As a practitioner for over 21 years, I'm always bemused when I read an article in a newspaper or see a story on a current affairs program that claims to provide 'breaking news' about a health condition that I've usually been treating for many years. I'm equally bewildered when they allege that there is a 'simple remedy' that is a cure all for a serious condition. I guess that kind of reporting sells papers or entices viewers to watch the show that is going to deliver the 'all-important' news.
Today's paper was one of those instances. The headline stated "Three million Australians struggle with debilitating anxiety and depression. Now, a genetic test and a simple and cheap vitamin treatment is giving some sufferers new hope" (The Advertiser 7.3.15:11).
What they didn't tell you is that it's not quite as simple as that. The article covered the genetic variant (mutation) known as Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR).
MTHFR is a common genetic variant that causes a key enzyme in the body to function at a lower than normal rate which can lead to a variety of medical problems. However, there are many combinations of MTHFR and each requires a different treatment approach, along with specific dietary requirements, but unfortunately there was no mention of this.
Having specialised in anxiety and depression and other areas of health for more than two decades, and genetic polymorphisms and nutrigenomics for over a decade, I've been testing my patients for MTHFR and treating them appropriately for many years. I've always felt frustrated that the medical field per se failed to acknowledge this condition, along with other genetic conditions that are often responsible for major health problems including anxiety and depression. Instead, people suffering from mental health problems are often prescribed anti-depressants or other medications, along with a referral to a psychologist and that's usually the end of it.
However, whenever a client has consulted me for a mental health disorder such as anxiety, depression or OCD, I've always screened them for a range of relevant tests including MTHFR as well as other, equally important, genetic mutations, and have usually also tested them for neurotransmitter imbalances. This is standard procedure for most of my patients that present with mental health problems. However, it appears that this is 'breaking news' to some practitioners.
Unfortunately the article on MTHFR failed to mention that proper treatment depends on which MTHFR gene each person has (as it is not a 'one-size-fits-all' treatment as the article portrayed) and there was also no mention of the types of nutrient supplements or medications that MTHFR sufferers should always avoid (which is important as they interfere with the methylation process), nor was there any reference to the appropriate MTHFR dietary requirements.
MTHFR is a regulatory enzyme in folate-dependent homocysteine remethylation. Methylation is an extremely important process in the body. This is demonstrated through a wealth of epidemiological data linking impaired methylation capacities to a diverse range of conditions across multiple systems of the body. A mutation in the MTHFR gene may cause mood disorders such as anxiety, depression, OCD, addictions, or in extreme cases, it can cause other mental health disorders such as bipolar or schizophrenia. Depending on which MTHFR a person has, it can also increase the likelihood of pulmonary embolisms, stroke, congenital heart defects, migraines, fibromyalgia, insomnia, miscarriages, chronic fatigue syndrome, diabetes, neural tube defects, epilepsy, MS, asthma, autism, certain cancers, high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, vascular dementia and Alzheimer's, and a range of other health conditions and it is associated with elevated plasma homocysteine.
Fortunately, if the test reveals MTHFR, the correct supplementation with the essential nutrients can help the sufferer's body to function much better and reduce the risk of developing disease. The choice of treatments is somewhat dependent on the nature of the abnormality and therefore a personalized treatment program needs to take into consideration each person's particular genetic variations, along with other factors. It's not simply a matter of taking 'a pill for an ill'!
You cannot change a defective gene but you can help it to function much better and minimize problems. Always consult a practitioner that is well-trained and experienced in genetic polymorphisms so that an appropriate treatment program can be individually prescribed for you.
Please share this article with anyone that suffers from anxiety, panic attacks, depression, insomnia, cardiovascular problems, fatigue, migraines, infertility or any of the other problems listed above. It may be the difference between a long, high-quality life or years of suffering.
Footnote: I'm currently writing a book on the most effective naturopathic treatments for mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression and will be including a chapter on MTHFR in this book. I am looking forward to sharing my knowledge that will be based on many years of clinical experience and years of research in this field of health. Once my book is completed and published, I'm hoping it will serve as a comprehensive source of knowledge for other health care practitioners, psychologists and the general public.
Science-Based Naturopathic Health Care to help you achieve optimal wellness, calm and contented mental health, hormonal balance and disease prevention with personalised naturopathic health care, specialized clinical pathology testing and high-quality naturopathic medicines. Professional counselling services and clinical hypnotherapy are also available.


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Mercatus Policy Download
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Rank #1: Is Tax Reform 2.0 Coming Soon?
Last month, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady released what he's calling a "listening session framework" for a second bite at the tax reform apple. While many thought that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed last December would be the last we'd hear about tax reform for at least a few years, Brady's framework gives us the outline for what's been dubbed "Tax Reform 2.0."
The plan includes permanent tax cuts, new savings vehicles for families, retirees, and students, and reforms aimed at removing, quote, "barriers to growth."
Since this comes right in the midst of ongoing fallout from Tax Reform 1.0, specifically states adjusting to changes to state and local deductions, it's the perfect time to pause and reflect on where tax policy is now, and what it might look like if 2.0 becomes a reality.
Here to talk about all things tax, we've got an all-star panel lined-up:
Bernie Becker, tax reporter for Politico, known to many of you as the brains behind the "Morning Tax" tipsheet
Veronique de Rugy, senior research fellow here at Mercatus. Veronique is an economist and nationally syndicated columnist whose research focuses on the US economy, the federal budget, homeland security, tax issues, and financial privacy
Michael Farren, research fellow here at Mercatus, focusing on the effects of government favoritism as well as labor and economic development and transportation issues
Questions, comments, episode ideas?
Follow Chad on Twitter @ChadMReese.
This week's beer is brought to you by Commonwealth Brewing Co. Check them out here!
Rank #2: Here's to Win-Win Regulatory Reform!
The word "regulation" can be a pretty loaded one in the world of public policy. To some, it means health and safety protections necessary for a well-functioning economy and society. To others, it means unnecessary bureaucratic restrictions that kill jobs and favor large, established businesses.
What just about everyone can agree on, however, is that there's room for improvement in the existing regulatory system. Today, we're talking about the idea of "win-win" regulatory reform. Or, put differently, how policymakers can approach improving the regulatory system to make sure it works better for everyone.
To do that, we asked our distinguished panel of regulatory experts to discuss what to do with the long laundry list of unnecessary or outdated rules:
Laura Jones, Executive Vice-President and Chief Strategic Officer of the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses and a regulatory economist who has written for the Mercatus Center.
Kevin Falcon, Former Minister of Finance and Deputy Premier for British Columbia, who has worked in the trenches as a policymaker on regulatory reform efforts in Canada.
Patrick McLaughlin, Director of the Mercatus Center's Program for Economic Research on Regulation, and former Senior Economist at the Department of Transportation.
Download this episode and subscribe to the Mercatus Policy Download on iTunes or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.
Rank #3: Emergent Ventures Launches at Mercatus
Today we have a special bonus episode for you, giving you a look inside the Mercatus Center's newest project. Those of you who have followed our work over the past year or so may have noticed an increased attention to the idea of policy moonshots: high-risk, high-reward efforts aimed at dramatically improving the world.
Today, we're taking our own advice. This fall, the Mercatus Center will launch "Emergent Ventures," an incubator designed to fund and support dynamic and promising ideas with the potential to improve society.
To talk more about Emergent Ventures, we have a special guest, Tyler Cowen.
Tyler is the General Director of the Mercatus Center, and the Holbert Harris Chair of Economics at George Mason University. He is the coauthor of the popular economics blog Marginal Revolution, cofounder of the online educational platform Marginal Revolution University, and host of the podcast Conversations with Tyler.
To learn more about the project, check out Emergent Ventures.
Rank #4: Here's to the Free Flow of Data!
Many US companies need to move data across borders, and it's not just the ones you think. In addition to social media and tech firms, traditional companies like payment processors, logistics companies, and physical manufacturers also provide digital services across countries. This makes them subject to data localization requirements, one of the key emerging issues in trade and trade agreements. Getting these requirements right will position countries to benefit from the increasingly vital benefits of the digital economy. Get them wrong, and countries will be shut out of this growth.
In the case of data localization, the rules of the road are being written as we're driving on it. Thankfully our panel today has some ideas to keep us on the right path, with the US keeping to a principled approach that favors openness while safeguarding security and privacy.
Christine McDaniel, a Mercatus scholar specializing in trade issues.
Joshua Meltzer, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution
Brian Larkin, the Internet Association's Director for Cloud Policy
Rank #5: Here's to the Most Important Economic Developments of 2018!
There are a lot of ways we could wrap up the year, but probably none better than to take a step back, look at 2018, and ask ourselves what the most important economic developments were.
From trade wars to interest rate hikes, inverting yield curves to tax reform implementation, a lot happened this year. We've asked our guests today to be prepared to talk about…well, just about everything.
We actually want to start with a disclaimer that we normally wouldn't include, and it's that we are recording this podcast in mid-December just before the Federal Reserve's December press conference. Since we're probably going to get to monetary policy and interest rates and all that, we mention that in case Fed Chair Jay Powell does something shocking or surprising and throws everything we're about to talk about out the window.
