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Communication is how the world progresses, and it has been crucial for the survival of our species. It may be one of the basic human skills, but the importance of communication cannot be over-emphasized. It strengthens our dealings with people and helps us build rapport with them. Through communication, we even learn from older generations and apply their knowledge. When you create and pass meaningful messages from one person to another, you can be said to be communicating. Communication can be done through various means, and it can be in the form of oral or verbal communication, mainly speech or non-verbal communication, which includes body language, signs, gestures, writings, and graphics. Because communication and civil discourse are crucial, how we do it matters. Issues arising from ineffective communication can greatly affect our lives. Therefore, overcoming any obstacle hindering us from effectively communicating our message, feelings, or thoughts is important. Many of our day-to-day activities rely heavily on effective communication, from simple greetings and waving to a friend at the end of the street to telling the waiter how you like your coffee or discussing with your colleague at work. The process would be much easier if we understood civil discourse definition and dialogue. So you see, it is important to ensure that no barriers prevent our messages from reaching the recipient the way we intend. Communication barriers can lead to our messages being misunderstood or misinterpreted. Miscommunication is an unpleasant scenario, especially in the workplace, where different people with different backgrounds, ambitions, personalities, plans, and communication styles must interact to achieve organizational goals. Often these personalities, communication styles, and backgrounds can create a barrier to effective communication in the workplace. Miscommunication in the workplace can result in job hazards or loss of resources. Organizations need to take effective communication seriously. Non-prioritization of effective communication skills in a company can lead to a huge loss of revenue. Most businesses with at least 100,000 employees reported an average loss of $62.4 million annually due to poor communication between and to employees. On the other hand, companies record good things when they view effective communication as important and set up measures to realize it. A CMSWire report shows that more than 95% of employees agree that communication affects their capability to work effectively. McKinsey also reports that teams that are well connected saw their productivity increase by 20 to 25%. These surveys clearly show that effective communication is crucial to the development of a company. To ensure that communication around the company, whether from the organization to the team or between team members, is effective, removing any barrier hindering effective communication is advisable. Here are five approaches that can be useful in resolving emotional, physical, or linguistic barriers to communication in the workplace. Create an Open Communication Policy In many organizations, senior employees or managers operate in a cloud of superiority. It is indirect or ineffective when they give instructions or communicate to fellow employees. To break this barrier, these companies must create a communication culture that involves training employees to communicate effectively and listen actively. Emphasize On Active Listening Active listening is an important part of every effective communication training and a necessary tool in civil discourse and dialogue. Active listening involves listening to what the speaker is saying, comprehending and acknowledging the information shared. Miscommunication usually occurs when the listener feels that they have understood what the message is when in reality, they haven’t. This miscommunication can be from either the listener or the speaker. However, with active listening, the receiver can show that the message has been received by rephrasing the message so that the parties involved agree that the information has been shared effectively. Promote Teamwork Older employees often create a sort of hierarchy that can hamper the exchange of information in the organization. When this hierarchy has greater access to information, the organization suffers. To enable easier access to information, this barrier to effective communication caused by the hierarchy of older employees should be struck down by the company, and an atmosphere of teamwork should be created in the workplace. Utilize Effective Communication Channels We can use various communication channels to convey our messages like email, face-to-face meetings, Zoom meetings, manager-to-group meetings, etc. Before using any channels to pass information, there are a few things to check, like whether the intended recipients can access the information, whether the channel can retain their full attention, and so on. Dismantle Physical Barriers To optimize effective communication between team members, the company should set up the work area in a way that doesn’t hinder communication. This doesn’t mean that the company has an open area. Still, removing some physical structures that reduce access to communication, like high cubicle walls, is important. Final Thoughts Ensuring effective communication in the workplace has been shown to improve productivity and positively impact employees. So, no doubt, creating an open communication policy, promoting teamwork, dismantling physical barriers, and other approaches will help limit communication breakdown in the workplace if properly implemented.	https://www.thehumancapitalhub.com/articles/how-to-overcome-communication-barriers-at-work-five-strategies-
Miscommunication is the failure to communicate adequately or not being able to express ideas or thoughts correctly. It is among many communication barriers. A miscommunicated message or word is wrongly perceived by the listeners, as they could not interpret the actual meaning of the speaker. From our regular lives to business and professional interactions, miscommunication is one of the most prime causes that ruin relationships. A common example of miscommunication can be a situation when an employee misinterprets a to-do list. Miscommunications also arise when a client misreads a policy. Let us dive deep into the world of miscommunication to understand what it is, why it occurs and how to avoid it- What Is Miscommunication? Miscommunication is a situation where there is a mistake in expressing thoughts or a misperception by either of the interlocutors. The reasons for these inadequacies may be varied, but they usually result in confusion and frustration for both parties involved. It can sometimes lead to a cascade effect that can leave the door open for conflict and other issues. Miscommunication is primarily a divergence in the thoughts of both parties that leads them to form different opinions and conclusions, thereby leading to conflict. Causes and Remedies of Miscommunication Most of the professional and business communication, as well as emotional-intelligence-related articles, talk about the importance of avoiding miscommunication to interpret the actual meaning of your words or sentences. Some of the causes and remedies of miscommunication issues are- 1. Psychology The human mind is quite easily the biggest culprit of miscommunication. People tend to interpret things negatively and assume the worst-case scenario when things take an unexpected turn. Preconceived notions, stereotypes, and being judgmental also plays a role. This is considered to be the negativity bias. One way to counter the negativity bias would be to recognize statements that can be misinterpreted wrongly and add clarifications for the same. 2. Egotistical and Unhealthy Conversations Many conversations can revolve around people trying to one-up each other, impatiently listening so that they can speak, or make statements and arguments with the sole purpose of claiming victory in a debate and willfully ignoring any points made by others. This can lead to a very unhealthy and heated atmosphere that can further amplify the chances of miscommunication. In such situations, being able to understand other’s perceptions and having the power of acceptance would help you. Also, speakers should be aware of the behavioral tendencies and emotional inclinations of the listener. Accordingly, they should frame their sentences. 3. Inability to Speak/Write Effectively Some people are not very good at speaking or writing to adequately express their thoughts or ideas. An individual attempting to converse with a foreigner in the latter’s native language can offend them or confuse them. Likewise, poorly written messages or articles can leave room for misinterpretation and incorrect assumptions. In such situations, the speaker needs to update the listener about their inefficiency in the language. Plus, they should also speak with structure by starting about the what then about why something is important and then other relevant details. 4. Jargons Over time, in any field, buzzwords and specific terminologies are used that might also lead to miscommunication when employed in conversation with an individual who may be a newcomer in the field or simply unfamiliar with the terms. This isn’t an issue for those who are aware of such specific terms but can be daunting for newcomers. This can be remedied by using simpler words and if at all possible, teaching the jargons to the uninitiated. 5. Being a Poor Listener Technology has taken a toll on people’s attention spans and fueled the need for instant gratification. People do not like to listen to things calmly. Being a good listener has always been a critical component of a good conversationalist, and a poor listener can get distracted and miss out on important information and cause conflict when the inevitable confusion arrives. 6. Technology Ironic as it may sound, technology has increased miscommunication as much as it has made the world a smaller and smarter place. The lack of body language, tone, and facial expressions can cause messages to be misinterpreted lead to several assumptions that lead to conflict. One way to resolve is this is to communicate the old-fashioned way: face-to-face. In-person conversations involve facial expressions and body language, rectifying any undue effects and making intentions between the interlocutors clear. 7. Hierarchy Social structures have been known to impact communication as well. Supervisors and leaders find it challenging to overcome the communication gap with their subordinates. Social norms, along with other emotions such as jealousy and arrogance can inhibit communication and may become apparent in the tone of speech or words chosen, leading to an enormous rift. In these circumstances, empathy, open-mindedness, and humility can go a long way to reduce miscommunication. Here is a video by Marketing91 on Miscommunication. Ramifications of Miscommunication Studies have shown that miscommunication can have heavy emotional ramifications and can induce stress, frustration, loss of morale, and inefficiency. Having unproductive meetings, inflexible deadlines, and waiting on others to communicate was considered the most stressful situation for corporate employees. The older generation was less familiar with technology and used it less, leading to a communication gap between them and the younger generation/ millennials. 3 Ways to Avoid Miscommunication 1. Using Clear Communication - Think before you speak - Getting the attention of the listener - Checking your assumptions - Being courteous - Checking from the listeners to make sure they have understood you - Follow up with your listener to check that you communicated rightly 2. Be a Googe Listener - Understanding body language - Listening closely - Avoid interrupting - Ask questions if you did not understand 3. Improve your electronic communication - Organize the information you want to communicate - Use fewer words to come to the point - Focus on one topic - Use verbal or face-to-face communication when needed Wrap Up! There are many causes of miscommunication that lead to several issues. But the basic premise is transparent, and open-minded communication can be the key to solving these issues. By using the aforementioned tips, we hope you will be able to resolve miscommunication issues from your personal as well as professional life. Do you have an example of when your communication was misinterpreted by your listener? Share in the comment section below.	https://www.marketing91.com/miscommunication/
The ability to prevent misunderstandings through effective cross-cultural communication is an important skill in today’s world. This session introduces the three basic components of any communication. Further, it dramatically illustrates 12 common causes of verbal miscommunication across cultures including conventions for courtesy, degree of assertiveness, accents, and hot buttons. Finally, the crucial role of body language in communication is discussed. NOTE: This session combines material from Open Heart Dialogue and More Than Mere Words. If these sessions have been attended, this workshop will be redundant.	https://events.ucf.edu/event/877191/communicating-across-cultures/
Next in our five blogs series, The five pillars of Taal Inc. Drum Talks,is an area which plays a crucial and essential role in the smooth functioning of any workplace, Communication and Group Cohesion. In a market of rapidly growing technology and demand, the process of effective communication has been diluted by various barriers leading to miscommunication and emerging conflicts at the workplace. Effective communication not only ensures consistent and efficient employees but helps build a positive and open environment in the organisation promoting increased productivity. One of the major factors responsible for group cohesion is effective communication and they both go hand in hand, hence, we’ve combined the two and address them together in our sessions. Often when we talk about communication, we primarily refer to three areas, Speaking or verbal communication, Listening and Body language. But there’s more to communication, areas that are highlighted in A Taal Inc. Drum Talks Session through various arts and rhythm based activities. Some of those key elements of effective communication are - Expressions - Interpretation - Clarity of thought - Comprehension - Receptivity. Along with the three basic elements of communication, all of the aforementioned elements are experientially highlighted through various customised activities which result in better interpersonal relationships amongst employees, clarity about team objectives and goals, feeling of being appreciated, heard and acknowledged and most importantly, it leads to our second part of this specific pillar of Taal Inc. Drum Talks, Group Cohesion. The term ‘cohesion’ comes from the Latin word ‘cohaesus’, which means to cleave or stick together. Not surprisingly, the term cohesion has been used by social psychologists to describe the tendency of groups to stick together and remain united. It’s a sense of oneness when a whole team works as one unit in synergy and harmony. This sense of oneness can be achieved through multiple mediums. In Taal Inc. Team Building or our Corporate Training sessions we prefer drumming and arts, or in Taal Inc.’s words, ‘Come. Drum. Be One.’ Let’s look at few key areas we highlight in a Taal Inc Drum Talks session to make the participants experience Group Cohesion through our specially designed art and drumming based activities: - Creating a mission, a common goal: The most important factor to determine everyone’s involvement is your team’s clarity about the mission. We decide the goals of the group at the very beginning of the session and how we will accomplish those goals. - Practicing Teamwork: Team-building exercises are the best way to see how individual members will work together to accomplish a goal and A Taal Inc. Drum Circle is one of the most effective team building activities out there. Before the team has to work on important tasks, we see how they handle something simple like an ice breaker. Who took the lead? Who worked well together? Use what you observe and apply it to the real mission. Plus, your team members will bond with each other in the process. - Celebrating Small and Big Achievements: When the team successfully accomplishes the missions established at the beginning, it’s important to recognize them for it. We make sure the group knows it and appreciate their work and thank them at every step of the way. - Two way feedback mechanism: Throughout a project and after a project is complete, you need to give your team feedback. This can be a combination of individual feedback and for the team as a whole and also ask for feedback. In a Taal Inc. HR engagement session or a Drum Talks Session, we use various mediums for exchanging feedback such as sharing circles, appreciative inquiry and creative writing. This constructive feedback mechanism makes for a more cohesive team for next projects to come. An organization whose people communicate effectively experience fewer misunderstandings that create friction between people, waste time, and decrease productivity. This module will help your team understand how their work contributes to the organisation’s strategy and goals and in turn help fill in any communication gaps leading to an improved work environment and culture. Aman Joshi Taal Inc. Drum Circle Facilitator.	https://www.taalinc.net/taal-inc-drum-talks-deconstructed-2-5/
Communication is a magnificent thing, and we as humans crave regular interaction. However, this can be complicated, especially with the new technology and platforms available to us. As a society, we communicate through various channels, from texting friends to emailing work colleagues and contacting companies through live chat. Miscommunication is simply a breakdown in the communication process. It’s a failure to make your thoughts, feelings, and/or ideas known to others clearly and concisely. It’s not just the messenger who can be at fault; miscommunication can also occur if someone doesn’t fully listen to what’s being communicated to them. One of the most important things to remember about communication is that it’s a two-way street. Although it can be frustrating to experience a breakdown in communication in everyday life, the consequences aren’t usually catastrophic. In the workplace, though, they can be severe. So, how do you avoid miscommunication in the workplace? What are the causes of miscommunication? Miscommunication in the workplace can lead to uncomfortable situations and is a common cause of high turnover rates. It’s important to tackle it as soon as the issue arises. To do this, you need to understand why it happens. Here are some of the main causes of miscommunication. Overworking employees Setting unrealistic targets and unbearable workloads can create a chaotic work environment - one where healthy communication can’t thrive. If your staff feel pressured in their job, they may start cutting corners and skipping over important details. For example, if a Sales leader sets an impractical target for the number of outbound calls a BDR need to make, this could result in them rushing through their calls and not paying attention to the prospect's needs. The number of calls then begins to take precedence over call quality. Remember, each customer is different, so your staff may need to spend more time with certain individuals than others. This same root cause can cause issues with internal communication too, with rushed staff leaving out important details that lead to crossed wires and a loss of productivity. Poor leadership It’s easy to lay all the blame on your employees and only work to improve their communication skills. However, more often than not, the root of miscommunication issues can be traced back to the management team (or lack thereof). To provide a high-quality and consistent service, your employees need to work as a unit. Each team member needs to have the same understanding of the processes in place, and any changes must be communicated down the chain of command. A lack of internal leadership and/or understanding on how to lead a successful remote team can negatively impact this and create confusion among staff members. This lack of guidance can cause workers to give customers conflicting information. Unsurprisingly, this can lead to a lack of trust between your company and its audience. Not actively listening There’s a big difference between hearing someone speak and actively listening to and comprehending their words and the meaning behind them. An active listener will completely engage with their conversational companion and pay attention to their tone. They’ll also demonstrate non-verbal cues to reassure the other person that what they’re saying is being understood. Without the appropriate training, it can be easy to switch off during a conversation and drown out the all-important voice of the customer. This can, without a doubt, negatively affect communication with both customers and fellow members of staff. The consequences of miscommunication Strong communication is crucial to running a business, so it will come as no surprise to hear that communication blunders can have a damaging impact on the well-being of your organization. Some of the most significant repercussions regarding miscommunication are: Poor customer service Poor communication can lead to customers receiving incorrect and conflicting information. It can also increase employee unproductivity, which can indirectly affect sales figures. If your clientele can’t trust your company to keep them updated on important changes and supply them with correct information, it’s unlikely they’ll trust you to provide a reliable service. Customer satisfaction should be one of your main priorities as a business, and keeping them fully informed, whether through speedy customer support or a simple email marketing campaign, is one of the best ways to keep consumers content. Damage to your company's reputation It can be frustrating to deal with a company that lacks the communication abilities to resolve issues quickly and efficiently. While your intentions may be good, miscommunication can change your customers’ opinions about you, which could result in reduced web traffic and a lower conversion rates. Many people share their experience with a company with friends or family. So, if you struggle to effectively communicate with customers, they could soon spread the word that you’re not to be trusted. A toxic work environment Without clear guidance and instruction, staff may feel lost in their role and doubt whether they’re following the correct procedures. If this problem isn’t addressed and resolved quickly, it could lead to stress and frustration. This will inevitably result in a toxic atmosphere in which nobody feels comfortable. It’s important to nip this in the bud and implement strong communication processes across all departments, so be sure that messages stay consistent amongst all your employees, whether they are in the office or working at a fulfillment center. How to avoid miscommunication in the workplace Dwelling on issues rarely does any good. It’s important to find solutions to workplace problems as quickly as possible to allow your team to focus on providing a top-class service. Here are four top tips to help you avoid miscommunication in the workplace. 