component reproduced ad infinitum to make 'architecture,' but -rather- a way of generating empathy with our surroundings, extending them as an extrapolation of things we can touch, manipulate and make for ourselves (like the flexible partitions of his childhood home). It's a question of that mysteriously unfashionable term, scale, and also of our implication within the world as an actor of its substance -rather than as a passive extra in a frozen Euclidian stage set.
In the case of the hinoki sticks used in projects such as the Sunnyhills Shop in Tokyo or the Prostho Museum Research Centre, these 'particles' are of a size which can be held in the hand; we can relate haptically to the building unit through our primary means of apprehending the world. It's no coincidence either that they can also be locally made in modest workshops, cutting out the industrialist middle-man and keeping transport down. If not grey energy, there is, however, a great deal of embodied grey matter in these two projects. The crazy wooden grids are not just for visual effect; they are structural, and -in the latter case- assembled without mechanical fixing, merely locked together following the children's 'chidori' toy. This involved experimental structural testing and many, many prototypes. It probably -contrary to many Champions co-Leaguers' habits- involved minimal computer modeling.
And you can tell: the Sunnyhills Shop -a small café and sales outlet for delicious organic pineapple cakes, made of a buzzing cloud of cypress sticks- is as bonkers as anything in Tokyo, but somehow inevitable, timely and timeless, enveloping, tender, loving its light and tiny plot, making the most out of meagre conditions to create a celebration both of Tokyo miniaturism and Japanese ingenuity with natural materials. It is truly four-dimensional, accepting patina and weathering, its structural flesh and visual envelope made of its individual filaments with an extraordinary directness, skill and rigour. You might call it a Miesian building for the eco-apocalypse age. By comparison, Herzog and de Meuron's brand new Miu Miu shop a few metres away is like decadent, overpriced Kristal champagne to Sunhyhill's profoundly satisfying sparkling organic wine.
A few streets further south of this scene lies a totally different facet of Kuma's work in the serene Nezu Museum. If Sunnyhills is a crazy pudding, Nezu is a rich, satisfying broth, composed to an old recipe but with understated contemporary virtuosity. The composition is familiar to anyone knowing the spatial tricks of a Zen Temple: low eaves calming you down, giving you a sense of being enveloped before you enter the building, and then a disorienting approach involving two perpendicular turns to erase your attachment to the corrupt world you came from. In this case you turn from the street and walk under a projecting roof of impossibly thin steel with abstracted traditional tiles on top, a wall dressed in cut bamboo to the left and a growing bamboo screen to the right. Around the second corner you are swallowed by a glazed entrance which reveals the delightful continuation of the greenery beyond the building: you have left the city to enter a contemplative garden. Inside a double-height hall -clad in sharp sheets of bamboo- signals other volumes nested under oversailing sloped roof planes. Across the garden a tea room appears to float without support, a folded, silvery soffit lending a calm and sensuous atmosphere to the experience of refreshing oneself in the midst of nature. Look very (very) closely and you can detect how the chunky seismically-determined structure is magically made to disappear from the prospect of the garden. The aim is not virtuosity for its own sake: according to Kuma, it is an anti-standard, anti-Western museum, designed to allow the contemplation of traditional Japanese art in the non-neutral conditions of omnipresent nature.
Kuma is prolific and one could go on and on, examining the superinsulated, translucent Memu Meadows Experimental House or his provocative Asakusa Cultural Tourism Information Centre which he describes as a tower made of eight single-storey buildings, and so on. French sociologist Sophie Houdart -who spent a year examining Kuma's work environment- describes it as a kind of anthill without hierarchy, full of 'little people' (Kuma included), patiently nibbling away at various problems. Houdart's teacher Bruno Latour has lent Kuma a key concept in his work, that of actor network theory, situating the citizen in an interconnected environment of things and people, all having varying degrees of agency. Kuma remarks wryly that his anthill-office practices ANT. Latour's thinking has, however, evolved substantially since this 1990s idea, specifically towards the question of Gaia, the whole planet working in concert as a vastly complex system whose predictive modeling is becoming rapidly obsolete; the unexpected will become the new norm, within our lifetimes.
In this spirit, I wonder -with great respect and anticipation- how Kuma will maintain his admirable ant-character as he progresses in the planetary Champions League. Can he break the paradigm of the permanently jetlagged, drop-in, paparazzi-hungry architect? Will he be able to energise on a much greater stage his deeply unorthodox methods and achievements?
Background: a Performance Lecture
Tempus Lignum