With that out of the way, we're very happy to welcome some incredible guests to the show today:
From the Washington Post, we're joined by economics correspondent Heather Long. Heather is a consistently reliable source for economics news and analysis, and her Twitter feed is one of the best round-ups of economic news out there
And returning to the show, we have David Beckworth. David heads up our monetary policy research here at Mercatus, and is the host of his own wildly successful economics podcast, Macro Musings
Check out mercatus.org and The Bridge for our latest research, publications, and podcast episodes.
If you love the show and want to grant Chad his number one Christmas wish this year, give us a rating on Apple Podcasts! It helps other podcast listeners find the show.
Today's What's on Tap beverage is Supreme Core's Ivy City Rosé. Check them out here!
Rank #6: Here's to 5G!
For most of us, terms like "3, 4, and 5G" may not mean much more than an indicator that we can use our smartphones, or that it's time to upgrade them to a newer model. They are simply markers of each new generation in wireless technology.
But for telecommunications policy experts, 5G really matters. Some have predicted that exciting new technologies like driverless cars can only become a reality with the speed and reliability that 5G will provide. Futuristic smart-homes that rely on a variety of different internet-connected devices may need the flexibility that 5G offers, and Virtual Reality may only be convincing in a 5G world.
But if 5G is really that different from 4G, it's fair to ask if we're prepared for the change. Today, we're going to talk about what needs to happen, particularly in the policymaking world, in order to capture the full benefits of the next generation of telecommunications technology.
Here to do that, we're joined by two guests:
Federal Communications Commissioner Michael O'Rielly, prior to his time as Commissioner, worked for years on Capitol Hill on banking, technology, transportation, trade, and commerce issues
Brent Skorup, Senior Research Fellow here at Mercatus, where he focuses on wireless policy, new media regulation, telecommunications, and transportation technology
This week's beer is from Tröegs Independent Brewing. Check out their IPA's and other tasty beers here!
Rank #7: Here's to Occupational Licensing Reform!
Over the past two years, Illinois has taken multiple steps to reform how it regulates occupational and professional licenses.
Illinois' reform efforts are part of a broader national movement reexamining the ways in which we license certain professions. In other words, how state governments decide who's allowed to work in what jobs.
Here to do that, we have the perfect panel for today's topic:
Secretary Bryan Schneider from the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation
From the same Department, we're also joined by the Director of the Professional Regulation Division, Jessica Baer
Matt Mitchell, who directs our research program on government granted privilege here at Mercatus
Want to get your hands on a signed copy of Tyler Cowen's new book Stubborn Attachments before it hits bookstores on October 16th? Rate and review your favorite Mercatus podcast, including the Mercatus Policy Download, Conversations with Tyler, the Hayek Program Podcast, or Macro Musings on Apple Podcasts and you'll be entered to win!
Today's What's on Tap beer is from Manor Hill Brewing in Ellicott City, Maryland. Check out their selection of beers here!
As our guests noted in the show, you can learn more about state occupational licensing reform efforts by visiting the National Conference of State Legislatures' Occupational Licensing Project, or the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation Facebook page.
Rank #8: Here's to a Better Unemployment Rate!
"How many people are unemployed" sounds like a simple question with a straightforward answer: just go around and find out how many people don't have jobs and you're done!
However, as economists who study the issue will tell you, it's not that easy. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, a government agency charged with collecting data, has six separate measures of unemployment. And just in case you think we're splitting hairs, those different measures ranged from as low as 1.7 to as high as 8.5% last year.
Since the way unemployment is measured and talked about can influence stock prices, elections, and how people generally feel about the economy on a day to day basis, it's important to understand what these different numbers mean.
Luckily, we're joined by some folks who spend their time thinking about this stuff so you don't have to:
Eric Morath, labor economics and policy reporter for the Wall Street Journal
Michael Farren, economist with the Mercatus Center who specializes in labor, economic development, and transportation issues
Kate De Lanoy, director of Media Relations at Mercatus
Rank #9: Fed Chair Powell and the New Rules of Monetary Policy
Inflation, rate hikes, hawks, doves, and yes, even dual-mandates. We're diving into the exciting and, at times, intractable world of the Federal Reserve today to talk about new-ish Fed Chair Jay Powell and the Fed's recent announcement that it's increasing its interest rate target now and in the near future.
That makes this the perfect time to talk about the direction the Fed may be heading under Powell's leadership.
Here to answer that question, we have an all-star panel of Fed watchers:
Jeanna Smialek, data, demographics, and monetary policy reporter for Bloomberg
Joseph Gagnon, international macroeconomist at the Peterson Institute for international economics
David Beckworth, economist, scholar with our Program for Monetary Policy here at Mercatus, and host of the podcast Macro Musings
Rank #10: Here's to the Future of the BCFP!
How to regulate consumer financial products and services has remained one of the most contentious issues in Washington since the financial crisis. Congress created a new agency aimed at dealing with the issue in the wake of the crisis, but nearly 7 years after that agency first opened its doors, the issue remains as relevant as ever.
In fact, experts are even divided on what to call the agency. For some, it's the "Consumer Financial Protection Bureau," or CFPB. For others, including Acting Director Mick Mulvaney, it's the "Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection," or the BCFP.
Today, we're going to try and just call it "The Bureau," and ask our guests to talk a little about the recent nomination of Kathleen Kraninger to direct the agency. More importantly, however, we'll talk about the future of consumer credit regulation regardless of who runs the Bureau, or what it's called:
Justin Schardin, a fellow with the Bipartisan Policy Center, and the former director of their Financial Regulatory Reform Initiative.
Brian Knight, director of the financial regulatory program here at the Mercatus Center.
Rank #11: Here's to a Better Deal on Sports Stadiums!
Sports are often a great unifier for society. They give us arbitrary, even petty rivalries that we can lean into without taking too seriously at the same time that they bring people together.
But sports, particularly at the professional level, can be expensive. Even ignoring things like player salaries, equipment, and an extensive staff, every sports team needs a place to call home, and stadium costs can easily run in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
That's not really something most folks worry about as long as wealthy sports team owners are paying for their own stadiums, but city and state governments increasingly view stadium construction as a form of economic stimulus. As a result, there's a strong temptation to funnel public funds towards these projects, either in the form of direct subsidies, or by giving teams a tax break.
Here to talk about how all of this works, including the pros and cons of this kind of development strategy, we have some guests who have spent a lot of time following the issue:
Marc Fisher, senior editor with the Washington Post who covers a range of topics, including some of the economic effects of the Washington Nationals ballpark, joins us on the phone
Michael Farren, research fellow here at the Mercatus Center and repeat guest on the show
Anne Philpot, research assistant here at Mercatus who has spent a lot of time tracking stadium financing and its effects on local economies
This week's featured beer is from Salty Turtle in Surf City, North Carolina!
Rank #12: Here's to Keeping the Internet Free and Open!
On May 16th, the US Senate voted to repeal a Federal Communications Commission rule that was itself a repeal of the FCC's 2015 rule intended to change the way the internet is regulated. The double repeal is now awaiting sign off from the House and the President, neither of which seem likely to support it.
Still, the legislation has renewed the debate over 'net neutrality,' and how policymakers should regulate the internet.
Here to unpack those issues are three experts on internet policy issues:
Brent Skorup, Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center, specializing in technology policy
Roslyn Layton, Visiting Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, who focuses on telecommunications, internet regulation, and privacy issues
Brendan Bordelon, tech and cybersecurity reporter at the National Journal
Download this episode and subscribe to the Mercatus Policy Download on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.
Rank #13: Why Expanding Skilled Immigration Is Good for the United States
Everyone seems to agree that America is a nation of immigrants. Beyond that, however, actual immigration policy remains a contentious and often partisan topic. From insistence on a border wall between the United States and Mexico to growing calls for the abolition of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, common ground hasn't been easy to find lately.
That may be because, as the Mercatus Center's general director Tyler Cowen recently put it, "Immigration is hard," and "it's worth thinking about why immigration policy poses such tough dilemmas and how to fix them."
Here to do just that, we have two top immigration policy experts:
Kristie de Pena, director of immigration policy and senior counsel at the Niskanen Center
Dan Griswold, director of the program on the American economy and globalization here at the Mercatus Center
Questions, comments, suggestions?
Email Chad at creese@mercatus.gmu.edu or find him on Twitter @ChadMReese.
Rank #14: What Do ICOs Mean for the Future of Financial Markets?
Depending on who you ask, Initial Coin Offerings, or ICOs, are a scam, a brilliant new way for cryptocurrency companies to raise startup money, a sneaky way to get around securities regulations, or some combination of the above.
What we do know for sure is that ICOs are garnering a lot of attention these days. China outright banned them last year, and the SEC recently launched its own "HowieCoin," a fake ICO meant to steer potential investors away from scams.
To talk about what these things actually are and what they mean for the future of capital markets, we're joined by three of the best in the field:
Brian Knight is the director of the Mercatus Center's program on financial regulation, and a Mercatus Policy Download veteran
Chris Brummer is a Georgetown Law professor, and a leading academic in the financial technology space
Lydia Beyoud is a fintech reporter for Bloomberg Law, where she covers the latest market and regulator activity on ICOs and a host of other issues
Rank #15: Here's to the Big Tech Wins of 2018!
To kick off the year, MIT's Technology Review did something they've done every year since 2001: they picked "10 Breakthrough Technologies" to watch in the coming years. Those breakthroughs varied from 3D metal printing to artificial embryos to ubiquitous and affordable artificial intelligence and everything in between.