1. Encourage feedback It’s not possible to create solutions to problems you don’t know exist, so develop an open dialogue with employees and make them feel comfortable sharing their opinions and concerns with you. Introduce suggestion boxes to allow them to make recommendations anonymously or set up one-to-one sessions. Engaging your staff and making them feel confident sharing their thoughts at work can drastically improve communication throughout the workplace. This is especially important with remote working on the rise. With many people now working alone at home, it can be difficult to stay up to date with everything and feel like you’re still part of a team. Make your employees feel heard and try build inclusivity into remote meetings. This will create a happier and more open work environment. 2. Revamp your meeting structure Try not to act too surprised when we tell you that some employees may not pay attention during team meetings. It’s easy to tune out when faced with the same mundane setting and repetitive discussions each day. To tackle this, try reinventing your meetings to make them more effective. Start off with some icebreakers, introduce regular refresher breaks for long conferences or change up the setting of your weekly team catch-ups. You could add visual aids such as PowerPoint presentations or handouts to help employees better understand what’s being discussed. 3. Provide communication training sessions It would be unfair to simply tell your team to improve their communication and leave them to it. While everyone must do their part to eliminate miscommunication, this needs to start somewhere. Offering communication training sessions will equip your team with the tools needed to converse with colleagues and customers clearly and effectively. This will be particularly helpful for remote workers as they won’t have the direct support of colleagues while at home. Learning to optimize communications within remote teams will also be crucial to keeping your productivity up. You could go one step further and provide training sessions on other elements of your business too. Ensuring workers are completely clued up on all aspects of the company will eradicate any grey areas and guarantee that everyone is on the same page. 4. Improve your leadership skills It’s all well and good investing in training for your colleagues, but it’s also important to help the management team improve their skills. Improving the leadership of your business allows everything else to fall into place. Look into leadership training courses to keep managers at the top of their game. Ask all members of staff for feedback on how effective they think management is throughout the company and encourage suggestions to improve. It’s important to note that everyone learns and responds to direction in different ways, so the issue may not necessarily be that the management team isn't good. It may just be that they’re managing their staff in a way that doesn’t translate well to them. Find out how your employees like to be managed and make appropriate (realistic) changes. What now? Now you have the necessary information, it’s time to put it into practice. Start with some digging into your organization and find out where you might be going wrong on the communication front. Or try sending a survey to crowd source ideas from your team on how to improve team collaboration. Observe employee interactions yourself and determine whether these meet the standards you want your team to be known for. Most importantly, learn from your mistakes. If something doesn’t work out, find out why and make changes where you can. Improve team communications, try Polly for free today Written by Jenna Bunnell Jenna Bunnell is the Senior Manager for Content Marketing at Dialpad, an AI-incorporated cloud-hosted UCaaS provider with valuable call details for business owners and sales representatives. She is driven and passionate about communicating a brand’s design sensibility and visualizing how content can be presented in creative and comprehensive ways.	https://www.polly.ai/blog/avoiding-miscommunication-in-the-workplace
Effective Communication in Teams: Some Tips! When there is a communication breakdown in a team, people often have a hard time identifying what went wrong. What contributed to the miscommunication? How can we overcome these obstacles so that we can improve our own communication and be more successful in a team? There are many barriers to effective communication, including the sender’s inaccurate expression of the message and the receiver’s misinterpretation of the message. Sending and receiving skills have been discussed in previous posts, so here I will outline two additional obstacles and tips to overcome them. 1. Noise. Often, when we communicate, there is noise that needs to be overcome. There are different kinds of noise. Physical noise is the actual noise in our environment, like a loud truck going by, that prevents us from sending or receiving a message. There are also emotional and social sources of noise, which can be harder to overcome. When we are extremely angry, upset, or frustrated, it is difficult for us to send and receive messages effectively. This emotional noise gets in our way of actually being able to phrase our communication appropriately and listen to what another person is saying. In addition, our perspective, attitude, and assumptions influence how we send and receive messages, and we may not even be aware of these social sources of noise. If I expect a teammate to be rude to me, because this has happened in the past, we may interpret his or her message as rude or negative even if this is not the sender’s intention. Tip 1: Be aware of the noise! Being aware of the noise that is present, and that may be contributing to miscommunication, is the first step. Stop and think about how your emotions and your own expectations are influencing your ability to effectively send or receive a message. 1 2. Trust. The amount of trust that exists in relationships with our teammates influences how effective our communication is. When there is a lack of trust, the sender reduces the amount of information s/he shares and may not provide a clear and detailed message that is required to effectively communicate an idea. If the receiver does not have a functional level of trust with the sender, s/he may be suspicious of the information being communicated and may not believe that the sender is credible. This lack of trust leads to a breakdown in communication, and it is very difficult for a team to work together in the absence of trust or effective communication. Tip 2: Build trust in teams! Take the time to get to know one another, share personal thoughts and feelings appropriately, and work on small cooperative tasks. This can help a team to develop trust in the early stages of forming, and lead to more effective communication moving forward. For more information on effective communication, see Johnson (2014). Reference: Johnson, D. W. (2014). Reaching out: Interpersonal effectiveness and self-actualization (11th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.	http://blog.getdynamix.com/2014/07/effective-communication-in-teams.html
What Are Cultural Values? The Business Dictionary defines cultural values as, “The commonly held standards of what is acceptable or unacceptable, important or unimportant, right or wrong, workable or unworkable, etc., in a community or society”. Here’s an example: A Hindu man would rather starve than slaughter and eat a cow, despite the fact that cows roam throughout his village. To the average beef-eating American, this seems strange. If you’re hungry, why not use some of the cows for a food source? After all, they’re just walking around in the street, blocking traffic. What’s stopping the Hindu man from taking advantage of this obvious food source? The answer – cultural values. The Hindus make up over 80% of India’s population and believe that cows are sacred and should not be slaughtered. A group’s cultural values are often difficult for outsiders to understand. But for those inside the group, cultural values are the core principles that dictate the behavior and actions of an entire community. We’re seeing cultural values come into play more and more in today’s workplace. As various cultures are brought together in an office, some will place importance on a particular set of values, while others will have a completely different view. It can be challenging to navigate through it all and meld a diverse pool of employees into a cohesive, productive group. Each of us is raised in a belief system that influences our individual preferences to a large degree. Often, we can’t even comprehend its influence. We’re just like other members of our culture and we’ve come to share a common idea of what’s appropriate and inappropriate. But understanding cultural values goes beyond the list of “dos and don’ts”. There are so many factors that make up a culture – manners, mind-set, laws, ideas, rituals, and language, just to name a few. Understanding the “why” behind culture is so important, particularly in today’s world. We need to understand how groups have been influenced over time by political, historical, and social issues. This is particularly evident in the workplace, which is becoming more and more diverse. In order to attract, motivate, and retain the best talent, it’s important to be mindful of employees’ cultural differences, along with who they are as individuals. We are currently conducting cultural value assessments for organizations and we’re ready to help you delve into this important topic. Please call Leah M. Joppy and Associates at 301-670-0051 or email us at [email protected] to learn more. Examples of American Cultural Values Cultural values are really the collective programming of our minds from birth. These values shape the beliefs, mind-sets, and practices that we often adhere to at work, home, and social settings. We looked at an example of a Hindu cultural value in our previous article and how that value shapes the beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of that group. But what are some values that are distinctly American and have helped shape the American workplace for generations? The U.S. is a culturally diverse society, but there is a dominant culture that has developed over many years. Here’s a sample of a few American cultural values: - Personal control over environment and destiny: The future is not left to fate and lies in our hands. - Equality and egalitarianism: People have equal opportunities and are important as individuals, not based on the family they are from. - Competition and free enterprise: Competition brings out the best in people and free enterprise leads to progress and success. - The importance of time: The achievement of goals depends on the productive use of time. - Change and mobility: Change equals progress, improvement, and growth. When discussing cultural values, it’s important to remember there are no rights and wrongs. Chances are, each of us has been raised with a different set of values from our colleagues. Education is the key to understanding these differences, particularly when diverse groups of people are working together. To learn more about how cultural values shape your organization and to discuss conducting a cultural value assessment for your business, please call Leah M. Joppy and Associates at 301-670-0051 or email us at [email protected]. Effective Communication In The Workplace Have you ever walked out of a meeting scratching your head and wondering, “What was that all about? What exactly am I supposed to do? What’s the goal of our discussion?” We’ve probably all been there. It comes as no surprise that effective communication is one of the most important issues in the workplace. Strong communication helps everyone feel heard and understood, resulting in a positive, encouraging, and productive environment. On the other hand, ineffective communication causes ideas to fall flat due to lack of follow-through, frustration, and an overall decline in morale. If you feel like your team is stuck in a communication rut or you’re just looking to improve your skills (and we all can!), here are some things to keep in mind and strategies to employ: Give Undivided Attention: Whether it’s a group meeting or one-on-one, offering full attention to those you’re with goes a long way. How often have you had a conversation with someone who continuously looked down at his or her phone or seemed lost in another world? Lack of focus devalues conversations and causes people to tune out. Remember to Listen: Listening may not sound like a component of communication, but it is one of the most important ingredients. Being an effective communicator means listening, as well as talking. It sounds easy, but it can take some practice. How often do you find your mind wandering during a meeting or a conversation? It can be helpful to keep a mental checklist of all the main points the other person makes. When the conversation is over, try to recall at least three important things the person said. Get in the habit of doing this until listening is second nature. Be Mindful of How You’re Communicating: Body language and tone contribute a great deal towards the effectiveness of your message. Maintain a relaxed stance and facial expression, rest your arms by your sides rather than crossing them in front of you, and make eye contact. Remember that words only make up a fraction of your message. Follow Up in Writing: A lot of information and ideas are thrown around during meetings and it can be challenging for everyone to remember what was shared. Prior to meetings, designate someone to take notes and then assimilate this information into a concise email. Having a follow-up and refresher is an important step to make sure everyone is on the same page. Effective communicating is more than just talking; it’s about connecting with the people around you. It’s integral to team development, company culture, employee engagement, and innovative thoughts and ideas. If you’d like to improve the communication process in your office or are interested in doing a “wellness check”, we’re armed with lots of strategies and ideas to help. Please call Leah M. Joppy and Associates at 301-670-0051 or email us at [email protected] to learn more. Effective Communication With Remote Employees Remote work is becoming more and more common in the modern workplace and the number of remote workers is increasing every year. Technology has made it easier to embrace remote work, but it has also brought about new challenges when it comes to team communication. Here are some tips to help the wheels of communication keep rolling when you don’t work under the same roof: - Establish standards for communication to ensure everyone is on the same page. - Make sure transparency is a priority. Share all documents, decisions, upcoming deadlines, etc. in one area. - Find a balance between over-communicating and not communicating enough. - Make sure new remote team members get to know the rest of the team via video chat. - Use real-time communication technology. - Be concise and get to the point at the beginning of messages! - Always proofread and edit messages to avoid confusion. - Give space when needed. If remote team members need to take a break from being accessible online to get something done, make sure they know they can do it. Remote team members add another layer of challenge when it comes to workplace communication. But by using some strategic tactics, it doesn’t have to result in a communication meltdown! For more tips and advice on how to improve communication with remote employees, please call Leah M. Joppy and Associates at 301-670-0051 or email us at [email protected]. The Impact of Nonverbal Communication In The Workplace You’ve probably heard the familiar phrase, “it’s not what you say, but how you say it.” We’ve all been taught that good communication is the foundation of any successful relationship, whether personal or professional. But we may forget that it’s our nonverbal communication – our facial expressions, eye contact, gestures, posture, and tone of voice – that sometimes speaks the loudest. Consider the following example: As a staff meeting begins, project manager Jack shuffles into the room. He pulls at the sleeves of his rumpled shirt and his shoulders sag. He does not make eye contact with anyone in the room and is absorbed in looking over his notes haphazardly scratched on notebook paper. When he does speak, it’s difficult to hear him. He awkwardly clears his throat as he says, “Good morning, everyone. This will only take about a half an hour, but I’m going to walk you through some of the changes we can expect on our current project and what it means for all of us.” But it could also go something like this: Project manager Jack walks confidently in the room. He stands tall with his shoulders back. His shirt is wrinkle-free and tucked in and his appearance is neat and professional. He directs his eyes around the room and makes sure that everyone is acknowledged. His notes are neatly on the table, but he doesn’t look at them in favor of his audience. As he begins to speak, his voice is clear, confident, and loud enough for everyone to hear. He smiles as he says, “Good morning, everyone. This will only take about a half an hour, but I’m going to walk you through some of the changes we can expect on our current project and what it means for all of us.” The same words were used, but a completely different impression was made. It’s not what Jack said, but how he said it that changed. Only his appearance, tone, and manner were different, yet his nonverbal communication had an enormous influence on his team. Which version of Jack would you trust the most? The shuffling, difficult-to-hear person who won’t look you in eye? Or the confident, articulate person who acknowledges everyone in the room? Research suggests that we are more likely to believe a poor argument explained to us in a convincing manner than one based on sound facts and logic, but presented by someone who sounds uninterested and uninformed. That’s the power of non-verbal communication. Have you thought about the impact of nonverbal communication on your workplace? We can show you how to improve the way you and your team use nonverbal communication through a variety of fun team activities and exercises. Please call Leah M. Joppy and Associates at 301-670-0051 or email us at [email protected] to learn more. Types of Nonverbal Communication When we interact with others, we continuously give and receive wordless signals. All of these nonverbal behaviors – the way you listen, look, move, and react- send strong messages, some positive and others negative. In many instances, what you say and what you communicate through your body language may be two totally different things. When confronted with these mixed signals, your audience has to choose whether to believe your verbal or nonverbal message. Often, nonverbal communication is the winner because it’s a natural, unconscious language that conveys your true feelings and intentions. If you want to become a better communicator, it’s important to become more sensitive to your own body language and nonverbal cues, in addition to those of others. And there are so many types of nonverbal communication! Here are a few examples: Facial expressions: the look on our face can express countless emotions without saying a word. Body movement and posture: perceptions of people are often affected by the way they sit, walk, stand, or hold their head. Gestures: waving, pointing, and using our hands when we’re arguing or speaking animatedly can be easily misconstrued. Eye contact: looking someone in the eye can communicate many things, including interest or even hostility. Space: we all have a need for physical space, but the need differs based on the situation, the closeness of the relationship, and culture. Voice tone and inflection: as mentioned in the last article, it’s not just what you say, it’s how you say it! Nonverbal communication plays such an important role in the workplace. It tells people whether or not you care, if you’re being truthful, and how well you’re listening. For more information about the role nonverbal communication can play in your office, please call Leah M. Joppy and Associates at 301-670-0051 or email us at [email protected] and let’s discuss some team activities! It Takes All Kinds – Relationship-Oriented Vs. Task-Oriented People It’s often said that “variety is the spice of life”. And you’d be hard pressed to find more variety than when you walk into an office filled with all different types of people. Communication can certainly be challenging when you’re dealing with individual personalities and preferences. The following list breaks down four different types of communication styles based on whether an individual is relationship-oriented or task-oriented and slow-paced or fast-paced. Do any seem familiar to you? Type 1 is slow-paced and relationship-oriented: - Likes to talk about family, activities, and other personal information - Appreciates you taking time to develop a personal relationship or business friendship - Prefers to be given information verbally and face-to-face - Doesn’t like to be pushed into making quickly decisions Type 2 is fast-paced and relationship-oriented: - Likes to tell stories based on personal experiences - Takes time to develop a personal relationship or business friendship with you - Wants key facts and not a lot of detail - Makes decisions quickly primarily based on personal relationships Type 3 is fast-paced and task-oriented: - Prefers to get down to business quickly - More interested in getting the job done than being your friend - May ask a lot of questions and makes you feel like you’re being “grilled” - Makes decisions quickly based on facts Type 4 is slow-paced and task-oriented: - Prefers to not make small talk, but talk about the business at hand - Likes to have a lot of backup data - Doesn’t like to be pushed into making quick decisions - Tends to analyze all details before making a decision So, which communication style do you think you have? Do you definitely fall into one category or are you a combination of 2, 3, or all 4 styles. Many people differ based on their environment. For instance, a person’s communication style at work may be completely different than in a social setting like a party. We have some fun, high-energy team activities that will help you learn more about your distinct communication style, as well as those you work with closely! Please call Leah M. Joppy and Associates at 301-670-0051 or email us at [email protected] to learn more. The Pros and Cons of Task-Oriented and Relationship-Oriented Leadership Leadership styles vary from person to person and everyone has a different approach to providing direction, implementing plans, and motivating workers. Two of the most common styles are task-oriented and relationship-oriented leadership. Here’s a look at both styles and some of the pros and cons of each one. Task-Oriented Management Style Task-oriented leaders have several characteristics that ensure projects are completed in an efficient and timely manner. These managers typically create easy-to-follow schedules with clear requirements and deadlines. This type of leadership style is great for employees who need structure and struggle with time management. However, task oriented leadership can also lead to a lack of worker autonomy and creativity. Rigid structure and excessive task management can also diminish company culture and backfire for more self-motivated workers. Relationship-Oriented Management Style Relationship-oriented management focuses on employee relations and often makes workers feel energized because they feel appreciated for their work. Strong effort comes from people who feel like they’re making a difference and part of a company’s success. But some of the challenges of this leadership style include employees feeling overwhelmed and needing more direction. A lack of clarity may cause confusion when it comes to tasks and deadlines. What’s the predominant communication style in your office? Do you feel like it’s working or could use some alterations? The key is to take the best parts of each management style and combine them to create your own unique leadership style. Please call Leah M. Joppy and Associates at 301-670-0051 or email us at [email protected] and we can help! Common Causes of Miscommunication in Workplace Teams “What did he/she mean by that?” “I thought he/she was working on that!” If you’ve ever been a member of a team in the workplace, the phrases above probably sound familiar. They’re all examples of common and frequent miscommunications and they can cause frustration, conflict between team members, and a serious roadblock to productivity. A lot goes into running an efficient, positive team environment, but effective communication may be at the top of the list as the most important component. Miscommunication can be blamed for a significant amount of conflict among workplace teams. It’s unrealistic to think all miscommunication can be prevented. After all, people are people and personality conflicts and differences of opinion are going to happen. However, awareness and understanding of the causes of miscommunication can go a long way towards decreasing the number and frequency. Here are a few examples of the most common causes of miscommunication in the workplace: - Making Assumptions: This is the number one cause of miscommunication in the workplace! It starts with assuming that a particular need is obvious, others view a problem the same way you do, or someone knows what to do. If people don’t feel comfortable asking questions or speaking up, issues can escalate quickly. - Providing Only The Basics: It may save time to communicate only the bare necessities to team members up front, but you’re going to spend a lot of time cleaning up the results. Workers may be hesitant to speak up and just try to figure things out on their own – often with incorrect results. - Using Confusing Body Language: Not all communication is verbal and a lot is conveyed through gestures, facial expressions, posture, and tone of voice. If someone is distracted or having a bad day, a simple request or statement can be easily misconstrued. - Failing to Assign Ownership: Accountability is key and team roles must be defined and clearly understood. Otherwise, it can lead to workers dumping duties on others, incorrectly assuming another worker was responsible for something . . . and the list goes on and on. Language is a tricky thing. It can be difficult to interpret at times, resulting in little misunderstandings that can quickly escalate into big problems. Is your team suffering from miscommunication issues? Or are projects running fairly smoothly, but have room for improvement? Please call Leah M. Joppy and Associates at 301-670-0051 or email us at [email protected] and we’ll work with you to create a clear and effective communication strategy for your workplace teams. Ways To Alleviate Miscommunication If you’ve ever led or been a member of a workplace team, you’ve probably witnessed (or been involved in) a variety of miscommunication issues. What started as a simple question or concern may have quickly ballooned into a full-blown problem, resulting in frustrated, angry teammates. And you’re left scratching your head wondering how things got out of hand so quickly. Miscommunication is one of the biggest problems facing workplace teams and can cause missed deadlines, an erosion in morale, and higher turnover. Fortunately, it can be alleviated with the right approach. Here are some suggestions to help: - Address issues immediately and openly: Ignoring a workplace conflict will only make it fester. Address any issues right away and make sure you’ve gathered facts from all parties involved. - Set Clear Expectations: No one is a mind reader. Set expectations early, make sure all questions are answered up front, and be available for clarification as the project progresses. - Improve Your Listening Skills: Make sure it’s not “in one ear and out the other.” Active listening is an undervalued skill, but it can have a huge impact on how often conflicts arise. - Recognize and Respect Personal Differences: Keep in mind that everyone can interpret the same thing in a different way. Understanding how the members of your team communicate can help you diffuse any potential problems. Miscommunication can happen anywhere at any time, but awareness of the problem and a strong plan can help put everyone back on track. The key is to give your team the right conditions to develop and grow. If nurturing a healthy team culture is important to your workplace, please call Leah M. Joppy and Associates at 301-670-0051 or email us at [email protected] and let’s work together to make it happen.	http://www.lmja.com/blog/author/mary/page/2/
Divorce is rarely straightforward. Not only is it a huge transition emotionally, divorce often brings a lot of uncertainty when it comes to finances and the arrangements for the children. Not to mention what life will look like when it comes to friendships and the wider family once your separation is final. It’s a daunting prospect, and one with the potential to cause pain, upset and bad feelings. However, whilst it might not be the happiest time of your life, there are things you can do to make your experience of divorce a relatively healthy one. Keep communication open Communication is key. Being open, honest and willing to listen will make the entire process smoother, clearer and more productive. Long periods of silent stalemate or too much back and forth can lead to miscommunication, and result in you losing sight of what it is you’re trying to achieve. If you’re willing to keep the channels of communication open, you may find yourself moving forward more efficiently, and with less tension. That being said, in some circumstances keeping communication open with an ex is just not possible. It might be that no matter how reasonable you are or try to be, they’re just not interested in behaving in the same way. Effective communication is also very difficult if you’re leaving an abusive or controlling relationship. That’s why seeking legal advice at the earliest opportunity is absolutely vital, no matter the circumstances. Effective communication is always easier when you have clarity about where you stand and have a clear picture of what your future looks like. Don’t exclude the children If you have children, your natural default might be to keep them out of the picture and away from the realities of divorce. But depending on how old they are and their level of understanding, this could backfire in the long run. The truth is that they’re going through this too. Their lives are going to change and things are going to look different. For children, a lack of control and a change from the status quo can be incredibly unsettling. Giving your children some of the details can really help to ease that anxiety. Reassure them that it’s not their fault, and explain some of the things that might change in the future. This also means remaining as impartial as possible. For example, don’t badmouth your ex in front of the children. Remember that it’s important for them to have both parents in their lives where possible, and badmouthing them can lead to all sorts of confusion and complications. Find the right solicitor As we’ve already said above, seeking legal advice as early as you can is the best way to ensure that your divorce is as manageable and stress-free as possible. Having that expert support from the get-go is a great way to lift some of the weight off your shoulders, and keep communication and progress on track. At Harrogate Family Law, that’s exactly what we do. With our expert team, you have the support you need at every step of your legal journey. To find out more about working with us, give us a call today.	https://harrogatefamilylaw.co.uk/how-to-have-a-healthy-divorce/
Regardless of the delivery system you are using, may it be a single, double or triple source, it is crucial to have proper project management which ensures successful project outcomes compared to the constraints of quality, time and budget, and quality. Whether your team is working remotely or in person, you need to stay ahead of the game. Ensure that you have the right combination of software tools and managerial skills for project delivery success. An excellent place to start is to take an online strategic projects program course that will help you understand how to implement strategic projects and improve your leadership skills to manage project teams. Begin deep-diving into how to ensure project delivery success within your business as we share five expert tips below. - Focus On the Main Goals and Objectives Before starting any project, you need to have a set of essential goals for your project’s success. The goals help you identify your final destination and develop a detailed strategy. These goals ought to be SMART. That is; Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic Time-bound. As the team leader, occasionally ask the members how they contribute to achieving the set goals and objectives. It would also help to develop a standard for measuring progress towards the set goals so that each person can assess their contribution. - Ensure Constant Communication Communication is vital for the success of any project. Ensure that you communicate with every member often to ensure that they are on the right track. For effective communication, be accessible and use communication apps that aid collaboration. Remaining in contact with your team will increase accountability among the members and result in more focus and productivity. - Prioritize Team Members’ Tasks As the team leader, sit with your members and prioritize their tasks within the project. Ensure that they understand their specific roles and clear any confusion they may have. This clarity will ensure that each member performs their particular task, leading to more productivity and success. - Report Project Status Professionally According to research, progress updates are essential for every project. Use Professional Services Automation (PSA) software to increase accuracy when reporting to senior members within your business or your team members. This software consistently and accurately creates formatted reports, and it will help managers within your company compare various projects. This information is used to decide how to distribute the company’s resources among current projects. - Discuss Lessons Learned Do not wait until the end of the project to discuss the lesson you are learning as a team. Take time after every milestone to discuss what is working, what is not working, what needs to be changed, and come up with ideas on how to increase productivity going forward. This will improve the quality of the project and ensure continuous improvement. Clearly, there is a lot required for increased project delivery success within your company. If you wonder where to start, the methods discussed would be a great place. Implementing them could lead to the growth of your company and increase your ROI.	https://itechsoul.com/5-ways-to-increase-project-delivery-success-in-your-company/
Communicators who want their messages to be received clearly and accurately will remove as much environmental noise as possible. They try to present their message in a calm, distraction-free environment at a time when the receiver can devote his or her full attention to the message. How can environmental barriers to communication be reduced? 5 methods to avoid communication barriers in the future: - Have clarity of thought before speaking out. … - Learn to listen. … - Take care of your body language and tone. … - Communicate face to face on the important issues. How can noisy environmental barriers to communication be overcome? Follow these steps to reduce listening barriers at work: - Minimize distractions. - Prioritize listening over speaking. - Reduce outside noise. - Practice reflecting instead of deflecting. - Ask questions. - Listen fully before giving advice. What are environmental barriers to communication? The major environmental / physical barriers are Time, Place, Space, Climate and Noise. Some of them are easy to alter whereas, some may prove to be tough obstacles in the process of effective communication. Here are a few of our top tips for overcoming communication barriers in healthcare. - Ask your patient to be a parrot. … - Medical Memory can help you significantly overcome communication challenges. - Be visual. … - Record each visit. … - Always use easy-to-understand language. … - Learn to listen and understand. How do you overcome barriers? 5 Ways to Overcome Success Barriers - Decide What Success Means For You. Everybody wants success. … - Detach Emotionally. When something prevents us from getting what we want, we typically become frustrated, fearful, or sad. … - Look at the Barrier as an Outsider. … - Inform Yourself. … - Keep Trying. What is the first step in removing environmental and personal barriers to communication? What is the first step in removing environmental and personal barriers to communication? The first step is to discover which barriers exist in your practice setting. What are the example of environmental barriers? Barriers in their surroundings – like poor lighting, too much noise, crowds. It also includes things in nature like cold temperatures, too much rain, steep hills, etc. The attitudes of people in their own homes or families. How do you overcome distortion in communication? Avoid Using Abstract Words, Jargon and/or Slang: The more concrete your word choices; the less likely your meaning can be misconstrued or miscommunicated. Get Feedback & Monitor the Links in the Communication Chain: Solicit feedback along the communication chain to ensure that your message was understood. What are environmental barriers to effective communication give 2 examples? These barriers include filtering, selective perception, information overload, emotions, language, silence, communication apprehension, gender differences, and political correctness. There are several environmental barriers in communication including external noise, time, physical distance, space, climate and place. How does environment influence your communication? Environmental connections can have both negative or positive or anyone effects on interpersonal communication. … For example, a conversation outside on a road during a windy or a rainy day faces obstacles in communication that might not be present in a living room. Why is environment important in communication? Setting, or the environmental context, plays a crucial role in effective communication. … These factors can produce barriers, or things that inhibit effective communication, and thus, the environmental context is an important aspect to consider when delivering a message. Why is it important to overcome the barriers of communication? Understanding how to overcome communication barriers is important to prevent miscommunication and misunderstandings between people. By overcoming barriers to effective communication, you may be able to improve your personal, social and business interactions with others. What are environmental barriers to learning? Environmental barriers to learning can include a child’s surroundings, the way that a learning environment is set up physically, and even the temperature of the room learning is taking place in. Overcoming Resource Barriers Ensuring patients arrive on time for appointments and have all the correct information needed. Training staff to work more efficiently and know how to do their jobs properly. Promoting good health and early treatment to avoid long complicated expensive treatment. Reducing waste.	https://int-tech-mtng.org/landfill/how-can-environmental-barriers-to-communication-be-overcome.html
As States have different circumstances and needs, the ICAO study group preferred that States have the option of using a prepared test or developing their own. To facilitate the development of language proficiency testing systems, guidance material will be developed by ICAO. Other aspects to be covered by the planned guidance material include the optimal use of the language proficiency rating scale and the development of efficient and effective aviation language training programmes. Guidance will stress such important adjunctive aspects as adherence to ICAO phraseology and disciplined radiotelephony techniques, and education in basic linguistic principles, including cross-cultural communication. The efforts of the study group are just a beginning. The improvement of radiotelephony communications to a higher level of safety is no small matter, and requires widespread cooperation and continuing, concerted effort, particularly from practicing controllers and flight crew. In particular, it is vital that both native and non-native speakers conform more closely to existing ICAO provisions, especially to the ICAO standardized phraseology so carefully and painstakingly developed over the last 50 years. The communication of air traffic clearances and operational information is critical and requires both accuracy of content and careful, precise delivery. Language, however, is not ideally suited to transmission of exact information because it is fundamentally symbolic — that is, its words and phrases are representative of the objects and concepts described. This characteristic of language becomes particularly problematic when communication involves non-native speakers. Understanding this principle, and why, therefore, conformity with standardized phraseology is so important, is essential. A semantic barrier exists in all language exchanges that can seriously compromise the communication process. Not all listeners take the same meaning from the use of a word, phrase or expression because people filter words through different belief systems, knowledge, cultural acquaintances and life experiences. Word meanings, therefore, are subjective. It is helpful, in coming to terms with the inexactitude of language, to reflect on some outcomes of words being no more than representations of the things they describe. Not being the things themselves, words may mean — and frequently do mean — different things to the speaker and the listener. Presumably, no pilot would misunderstand a tower directive to “clear the runway”. If, however, this transmission were heard by a snow plough operator monitoring the frequency, an altogether different activity to that expected might occur (ICAO standardized phraseology is “vacate the runway”). Communication is most understood to be a means of reference to an object, but communication also conveys a strong sense of relationship. Studies have shown communication to be very sensitive to social rank (and the perception of rank to be much influenced by communication). Communication that is sensitive in this regard facilitates smooth interaction between crews and between controllers. Communication that is not so sensitive may be less effective. The manner in which the aircraft commander exerts authority on the flight deck will greatly influence the flow and coherency of flight deck communication. If the commander is overbearing or dictatorial or, alternatively, allows the command function to be blurred, inferential elements of communication may be inappropriate and overall communication impaired. Care needs to be taken in establishing, then observing, what is known as the “trans-cockpit authority gradient” while ensuring that the operational integrity of cockpit dialogue is in no way compromised. Similarly, air traffic control (ATC) centres have their own staff authority profiles, and communication between controllers within the centres is affected by it. While crews and controllers need to be mindful of the authority gradients within their respective workplaces and the reciprocal impact of internal communication and rank, still greater difficulties may arise in radiotelephony conducted between them. This is because the authority gradient between controllers and pilots is neither as clearly defined nor as constant in all situations as within either the cockpit or the control room. It is well known that teamwork among operational personnel depends on positive relationships. More particularly in this context, building effective teams requires an appreciation of how timing, phrasing, intonation and non-verbal aspects of communication influence group dynamics. It is scarcely surprising that when the job becomes stressful and, say, fatigue intrudes or some concerns arise about unserviceable equipment or the effect of worsening weather, radiotelephony communication may not always reflect intent. When communication is degraded, overall efficiency declines. Message content is not the only means of conveying sense in communication. Because language is a semiotic system (i.e. a set of representative