We're not going to go through the list and rank how those predictions turned out, but we are going to bring on our own technology policy experts to get their take on the biggest tech developments of 2018, why they matter, and what to watch for in 2019.
Here to wax nostalgic about 2018 and peer into the future of 2019 we have a couple of experts in tech policy:
We're joined on the phone by Roslyn Layton, visiting scholar with the American Enterprise Institute
Jennifer Huddleston, research fellow here at Mercatus
Love the show? Give us a rating on Apple Podcasts!
Today's What's on Tap beer is brought to you by New Belgium's Accumulation, White IPA. Check them out here and pick up a 6-pack while you still can this holiday season!
Rank #16: Here's to Effective Regulatory Reform!
A little over a year and a half ago, President Trump issued his 7th Executive Order. Titled "Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs," Executive Order 13771 is better known in regulatory policy circles as the "1-in-2-out" rule. The general idea is that if you have too many regulations, one way to fix the problem is by requiring that regulatory agencies eliminate 2 rules for each new one they implement.
Longtime listeners will recall back in May when we discussed the issue briefly, but now that we've had a little more time to see the rule in action, we thought the time was right to revisit the issue to see what was working, and where there might be room for improvement in the regulatory reform process.
To do that, we're lucky enough to have Laura Jones back on the show. Laura is a visiting research fellow at Mercatus, and the executive vice president and chief strategic officer of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.
We also have James Broughel in studio. James is a research fellow here at Mercatus and an adjunct professor of law at the Antonin Scalia Law School. Much of James' work lately has focused on quantifying and understanding state-level regulation.
Today's What's on Tap beer is from Two Roads Brewing Co. Check out their Ok2berfest here!
Rank #17: Here's to Building Innovation-Friendly Infrastructure Policy!
The policy world loves to talk about infrastructure. Support for infrastructure policy is often bipartisan, and it's almost assumed now that candidates running for office will use the phrase "crumbling roads and bridges" at some point during their campaigns.
But there's another side to infrastructure that might be more interesting than those roads, bridges, and airports, and that's the infrastructure innovation that often happens at the state and local level. Given promising new technologies like dockless scooters or bicycles and driverless cars, it's easy to forget that ride-sharing apps like Uber and Lyft are still relatively new parts of how people get around.
So today, we have three experts to talk about this new world of infrastructure needs, sometimes called "Transportation 3.0." Specifically, we're going to be talking about how state and local policy interacts with these new issues:
Alex Baca, Engagement Director for the Coalition for Smarter Growth, where she works to promote walkable, inclusive, and transit-oriented communities in the Washington, DC area
Emily Hamilton, research fellow here at Mercatus where she focuses on urban economics and land-use policy
Jennifer Huddleston, research fellow at Mercatus, whose work covers the interactions between technology and the administrative state
Need beverage ideas to serve with Thanksgiving dinner? Check out today's What's on Tap beer from Bell's Brewery, Best Brown Ale.
Rank #18: Here's to Globalization and Free Trade!
***Stick around until the end of the show to hear our latest What's on Tap segment and what beer we're drinking today! Check out the Twenty Three Anniversary beer by Avery Brewing Co. in Boulder, Colorado here.***
The last time we talked about trade was back in April, right about the time China had started to threaten new taxes on imported American products. That, of course, was a response to our own new taxes imposed on imported steel and aluminum.
A lot has happened since April, including a planned replacement for the North American Free Trade Agreement, and a new Democratic majority in the House of Representatives may change the trajectory of trade policy even further.
Here to help us unpack the current state of trade policy in the US and abroad, and maybe even make some predictions about where it could be headed in the future, we're pleased to welcome our two experts:
Dan Griswold is the co-director of the Mercatus Center's trade and immigration portfolio, author of the book Mad About Trade: Why Main Street America Should Embrace Globalization, and, most importantly, a repeat guest here on the Download
Pierre Lemieux is a senior affiliated scholar here at Mercatus. He's a frequent university lecturer in Canada, and recently published the book What's Wrong with Protectionism, a response to common objections to free trade
Interested in learning more about Dan and Pierre's work on trade? Give them a follow on Twitter! @DanielGriswold @pierre_lemieux
Rank #19: How Healthy Are Your State's Finances?
After more than a year of debating federal tax cuts, a return to trillion dollar deficits, and the fiscal condition of the federal government, you might think there's not much more to say about fiscal solvency in the US. Of course, for those who follow state policy issues, there is still plenty to discuss spread out among 50 state government budgets.
In fact, the Mercatus Center just released its fifth and final study of the fiscal condition of all 50 states. The study ranks each state according to fiscal health and discusses trends from a decade's worth of data.
Here to dive into that data, what it means for states, and what a path forward might look like are the study's authors:
Eileen Norcross, Vice President of Policy Research here at Mercatus, and an expert on state policy issues.
Co-author, Olivia Gonzalez is a Research Associate at Mercatus, and is the author of an ongoing series of articles diving into some of the interesting stories she discovered while conducting this research.
Click here to learn more about the Fiscal Rankings study and where your state stands.
To follow Olivia's essay series on the study, visit The Bridge.
Love this podcast? Give us a rating on Apple Podcasts!
Join us for #econoween this fall by carving a pumpkin with your favorite econ stencil and enter it in our contest. Tweet us @mercatus using the hashtag #econoween to submit your pumpkin carving masterpiece. The winner will receive a prize of over $100 worth of free books! You can find the stencils and contest details here.
Interested in Tyler Cowen's new book Stubborn Attachments? It's available for purchase here from Stripe Press.
Today's What's on Tap beverage comes to us from DuClaw Brewing in Baltimore, Maryland.
Rank #20: How Regdata Is Powering Regulatory Reform, One State (And Country) at a Time
Today we have a special, behind the scenes episode for you. Earlier in September, the Atlas Network announced the finalists for the 2018 Templeton Freedom Award, and the Mercatus Center was fortunate enough to be on that list.
Specifically, Atlas identified the RegData project and the way states have used the project to reform regulations.
Since there's a lot to unpack in that one sentence, Chad's joined by some Mercatus colleagues who have been instrumental in the project from day one to help explain what, exactly, RegData is, why it's important, and how state governments can take advantage of the research we've done to make meaningful policy changes:
Patrick McLaughlin, director of the Program for Economic Research on Regulation, and the creator of RegData
James Broughel, state and local policy research fellow here at Mercatus, and an adjunct law professor at the Antonin Scalia Law School
Kate De Lanoy, What's on Tap co-host and director of our media relations team
Today's What's on Tap beverage is the Pumking Imperial Ale from Southern Tier Brewing Co. Check them out here!
© 2019 OwlTail All rights reserved. OwlTail only owns the podcast episode rankings. Copyright of underlying podcast content is owned by the publisher, not OwlTail. Audio is streamed directly from Mercatus Center servers. Downloads goes directly to publisher.
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Rank #1: Ginny Choi and Diego Aycinena on Experimental Economics. On this episode of the Hayek Program podcast, Hayek Program Senior Fellow Ginny Choi interviews Diego Aycinena on the use of experimental economics in research. Diego Aycinena discusses his work in the field, elaborates on how he uses social norms to inform his research project, and shows some intriguing results from that project. Later in the conversation, the pair converse about the lessons they learned in graduate school, and Diego Aycinena shares his experience in working with Vernon Smith.CC Music: Twisterium
Rank #2: "Computation and Complexity Theory" with Roger Koppl and Peter Boettke. How did Roger Koppl become interested in economics? How did scholars such as Israel Kirzner and William Baumol influence his work throughout his career? What opportunities are there for future study within the realm of complex systems theory and computability in Austrian economics? On this episode, Professor Roger Koppl discusses with Hayek Program Director Peter Boettke.CC Music: Twisterium
Rank #1: Revolt of the Public ft. Martin Gurri. Colin sits down with Martin Gurri to talk about his new book, Revolt of the Public. Martin's book explains why we are in the political moment we are in, and offers clues on how to build a Neoliberal political movement in this day and age. This March 22-24 will be the Radicalxchange conference in Detroit Michigan. Founded by Glen Weyl who has been on the podcast before, this conference will be the kickstarting of a Radical Markets movement that seeks to reinvent Liberalism. We have a special offer for Neolib Podcast listeners who would like to attend. Head over to RadicalxChange.org and use code "Neoliberal" with a capital N to get more than 50% off of admission price. This offer won't last long as is limited to 30 people. We hope to see you there. This podcast is possible because of our supporters on Patreon. If you want bonus episodes and stickers each month head over to Patreon.com/neoliberalproject.
Rank #2: Our Incel Problem ft. Zack Beauchamp. Vox senior correspondent Zack Beauchamp sits down with Jeremiah to discuss his recent longform report on incels. Who are incels, what do they believe, and how did they reach the level of extremism of carrying out terrorist attacks? This podcast is possible because of our supporters on Patreon. Patrons get access to exclusive bonus episodes, newsletters, neoliberal swag and community features. If you enjoy the content please consider supporting us at Patreon.com/neoliberalproject.