symbols) it is able to convey various meanings at different levels and times. Consider, for example, how interpersonal exchanges can be influenced by mood. The speech delivery of an individual riding high on confidence can be smooth and articulate. By way of contrast, strongly negative attitudes and emotions can result in ineffective communication. Radio message exchange is hampered by being devoid of many communication prompts. In face-to-face communication, body language speaks volumes. According to studies, body language conveys about 55 percent of message significance, words themselves only 7 percent. Tone of voice accounts for the other 38 percent. Radio communication, of course, is devoid of body language and electronically modulated voices rob speech of expression. Consider how an established context can lend interpretation to messages. Predisposition, expectation and anticipation can add to, take away from, and distort the intention of the speaker. Many pilots will have had the conditioning experience of being repeatedly cleared to a certain flight level at a descent point along a certain route, only, once again, to “hear” an anticipated clearance when, in reality, the controller has assigned a different route or level. Similarly, many air traffic controllers will have experienced “hearing” the readback of an expected flight level only to realize on tape playback that in fact the pilot read back a different level altogether. Such idiosyncracies of communication cause daily misunderstandings in casual conversations and business transactions. The results are variously amusing, embarrassing and, sometimes, costly. In the context of aviation radiotelephony, however, they are a threat to safety. In urgent circumstances, or when the communicants are suffering from fatigue or other impairments, the results can be deadly. Flight crews and controllers alike need to be meticulous in formulating messages and, no less, in “reading-back” and “hearing-back”. There is another linguistic phenomenon that needs to be understood. This has to do with the difficulty implicit in communication in a non-native language, a phenomenon known as “code switching.” This resembles the well-known Freudian slip, an uncontrolled moment of verbal expression never consciously intended. When under stress and communicating in a non-native language, speakers tend to revert to their native language. It takes a high level of proficiency or strong self-discipline to continue speech in a non-native language when under stress, but even then something of a reversion to native language may occur in grammatical construction. The outcome of such “code switching”, which may be difficult to recognize, can be confusion and contradiction. Worse, the statement may make perfect sense to the listener but may not reflect the meaning intended. Enunciating the words of a second language and putting them in proper grammatical context is a challenge in everyday conversation. It is much more difficult for foreign flight crews to conduct English communication when under pressure, especially in an emergency. This difficulty can lead to miscommunication and compromise safety. In cross-cultural communication, even if conducted in a single language, there is a critical need to guard against confusion by being scrupulous in observing standard phraseology and proper radiotelephony techniques. That said, studies of pilot and controller communications reveal an astonishingly low rate of error. Analysis of voice tapes reveals that less than 1 percent of communications are compromised by inaccuracy. This low error rate is a tribute to today’s pilots and controllers, all the more so when congestion on the frequency puts orderly radio management practices under severe pressure. No doubt this remarkable efficiency is attributable to high levels of knowledge, skill and care. Still, the degree of conformity with standard phraseology can stand improvement – and should be improved. Sometimes, especially among local operators, there is a level of familiarity that presumes idiomatic comprehension. While such exchanges may heighten camaraderie between the participants, non-standardized and careless communication inevitably denigrates situational awareness among other users on the frequency. In an increasingly global aviation environment, these “feel good” indulgences must be curtailed. The problem of careless communication can be addressed at little expense in funds and time. The optimum strategy is not to prescribe regulations or threaten operational personnel with disciplinary action; rather, it is to appeal to the innate responsibility of every controller and pilot. This is probably best done by impressing on all the simple truth that language is an imperfect medium which lends itself to sensible misinterpretation (i.e. the wrong meaning is easily conveyed while the transmission retains perfectly good sense). It is for this reason that air-ground communications require the utmost care and discipline. In communicating this message to both non-native and native English speakers, the cooperation of airlines and State authorities is needed. With an understanding of basic linguistic principles, radiotelephony users can be motivated to adhere more closely to standard phraseology and, when this is not possible, to take special care with enunciation, intonation, vocabulary and message content. Thus, colloquialisms will be curtailed and the efforts being made to establish mandatory levels of language proficiency will be matched by a heightened mindfulness in communicating. This, overall, will not take up more frequency time; it will save it. There will be fewer instances of controllers and pilots seeking message confirmations, and, more to the point, there will be fewer incidents and accidents if they do not.	https://aviaenglish.ru/what-did-he-say/
This course will guide you through strategies for establishing and maintaining your professional image in the workplace. Whether you are working on a construction site or in a medical facility, practicing professional etiquette will help ensure that your occupational environment is a positive and productive one. You will focus on integrating internal attitudes with external behaviors so that your personal attributes work together to enhance your professional image. You will begin this course with an introduction to professional manners and common courtesy. Then, you will learn how to communicate effectively and courteously via common workplace communication modes - verbal communication, nonverbal communication, and virtual communication - paying particular attention to how technology affects these forms of workplace communication. In the last unit of this course, you will investigate the topic of workplace diversity in order to gain an awareness of differences and how to respond to and respect them. First, read the course syllabus. Then, enroll in the course by clicking "Enroll me in this course". Click Unit 1 to read its introduction and learning outcomes. You will then see the learning materials and instructions on how to use them. - Unit 1: Workplace Courtesy Everyday courteous behaviors such as holding the door for the person behind you, saying "please” and "thank you” at the dinner table, and smiling when you catch the eye of someone walking by you may be optional responses to situations outside the workplace. However, such courtesies are not optional in the workplace. Exercising proper courtesy in any workplace situation is important, and neglecting to do so may lead to unfavorable results, such as miscommunication. To help you understand the standards of appropriate workplace attitudes and behaviors, the first unit of this course introduces you to basic workplace manners and the positive behavioral qualities an employer typically looks for in an employee. By studying these concepts, you will learn the appropriate way to handle yourself in many job-related situations. Completing this unit should take you approximately 1 hour. Unit 2: Workplace Communication Have you ever worked for an organization where there was little to no communication about important tasks? Employees are expected to interpret information correctly and to communicate with their colleagues and superiors on a regular basis. Effective communication can foster increased motivation and a more positive work environment, yet one of the leading causes of conflict in the workplace is a lack of adequate or clear communication. Miscommunication can arise from a number of sources, including employees' poor listening skills, the misinterpretation of verbal messages or physical gestures, and other issues. These potential pitfalls can be avoided with some extra effort on your behalf. In the second unit of this course, you will explore the three main types of workplace communication: verbal, nonverbal, and virtual. You will discover how to use these forms of communication appropriately and how to employ active listening in order to decrease the likelihood of workplace miscommunication. Finally, you will evaluate how workplace technology can affect the communication process. Completing this unit should take you approximately 2 hours. Unit 3: Diversity in the Workplace The workplace is made up of unique individuals who embody various cultures, attitudes, and philosophies. You may have heard the phrase, "two heads are better than one," and diversity can indeed add value to a company due to the benefits gained from additional perspectives and talents. In recent years, diversity in the workplace has grown to be an important and valued issue within corporate culture. However, diversity is not without its challenges, because the relationship between individual values and workplace culture can be complex. Miscommunication and insensitivity may occur when employees are unaware of colleagues' or clients' customs. Mastering professional etiquette includes gaining an understanding of the various cultural norms in your own work environment. In the third and final unit of this course, you will discover the impact of diversity in the workplace and study the importance of practicing cultural awareness. You also will identify resources for learning about different cultural practices and taboos in order to avoid any insensitivity. Completing this unit should take you approximately 1 hour. Course Feedback Survey Please take a few minutes to give us feedback about this course. We appreciate your feedback, whether you completed the whole course or even just a few resources. Your feedback will help us make our courses better, and we use your feedback each time we make updates to our courses. If you come across any urgent problems, email [email protected] or post in our discussion forum. Certificate Final Exam Take this exam if you want to earn a free Course Completion Certificate. To receive a free Course Completion Certificate, you will need to earn a grade of 70% or higher on this final exam. Your grade for the exam will be calculated as soon as you complete it. If you do not pass the exam on your first try, you can take it again as many times as you want, with a 7-day waiting period between each attempt. Once you pass this final exam, you will be awarded a free Course Completion Certificate.	https://learn.saylor.org/course/prdv104
What nonverbal cues are you giving off? Updated: Jun 3, 2021 8 Types of Nonverbal Communication There are many different forms of nonverbal communication. The main categories of nonverbal cues include: Kinesics (or body movements): These include deliberate hand gestures and head movements like a thumbs-up or affirmative head shake. This is one of the most easily controllable of the nonverbal forms of communication. Proxemics (or closeness/personal space): This is the measure of physical distance between people when they communicate. The standard amount of personal space expected by someone varies depending on setting and is somewhat culture-specific. Posture: The way that you sit or stand and how open your body is to others around you communicates a lot about your attitude and emotional state. Eye contact: This is one of the primary ways that human beings gauge interest or disinterest. Wavering eyes tend to communicate unease or even dishonesty. Touch: Many interactions begin with an exchange of physical touch like a hug or a handshake. Paralanguage: This category covers vocal qualities like loudness or tone of voice. Paralinguistic signals are any aspect of the sound of a voice outside a direct verbal translation of words being spoken. Facial expressions: Facial expressions are one of the main indicators of someone’s attitude. An emotional expression like a frown or smile can be hard to consciously control. Physiology: This category includes changes in body physiology like an increase in sweat or blinking rapidly. These are nearly impossible to deliberately control. 4 Reasons Understanding Nonverbal Communication Is Important Understanding different types of nonverbal communication is important in order to control the messages you are communicating and to decode the emotional states of others. Here are a few of the ways understanding nonverbal cues can make you a more effective communicator: 1. To show interest: Nonverbal signals are a great way to communicate attentiveness and engagement to those around you. Controlling your posture and eye contact will demonstrate to others that you are interested in what they have to say. 2. To convey specific meaning: Many words have multiple different meanings, and the things we say can often be misheard. Learning how to complement your words with nonverbal communication can prevent misinterpretation and miscommunication. 3. To establish connection: Nonverbal communication is a great way to establish connection and trust. It’s no accident that many cultures see some sort of physical gesture like a handshake or hug as necessary in certain types of personal interactions. 4. To demonstrate authenticity: Your nonverbal communication goes a long way in establishing the authenticity of your feelings to those you are speaking with. Complementing your actual words with direct eye contact and confident posture will demonstrate to others that you are giving voice to your true feelings. 3 Tips for Understanding Nonverbal Communication Here are some ways to improve your awareness of nonverbal cues in your everyday life: 1. Look for inconsistencies. Knowing how to spot signs of nervousness like fidgeting or evasive eyes is a great way to determine whether the person you are speaking with is trustworthy. If nonverbal behaviour seems to run counter to the verbal messaging, it’s likely that the speaker is not entirely comfortable with what they are saying. 2. Be conscious of cultural differences. It’s important to be aware of the different mannerisms and physical gestures that are common in different cultures. Nonverbal interpersonal communication varies around the world. Don’t rush into judging the nonverbal cues you are picking up from someone from a different country or culture, as they may connote something entirely different in their culture. 3. Observe nonverbal signals holistically. It’s important to observe a variety of nonverbal cues that are being communicated to you. Just because someone has a sweaty brow doesn’t mean they are nervous. Similarly, a twitch in someone’s hand may just be an unconscious tic. Try to view nonverbal signals holistically in order to get a fuller picture of what a person is communicating. What type of communication describes our body language? 1. Repeating – using specific gestures to strengthen a verbal message (e.g. pointing to the object of discussion). 2. Conflicting – when verbal and non-verbal messages within the same interaction send contradicting meaning. Conflicting messages often arise from feelings of confusion, indecision, or frustration (e.g. a friend saying how they had a great time during the party, but his voice sounds flat and his face lacks emotion). 3. Complementing – the accuracy of understanding information is greater when the nonverbal and verbal complement each other. Make sure the body language affirms the verbal exchange (e.g. saying you are happy and joyfully showing it too). 4. Substituting – at times non-verbal behaviour is used as the sole channel for communication. A simple gesture can substitute words (e.g. shaking your head to say no). 5. Regulating – we can use non-verbal signals to regulate speech. Called “turn-taking signals”, these gestures make it possible for us to alternate between speaking and listening (e.g. touching someone´s arm can signal that you want to talk next). 6. Accenting – when we use non-verbal signals to emphasize our words. Good speakers will know when to use strong gestures, deliberate pauses, changes in vocal volume or speech rate, etc. (e.g. someone who is verbally expressing anger may accent the message by speaking very loudly). Spoken language is normally used for communicating information about events external to the speaker, while non-verbal communication is used to create and maintain interpersonal relationships. Body language in business communication One of the most important parts of running a business in any industry is communication.	https://www.switchlaneslifecoaching.com/post/manage-your-blog-from-your-live-site
a few Ways to Quit Self-Sabotaging Relationships Self-sabotaging associations occur once someone intentionally https://toprussianbrides.com/czech-brides/ or unconsciously engages in behaviors that lead to the breakup of their romantic relationship. These kinds of behavior could possibly be caused by a selection of factors, which includes trust concerns, previous experiences and poor romantic relationship skills. 1 . Low self-esteem Should you have low self-pride, it can be hard to absolutely adore yourself and want to be within a relationship. You might question why you even need a partner or think that they aren’t with you for the right causes, which can be incredibly damaging to a relationship. 2 . Fear of intimacy If you’ve had a awful experience https://www.smartraveller.gov.au/before-you-go/activities/marriage with passionate relationships in past times, you might fear that you would not be able to contact form as well as a healthy romantic relationship with your partner. This could lead to a range of behaviors, including avoiding closeness and intimacy, or stalling commitment. four. Lack of connection When it comes to a relationship, communication is important for each to feel read and comprehended. When you have poor communication, it could lead to misunderstandings, miscommunication and even quarrels. 4. Over-controlling conduct When you are overly managing in a marriage, it can bring about a range of negative effects over the relationship. For example , you might start arguing more frequently or perhaps start having angry and protecting over little things that aren’t important. 5. Unsafe jealousy When your partner generally seems to accomplish more than one does, it can make you experience left behind. This might bring about you sense jealous, upset or resentful, that may also affect the relationship negatively.	https://www.firstlightcouriers.com/2022/07/21/a-few-ways-to-quit-self-sabotaging-relationships/
Jim Markey Mans Shop aims to provide the highest level of care and satisfaction to all it's customers. We will always give careful attention and a prompt and courteous response to any suggestions, comments or complaints. How to complain You can address your complaint to us by email at: [email protected] Complaints procedure Once we have received a complaint, the following procedures will be undertaken to resolve it: 1. Complaints will be acknowledged and you will be advised how it will be dealt with, by whom and within what time frame. 2. Complaints will be dealt with in an open and impartial manner. 3. Complaints will be documented and remain confidential. 4. Complaints will be investigated and every attempt will be made to resolve the matter as quickly and as amicably as possible. 5. In the case of a complaint made against a staff member, the staff member involved will be informed that a formal complaint has been made and given full details. 6. LargeSizes.ie will keep a record and document what was discussed with the complainant. 7. LargeSizes.ie will inform all parties involved of the outcome of the complaint made. Right of Redress If the matter is not resolved to your satisfaction, please write to: The Directors JA Markey Outfitters Ltd 144 Lower Drumcondra Road Dublin 9 Record Keeping Jim Markey Mans Shop will keep all correspondence pertaining to a Complaint for a period of 2 years after resolution of the complaint.	https://jimmarkeymansshop.com/cusomter-care/