Rank #1: 03 - John Cochrane on Finance, the Fiscal Theory of the Price Level, and Blogging. In this episode, John Cochrane, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and blogger at The Grumpy Economist, discusses his journey into economics and finance with host David Beckworth. They also discuss the controversial fiscal theory of the price level, which argues that fiscal policy, not monetary policy set by central banks, primarily determines inflation. David's blog: http://macromarketmusings.blogspot.com/ John Cochrane's blog: http://johnhcochrane.blogspot.com/ John Cochrane's Twitter: https://twitter.com/JohnHCochrane Links from today's conversation: http://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/john.cochrane/research/papers/Campbell_Cochrane_By_Force_of_Habit_(JPE).pdf http://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/john.cochrane/research/papers/New_Structure.pdf http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic500592.files/sargent%20wallace.pdf
Rank #2: 42 – Jesus Fernandez-Villaverde on European Economic History and Macroeconomic Modeling. Jesus Fernandez-Villaverde is a professor of economics and director of graduate studies of economics at the University of Pennsylvania. He joins the show to discuss both his extensive work in economic history as well as macroeconomic modeling. David and Jesus discuss the economic history of Germany in the 1920s and 1930s and the events that led to the rise of the Nazis as well as more recent events such as the struggles facing the Eurozone. They also discuss debates surrounding the usefulness of current-day macroeconomic models. David's blog: http://macromarketmusings.blogspot.com/ Jesus' webpage: http://economics.sas.upenn.edu/~jesusfv/ David's Twitter: @davidbeckworth Related links: "The econometrics of DSGE models" by Jesus Fernandez-Villaverde http://economics.sas.upenn.edu/~jesusfv/econometricsDSGE.pdf "Computing DSGE Models with Recursive Preferences and Stochastic Volatility" by Dario Caldara, Jesus Fernandez-Villaverde, Juan Rubio-Ramirez, and Wen Yao https://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/feds/2012/201204/201204pap.pdf "The Trouble with Macroeconomics" by Paul Romer https://paulromer.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/WP-Trouble.pdf
Rank #1: Arizona Dumps Deference: The Beginning of the End for Chevron?. We live in a system where regulators make rules, investigate alleged violations of the rules, and then adjudicate those violations before an Administrative Law Judge who is a member of the agency. When agency decisions are appealed to the traditional court system, judges are obligated to "defer" to the agency on both its legal and factual conclusions. Many opponents of this scheme have criticized the system for "placing a thumb on the scales of justice" by encouraging judicial bias. Many of the same critics assert that the current system of administrative law offends the rule of law, due process, and separation of powers. In April 2018, Arizona passed first-of-its-kind legislation, developed by the Goldwater Institute, that eliminates this legal deference in state courts. This Teleforum call will explore this new law, discuss how it might change state agency rulemaking and enforcement, and also examine how the law might address concerns regarding judicial bias and other issues. Importantly, this program will also consider whether this legislation can serve as a model for the rest of the country, and the federal government.Featuring:- Philip Hamburger, Maurice and Hilda Friedman Professor of Law, Columbia Law School- Jonathan Riches, Director of National Litigation, Goldwater InstituteVisit our website – https://RegProject.org – to learn more, view all of our content, and connect with us on social media.
Rank #2: IoT: Rise of the Machines?. The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to the connection of various devices to the Internet. The Internet of Things (IoT) is growing in prominence almost exponentially. Today, manufacturers are creating products with cyber capabilities that range from life-critical systems such as cars or medical devices, to more prosaic, even whimsical products like internet-connected toasters. The expansion of connectivity brings with it risks to security and privacy.How should those risks be addressed? Is this a case where the market will provide a solution? Or is this one of those instances where regulation is required? Are manufacturers liable for insecure products? If not, who pays when something goes wrong?Featuring:- Paul Rosenzweig, Principal, Red Branch Law & Consulting, PLLC- Suhail A. Khan, Director of External Affairs, MicrosoftVisit our website – https://RegProject.org – to learn more, view all of our content, and connect with us on social media.
Rank #1: How Specialty Insurers are Like Arbitrageurs - Deep Dive with Rich Derr. This episode is about diving deep into a comparison between stock market arbitrageurs and specialty insurance underwriters. The idea for the show came from the guest, Rich Derr, an actuary at Nationwide Insurance Company's specialty division and I love nothing more than falling down a well with someone comparing financial and insurance markets. The original paper that inspired Rich is called The Limits of Arbitrage and doesn't really contemplate insurance. That's our job! I learned a lot in this conversation, actually, and some of the insights will stick with me a long time. Are you an actuary? Someone you know? Check out the Not Unprofessional Project, for the price of a CAS webinar you get unlimited access to content dedicated to Continuing Education Credits for Actuaries, especially Professionalism credits. CE On Your Commute! Subscribe to the Not Unreasonable Podcast in iTunes, stitcher, or by rss feed. Sign up for the mailing list at notunreasonable.com/signup. See older show notes at notunreasonable.com/podcast.
Rank #2: No Change Without Fear With Paul Ingrey. For reinsurance people, this interview is electric. Paul Ingrey founded three of the most successful reinsurance companies of the last 40 years: Prudential Re (Everest Re), F&G Re (10% of staff became CEOs) and Arch Re (as we know it today). Thousands of people in the industry can trace their employment back to Paul's unique mix of discipline and charisma. Being successful in insurance, like with many things, isn't complicated (write business in hard markets and not in soft markets) but it's devilishly hard to pull off. Paul is perhaps the original master of the cycle. In the show we cover a complete modern history of insurance cycles, starting in the mid-60s, Paul's insurance cycle clock (see here), stories of the founding of each of the companies that would define his legacy and more. Subscribe in iTunes, stitcher, or by rss feed. Sign up for my newsletter here
Rank #1: Does Diversity in Congress Translate into Representation?. A new, young, and more diverse cast of House members has come to Washington. Will they represent racial minorities, women, and young people more than other members? James Curry finds that older members of Congress are more likely to introduce bills on lower-profile senior issues, meaning the disproportionately elderly Congress may give Seniors a leg up in policymaking. Kenneth Lowande finds that women, racial minorities, and veterans serving in Congress are all more likely to intervene on behalf of those groups in the federal bureaucracy. Diversity of background does lead to real differences in legislating and constituency service.
Rank #2: Polarized Opinion on Climate Change and Messages that Move Conservatives. Despite increasing scientific consensus on human-caused climate change, the parties are growing increasingly divided. Matt Grossmann talks to Megan Mulling about new research on climate polarization, the factors that influence climate opinion, and how to manage the partisan divide. He also talks to Graham Dixon about a new experiment showing that highlighting free-market ideas alleviates conservative skepticism about climate change. The new research suggests we should skip the science debate and go right to the policy debate.
Rank #1: Robin Harris Discusses the Rise, Fall, and Legacy of Margaret Thatcher. Margaret Thatcher's death one year ago sparked much commentary either critical or adulatory. You were certainly hard-pressed to find balanced commentary on her legacy unless you were reading Theodore Dalrymple's thoughtful assessment on this site (his latest on Thatcher is …
Rank #2: The Personal Is Always Political: A Conversation with David Walsh. Who is the human person and has modern philosophy given us a truncated understanding of the person? Those are some of the questions put to philosopher David Walsh as we discuss his latest book, Politics of the Person as the…
Rank #1: Ep. 48: Civil War in New England!. Last week on Liberty Chronicles, we left off with May 19, 1842, when Thomas W. Dorr—The People's Governor of Rhode Island, dressed up like Napoleon and carrying a sword—ordered his makeshift little army to storm the Providence state arsenal.. Most of Dorr's warriors, though, were young men trying to impress girls in their neighborhoods. It was the furthest thing imaginable from a professional, committed army, and when met with even slight resistance, Dorr's lines broke and his army scattered.Further Readings/References:Chaput, Erik. The People's Martyr: Thomas Wilson Dorr and His 1842 Rhode Island Rebellion. Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press. 2013.Conley, Patrick T. Democracy in Decline: Rhode Island's Constitutional Development, 1776-1841. Providence: Rhode Island Historical Society. 1977.Dennison, George M. The Dorr War: Republicanism on Trial, 1831-1861. Lexington: The University of Kentucky Press. 1976.Gettleman, Marvin. The Dorr Rebellion: A Study in American Radicalism: 1833-1849. New York: Random House. 1973.Grimstead, David. American Mobbing, 1828-1861: Toward Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press. 1998.Music by Kai Engel
Rank #2: Ep. 81: Spooner & The Secret Six, with Phil Magness. Phil Magness joins us this week to teach the radical nature of Lysander Spooner. Spooner's legal career started in an apprenticeship under 2 lawyers and he was best known for his support for the Abolitionist movement. His philosophy of liberty heavily influenced his law practice as well as his activist lifestyle.Who was Lysander Spooner? Is there a connection between his post office activism and his abolition activism? What radical politics did Spooner practice? What is the secret six? How does natural law relate to slavery?Further Reading:Two Treatises on Competitive Currency and Banking, written by Lysander SpoonerJohn Brown and the Secret Six, Massachusetts Historical SocietyRelated Content:Cannibals All!, with Phil Magness, Liberty Chronicles PodcastAn Essay on the Trial by Jury: Juries vs. Representative Democracy, written by Lysander SpoonerLysander Spooner on Natural Law, written by George H. Smith
Rank #1: Unintended Consequences, Special Interests, and Our Problem with Sugar. Listen to an audio version of the Cato Unbound essay "Unintended Consequences, Special Interests, and Our Problem with Sugar."
Rank #2: The Little-Known Story of Milton Friedman in China. Listen to an audio version of the Cato Policy Report essay "The Little-Known Story of Milton Friedman in China."
Rank #1: Why is Rent so Damn High?. If you've ever lived in a city like NYC or San Francisco you're all too familiar with the incredible cost of housing. A studio apartment might cost as much to rent as a single family home out in the suburbs or a smaller town. While some of that additional cost is just the price we pay for living in desirable locations with abundant job opportunities, a surprising amount of that cost is entirely unnecessary. Bad regulatory policies are the cornerstone of the crisis of affordable housing in America today. Zoning boards keep housing density low, meaning shortages of housing supply in the face of rising demand, a classic recipe for skyrocketing prices. Salim Furth from the Mercatus Center joins Paul Matzko to discuss the causes, consequences, and possible fixes for the housing affordability crisis.What can we fix so that housing prices become lower? What does it take to build a home in the U.S.? What power does the local government have in the housing market? How are zoning regulations affecting cities? What is the YIMBY movement? What is a thick labor market and how does it support housing? How should you engage with local politics?Further Reading:The Two-Board Knot: Zoning, Schools, and Inequality, written by Salim FurthThe Link Between Local Zoning Policy and Housing Affordability in America's Cities, written by Kevin Erdmann, Salim Furth, and Emily HamiltonOrder without Design: How Markets Shape Cities, written by Alain BertaudRelated Content:How Government Housing Policy Distorts the American Dream, Free Thoughts PodcastIs Amazon HQ2 Worth It?, Building Tomorrow Podcast
Rank #2: Debunking Overpopulation. One of the things that folks in the 22nd century will find bizarre about their ancestors in the early 21st century will be that we were arguing about immigration when a global depopulation crisis loomed on the horizon. Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson argue that by the middle of this century the world population will start to decline as the final major developing nations have their birth-rates fall below the replacement rate of 2.1 per woman. Although various governments have tried to arrest the trend, those efforts have proven largely ineffective and unsustainably expensive. The only method of slowing the decline is to embrace immigration as Canada and, to a lesser extent, the United States have done. The countries which admit the most immigrants today will have a major advantage half a century from now over those countries which chose to close their borders.What are global population trends? Is our population actually growing rapidly? Why do wealthier urbanized countries have fewer children? How does immigration affect population decline? How did the smart phone affect global birth rates? Why do fertility rates decline as women become more educated?Further Reading:Empty Planet: The Shock of Global Population Decline, written by Darrell Bricker and John IbbitsonThe Population Bomb, 50 Years Later: A Conversation with Paul EhrlichThe Unrealized Horrors of Population Explosion, written by Clyde HabermanGlobal Population Decline And Economic Growth, written by Bill ConerlyRelated Content:Making the World Better, written by Aaron Ross PowellThe World is Getting Better, Free Thoughts PodcastThe Saddest Thing About China's One-Child Policy, written by Marian L. Tupy
Rank #1: The Problem With Alternate Facts. In this week's episode, Antony & James talk about alternative facts and how false, partisan data skews important discussions about public policy.
Rank #2: Just Say No to the War on Drugs. Ted Cruz recently asserted that the United States military needs to be sent to Mexico to attack the drug cartels head-on. This is a bad idea. But so is the drug war itself, both constitutionally and logically. Forty-six years and one trillion dollars after its start, President Richard Nixon's War on Drugs is still going, with 300,000 people currently in jail on drug charges. Meanwhile, 26 times as many people suffer from alcoholism as do heroin abuse, and eight times as many die from alcohol abuse as do heroin. Many who support the war do so with the best of intentions, but has it really helped? Or has it done more harm than good, like the Prohibition of the 1920s? Is this war even legal in the first place? James Harrigan and Antony Davies discuss these questions in this week's Words and Numbers.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


With Ocoee to the east and Windermere to the south, Winter Garden is one of West Orange County's favorite places to live. A charming Downtown Historic District, complete with Railroad Museum, will make you believe you have traveled back to a simpler time in Florida's past. With easy access to the rolling hills of Lake County and a built-in shortcut down Hwy 535 to Disney Property, Winter Garden is convenient to a variety of places in Central Florida. There are great locations to call home in Winter Garden such as Stoneybrook Golf Community, waterfront homes on Lake Apopka and neighborhoods bordering Windermere.


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Abstract: This paper presents, AmbiKraf, a non-emissive fabric display that subtly animates patterns on common fabrics. We use thermochromic inks and peltier semiconductor elements to achieve this technology. With this technology we have produced numerous prototypes from animated wall paintings to pixilated fabric displays. The ability of this technology to subtly and ubiquitously change the color of the fabric itself has made us able to merge different fields and technologies with AmbiKraf. In addition, with an animated room divider screen, Ambikraf merged its technology with Japanese Byobu art to tighten the gap between traditional arts and contemporary technologies. Through this AmbiKraf Byobu art installation and other installations, we discuss the impact of this technology as a ubiquitous fabric display. With focus to improvements of some limitations of the existing system, we present our future vision that enables us to merge this technology into more applications fields thus making this technology a platform for ubiquitous interactions on our daily peripherals.
Our Poetry Mix Up project was exhibited in downtown Seoul at the SK Telecom center. People could tweet a message and it would be converted to a poem. You can try it for yourself. Send a tweet to @poetrymixup and it will be converted to a poem.
Mirroring is the behavior in which one person copies another person usually while in social interaction with them and is one of the most powerful ways to build rapport quickly. When meeting someone for the first time, mirroring their seating position, posture, body angle, gestures, expressions and tone of voice are some useful examples of doing this. Before long, your partner will start to feel that there's something about you they like and they may even describe you as 'easy to be with'.
Lighting and scents have shown to have an important role in reinforcing special perception, activity and mood setting, emotion, judgments, and even social relationship. Light Perfume was designed to help people mirror each other using visual and olfactory outputs to strengthen a user's psychological bond with the partner. We do this by synchronizing the speed and blinking color of LEDs and emit the same perfume scent from each person's device during a face-to-face conversation. The outputs are chosen based on inputs from the user's environment such as noise levels and expressive body gestures.
Award at CHI 2012 for our paper "Keep in Touch: Channel, Expectation and Experience". It is the academic paper for the Huggy Pajama project.
Huggy Pajama paper awarded "Honorable Mention" at CHI 2012 Conference.
Contribution & Benefit: Describes a remote touch study, showing communicative touch accompanied by speech can significantly influence people's sense of connectedness. Identifies perception of communication intention as an important factor in touch communication design.
Face-to-face communication remains the most powerful human interaction. In this day and age, people have become dependent on electronic devices to communicate with others leading to many interpersonal difficulties and miscommunications in today's society. We believe that face-to-face communication remains the most powerful human interaction and these devices can never fully replace the intimacy and immediacy of people conversing in the same room. If society loses its physical aspect, many of the subtle benefits that go along with physical face-to-face contact will also be lost.
Much of communication is done non-verbally and emotions can easily be transferred from person to person without the utterance of a single word. Sound Perfume is our attempt to encourage face-to-face communication by making it more emotional and memorable. We do this by augmenting a person's experience through additional auditory and olfactory stimuli during social encounters. We designed wearable actuators that provide each user the ability to handcraft their sound and scent identity.
This identity is then transferred to another system when two people meet, using a unique technique known as eye contact interaction, stimulating each person with their partners sound and smell preference. We have developed a working prototype designed in the shape of a pair of eyeglasses that help us demonstrate the interaction techniques and actuations. We also present an advanced design that is minimalistic in its use of components.
Mirroring is the behavior in which one person copies another person usually while in social interaction with them and is one of the most powerful ways to build rapport quickly. When meeting someone for the first time, mirroring their seating position, posture, body angle, gestures, expressions and tone of voice are some useful examples of doing this. Before long, your partner will start to feel that there's something about you they like and they may even describe you as 'easy to interact with'. This is because they see themselves reflected in you.
Light Perfume was designed in a bangle in order to directly stimulate a user's eyes and unobtrusively stimulate a user's nose from the wrist. It also is a perfect location for sensors that detect acceleration of the arms and sound from the surrounding area. The aroma is created by heating solid perfume and emitted by the movement of the wearer's conscious and subconscious body gestures during a conversation.
Congratulations to Ph.D student Wei Jun (@weijun924) for having a full paper accepted in the journal IEEE Transactions of Consumer Electronics! The abstract of our paper is below.
We introduce Huggy Pajama, a system for remote hugging targeted at parent-child communication. Expanding on experimentation and research shared in a previously published paper; in this paper we focus on development breakthroughs regarding the wearable output and independently controlled multiple air-actuated modules found in the mobile wearable jacket subsystem. We include practical data in designing the wearable and mobile version of Huggy Pajama with embedded electronic and pneumatic devices, as well as offer results from a user study, from which we find that in order to deliver a mediated hug of high fidelity, the system needs to be capable of actuating hugs with a wide and differing range of pressure. Finally, we also present results from this study that show an overall positive emotional affect in the use of the new and improved version of the Huggy Pajama system.
Tsai, Zhenling ; Koh, Jeffrey T.K.V. ; Cheok, Adrian D.
I am glad to be part of a university that develops crazy ideas. In the latest crazy research here is a screen which is used for interactive kissing.
By sensing the distance between the user and the display, this photo of a person reacts when kissed. This system is currently under development by a research group at Keio University and they are also considering how to utilize this system in a commercial context.