Many of us have been in situations where friends ask us to borrow money and we agree to lend it to them. Or we do work for someone and they don't pay for the work right away. But after you’ve given them the loan or done the work, the person keeps giving excuses as to why he or she has not paid the money yet, or has stopped answering your calls or messages, then you’ve got a dilemma. How do you get the money that is owed to you? Before seeking legal help you should do all that you can reasonably do to encourage the person to pay you. You can send a firm but polite letter that clearly states what the amount of the debt is, what it is for, and by when you require payment. It's worth a try and it just might work. If all else fails you may need to start a civil claim and an attorney can help you with this. A civil claim is a lawsuit which deals with disagreements among persons, including disagreements about money. In a civil claim a person can seek to get back the monies owed to him by another person. In Trinidad and Tobago, claims for more than $50,000TT must be filed in the High Court while claims for less than $50,000TT can be heard before a Magistrate in the Petty Civil Court. The person bringing the claim is called the Claimant while the person being sued is called the Defendant. You must act against the debtor within four years from the date on which the debt arose. After that you may find that your claim is ‘statute barred’, that is, out of time. In the beginning of the litigation process (especially before bringing a claim before the High Court), your Attorney will issue a pre-action protocol letter to the other party involved outlining your grievance and requesting that the legal dispute be resolved before legal action is initiated. This is to allow the parties the chance to save time and money by negotiating and possibly settling the claim without ever going to court. You may be able to resolve the problem by the debtor paying the debt – immediately or over a period of time agreed by you and the other party – in negotiations. If there isn't a satisfactory response by the other party, the Claimant may then file the claim. Filing a claim in the Magistrate's Court (claims for less than $50,000TT) Most matters before the Petty Civil Court at the Magistrate's Court are started by attorneys at law on behalf of a Claimant. If this is the case, the attorney files the required documents for the client. However, a Claimant may represent him/herself in the Petty Civil Court. The document that starts proceedings in the court is called an Ordinary Summons. A Claimant who chooses to represent him/herself may go to the Magistrates' Court in the district where the claim arises, and there, he/she would be provided with a form which can be filled out detailing the claim. This is then filed in the court. A filed copy of this form must be served on the named Defendant. In addition to the Originating Summons, a Claimant must also file and serve a Particulars of Claim. This is the document that tells the Claimant's story of why he/she is entitled to the remedy that is claimed. Filing a claim in the High Court (claims for more than $50,000TT) The claim is started by the filing of a claim form. This is a document that briefly sets out the claim and calls on the Defendant to state whether he admits or denies the claim. The claim form must be accompanied by a statement of case in which the Claimant details the facts that entitles him to the remedy sought. The Claimant must also include and attach all the relevant documents that he relies on to support the claim. In the case of borrowed money being owed, the evidence may include: In the case of money owed for work done, the evidence may include: If no defence is filed, the court may enter judgment for the Claimant. This means that the Defendant may be liable to satisfy the Claimant's claim without the judge considering the Defendant's version of events. Once the claim and defence are filed, a date is set for a case management conference. This is chaired by a judge. Both parties and their attorneys are present and emphasis is placed on a cooperative effort to see if the issues surrounding the claim can be resolved amicably, and if not, the most efficient and effective means to decide the case. In the civil litigation system, emphasis is placed on negotiations and attempts to resolve disagreements as amicably as possible without the need for a trial. However, if negotiations and attempts at cooperation do not resolve the claim, the matter will go to trial and the disagreement will be settled by a judge. What if a claim has been made against you? If you are served with a claim you have several options. If you do owe the money, you should pay the debt if you can to avoid incurring any further costs. If you admit part of the debt but not the whole amount, your attorney can file a document admitting the amount you are prepared to pay — the creditor may accept that amount, or if not, the court will decide the matter. Otherwise judgment will be entered against you for the amount admitted. In many cases your attorney can help by negotiating an agreement between you and the creditor, which can provide for payment of a lower amount than the initial claim, and/or terms for payment over a period of time. If you dispute the whole debt, your attorney will file with the court a Defence and have the dispute heard by the court. Important Notice: This post does not constitute or provide legal advice. Always consult with a suitably qualified attorney-at-law on any legal problem or issue. Law For All is managed by the AURORA Chambers Legal Practice. Receive updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletter. Leave a Reply.	https://www.lawforalltt.com/recent-articles/what-can-i-do-if-someone-owes-me-money
How to Sell Property With a Boundary Dispute Real estate agents are routinely warned by their insurers not to point at fences and other structures and claim them as a property's boundary, because a buyer might rely on inaccurate representations made by the agent, and boundary disputes are a common cause of lawsuits. It's worse if you are trying to sell your home. Few buyers are happy to take on your quarrel with the neighbors, or a questionable title. The trick is to resolve the dispute beforehand. 1 Locate your original purchase documents. If you carried out a survey when you bought your home, you'll have a description of your property's measurements and a survey plan that accurately shows your boundaries. If you did not commission a survey, your title company will have given you a plat map as part of your preliminary title report. The plat is not as detailed as a survey, as it covers several lots or your entire subdivision, but it is drawn to scale and will show your parcel boundary and lot dimensions. 2 Request a copy of the plat for your subdivision from your city clerk's office, if you do not hold a copy. Alternatively, search online. Some counties post their township plats on the web. 3 Appoint a land surveyor if you cannot find any boundary information with your deed and purchase documents. He will measure your land and mark out your boundaries. The cost will depend on the size of your property and when it was last surveyed. 4 Speak to your neighbors. Show them your boundary proof. If you all agree that the boundary is as shown on your maps, resolve the matter by making a "lot line agreement." This is a legal deed that acknowledges the boundary line. The National Association of Realtors recommends that you check local zoning and subdivision laws before signing an agreement, in case they have an impact on your boundaries. Appoint an attorney to check this, and also to liaise with your mortgage lenders, draft your agreement and record it so that you do not run into any issues on your subsequent home sale. 5 Suggest mediation if you cannot agree, or your neighbors are obstructive. This is a neutral forum where the parties can discuss their concerns and reach an amicable resolution. The mediator facilitates communication, but does not himself resolve the problem. You can be as inventive as you like to solve the dispute, such as offering your neighbors a legal easement if they are encroaching on your land (or vice versa), or even selling the land to them, if that does not affect the overall value and amenity of the home you are selling. 6 Appoint an attorney. If you cannot resolve the matter amicably, seek immediate legal assistance. The reason for this is twofold. You must disclose the boundary dispute to your buyer. Further, if your neighbor files a lawsuit, he can record a notice of pending action against your property. This puts potential buyers on notice that your neighbor has a claim against your land. Any buyer would take the property subject to that claim -- if they could get title insurance. References Resources Writer Bio A former real estate lawyer, Jayne Thompson writes about law, business and corporate communications, drawing on 17 years’ experience in the legal sector. She holds a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Birmingham and a Masters in International Law from the University of East London.	https://homeguides.sfgate.com/sell-property-boundary-dispute-83148.html
This policy statement is underpinned by the U3A Vall del Pop Code of Conduct which applies to all members. The Grievance Procedure outlined in this document seeks to provide a mechanism to deal with these issues. Initial informal approach All U3A Vall del Pop members are expected to behave in a courteous and civilised manner in dealing with any issue that arises, and to seek to resolve the problem informally – where appropriate without compromising the U3A. If either party is not happy with the above informal resolution, then the formal procedure below may be followed. Formal Grievance Procedure - A formal written complaint can be made by a member or other party by letter or email, directed to the President or Secretary, U3A Vall del Pop who will acknowledge receipt of same. - In the first instance the Secretary will act as Grievance Officer and delegate responsibility, as appropriate through consultation with the President. - A meeting will be organised between the Grievance Officer and the appropriate parties. - The Grievance Officer, with reference to other parties, will make a direction as to the validity of the grievance. - The Grievance Officer will report to the President and Committee on conclusion of the issue and the matter will be treated as confidential. - The aggrieved party will be contacted by the President, verbally, written or email whichever is appropriate with the U3A’s decision on the grievance. - The Grievance Officer and U3A Vall del Pop will keep written records of all formal grievance processes. The record will include the details of all actions taken to resolve or attempt to resolve the grievance or concern and the outcomes of these actions.	https://www.u3avalldelpop.com/index.php/grievance-procedure
Heisenberg compensation field The Heisenberg compensation field is an integral element of urban plasma rifles developed by REPCONN Aerospace for the U.S. military. Background The Heisenberg compensation field is a crucial step in the matter modulation process underlying the new model plasma rifle. REPCONN Aerospace was having trouble with the matter conversion process occurring in the field, blockading their attempts at further development of the weapon. However, thanks to the wonders of industrial espionage, Poseidon Energy's aborted Semele plasma rifle provided the necessary technical data to resolve the issue. Appearances The Heisenberg compensation field is mentioned only in Fallout: New Vegas. References - ↑ REPCONN Headquarters terminal entries: "REPCONN Inter-office Correspondence #3458503 To: Xuan Duong, Senior Staff Engineer From: Carl Rook, Vice President Xuan, One of my contacts at Poseidon energy found the specs for the canceled SEMELE plasma rifle. I'm sending them over to your team. From what I can tell they've managed to resolve the matter conversion issue you've been having with the Heisenberg Compensation Field. Combined with the data from the sabotaged launch, I think you should have everything you need to complete the Q-35. Colonel Moretti is expecting results with this project, I don't need to tell you what a favorable evaluation from his desk will do for all our stock portfolios. Carl"	https://fallout.gamepedia.com/Heisenberg_compensation_field
For example, mention the content of the unbiased material in open correspondence, namely: Leonie first joined Tiger Law as a paralegal, but signed a trainee lawyer contract with us in late 2017. She recently earned a 5-year part-time degree to earn a 2:1 in her LLB with the Open University – a course she combined with the education of 2 children. Impartiality doesn`t just apply to written communication, and as long as it`s clear at first, it also applies to oral communication – lawyers are often known to have “unbiased” conversations with their peers. Allegedly impartial communications which, if exposed, would show that a party is asserting manifestly false facts or making false statements, will not be protected. If the words used show that the party is pursuing a dishonest matter or committing a criminal or fraudulent act, the disclosure is admissible as evidence.11 The result here means that the usual rule of “costs follow event” (i.e., the winner receives his or her legal fees paid by the other party) will be replaced. That`s because the offer spoiled the dispute a bit. The courts do not like the parties not accepting reasonable offers. Without prejudice to protection, it is generally accepted that it covers all disputes, whether it is a dispute, arbitration, legal proceedings5 or an alternative dispute resolution method. “Well, at the beginning of this procedure, my client made an offer to settle this dispute. We offered to pay £60. The offer was rejected by [Insert name]. Judge, you have determined that my client is obliged to pay [give your name] £50. They rejected this (best) sum of £60. Someone should have their litigation cost [i.e. you should pay someone`s cost]. You should never summarize open and unbiased correspondence in a letter. This unnecessarily confuses and complicates matters when one of the correspondences has to be presented to a court. The last type of unbiased correspondence we consider in this letter are those marked “without prejudice except in terms of cost – subject to contract” (WPSATCSTC). This covers all of the above, but in particular includes the phrase “subject to the contract”. What does this add to the offer? If a party enters into a transaction and wishes to make it clear that it does not intend to enter into a legally binding contract until a formal contract has been exchanged, it must specify that correspondence and discussions on billing terms are therefore “the subject matter of the contract”, i.e. non-binding until such a contract or even a settlement agreement (which forms a contract) is concluded. Otherwise, any acceptance of the offer will result in the conclusion of the contract under the conditions set out in this letter. These are recognized exceptions to the rule without prejudice. Unless there is a dispute or negotiation between the parties, the unassigned privilege does not apply. It must: The rule also applies to previous broadcasts of impartial messages. For example, if a party has an unbiased conversation, the content of the discussion, summaries or reports on what has been said cannot be: even if the communication is not explicitly marked as “without prejudice”, protection is not lost, provided that the negotiations are really aimed at an agreement. Pre-letters sent by a defendant`s insurers were considered part of the compromise negotiations and therefore protected, although they were not titled “without prejudice”.3 However, it is advisable to start appropriate correspondence or communication with the print. What has been said and written in impartial communications cannot be used in court. The Court of Appeal was asked to consider this issue in Framlington Group Limited and Axa Framlington Group Limited – v. Barnetson.16 There was no prior authority on this point. At first instance, it was held that the communications at issue were not impartial, as no dispute had arisen between the parties at the time of their implementation because no dispute had been initiated or threatened. The Court of Appeal disagreed, noting that the critical feature was the subject of the dispute and not how long before the threat or the start of the dispute, it was disseminated in negotiations between the parties. It was essential to consider whether the parties considered or reasonably considered a dispute in the course of negotiations if they did not reach an agreement. The Court will therefore examine the subject-matter of the hearings and not their proximity to the opening of the procedure in order to answer that question. “without prejudice to existing rights or claims”. The term “subject matter of the contract” is used to indicate that an agreement is not yet binding. A document marked “subject matter of the contract” is normally not protected in the event of non-deterioration. In cases where you are in negotiations and therefore want impartial protection, but you want your settlement offer to be discussed further, instead of being fully binding when accepted, you should also keep the letter “without a contract”. This is a clear indication to the other party that any agreement offered or discussed is always subject to the development of formal, written and agreed terms. But these two labels make it possible to obtain completely different things and should not be confused. Without prejudice to settlement offers and related communications, they shall be protected against disclosure. Written submissions do not necessarily need to be marked as “impartial” to be considered as such, as the privilege of “without prejudice” may be implied (as shown in Unilever plc v. Procter & Gamble Co All ER 783). However, it would be preferable to mark or indicate which communication should be impartial in order to express the intention. Indeed, the communication, which should be implied without prejudice, can be envisaged in relation to costs (as shown by Sternberg Reed Solicitors v Harrison EWCH 2065 (Ch)). If an opponent unduly attempts to use material without prejudice, an objection must be raised as soon as possible. In practice, it is normal for the parties to agree on the package of documents to be submitted to the court before the trial. This means that a party must be informed in advance that its opponent intends to rely on elements without prejudice and that it can contest it. Therefore, by giving the parties the opportunity to discuss the settlement with the certainty that it will not affect their case, they are also able to try to fulfill an important part of the overarching purpose that is part of the Code of Civil Procedure (the rules to be respected in disputes), namely that the parties must at all times try to: resolve a dispute without the court having to intervene. The purpose of the rule without prejudice is to encourage the parties to the dispute to seek an agreement by allowing them and their legal advisers to express themselves freely and make concessions, knowing that their words cannot be used against them later in court if negotiations do not reach an agreement. However, the protection is not absolute and there are exceptions. No. Simply putting “unprejudiced” at the beginning of a letter does not automatically mean that the rules are enforced. To be truly considered impartial, correspondence must be “part of a genuine attempt to resolve a dispute.” Therefore, there must be the following: there are situations in which the courts lift the veil of protection created by impartiality. This makes it clear that the conversation must be conducted without prejudice. However, the courts treat the veil without prejudice with some respect, and the principle clearly stated in recent Court of Appeal decisions12 is that a “manifest insufficiency” must be demonstrated in order to set it aside. This is conduct that is in some ways “oppressive, dishonest or dishonourable”.13 Courts recognize that negotiations in practice often involve a certain degree of posture and accept that, in impartial discussions, a party may take a position inconsistent with its open position. .	https://neologistics.in/2022/04/20/without-prejudice-without-prejudice-save-as-to-costs-and-subject-to-contract-demystifying-the-jargon/
DSS encourages all clients to provide feedback on their experiences with DSS or a DSS funded service provider. The complaints management process ensures that any concerns you have with the services or decisions of DSS or a DSS-funded service provider are taken seriously and dealt with promptly. Your concerns can help us to improve our processes. DSS will treat your concerns as a priority, managing your complaint with integrity and fairness, and keeping you informed while working with you towards a satisfactory resolution. It is important that you remain calm and focus on the main problem. Think of what you want to complain about and what you think should be done to fix it. Telephoning in a complaint can be easier and quicker; however you won’t always be able to speak to the person directly responsible in responding to your complaint. If you complaint is complex then send an email via [email protected] or a letter via DSS Feedback, GPO Box 9820, Canberra ACT, 2601 would be the preferred option. Include in your complaint the main facts, in a logical order – your contact information, relevant dates and times, description of the complaint and attach relevant documentation. Identify what outcome you would like from lodging the complaint. Make sure your outcome is not unreasonable. Keep records of all correspondence sent and received. Discuss your concerns with you. A written response will be provided to you within 28 days. If the issue is complex we may need to extend that time. We will advise you if this is the case. Details of any attempts you have made to resolve the matter. Permission for the DSS officer/s looking into the matter to disclose your personal information to the relevant parties (if applicable). Permission for the relevant parties to provide details of your dealings with them to the DSS officer/s looking into the matter (if applicable). DSS staff will seek your consent before disclosing/requesting any of your personal information. If you agree, your personal information will be used for the purposes of processing your complaint and will be protected under the provisions of the Privacy Act 1988 and in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles. Your personal information will not be released to any person or organisation unless required by law or you provide your consent. If you are not satisfied with the way in which your concerns have been handled you can complain to the Commonwealth Ombudsman. Complaints to the Ombudsman can be made in writing, by phone, in person or by using an online complaint form.	https://www.dss.gov.au/contact/feedback-compliments-complaints-and-enquiries/complaints-page