From now on, the researchers plan to develop an iPad application. For this, they're considering other sensing methods, such as using image recognition via the camera, or using a light sensor that reacts to the shadows created when the user approaches.
Test_Lab: Smell This! Witness the decomposition of Chanel No. 5, sniff out a partner, taste with your nostrils, and more treats for the nose.
This lab by Maki Ueda sounds very interesting. Try to join if you are in Rotterdam or on line with the streaming. Maki Ueda taught a guest lecture in my class at Keio University and I have a strong appreciation of her work and philosophy. I agree with her that smell is a vital human communication.
More on the event: "Would you rather give up your sense of smell or your smartphone? A recent worldwide study conducted among youths aged 16 – 22 found that more than half of them would chose technology over their own sense of smell. What good is a nose anyway when all your friends, entertainment and sources of information are online? This edition of Test_Lab will reveal that your sense of smell might actually be the best reason to stay connected to the physical world. While the communication industry is fixated on visual and aural communication, it is the work of pioneering olfactory artists that points out the significance and potential of communication through smell.
In this edition of V2_'s Test_Lab, Maki Ueda performs a live experiment in decomposing the legendary fragrance Chanel No. 5, Susana Soares shows you how to sniff out a partner, and one of the world's greatest scent experts, Sissel Tolaas, lets you taste with your nostrils. Art-historian Caro Verbeek kicks off the evening with a talk on smelly art, accompanied by a genuine AJ (Aroma Jockey).
Smell all of this at Test_Lab!
Another wonderful and weird work from Japanese media artist Daito Manabe. By using electrodes one can moves one's face and control another person's face. I really like the use of haptics for affective communication. This is a comment on how we can often wish we can influence other people's mood and therefore bodies directly.
One of our KMD students, Kensuke Fujishiro, worked on this project. It is a beautiful work which I think is a wonderful analogy of the importance of physicality and being analog even in our modern computer world. It combines the light inside a physical ball with a track and all connected and controlled wirelessly by a computer. Somehow the physicality and analog nature is so much more beautiful than seeing a particle cloud on a computer screen.
Inventor. Professor of Pervasive Computing, City University London.
We are honored to announce that Professor Adrian David Cheok has been appointed Adjunct Professor of Artificial Intelligence (AI) at Raffles University Iskandar (RUI)!!!
See and Try our Kissenger at Science Gallery DUBLIN!
WE ARE PROUD TO ANNOUNCE THAT PROFESSOR ADRIAN DAVID CHEOK is Professor scheduled for new University i-University Tokyo https://www.i-u.ac.jp/ SEE YOU SOON IN TOKYO!!!


Come discover your three dimensional creativity! All skill and experience levels are welcome. Beginners will learn wheel throwing and hand building basics and intermediates can continue to hone their clay craft.
In this class we will create various shapes and forms with clay as well as explore trimming and glazing techniques. Projects will be created based on individual experience level and interest.


text:
Police hit us in our faces intentionally, student detained during Boğaziçi University protests says
A student has recalled police brutality during Boğaziçi University protests, saying that police officers hit the students in their faces intentionally.
Wednesday October 13 2021 11:15 am
Picture taken from Fırat News Agency.
A student who was detained during Boğaziçi University protests has recalled police brutality, saying that officers hit the students in their faces intentionally.
Mısra Sapan, a 20-year-old Istanbul University student, said that officers continued to beat them in the police vehicle, Fırat News Agency reported on Oct. 12.
Saying that she wanted to join the protests at Boğaziçi University after two students of Turkey's most prestigious higher education institution were arrested upon a complaint by the appointed-but-unapproved rector, Sapan noted that she and her friends were surrounded by riot police as they approached the university's entrance.
"Police officers wanted to run criminal checks and kept us waiting without citing a reason. As we started to move towards the university, they attacked us. We were eight people and all of us were detained and tortured," Sapan said.
"Officers hit me in my face and continued punching and kicking me when I fell to the floor. They hit us in our faces intentionally and it continued in the police vehicle," she added.
According to Sapan, police continued to hit the students after they were handcuffed.
Protests have been ongoing at Boğaziçi University for nearly ten months due to the insistence of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) on appointing pro-government rectors to the university.
The protests began in early January after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan appointed Melih Bulu, a long-time AKP member with less than mediocre credentials, and ensued until he was removed from his post in July.
Erdoğan then appointed Naci İnci, who was one of the very few academics that volunteered to work with Bulu, despite a 95 percent disapproval rate among the university's academics and students, triggering fresh protests.
İnci, who has been sacking academics active in the protests against him, including Can Candan, recently filed a complaint against ten students for protesting him. Two of the students were arrested as a result in early October.
Dismissed academic prevented from entering Boğaziçi University by appointed rector's ordersHuman Rights
Istanbul court arrests two Boğaziçi students for protesting appointed rectorEducation
Boğaziçi students briefly detained for protesting yet another controversial rector appointmentHuman Rights
Topics Boğaziçi University Mısra Sapan Turkish police Naci İnci Police brutality


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text:
A string of suicides among young men has rocked this small Alberta city. Now, friends, family and survivors are speaking out about what happened and what needs to change.
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Life, death and being a man in Medicine Hat: There have been so many deaths over the past few months, it's hard to keep track. The mayor of Medicine Hat, trying to do the grim tabulation, had to count out loud: "five, six, seven young men." It depends, to a degree, on how social circles are defined. Another friend in the group didn't die by suicide, but those who knew him said there were complications from addiction related to his death. There have been attempted suicides, as well.
Life, death and being a man in Medicine Hat
by Robson Fletcher
Brandon Niwa spent his second-last day alive like he did so many others: operating a crane.
This particular job involved moving a fridge. It was a small task, by Niwa Crane standards. Founded by his father in 1977, the family business has literally built much of Medicine Hat over the past 43 years. Among the many structures they've helped erect is "The World's Largest Teepee," one of the most recognizable landmarks in this city of 65,000 people in southeastern Alberta.
But the fridge job was nothing like that. It was more of a family chore.
Brandon used a small crane to move the appliance to the pool house at his father's home, which overlooks the picturesque Bullshead Creek valley at the eastern edge of town. Greg Niwa said nothing seemed out of the ordinary about his son that day. He was maybe a little "agitated," but he often got that way when he had to do a job that wasn't particularly challenging or profitable.
As a child, Brandon was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. When his parents would turn their backs for even a moment, he was known to climb to an alarming height up a streetlight or the brick facade of a grocery store. That daredevil nature was common in his group of friends, but Brandon got the ADHD under control as an adult by meticulously planning out his tasks and executing them step by step. In all his years of operating cranes, he never had an accident. The plan was for Brandon to take over Niwa Crane, one day soon.
Brandon Niwa was a talented crane operator, set to take over the family business one day. (Submitted by Lindsay Niwa)
After the fridge was installed, Brandon said goodbye to his father and went home.
The next day, he took his own life.
The shock of his death reverberated through family, friends, Brandon's large network of social circles and Medicine Hat itself. But what came next left people in this small city absolutely reeling.
There was another suicide among the same group of friends.
And then another.
And another.
All men. All in their 30s or early 40s.
There have been so many deaths over the past few months, it's hard to keep track. The mayor of Medicine Hat, trying to do the grim tabulation, had to count out loud: "five, six, seven young men." It depends, to a degree, on how social circles are defined. Another friend in the group didn't die by suicide, but those who knew him said there were complications from addiction related to his death. There have been attempted suicides, as well.
Normally, these types of things are rarely discussed in public. As much as the stigma around mental health has eroded in recent years, a reticence around suicide, in particular, remains. This often goes double for men. There is still a strong masculine culture of stoicism, of shouldering burdens alone, of suffering in silence. That was especially true among this group of guys, who grew up in a traditional man's-man fashion. They played hockey, rode dirtbikes and snowboarded together. They partied — hard. As one member of the group put it, "heart-to-heart" conversations were "dreaded" and rare. When they did happen, it was usually in the wee hours of the morning, after many drinks.
But in the wake of so much death, things are starting to change. Friends and family are opening up about their lost loved ones. Some guys are starting to talk — remarkably openly — about their own struggles. Attitudes about what it means to be a man are shifting. A community conversation is starting.
'A tough couple of months'
Brandon Niwa died on May 29.
Two days earlier, he had celebrated his 37th birthday. His family said Brandon was his usual, gregarious self. Apart from the ADHD, he had no diagnosed history of mental illness. He hadn't expressed anything that would have given them any inkling that he was struggling to such a degree. The crane business was still going well, in spite of the pandemic.
"It was out of nowhere," Lindsay Niwa said of her brother's death.
"Everyone was just dumbfounded."
The shock and grief rippled, too, through Brandon's large group of friends. With roots in Medicine Hat that go back generations, their social circles are large and overlapping. One of his closest friends, Ryan Pancoast, took the lead in holding people together, trying to keep their spirits up, as they tried to make sense of what had happened. Ryan had a special understanding of the situation, having struggled with depression and suicidal thoughts himself.
In July, another man in the same social circles died. It wasn't a suicide. Friends, though, couldn't help but see a connection between his health and the alcohol and drugs most of them indulged in, to varying degrees. The morning of his funeral, as people were preparing to attend or watch via livestream, news broke that another friend in the group had died by suicide. They barely had time to process that when phones started ringing again.
Ryan, too, had taken his life.
"He had promised me that this was something that would not happen," said his widow, Jordan Pancoast. "And I think in that moment, he truthfully did mean that, and believed that."