In the event that a client or a party has a complaint against an MII Mediator(s), they should: The Mediators' Institute of Ireland ('the MII') was established as a not-for-profit organisation to promote the use of mediation as a process of dispute resolution in all areas by ensuring the highest standards of education training and professional practice of mediation and by increasing public awareness of mediation. The MII's Code of Ethics and Practice was drawn up to provide ethical guidance for Mediators in their practice. All Members and Advanced Members of the MII agree to be bound by the Code of Ethics and Practice. Complaints may or may not be upheld or may be resolved between the parties. There is no public register of those Mediators against whom a complaint has been received. This Complaints Adjudication Procedure sets out how complaints relating to a Member of the MII will be dealt with by the MII. It does not affect anyone's legal rights. The MII encourages the use of direct communication and a conciliatory approach wherever possible when dealing with complaints, being mindful that mediation exists to facilitate communication and negotiation, to promote voluntary decision making by the parties to a dispute and to assist them to reach a mutually acceptable solution. 3.1 A complaint may be made about an MII Member or Advanced Member. if it is believed that they have acted in breach of the MII Code of Ethics and Practice. 3.2 All complaints should first be raised with the Member directly. The MII encourages all its Members to be open to hearing complaints and to respond promptly and appropriately. By raising the complaint directly with the Member or with the organisation that employs the Mediator or which engaged the Mediator to mediate (if applicable), the complaint may then be resolved without the need to use the formal MII Complaints Procedures. If these attempts to resolve the issue have not been successful, the complaint should then be brought to the attention of the MII through the formal MII Complaints Procedures.* 3.3 A complaint being raised with the MII must be made within six months of the practice from which the complaint arises. If a complaint is made after six months, an explanation for the delay must be given and the MII Council will have discretion in deciding whether to consider the complaint. 3.4 All complaints should be addressed to the Administrator of the MII. The Administrator will send the complaint to the Chairperson of the Ethics Committee (CEC). The CEC will first check if the person being complained about was a Member or Advanced Member.at the date of the complaint. The MII cannot deal with complaints about people who were not Members within that category of membership at the time of the cause of complaint . If the person complained about was not a Member or within that category, the CEC will let the Complainant know. 3.5 If the person was a Member, the CEC will call the Complainant to discuss the possibility of them raising the issue directly with the Member, if they haven't done so already. 3.6 If the Complainant chooses the MII to deal with the complaint, they will be asked to provide full details in writing including: the name of the Mediator; the nature and time of the complaint; and any prior attempts to resolve the issue. Copies of any documents supporting the complaint should also be provided. The CEC will then contact: The CEC will provide both with copies of the MII Complaints & Disciplinary Procedures and the MII Code of Ethics and Practice. 3.7 If the Complainant chooses to try Independent Facilitation to resolve the issue, the President will appoint an Independent Facilitator. The Independent Facilitator will contact the Complainant and the Member to offer Independent Facilitation. The Independent Facilitator will notify the CEC when the Independent Facilitation has concluded, for administrative purposes only. If the Independent Facilitation takes place and does not resolve the issue, the Complainant still has the choice to use the Complaints Adjudication Process. If they chose Adjudication, they must notify the Administrator in writing. If they do not contact the Administrator within 3 months, the complaint will be deemed withdrawn and the Administrator will write to inform the Member. 3.8 Once a complaint is made, neither the Complainant nor the Member may claim confidentiality about the mediation which gives rise to the complaint. This is to allow full consideration of the complaint. Care must be given however to protect the confidentiality of information which is personal to other parties to the dispute. If required, details of the complaint and any attempts to resolve it may be shared with the Complaints Panel and also with the Disciplinary Panel if appropriate. 3.9 There is no charge for using the Complaints Adjudication Process. 3.10 All complaints received by the MII will be dealt with as promptly as possible. Any delays will be notified to all concerned. An extension of time-limits may be agreed by all the parties. 3.11 If anyone involved in the Complaints Adjudication Process believes there is a conflict of interest they should declare it and step down from the process where appropriate. 4.1 Once a Complainant has notified the Administrator that they wish to use the Complaints Adjudication Process, the Administrator notifies CEC who notifies the Member and the President. A Complaints Panel is appointed in accordance with clause 5 below . 4.2 The Chair of the Complaints Panel (the Chair) contacts the two other members of the Panel and checks that there is no conflict of interest for any of the three of them to hear the complaint. The Chair writes to the Complainant and the Member providing copies of all the documents received so far and notifying them of the names of the Complaints Panel members. 4.3 If the Member has not already done so, the Chair will ask them to respond in writing to the complaint within 21 days. The Chair will send a copy of the Member's reply to the Complainant who has 21 days to reply further if they choose. The Chair will send a copy of any reply to the Member. 4.4 The Complaints Panel will meet to consider the complaint on the basis of the written documents. The Complainant and Member can choose to attend this meeting. The Complaints Panel may meet more than once and will make their decision within 14 days of their final meeting. The Chair will then write to the Complainant and the Member with their decision. 4.5 The Complainant or the Member may appeal the decision of the Complaints Panel under the MII Appeals Process. 5.1 After a Complaint has been received or in the event that it is not resolved, the Council of the MII will appoint a Complaints Panel to hear the complaint. The people appointed will include a Mediator in the area of mediation and qualification of the Complained Against and two non –Mediator people who are independent of the MII, one of whom will be appointed as the Chairperson of the Panel. 5.2 The President of the MII will put forward names to the Council for appointment to the Complaints Panel. 5.3 If during the Complaints Adjudication Process, the Panel consider that it is appropriate to seek expert opinion on mediation practice they should contact the CEC. 5.4 If a complaint is upheld, the Complaints Panel may recommend that the Member make amends including, where appropriate, reimbursement of fees. If there is a recommendation to refund the fees, the MII is not responsible for the reimbursement of any fees recommended by the Complaints Panel. It is a between the Complainant and the Mediator. 5.5 The deliberations of the Complaints Panel will be confidential. The decision of the Panel will be notified to the Complainant and the Member. The CEC will be notified if the complaint has been upheld or not for administrative purposes only. A report to the MII Council will be made of the number of complaints received and upheld. The names of the Complainant and the Member will not be notified to Council. 5.6 If the Complaints Panel believe that the complaint gives rise to a matter which should go before the Disciplinary Panel, they should notify the designated member of Council in writing including details of the alleged breach of the Code of Ethics. 5.7 The MII will not make the decision of the Complaints Panel public other than to send it to the Disciplinary Panel. The Complainant and the Mediator may make the decision, but not the reasons on which it is founded, and any recommendations, public unless otherwise agreed. Footnote * It should be noted that some Mediators are governed by provisions in legislation (i.e. employment legislation) which would not permit them to be subject to the MII complaints procedures. The MII strive for best practice and accordingly the Complaints Adjudication Process is an organic document which may change from time to time. As passed by the Ethics and Standards Committee 16th March 2011 The MII accredits mediation training courses which meet set training standards. The following training programmes have been recognised as MII approved training programmes. The purpose of CPD is to ensure that Mediators keep their knowledge and skills up to date for the benefit of users of their service and for their own personal and professional development.	https://www.themii.ie/about-mii/governance/complaint-procedure
The reason for this rule is to encourage parties involved in a dispute to try to settle their disputes amicably by offering them the opportunity to express themselves freely without fear that what they say could be used against them if the case is not settled. There must be a dispute between the parties at that time, and the WP rule only applies to negotiations that constitute genuine attempts to resolve the dispute. However, the «no privileges» rule is not absolute. Subsection 131(2) provides for other exceptions to the exceptions listed above, including if: The sentence without prejudice appears to be the product of the same bureaucratic instinct that arose notwithstanding the foregoing. You`d better leave it out or use something simpler. For example, instead of being impartial, you could say that it will not affect. The main «without prejudice» exception is that once an agreement has been reached and a party fails to comply with the agreement, evidence presented impartially may be admissible in court to prove that an agreement has been reached. The rule of the WP is to encourage settlement negotiations without the parties weakening their position in the formal dispute. Basically, when this rule applies, people can speak and write openly without fear that what they say could be used against them in court or arbitration. Too often, the term «without prejudice» is misused – even by lawyers – probably because people tend to believe that there is some kind of magic associated with the expression. The concern is poetically summed up in a 1975 Australian court decision in Davies v Nyland: an offer from WP can be made orally or in writing, but is usually included in a letter or email to the other party. WP correspondence can be sent at any time by any party and does not need to be made through a lawyer, but it is important to make it clear to the other party that the correspondence you send is on a WP basis by clearly marking it as such, otherwise it will most likely be considered «open» correspondence. The prejudice rule prevents statements made as part of a genuine attempt to resolve an existing legal dispute from being brought before the courts. But if there is a long period of time after the failure of the negotiations and the beginning of the legal dispute, does that prevent the parties from claiming that the negotiations were impartial, because at that time it cannot be said that there was an «existing dispute»? How close should the failed negotiations be to the beginning of the process? Section 131 of the Evidence Act, 1995 reflects the «unbiased» privilege existing at common law. A judge may exercise his or her discretion to authorize evidence for settlement hearings within the inherent jurisdiction of the court. This section applies to civil cases and not to criminal cases. If an opponent unduly attempts to use material without prejudice, an objection must be raised as soon as possible. In practice, it is normal for the parties to agree on the package of documents to be submitted to the court before the trial. This means that a party must be informed in advance that its opponent intends to rely on elements without prejudice and that it can contest it. In general, a party`s admission to something can be used against them in court. The No Prejudice Rule (WP) means that statements made as part of a genuine attempt to resolve a dispute cannot be used in court as evidence of a confession against the party who made them. In any discussion or meeting, if any, it is best to mention this at the outset – see also the next section on this subject – and to obtain confirmation from the other party that it agrees that the communication is impartial. In most cases, documents containing an impartial clause cannot be used as evidence in a court case. Nor can they serve as a precedent or a final word of the signatory in this matter. The problem is even worse if you use «regardless of the above» in a contract. In this way, you could give the impression that the provision in question is close and does not refer to the previous sentence or even to the previous part of the Contracting Party. To avoid this confusion, it is enough to refrain from using it regardless of the above. «In some circles of the community, there is a belief that is almost a superstitious obsession, that the phrase `without prejudice` is obsessed with virtually magical qualities, and that everything that is done or said under its presumed aegis is eternally hidden from the prying eyes of a court.» However, the courts treat the veil without prejudice with some respect, and the principle clearly stated in recent Court of Appeal decisions12 is that a «manifest insufficiency» must be demonstrated in order to set it aside. This is behaviour that is in some ways «oppressive, dishonest or dishonourable».13 Courts recognize that negotiation in practice often involves a certain degree of posture and accept that in impartial discussions, a party may adopt a position inconsistent with its open position. However, there is a line that needs to be drawn, and using the label without prejudice will not give a party «carte blanche» to be dishonest. The test for determining when protection applies is how the term «without prejudice» is used – notification can only be made in the context of an attempt to negotiate a dispute and for no other purpose. Well, how about the sentence without prejudice? Again, the definition of black is as follows: notwithstanding this, the clauses are most often used in British Commonwealth countries as part of settlement negotiations. However, they are still found in some American treaties. Here is an example of an unbiased clause: Confidential interactions (written and oral) between parties who are genuinely trying to resolve a dispute are often marked as «without prejudice» (WP). It is actually an abbreviation for the statement: «Although I am trying to reach an agreement with you, I do not admit or admit or waive any argument or right – therefore, my offers to enter into a trade agreement are without prejudice to my main position that I am right and you are wrong.» The crucial point is to be aware that this WP «protection» is potentially available in certain circumstances, and to know what it means so that you can protect your position during negotiations. .	https://www.rotmarketing.com/what-does-without-prejudice-mean-in-contract/
Guest Post by Malcolm Peart (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission) Punch lines, ad-libs, and instrumental solos, even a single note on a Tibetan singing bowl, all depend on one thing…timing. Project Communication is also about timing and, whilst many people speak and opine with impunity the timing of written communication and converting possibly wild words into black & white can often mean the difference between collaboration and cooperation or resistance and antagonism. The timing and the content of some communication are often mandated such as submission of reports, designs, records of meetings, and contractual notifications. The timing of other written communication depends on the situation but the tone, content and message being conveyed are voluntary as are the implications. ‘Paper never refuses ink’ they say and just because it’s written doesn’t mean it’s right…don’t blame the pen or shoot the messenger, it’s the writer who’s at fault! There are many sayings about timing such as “think before you speak”, “a closed mouth gathers no feet” and Abe Lincoln advocated that “it’s better to remain silent and be thought a fool rather than speak and remove all doubt”. This advice also applies to the written word; Earnest Hemingway apparently said “Write Drunk. Edit Sober”. Whilst not literally meaning ‘drunk’ it means tidying up one’s words and perhaps taking out some of the venom or disrespect. According to John Maynard Keynes “Words ought to be a little wild, for they are the assaults of thoughts on the unthinking” but for every wild assault there may well be a counterattack. “The pen”, according to the English author Edward Bulwer-Lytton 200 years’ ago, “is mightier than the sword”. However a sword can be double-edged and, depending on when or how it is wielded, this can make the difference between successful and unsuccessful communication. Pre-emptive Strikes The pre-emptive strike can be a bolt from the blue causing surprise, confusion and possibly anger. It can be one party’s attempt to get in with their version of the ‘truth’ first if something untoward happens. This first strike is often a move to control a situation or demand certain conduct from another party in anticipation of trouble. It’s akin to “shoot first; ask questions later” and, once written the words become ‘facts’ in some people’s minds even if they are not (wholly) correct. And these words, like rumours, can go halfway around the world before the ‘truth’ has put its shoes on and answered back. Rather than seeking to understand a situation one party will issue correspondence to which the recipient may well take offence. The resultant offensive action possibly as a consequence of a negligent discharge will start a battle of words. The same goes for the one-sided minutes of meeting where ‘history’ is rewritten by a would-be victor and the ‘defeated’ have no choice but to challenge. Counter Attacks The reaction to any attack is typically one of three things; flight, freeze or fight. In written communication the ‘flight’ is characterised by defensive action and being put on the back foot. These written responses merely rebut the strike but with no ‘teeth’. This toothless rebuttal is inevitably accompanied by reference to a swathe of previous rebuttals and a focus on semantics with little or no relevance to the matter in hand; this merely fuels the fire of thrust-and-parry between the parties. If a response is not forthcoming the result is freezing. Such complete inaction is a rare event but it can and does happen until a barrack-room lawyer eventually surfaces to lead a late, and possibly belated and pointless counter-attack. However, if a letter is consciously ignored this is an act of passive aggression and an active fight will inevitably ensue. Any fight typically falls between two extremes; reacting without thinking or a calculated response. The knee jerk reaction results in a mere rebuttal of every aspect of the strike coupled with a few random shots to gain, hopefully, an upper hand. Alternatively, a properly designed defence can be adopted and tact, possibly coupled with diplomacy may be deployed. As Churchill once said “Tact is the ability to tell someone to go to hell in such a way that they look forward to the trip.” War & Peace The initial exchange of words can quickly escalate into an all-out war. Attempts to win a war swiftly with a single blow amalgamating all of one’s arguments is akin to a poker player revealing his hand and any quick win can be easily lost. For the most part there are relentless exchanges of barrages of letters, reports and other evidence supporting each party’s position, right or wrong. The old adage of ‘never give in, never surrender’ has never been so true in a war of words. Positions are supported and, no matter how untenable the position, the war rages and the communication process becomes a metaphorical gun-barrel to force opinions rather than provide a means of understanding. In the aggressive exchanges of written communication, the parties ‘dig-in’ and continue to dig rather than look over the proverbial parapet. If a party does risk trying to evaluate the real situation in an overt manner they may well be exposed to the covert sniper fire of an opportunistic opponent and their position may be compromised. Attempts at open communication can become futile as the parties alienate each other and blame becomes the order of the day. Brief skirmishes to resolve matters or peace envoys may ensue but each side stands off as they, metaphorically, shout at each other through the fog of war created by repeated and reactionary communication. And like many wars nobody really knows why they really started in the first place or what they were really about. But as with any war there will inevitably be peace in one form or another and the elephant in the room over whom conflict was waged is finally identified. Amicable settlements, adjudications, mediations, arbitrations and even litigation are means of making such peace and all of these require communication. The communications from the conflict are reviewed until the peace-keeper(s) separate the potentially frivolous and vexatious chaff from the wheat of the truth. In the resulting understanding the truth is communicated, the rights and wrongs are determined as are the eventual winners and losers; unfortunately, the victims have already suffered. Conclusion – Optimal Communication The fifth of the late Steven Covey’s 7 Habits is “Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood”; this is essential to effective communication. Communication is not about beating the other party(s) into submission with copious correspondence, it’s about getting understandable messages through. However, it takes time to understand what other people want or what a situation has actually presented. Man, being an impatient species, has a habit of jumping to conclusions based upon incomplete information and this is all but uncommon. Despite being advised to “strike while the iron is hot” or even “Just Do It” it’s almost always better to sleep on a matter and put one’s thoughts into tempered language rather than send them in a temper. Communication is about informing and attempting to influence others and conveying ideas, but it is also about express feelings and conforming to acceptable social norms such as being civil and respectful. Some 2,600 years ago the Jain monk Mahavira said “Anger begets anger”. This ancient advice, if heeded, could well prevent the repercussions of writing an impulsive or contrived written communication, instigating a heated telephone or conference call, or sending a reactionary and perhaps reckless email. Taking time to understand a situation and reflecting on a primordial reaction to fight may well avoid an unwarranted and, most likely, an unwanted waste of precious time and effort; Think First. Write Later. Bio: Malcolm Peart is an UK Chartered Engineer & Chartered Geologist with over thirty-five years’ international experience in multicultural environments on large multidisciplinary infrastructure projects including rail, metro, hydro, airports, tunnels, roads and bridges. Skills include project management, contract administration & procurement, and design & construction management skills as Client, Consultant, and Contractor.	https://accendoreliability.com/great-communications-a-matter-of-time/
During the often-lengthy immigration process, it is easy to get confused by the many different words and terms that you will hear. One such term is “Declaratory relief,” also commonly referred to as a “Declaratory judgment.” This is essentially a judgement by a court that rules on a particular question so as to resolve any pending uncertainty. In other words, “Declaratory relief” can bring clarity to a situation. Here are some additional facts you should know about declaratory relief. Although the term can create some confusion – especially to those who are stressed out about their immigration status – the idea behind “declaratory relief” is actually quite simple. Declaratory relief refers to the judgment of a court to decide a legal question. For example, a person may want to have it declared that they are entitled to a certain immigration benefit. Simply put, the court is making a decision about the status of a specific person or event. Why should someone seek out Declaratory relief? What benefits does it procure? In immigration cases, a Declaratory judgment may help clarify your legal rights. There may be some uncertainty or confusion, or even a disagreement between an immigrant and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service. In these cases, a Declaratory judgment can resolve any pending issues. And this Declaratory judgment can potentially lead to the granting of a person’s requested immigration benefit. While it might seem like this kind of judgment might be a great way to “move the process along” and provide you with an immediate solution to your problem, the truth is that the legal world is complicated. Is your case appropriate for Declaratory relief? Will it help in determining your immigration status? Many people are frustrated with the slow movement of their case, but that fact alone does not necessarily mean that your case is appropriate for Declaratory Relief (but it may potentially be appropriate for a Mandamus). Request for Declaratory relief typically include matters where a legal issue must be resolved by a federal court. But federal court is not the place to start. Rather, before filing a federal lawsuit asking for Declaratory relief, all attempts should be made to resolve this matter with the appropriate government agency. If someone’s status is “up in the air” – which is not a legal term – then it is important to seek out a court judgment that will provide clarity to the situation. In immigration cases, this kind of Declaratory judgment can potentially rule on a person’s immigration status as determined by the events of the past and whether legal requirements have been met.	https://www.rreeves.com/declaratory-relief/
In this opinion, United States Magistrate Judge John M. Facciola continued attempts to resolve ongoing discovery issues in Plaintiff Jonathan Peskoff’s suit to recover damages for financial injury resulting from Defendant Michael Faber’s operation of a venture capital fund, called NextPoint Partners, LP. Peskoff and Faber were managing members of NextPoint GP, LLC ("NextPoint "), the general partner of the venture capital fund. Peskoff left NextPoint in January 2004 and filed an action against Faber shortly after. In discovery, Peskoff sought documents, including email from his time at NextPoint Management. Faber’s initial productions of email and other documents did not include any emails that Peskoff received or authored between mid-2001 and mid-2003. In a previous ruling centering on the missing data, the court noted that the unresolved issue was whether such emails still existed and could be located, and whether the efforts made to date to locate them had been adequate. The court had ordered the Defendant to conduct additional searches for any email involving Peskoff, and to submit a sworn statement and provide testimony at an evidentiary hearing on the nature and adequacy of such searches. (For additional background information, click on the links to see summaries of two previous orders in this case related to this issue, entered July 2006 and February 2007). In this opinion, the court noted that Faber had failed to appear at the subsequent evidentiary hearing, and that this failure to comply with the court’s previous order would be construed against him. The court then relied on the testimony made by others at the hearing, and on other available information, and concluded that the production to date raised many questions regarding its completion and the sufficiency of the searches performed. The court also concluded that any additional searches would require additional resources beyond the tools available to NextPoint. The court then turned to consider whether a forensic examination should be undertaken to look for additional material, and if so, who should pay for such an examination. The court noted it had the authority to limit discovery under Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(b)(2)(C). The court applied the standard articulated in the revised version of section (iii) of this rule that will become effective December 2007, observing that the revised version made the standard for limiting discovery somewhat clearer. That subsection gives the court the authority to limit the frequency or extent of discovery if: the burden or expense of the proposed discovery outweighs its likely benefit, considering the needs of the case, the amount in controversy, the parties’ resources, the importance of the issues at stake in the action, and the importance of the discovery in resolving the issues. (Italics added to indicate new language.) Observing that the final point regarding the importance of the discovery to resolving the issues in the litigation was challenging because “the importance of the results of the forensic examination to be had can only be accurately assessed after it is done,” the court nonetheless concluded that the information that had been produced thus far permitted the court to infer the possible existence of additional similar information warranting judicial action. Noting the importance of considering the potential expense of forensic analysis, the court ordered the parties to collaborate to create a request for proposals seeking bids from qualified forensic computer technicians to determine the likely cost of searching for, restoring and converting email from the computers located at NextPoint. The court stated this approach was justified “because the emails are relevant, the results of the search that was conducted are incomprehensible, and there is no other way to try to find the emails.” The court also addressed two new arguments presented by Faber’s attorney, also serving as counsel to NextPoint, regarding the role and obligations of NextPoint in the discovery. Counsel had argued that the court’s Rule 26 analysis was improper because the steps being proposed by the court were centered on NextPoint’s data systems. Because Peskoff filed suite against Faber, not NextPoint, counsel argued that NextPoint was a third party that was never obligated to preserve any electronic documents, and that any such document requests directed at NextPoint required a Rule 45 subpoena. The court ruled that Faber’s failure to state these objections in a timely manner had resulted in a waiver: Had NextPoint wanted to take the position that it was a third party in the conflict between Peskoff and Faber, then Mr. Davis should have resisted any discovery served on NextPoint in the first place on the grounds that the information belonged to NextPoint and not to Faber. Moreover, if Faber had needed authority to produce discovery on behalf of NextPoint, then no discovery should have been produced from NextPoint in response to Peskoff’s discovery requests at all. . . . To assert this position now at this late date simply suggests a newfangled theory by which Faber’s counsel attempts to thwart Peskoff’s legitimate discovery efforts, and the Court will not allow it. Finally, the court expressed its concern over apparent inaccuracies or inconsistencies in the testimony that had been provided by both Peskoff’s counsel and Faber’s counsel, ordering each of them to submit to the court written explanations for erroneous and/or contradictory statements they had made regarding ESI discovery issues in the case.	https://www.ediscoverylaw.com/2007/08/court-orders-solicitation-of-bids-from-forensic-computer-technicians-to-assess-whether-the-search-and-restoration-of-additional-data-from-defendants-company-computers-is-justified-under-frcp-26b2/
Some might argue that attempts to recover and make public Longmont City Council member Joan Peck’s lost emails are a foolish, wasted effort, considering that there’s likely nothing worth the public’s interest in those emails anyway. There might be no way of knowing that for sure now. Peck’s correspondence with a constituent, which is considered a public record in Colorado, was lost when her hard drive crashed. She had moved the emails onto a hard drive because, she says, her email provider charges for storage. (Note to council: Even AOL, the internet service of the last century, offers unlimited email storage.) And why was Peck’s email on a private server? Because she wanted to keep it hidden from the Times-Call. At least that’s what the resident told the Times-Call, and Peck hasn’t publicly denied it. Newspapers disseminate information, which means that, by extension, Peck didn’t want the public knowing about those emails, either. Her fellow council members remain in the dark also. Councilman Gabe Santos filed an open records request with the city clerk for those emails and was denied because the emails were not available. A Times-Call request was denied for the same reason. Yet Peck told fellow council members last Wednesday, “if you want to look at my emails, have at it.” Umm. They’re not there. And to think, this revelation of secretive emails came only as the result of fellow council member Brian Bagley confronting Peck about her meeting with constituents in a Longmont resident’s home — something perfectly within the rules — and her alleged criticism of city staff and fellow council members when it comes to attitudes about development. Council members are welcome to speak up about development. One might disagree with where a councilwoman stands, but speaking up is her prerogative. Even if sometimes ill-advisable, speaking your mind doesn’t skirt open records law. What’s more, reports revealed that Peck defended fellow council members in that neighborhood meeting, a noble stance for sure. Intentionally hidden emails, however, are another matter, regardless of the excuse. Colorado’s Open Records Act states that “public records” include “the correspondence of elected officials.” “Correspondence” includes communications “sent via electronic email.” Granted, there are exceptions. Among them is “communication from a constituent to an elected official that clearly implies by its nature or content that the constituent expects that it is confidential or that is communicated for the purpose of requesting that the elected official render assistance or information relating to a personal and private matter that is not publicly known affecting the constituent or a communication from the elected official in response to such a communication from a constituent.” But how can anyone determine that any correspondence falls within an exception when the email is hidden even from the city clerk? Incoming city council members are instructed to use their city email addresses, with the following admonition: “Because elected officials’ email is subject to Colorado Open Records laws, this City email address automatically copies all incoming and outgoing emails to an Open Records Email Box that can be viewed by the public upon request. Using your personal email account for City business and constituent correspondence may make information on your personal computer subject to an Open Records request search.” And yet, Councilwoman Peck sent emails from a private account, deleted them from that account, then saved them on a hard drive that now is inaccessible. Had she done city business on her city email account, not only would the email have been preserved, nothing might have come of this. Possibly nothing at all. This naturally raises the question: If the emails didn’t matter, why go through the trouble of hiding them? Joan Peck can answer that question, or find those emails. Join the Conversation We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. We reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.	https://www.timescall.com/2017/07/11/editorial-why-would-longmont-city-councilwoman-joan-peck-hide-emails/
The College recognises that on occasion candidates may wish to express their dissatisfaction with the way in which something has been done and feel confident that any such complaint is handled in a fair and consistent way. Candidates who consider that they have grounds for complaint, regarding the provision of a service by the College that does not amount to a request for a ‘Review’, (see paragraph 8), should use the following regulations. 21 A ‘complaint’ in accordance with these regulations, is defined as an expression of dissatisfaction or a specific concern, whether given orally or in writing, about the provision or quality of a service provided during the examination process. 22 Complaints should be brought to the attention of a College officer as soon as possible. All complaints given orally at the time of an examination taking place will be logged on an incident report form by the College officer. Immediate action to resolve issues as they arise will be taken wherever possible and the complainant will be advised accordingly. 23 All complaints should be raised initially with the College officer directly involved. The vast majority of complaints can and should be resolved in this way. If this does not resolve the matter, or this step is for any reason not possible or appropriate, the complainant should contact the College by email or in writing, setting out in full the matter on which the complaint is based. Correspondence should be addressed for the attention of the Head of Examinations, within one month of the incident occurring. Complaints submitted anonymously or on behalf of another party will not be considered. 24 Where a complaint more closely fits a request for a Review or a matter such as a re-calculation, it will be reclassified and proceed in accordance with the appropriate regulation. Such reclassification will always be carried out so that the matter can be considered in the most appropriate and fair way. Candidates will not be required to resubmit their cases. 25 An informal and flexible approach to resolution of complaints will be adopted wherever possible. All complainants will be advised of the course of action taken to resolve the complaint. 26 If following communication with the College a complainant remains dissatisfied and only when all attempts to resolve the complaint have been exhausted. Then a ‘formal complaint’ should be submitted to the Director. Following discussion with the Examinations Committee, the Director will reach a conclusion on the complaint and determine a course of action. 27 Formal complaints must be submitted in writing to the Director, headed ‘Formal Complaint’ stating: a) the nature of the complaint, b) what has/has not been done to resolve it c) why the complainant is not satisfied with the course of action taken by the College/College Officer, and d) what the complainant would like to be done to resolve the matter to their satisfaction. 28 The Director will acknowledge an official complaint within five working days of receipt. A full response will be made as soon as possible. Full reasons will be given for the decision reached. 29 The decision of the Director is final and following despatch of the decision letter the complaint’s procedure will be at an end. 30 Candidate confidentiality will be observed when handling complaints wherever possible. However, it will occasionally be necessary to disclose a complainant’s identity to progress an investigation. Candidates who engage in the complaints process will not be disadvantaged. 31 Candidates shall not be eligible to apply for or undertake any FRCA examination whilst a complaint remains unresolved.	http://www.rcoa.ac.uk/documents/primary-final-frca-examinations-reviews-appeal-regulations/complaints
The school takes informal concerns seriously and aims to resolve them at the earliest stage in order to ensure the smooth running of the school and high standards of learning and teaching and avoid these developing into formal complaints. The underlying principle is that concerns will be handled, if at all possible, without the need for formal procedures. The requirement to have a complaints procedure will not in any way undermine efforts to resolve the concern informally. Staff will endeavour to resolve issues on the spot. In order to make a complaint, complainants should raise any concerns and complains with members of staff either in person, by telephone or in writing in order that they can initially be discussed informally and hopefully resolved. Formal procedures will be invoked when initial attempts to resolve the issue are unsuccessful and the person raising the concern remains dissatisfied and wishes to take the matter further. This policy should be read alongside other schools policies which can be found on the school’s website. This policy will apply to all employees and governors of the school. It is the shared responsibility of the Headteacher and the Chair of the Governing Body to ensure that these groups are made aware of the policy and procedure. This policy is limited to matters which can reasonably be investigated and therefore concerns and/or complaints should relate to matters which have occurred within the last 12 months. What to do if you have a concern/complaint about Sarah Bonnell School. 3.1.1 Complainants can express an initial concern verbally (in person or by telephone) or in writing (letter, note or email) directly to any adult employed by the school. If this is not the appropriate person, the school will pass on the concern to the relevant person, who in most cases will initially be an Assistant Headteacher or Progress Leader. This person will respond as soon as is possible, given teaching commitments and other responsibilities, but at least within 3 school working days. The response may be in writing or verbal and in most cases the concern will be addressed and the matter resolved informally and immediately. If the matter cannot be resolved informally, then the complainant may wish to make a complaint and the following procedures apply. 3.1.2 If the complaint involves a child with a Statement or Education, Health and Care plan, complainants are advised to speak to the school’s SENCO. 3.1.3 If a complainant first contacts an individual or group of governors, they will be asked to take up their concern with the appropriate member of staff. A governor should not be made aware of a potential complaint as they may be required to sit on a panel in the event of a formal hearing. 3.1.4 If a complainant first contacts the local authority, without contacting the school about their concern, they will be asked to contact the school directly. Alternatively, the local authority can seek the permission of the complainant to share their concerns with the school. 3.2.1 This stage is informal and should be used for raising initial concerns. 3.2.2 Complainants can complain either verbally (in person or by telephone) or in writing (letter, note or email) directly to any Leader in the school (Director of Finance and Operations, Year Leader, Progress Leader, Assistant Headteacher, Deputy Headteacher or Headteacher). If this is not the appropriate person or if the staff member is not available, the school will pass on the concern to the relevant person who will respond as soon as is possible, given teaching commitments and other responsibilities, but at least within 3 working days. The response may be in writing or verbal and in most cases the complaint will be addressed and the matter resolved informally and immediately. 3.2.3 The member of staff dealing with the complaint should make sure that the complainant is clear as to what action (if any), or monitoring of the situation has been agreed. 3.2.4 If the complaint has any safeguarding implications, it must immediately be reported directly to the Headteacher, Acting Headteacher or Designated Member of Staff. 3.3.1 The complaint should be made to the Headteacher in writing (email or letter) wherever possible. The Headteacher will acknowledge the complaint in writing. 3.3.3 Once all the relevant facts have been established, the Headteacher or her/his representative will produce a written response to the complaint. 3.3.4 The School will not usually pay financial compensation as a response to complaints though may spend money on a relevant educational purpose (eg. Paying a fee for a repeat examination). 3.4.1 Complaints against the Headteacher should be addressed directly to the Chair of Governors and should be sent to the school address. The complaint will be forwarded to the Chair of Govenrnors and be considered in accordance with Stage 2 of the procedure described below. However, before Stage 2 is instigated the Chair of Governors will invite the Headteacher to respond to the complaint in writing within 15 school days. 3.4.2 The Chair of Governors will send a copy of the Headteacher’s response to the complainant and the complainant will be asked to indicate within five school days of receipt of the response whether s/he is satisfied with the response. If the complainant is not satisfied with the response, Stage 2 should commence as described below. 3.5.1 If the complainant decides to proceed to Stage 2, s/he must write to the Chair of Governors within 3 weeks of receiving the Stage 1 outcome letter. Explain what they want to happen as a result of the complaint procedure. The Chair of Governors should acknowledge the complaint within 10 school days of receipt. A copy of the acknowledgement should be sent to the Headteacher and the clerk to the governing body. 3.5.2 A panel with at least two Governors will be arranged. The panel should be independent and impartial. The Headteacher should not serve on the panel. No governor should sit on the panel if s/he had prior involvement in the case or circumstances surrounding it. 3.5.3 The complaints panel should consider the complaint on basis of the written evidence and set up a hearing to hear evidence from both parties. Governors should consider the issues raised in the original complaint and not confine themselves to consideration of procedural issues. The panel should follow the procedure set out in Section 3.6 below. 3.5.4 The chair of the panel will write to the complainant to explain how the hearing will be conducted. The letter should be copied to the Headteacher. 3.6.1 The chair of the Complaints Panel should confirm the date of any hearing with the members of the Complaints Panel. 3.6.2 The hearing will be a confidential meeting. The complainant and Headteacher should be invited to attend the hearing. The date and time of the meeting should be convenient to the complainant and the Headteacher, within reason. The notification should inform the complainant of his/her right to be accompanied to the meeting by a friend/representative. It should also explain how the meeting will be conducted and of the complainant’s right to submit further written evidence to the Complaints Panel. Complainants will be expected to behave appropriately at all time and hearings will be stopped if this is not the case. 3.6.3 The Headteacher should also be invited to prepare a written report for the Complaints Panel in response to the complaint. 