Jordan and Ryan Pancoast. (Submitted by Jordan Pancoast)
Jordan was one of the few people Ryan ever talked to about his depression. He had even opened up, in the past, about having suicidal thoughts. She said he felt guilty about it. He knew, by most measures, he had "a perfect life" — a loving wife, two beautiful children, a large group of friends, a successful business. So why was he feeling like this?
He sought professional counselling, which helped. But more recently, Brandon's death had weighed heavily on Ryan. Jordan said it had been a "tough couple of months" dealing with the loss of such a close friend. Like Brandon, Ryan grew up struggling with ADHD. As adults, they both were life-of-the-party types: usually loud, often "inappropriate," always making others laugh. They were big kids, in many ways.
In retrospect, Jordan doesn't think Ryan, or the friend group at large, coped with Brandon's death in a particularly healthy way, relying too heavily on alcohol. All this, she believes, was at play the night her husband died.
"He made a quick, impulsive decision," she said, "because he was sad and overwhelmed and he'd been drinking."
Ryan also had a history of brain injuries. As a registered nurse, Jordan believes this may have played a role, too. All those years of hockey, extreme sports and general boys-will-be-boys behaviour meant hard hits to the head weren't exactly a rare occurrence. While she knows there is a never a singular reason for suicide, she sees other common threads between the men who have died, too. Talking about feelings was hard for these guys. Substances were often a substitute.
Lindsay Niwa, Brandon's sister, is also a nurse. She, too, looks at these deaths through both a personal and professional lens. While her family was doing well financially, she knows the broader recession had increased the background level of stress for many people in Medicine Hat. Layer on top of that the disruptions to daily routines that COVID-19 had wrought, the barriers the virus has placed between social interactions that used to flow with ease, the general increase in tension in the community even before Brandon's death, and it all keeps adding up.
But both Lindsay and Jordan are careful, too, not to simplify things too much. They resist the urge to latch onto an easy answer to the impossible question on so many people's minds.
These days, Medicine Hat is one of the few places on Earth where the main topic of conversation isn't the pandemic.
"I was out with my close buddies last night and we weren't talking about COVID," said Mayor Ted Clugston. "We were talking about who knew whom … and stories about these five, six, seven young men."
In a city of this size, there are few degrees of separation. Clugston knew one of the men who recently died by suicide quite well. The others, less so, but they weren't complete strangers to him. Ask around town, he said, and you'll hear the "same theme" about all these guys: "They were the life of the party, the guy that walked in and everybody stopped and wanted to talk to."
"I would say that I've had a beer with all of them at some time," the mayor said.
Medicine Hat Mayor Ted Clugston. (Monty Kruger/CBC)
With all the talk around town, the search for answers has led some to speculate wildly about what happened. Clugston wanted to dispel rumours and "conspiracy theories" circulating on Facebook of a suicide pact or other explanations that have no evidence to support them.
"Our brains want to have a story to understand things," said Ana Schlosser, a registered provisional psychologist in Medicine Hat. "And so people will come up with whatever story seems to fit for them to explain why something tragic happens."
Due to confidentiality rules, she usually can't talk about her clients. But she was given special permission by Ryan Pancoast's widow to talk about the fact that he had come to her for help with his depression. By being open about what happened, they hope to reduce the reticence that surrounds the topic and foster the types of discussions that are already starting to bud within the broader community.
"We're having very frank conversations about substance use, men's mental health, making it OK for men to speak up and speak out about how they're feeling," Schlosser said.
That's something the surviving group of friends is trying to learn how to do.
'Those dreaded heart-to-heart conversations'
With hockey sticks, hard hats and snowboards flanking their caskets, the funeral services for Brandon Niwa and Ryan Pancoast were remarkably similar.
At both memorial services, groups of men wearing dark suits took the podium and stood side by side as they each struggled to find the right words to say. Speaking at a funeral is never easy, but this seemed especially far out of their comfort zones.
"Since his passing, he's taught us all a big lesson," Quinton Pancoast said at his cousin Ryan's service. "Check in with your friends and family more often. Have those dreaded heart-to-heart conversations and really make sure they're OK."
"I never knew so many guys could open up and talk about their feelings," he added, "until this week."
A group of male friends and family members gather side-by-side to talk about Ryan Pancoast at his funeral. (Screenshot of video by RJF Productions, submitted by Jordan Pancoast.)
Jeremy Daffy was friends with five of the men who have died. He grew up going to school and playing hockey with most of them. Before all this, talking about feelings was not something he and his friends were likely to do.
"It was just how we were brought up," he said in an interview. "We were brought up to be strong. And you mask your problems to the outside."
Now, everything has changed. As foreign as it feels, he's making a point of talking about his emotions, including his vulnerabilities. And he admits, these past few months, he's been barely hanging on.
"It's f--ked me up mentally, emotionally," Daffy said. "I used to wake up being happy and now I wake up sometimes questioning the purpose. I can barely go into work and do my job anymore."
He's even open about the fact that he's seeing the same psychologist that Ryan saw.
"The lady is saving my life," he said. "She literally is."
It's a complete turnaround in coping mechanisms.
Daffy says he and others turned to alcohol and drugs in the wake of Brandon's suicide, and again with each successive death. It might have helped, one night at a time, but "it sent you down a scary path the next day."
"Partying and drinking and drug use is not the way of coping anymore. It's killing us," he said.
"It's got to stop. … We've just got to start opening up. We've got to realize that it's OK to not be OK. We all have our demons and we all battle our shit, but that's what makes us human, I suppose."
Robert Olson would agree.
He works as a librarian and writer with the Calgary-based Centre for Suicide Prevention. His job involves reviewing the latest research on the science of suicide and translating it for a general audience.
He knows how common it is for people to react to suicide by immediately asking: "Why?" And how strong the desire can be to point to a reason. Unfortunately, he says, there are no easy answers.
"If there's one word to sum up suicide, the word I would use is: complex," he said.
"There's not one causal reason that someone takes their life. It's usually a vast array of factors."
Within that array, however, Olson said there will often be "a precipitating factor" that can thrust a person into a position where ideation moves closer to action.
When there is a series of suicides among a group of people who all know each other, there is evidence that each death can act as a precipitating factor for a subsequent one. Olson said groups of suicides are not unheard of among people in their 30s and 40s, but relatively rare when compared to teenagers and younger adults.
But simply being a man is another risk factor, and a big one. Olson said men are three times more likely to die of suicide than women. The reasons for that are also complex, but touch on some of the themes described by those affected by the deaths in Medicine Hat.
Watch: Interviews with Lindsay Niwa, Jordan Pancoast, Ana Schlosser and Medicine Hat Mayor Ted Clugston.
"Men don't seek the help as readily as women," Olson said.
Then there are the "individual, maladaptive coping tendencies that some men have."
And there's also the phenomenon of "assortative susceptibility," a jargony phrase to describe how "certain individuals of certain behaviours are drawn toward each other" in a way that can increase their collective risk.
"Let's say, people who like to party," Olson said, hypothetically speaking, before knowing any of the details of the Medicine Hat deaths.
"They tend to associate with one another and, in that respect, it can lead to problem drinking, or escalate into alcohol-use disorder. And that, in itself, is a risk factor for suicide."
This realization is what prompted some men in Medicine Hat, like Daffy, to stop papering over their pain through partying and to start seeking professional help.
The challenge is that effective help is not always easy to find.
For all the trauma and grief he's experienced in the past few months, Daffy still counts himself lucky, because he's a survivor.
"I've attempted once," he said, his voice quivering. "That was after Brandon."
He said the outpouring of people who have reached out to him since has been "very overwhelming."
"It makes you realize how loved you are."
On top of all the emotional support, he said a donor came forward and offered to pay for mental-health services he's now receiving through Schlosser, which has been a lifeline.
"I feel like, without that, who knows where I would be?"
Daffy recognizes not everyone can afford the same access to services. He said he has gone the "AHS route," too, seeking mental-health help directly through the health-care system. But it often felt like the services were too cookie-cutter, as if it came "all out of a book."
"All they do is come in and just read the daily script to you," he said.
For her part, Schlosser believes there is a greater need for mental-health resources at multiple levels in Medicine Hat. She said the support from friends, family and the broader community has been exceptional, but professional services are stretched to the max.
Ana Schlosser is a registered provisional psychologist in Medicine Hat. (Monty Kruger/CBC)
"I know that many of the psychologists in town, they have extensive wait lists. … I know there's wait times at the community agencies," she said.
"And so that's where our struggle lies. There's only so many resources available right now."
Jason Luan, Alberta's associate minister of mental health, travelled to Medicine Hat last week and met with family members who had been affected by the recent string of suicides. Through a spokesperson, he said he wanted to ensure people know what resources are available, to offer more supports, and to simply listen.
"We will make every effort to make sure this community has what they need," Luan said in a written statement.
Lindsay Niwa, Brandon's sister, said the meeting with Luan was a good one. She left feeling he had heard what families had to say and was hopeful it would lead to more resources in the future.
Jordan believes more resources — and more frank discussions — are needed not just for guys Ryan's age, but younger people, too.
"I think it's something that needs to be addressed in schools," she said.
"I think kids need to know about depression and anxiety and eating disorders — all the different things that they're exposed to and might be feeling and not understand what's happening."
It's something she wishes, in retrospect, she had been more open about with her own daughter and son, aged nine and 13.
"One of the first things they said when they learned Ryan was gone was: 'Why?' And then, when I explained about the depression, they were like, 'We didn't know.' So I've talked to them about adult problems and how we tried to shelter them and we didn't mean to be lying or anything like that, it was just meant to not worry or stress them," she said.
"But maybe we're doing them a disservice by doing some of that, and they are capable of understanding and knowing more about brain chemicals and things that happen. And we've had good talks since."
Ryan Pancoast's children were his 'pride and joy,' said his widow, Jordan Pancoast. She specifically asked that photos of him with their kids be included as part of this story. 'I think it is very important to that story for people to understand the truth of our situation,' she said. 'Ryan was an adoring and involved father, and doting husband.' (Submitted by Jordan Pancoast)
Throughout the summer, many people in Medicine Hat were doing damage control. In the immediate wake of each death, friends and family tried to support one another, while also doing what they could to prevent further suicides. Guys buddied up. Spouses checked in regularly. Professional services were sought.
But many people's worst fears were realized in early September when a teenager, who also had a connection to this group, died by suicide. The details surrounding this young person's death are less well known, but it has brought a whole new level of grief to a community already staggered by it.
Still, there is hope for the future. And there are signs things are changing.
At 52, Mayor Clugston is more than a decade older than most of the men who have died. He said the culture of the stoic man who "never expressed feelings at all" was even more pronounced when he was growing up. But with time, perceptions of what it means to be a man are changing. Discussions that would have been avoided at all costs decades ago are now happening, including between him and his own sons, aged 18 and 20.
"Because of this, I've talked to them," Clugston said. "And they're giving me the 'Dad, come on. Don't worry, Dad.' But I'm forcing myself to do that. And I can tell you, my dad would have never had that conversation with me."
For now, Medicine Hat is still grappling with what has been lost. So many young men, so many years of life, now gone.
Jordan and Ryan Pancoast had been together for 16 years. They started dating when she was 17. She had never known what it was like to be an adult without him by her side.
At his funeral, she described him as "the light and laughter in our family." She recalled the countless gifts and kind gestures he would surprise her with, and how the best part was always watching his face light up when she received them.
"You were a hopeless romantic behind the scenes," she said, "but god forbid your friends ever know that."
There was the silly side, too. The inside jokes, the movie quotes, the pranks.
And there were the kids. Ryan's "pride and joy." There was the "wrestling on the ground, teaching them life skills, building school projects, coaching hockey, never missing a guitar, piano or dance recital."
"You were the one they looked up to most, and thought the world of," Jordan said, speaking to Ryan directly at his memorial service.
Brandon Niwa was married, and while he and his wife Ashly had no kids of their own, children were always drawn to him.
"My little guy talks a lot about Brandon," said his sister, Lindsay Niwa.
"It's funny, because he was such a big kid. He was just a kid. He could never, ever be serious. Ever. And [my son] will always say, 'Even though he teased me all the time, I really, really miss him, because he always played video games with me and Pokemon.' A lot of kids will tell you that they thought he was the funnest adult they ever met because he just related to them."
Personally, she remembers Brandon as a good brother. She felt protective of him, often because he seemed to get himself into "sticky situations" with some of the things he would say, but then he'd manage to charm his way out of them.
"He could say things that would make your jaw drop," she said, "and then people would belly laugh — except if you were his sister."
Lindsay Niwa tears up when speaking about her brother, Brandon, who died on May 29, 2020. (Monty Kruger/CBC)
And then there were the cranes. The family business.
"He was a hard worker," Lindsay said. "He was really good at what he did. And he was really proud of what he did."
She still cries every day. But she finds moments of strength, of purpose, in her efforts to shine a light on the dark places that Brandon and so many of his friends found themselves in. So, too, does Jordan. Both women see advocacy as a way forward for themselves, for their families, for their city and beyond. What happened in Medicine Hat could just as easily have happened anywhere.
Every person who dies by suicide is an individual, with unique situations and motivations and thoughts and feelings. But there are commonalities, too, in their stories. There are things to learn about health and disease and injury and the enigmatic workings of the human brain.
It's Brandon's and Ryan's stories that have featured most prominently here, because of their families' willingness to be open about what has happened to them. They also recognize that not everyone is willing to bare their pain so publicly. And they want people to know that right now, in Medicine Hat, there are other families, friends and members of a broader community who have chosen to bear their own grief more privately, while feeling that grief no less acutely.
They also hope that, by sharing their stories, it will help others, particularly other men, realize that they need not struggle in silence, that reaching out for help is more than OK, and that they are not alone.
"It doesn't just happen to people that have been through a lot of hardships or traumatic experiences in their life," Jordan said.
"It can happen to anybody."
If you are thinking of suicide or know someone who is, help is available nationwide by calling toll-free 1-833-456-4566, texting 45645 or chatting online with Crisis Services Canada.
If you feel your mental health or the mental health of a loved one is at risk of an immediate crisis, call 911.
With files from Colleen Underwood
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Extreme Environments and Mysterious Creatures Unearthed in New Original Series, "Natural Born Monsters," Premiering Monday, September 21 on The Weather Channel
Preview First Three Episodes on VOD Beginning Monday, September 7
From land prowling fish to giant predatory reptiles and more...adventurer and explorer Sean Duggan treks to the most remote stretches of the globe in search of mysterious creatures that have adapted to extreme weather and environments in "Natural Born Monsters," (formerly "How Weather Created A Monster") a new original series premiering Monday, September 21 at 10 p.m. ET on The Weather Channel. Duggan journeys around the world to unearth these fascinating creatures and investigate how weather came to shape both the wild claims around their existence and the wild beasts themselves.
Viewers will be able to preview the first three episodes of "Natural Born Monsters" via video on demand across participating TV providers beginning Monday, September 7 – a full two weeks before the linear premiere on Monday, September 21.
In the premiere episode of "Natural Born Monsters," Duggan travels to Australia to uncover the truth behind the mythological sea serpent, and whether the creature actually exists. He enlists the help of Dr. Mitch Ladyman, a local herpetologist and ecophysiologist, to track down this mysterious creature. Is it simply a legend, or is it a relative of the Australian Tiger Snake, one of the most venomous snakes on Earth that has adapted to the harsh weather of the continent's extreme southern coast? Duggan and Ladyman explore the region to find out.
"Natural Born Monsters" is produced by Karga Seven Pictures ("Tornado Alley," "Alien Encounters," "Futurescape") and will feature 8x 60-minute episodes.
For high resolution photos, please visit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/weatherchannelpr.
The Weather Channel Network: It's Amazing Out There
For more than 30 years, The Weather Channel has inspired viewers to explore, investigate and appreciate the experience of weather in all its forms. Every weekday morning, it features the three biggest names in weather - Al Roker, Sam Champion and Jim Cantore on "Wake Up with Al" and "AMHQ." Available in 90 million homes, the network is the leader in severe weather coverage, providing the most comprehensive coverage of any media outlet, and with more than 200 meteorologists who analyze, forecast and report the weather - its expertise is unrivaled. For more information, visit www.theweathercompany.com.
Original Programming, Natural Born Monsters, Sean Duggan
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Bach Universe
Bachipedia – a project of the J.S. Bach Foundation
The J.S. Bach Foundation is performing the entire vocal oeuvre of Johann Sebastian Bach in an ambitious concert cycle lasting around 25 years. The first concert took place in 2006, and since then, all introductory workshops, concerts and reflective lectures have been recorded on video. Over the years, we have amassed an extensive collection of audio and film material as well as other content related to the master's works. One of the Foundation's aims is to raise the profile of Bach's vocal oeuvre – especially among the young. To this end, the Foundation established the "Bachipedia" platform. Learn more about the project.
Bach streamed
Understanding Bach
Beyond Bach
Advent greetings
"Weltklasse" on SRF 2 Kultur
25 August 2022, 8 pm
St John Passion Bachfest Leipzig
14 June 2022, 8:00 pm
BACHathon for Ukraine
A 12-hour Bach marathon concert
15 Years J. S. Bach Foundation: Special concert
streaming live from the Protestant church in Trogen, Switzerland
Christmas singing with vocal quartet
streaming live from the Protestant church in Stein, Switzerland
CD launch – Christmas Oratorio BWV 248
Celebrating the release of our double CD recording
Johann Sebastian Bach – the man behind the music
Informative, interesting and amusing anecdotes from the life of J. S. Bach (Streaming in German with English summaries)
14 years of the J. S. Bach Foundation – favourite works from Bach's vocal oeuvre
J. S. Bach church service
Forgiveness – not condemnation, or: Peter and the contemporary culture of outrage
Chaconne in D minor for solo violin by Johann Sebastian Bach
"Sie werden euch in den Bann tun"
or: How to resolve enharmonic confusion?
"Christ lag in Todesbanden"
Rudolf Lutz demonstrated on the organ that the movements of cantata BWV 4 "Christ lag in Todesbanden" can also be interpreted as chorale preludes.
"Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit", also known as "Actus Tragicus"
Rudolf Lutz as a one-man ensemble: Introduction to cantata BWV 106 at the keyboard and an organ improvisation based on the "Actus Tragicus"
Support the Bachipedia project as a donor – in order to raise the profile of Bach's vocal oeuvre worldwide and improve access to his works, especially for the young. Thank you very much!