3.6.4 All relevant correspondence regarding the complaint should be circulated to the Complaints Panel members; complainant and the Headteacher in advance of the meeting. 3.6.5 It is the responsibility of the chair of the Complaints Panel to ensure that the meeting is properly conducted. Although the proceedings should be as informal as possible, minutes should be taken. 3.6.6 The aim of the hearing should be to resolve the complaint and achieve reconciliation between the School and the complainant. However, after the meeting the Complaints Panel will need to issue a finding in writing either upholding or not upholding the complaint or upholding some parts and not others. 3.6.7 If either party wishes to introduce previously undisclosed evidence or witnesses, it is in the interest of natural justice to adjourn the meeting so that the other side has time to respond to the new evidence. Late evidence of witnesses should not be accepted unless there is a good reason for the lateness. 3.6.10 The chair of the Panel should explain to the complainant and the Headteacher that the Panel will consider its decision, and a written response will be sent to both parties as soon as possible. The complainant, Headteacher and any witnesses will then leave. 3.6.11 The Panel will consider the complaint and all the evidence presented and reach a decision on the complaint. Where appropriate the Panel can decide on action to be taken to resolve the complaint and/or suggest recommended changes to the school’s systems or procedures to ensure that problems of a similar nature do not happen again. 3.6.12 Governors will not pay financial compensation as a response to a complaint, although may spend money on an appropriate educational purpose. 3.6.13 The chair of the Complaints Panel will send a written statement, within ten school days of the hearing, outlining the decision, with reasons, to both the complainant and the Headteacher. 3.6.14 The complainant should be advised that if s/he is dissatisfied with the response s/he has the right to take the matter further by contacting the Department for Education or Education Funding Agency. 3.6.15 Stage 2 should be completed within 28 school days. However, it is recognized that this timetable is likely to prove impossible for complaints which are complex. In such cases the chair of the Complaints Panel should write to the complainant giving a revised target date and Headteacher in advance of the meeting. 4.1 In exceptional circumstances, the Complaints Panel may decide not to proceed to consider the complaint on the grounds that the complaint has already been dealt with and the appropriate procedure has been exhausted. 5.1 All documentation regarding complaints (including notes of any related meetings and telephone calls), the action taken and the final outcome will be recorded and a summary included in the Headteacher’s next report to governors. 5.2 The governing body will monitor the level and nature of complaints and review the outcomes on a regular basis to ensure the effectiveness of the procedure and make changes where necessary. Complaints information shared with the whole governing body will not name individuals. 5.3 The monitoring and review of complaints by the school and the governing body is a useful tool in evaluating the school’s performance, and will contribute to school improvement. Any underlying issues identified will be addressed.	http://www.sarahbonnell.co.uk/page/?title=Complaints+Procedure&pid=61
Ms. Laura Schuurmans, research/writer on Kashmir from Indonesia visited IPRI on 11 February 2015 for discussion on Kashmir Issue with IPRI Scholars. Salient points of the discussion are as follows: • In 1940s, the British were suffering from a Russo-phobia. They did not want Russia to advance in Afghanistan and Kashmir. They did not want to divide India for their own reason of global defence of the British Empire. Britian had earlier acquired Gilgit on lease from Kashmir and created an agency there to counter any move from the Soviet side. • Their proposal was that there should be three subjects in the center: defence, foreign affairs and communication, and rest will be delegated to provinces. Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah accepted this proposal by abandoning the idea of partition of India but Jawaharlal Nehru rejected it. Nehru wrote a letter to Mountbatton on June 17, 1947 saying that although there are 77.11 % Muslims in Kashmir, it is “of the first importance to India as a whole … because of the great strategic importance of that frontier state.” • Just a few months before independence, from March 3, 1947, riots had broken out in Punjab. Since bulk of the Indian army was from Punjab, the retired soldiers had started fighting among themselves and the Britishers were perturbed because Indian army was designed to be a secular united army. British government’s opinion was that if Indian army would split, the defence of India would suffer. However, because of Hindu-Muslim riots, Britishers had feared that communal riots would attract the tribesmen. Afghanistan would follow because they had affiliation with the tribes and Russia might take advantage of the situation. In April 1947, Britishers and Congress leaders had agreed on partition of the subcontinent but were reluctant to divide Indian army because they considered the army necessary for the defence of India. • London Times had made a picture of a horse, had cut it into two parts and captioned it, “Jinnah wants to divide the Indian army.” Their proposal was that Indian Army should remain united and there should be a Supreme Commander at Delhi with two Commander in-chiefs, one for Pakistan army and other for the Indian army without changing the communal composition of the army. This proposal was not acceptable to Jinnah. He would not accept Pakistan unless he was given an independent army at least 70 % Muslims in composition. Maharaja and Prime Minister of Kashmir had initially decided to remain independent. There was local uprising and the Muslim majority wanted to join Pakistan who were being suppressed by the state forces. The Muslim tribesmen entered in support of their co-religionists. This provided an excuse for Indian army to land in Srinagar on 27 October 1947. • India’s forcible occupation of the State of Jammu and Kashmir in 1947 is the main cause of the dispute. Maharaja had signed a controversial document, the Instrument of Accession. India sent its military to crush popular insurgency. According to a Mountbatten’s personal report Number 16 written on August 8, 1947, he had been emphasizing on certain states including Kashmir to join the Indian Union because of their “geographical location.” • India took the case to the UN under Article 35 of its Charter on January 1, 1948. The UNSC decided wide its resolutions of 1948 and 1949 that the fate of Jammu and Kashmir should be decided through a plebiscite held under UN auspices. • Although during the early years of UN involvement, there was active UN participation in efforts to resolve the dispute but with the passage of time the UN gradually lost its interest and the Kashmir dispute continued to remain stagnant. The UNSC Resolution of 1957 ruled that elections in Kashmir were not a substitute for plebiscite under UN auspices. • Ms. Laura was informed of various proposals and attempts made by Pakistan to resolve the dispute but in vain. • From 1972 to 1994, the two sides met 45 times to discuss various issues but the Kashmir dispute was discussed only once in 1994 between the two foreign secretaries. • In 2003, President Musharraf suggested four stages for a dialogue process. The main objective was to initiate a debate on the Kashmir dispute. The joint statements issued by President Musharraf and the Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee in January 2004, September 2004, and April 2005 clearly reflected the desire for a peaceful settlement of the disputes including Kashmir. However, no progress was made. • President Musharraf put forward a four point formula to resolve the Kashmir dispute in January 2006. The formula implied soft borders, demilitarization, self-governance and a joint mechanism. The unfortunate Mumbai incident halted the dialogue in 2008. • India had given local autonomy to Kashmir through Article 370 in the Indian Constitution. However, there have been border deployments by India and Pakistan on several occasions. The Prime Ministers of both countries met in 2012 but made no progress because India continued to insist on probing Mumbai attacks. In 2013 the then President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari met with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in a UN Session. Nawaz Sharif during his elections campaign also stated that if he got elected he would take two steps to resolve the issue if India took one. • Narendra Modi’s political manifesto during 2014 India Election was that his government would repeal Article 370 of the Indian Constitution. Later on, Modi during his visit to Kashmir blamed Pakistan for fighting a proxy war in Kashmir. • Kashmir Legislative Assembly elections were held in 2014. PDP became the single largest party with 28 seats. BJP became the second largest party with 25 seats. Article 370 could not be repealed by the Indian Parliament unless the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly had endorsed the move. • Owing to Indian repression Kashmir has become a human rights issue and Pakistan would continue to provide support because it is a party to dispute as per UNSC resolutions. Conclusion: Pakistan’s stance is that Kashmiris should be given the right of self-determination under UN auspices as per UNSC resolutions which were agreed to by the first Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Pakistan wants the resumption of composite dialogues with India to resolve the Kashmir dispute while India believes in status quo. India and Pakistan cannot afford to remain hostile forever and Kashmir issue must be solved in order to make South Asia a peaceful region. Visit of Ms. Laura Schuurmans, researcher/writer on Kashmir from Indonesia Ms. Laura Schuurmans, research/writer on Kashmir from Indonesia visited IPRI on 11 February 2015 for discussion on Kashmir Issue with IPRI Scholars. Salient points of the discussion are as follows:	https://ipripak.org/kashmir-issue/
I left the UAE in March 2020 after resigning from my job because my company didn’t support working from home at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. I have no plans to return in the near future. Before leaving the UAE, I closed all outstanding debts. However, due to the Covid-19 situation, I was unable to make a request via my bank’s customer care service to cancel my credit card. After arriving home in India, I was able to lodge this request over the phone. Despite multiple follow-up attempts with customer care, I never received a call back on my number in India to confirm the cancellation of the card. Now, the bank has charged me late fees and interest against the card’s annual renewal fee. This amounts to Dh1,663.40. I am not in Dubai, do not use this card, cannot make this payment for card renewal and need the card cancelled immediately. I don't understand why it is so difficult to cancel a card even after numerous expensive overseas calls. During my last communication with the bank, they threatened to lodge a police case and travel ban against me, among other punitive actions. All outstanding dues were paid on the card and I froze it to avoid any possible fraudulent activity. How can the bank charge me a renewal fee plus interest and late payment charges when I requested that it be cancelled? Can you advise me on my rights? AJ, India Debt panellist 1: Philip King, head of retail banking at Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank You have done the right thing by taking responsibility and paying off all your outstanding dues prior to leaving the UAE. Your sense of accountability and commitment to finding a solution for this issue should benefit you when speaking to your bank. Firstly, it is highly recommended that you continue contacting your bank, explaining that you have already sent multiple requests to cancel your card, have no outstanding dues to pay and no intention of using the card anymore. Also, reiterate that you no longer reside in the UAE due to your resignation and circumstances pertaining to Covid-19. It is usually sufficient to have your outstanding balances paid and to send a cancellation letter for the bank to confirm the request. However, you will need to refer back to the terms and conditions of your card for additional clarity on this situation. It would also be helpful to keep a record of your correspondence with the bank, which will help show your commitment to finding a fair resolution. If your bank remains unhelpful, you may consider filing a complaint with the Central Bank of the UAE's Consumer Protection Department, which launched a new complaint management system in August 2020. The new system allows you to log a complaint if your bank has not accepted a complaint or provided you with a final response within 30 days of receipt. You will need to provide your complaint reference number, along with proof of your efforts to contact the bank, for the Consumer Protection Department to follow up on your case. Debt panellist 2: Ambareen Musa, founder and chief executive of Souqalmal.com It does look like quite a few factors have come into play in this case. The fact that you requested the cancellation of your credit card after leaving the UAE made you miss out on some important checks. Since your UAE number was probably no longer working, you may have missed notifications or authentication calls from the bank, which in turn could have obstructed your request. You should also have kept your bank in the loop about your plans to move back home. This could have helped kick-start the process of closing all loans, accounts and credit cards you hold in the country. Now that you've tried to work through this with the bank with no success, you may have to file a formal complaint to resolve the issue. Did you receive any email or request number on the phone from the bank confirming that they've received your cancellation request? You may be liable to pay any interest/fees incurred on your credit card account before this date. You need to gather proof of all communication between you and the bank to support your case. It's important to note that the Consumer Protection Department amended its complaint management system in August 2020. To resolve any grievance, you must first lodge a formal complaint with your bank. Thereafter, you can file a complaint with the CPD in three scenarios: If the bank refuses to accept the complaint, or if it does not resolve it within 30 calendar days from the date of receipt, or if you are not satisfied with the resolution. You will be asked to provide the complaint reference number given by your bank in order to submit your complaint with the CPD. When you have confirmation from the bank that your credit card account has been closed and you've received a "No Liability" or "No Dues" certificate from it, only then can you be 100 per cent sure that you have no sneaky credit card balance to worry about. Debt panellist 3: Stuart Ritchie, director of wealth advice at AES Given you’ve settled all outstanding debts on your card, you are well within your rights to expect your bank to cancel it. Typically, banks require a written request for termination, which can either be done by downloading a card closure form from their website, or by contacting the card issuer directly about the exit process. Do bear in mind that this process can take a minimum of 45 days in some cases to ensure all dues have been cleared, no future payments are scheduled and you, as the cardholder, are not liable to pay any other charges. Based on your question, it appears you have done the above multiple times. You therefore may want to register a formal complaint with your bank in order to resolve your situation. To do so, however, they will require all the information regarding your case. Take the time to make a detailed record of your communication with the bank regarding your situation ahead of pursuing a complaint. Once you have done this, ask for documented proof that they received your complaint and are proceeding to take action as it is their responsibility to try and resolve your issue. You will also need proof of your card cancellation and clearance once the card has been cancelled. Alternatively, if you feel the bank is not acting upon your request and the case hasn't been resolved, you can either file a complaint with the Consumer Protection Department via its website or by calling the toll-free number 800 CBUAE. It is important to note that a complaint can only be registered with the Consumer Protection Department when the matter has been dealt with by the bank, but remains unresolved. The department will then determine if there has been a breach of the law and deal with it once identified.	https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/money/the-debt-panel-my-bank-ignored-requests-to-cancel-my-credit-card-and-charged-me-a-renewal-fee-1.1158283
Moral theories considered so far: Subjectivism : The morally right act (=MRA) is the act I (the speaker) approves of Cultural relativism : The MRA is that act required by a society's moral code Divine command theory : MRA is the act commanded by God Ethical egoism : MRA is the act that best promotes the agent's self-interest Rachels finds all these deeply problematic Utilitarianism : MRA is the act that brings the greatest total amount of happiness (balance of happiness minus unhappiness) into the world One moral rule central to utilitarianism: Principle of utility : Maximize happiness (utility) Imagine a world with as much happiness as possible; your job as a moral agent is to act so as to bring us as close as possible to this world To act correctly, follow these procedures: One: Look at all available alternative actions Two: For each, calculate the degree of happiness they produce (for everyone involved) Three: For each, subtract the degree of unhappiness or suffering they produce (for everyone affected) Do the action that has maximizes this total (or minimizes the negative, if all alternatives have negative results) Any other action is wrong. Questions to test understanding of utilitarian Act A makes 10 people happy and act B makes 3 people happy, does it follow you should do act A? No: Need to consider degrees of happiness Examples: Should you give 40 students one dollar or 1 student 40 dollars? Should we build a road through a wilderness area? Ban gay marriage? Makes 80% of people somewhat happy, and makes 5% miserable Pure democracy goes with the greatest number; utilitarianism allows strength of preferences to be included in the decision Act A makes 10 people each 10 units happy and Act B makes 3 people 20 units happy, does it follow you should do act A? No: Need to subtract the unhappiness caused (act A might also cause 15 people to be 5 units unhappy and B might have no negative consequences) Act A makes people overall happier than act B, does it follow you do act A? No: Must include the happiness of everyone affected (it could be that act A causes great suffering to sentient animals ) Example: How does the road through the wilderness affect the interests of sentient animals? Act A brings about more total happiness overall into the world than act B, does it follow that one should do act A? No: Must consider all the alternatives ; Act C might maximize total happiness more than A EXAMPLE: MATT DONNELLY'S EUTHANASIA Facts: Has cancer, will die in one year, in constant pain, sometimes excruciating pain (lying in bed with clenched teeth sweating), didn't want to live in pain for a year as was going to die anyway, begged his brothers to kill him One of them--Harold--killed him with a pistol shot Did Harold do the right thing? No? Why? Because "intentionally killing innocent people is always wrong" Utilitarianism does not accept such inflexible rules Utilitarianism suggest he did the right thing The act brought about the best overall consequences in terms of maximizing happiness (and minimizing suffering) Matt Donnelly thought he'd be better off dead Others suffering is also minimized by his death A world in which there was no suffering Matt Donnelly was a better world in terms of overall happiness UTILITARIANISM SUGGESTS REFORM OF LAWS THAT HINDER HAPPINESS Laws preventing euthanasia Laws regulating sex among consenting adults If such behavior does not harm others and contributes to the satisfaction/happiness of those involved, they should be repealed as they stand in the way of maximizing happiness EXAMPLE: TREATMENT OF NONHUMAN ANIMALS Traditional view of animals Here for our use, resources for human ends, "lower is here for the higher " They have no moral standing of their own Do not count morally in their own right Humans can treat them in any way they want if it its to our advantage Why is cruelty to animals wrong on this view? Not because the animal counts or not because it wrongs the animal But because it has negative effects on human welfare Makes those who are cruel to animals likely to be cruel to people Upsets some humans Why should I not shoot my neighbor's dog? "Not sin of murder, but sin of theft" Not wronging the dog, but my neighbor Traditional view seems extreme, but it clearly guides our treatment of animals We eat them, we make them subjects of experiments in labs, we use their skins for clothing, and their heads for wall ornaments, we make them objects of amusement in zoos and rodeos, we hunt and hook them "for the fun of it" http://www.hfa.org/hot_topic/wash_post.html Why don't animals count? Have no souls Not rational Can't speak Can't act morally Aren't human Utilitarianism view of moral status of animals What matters is only whether animals can be happy/unhappy, whether they feel pleasure/pain (are they sentient beings?) If a being can suffer or experience happiness Morality requires us to take this into account Since the goal of morality is to maximize happiness The same reason for why it is wrong to torment a human applies to why it is wrong to torment an animal:	http://hettingern.people.cofc.edu/Intro_to_Philosophy_Sp_06/Rachels_Ch_7_Utilitarianism.htm
Utilitarianism is a normative ethics theory that holds that an appropriate course of action is that which will maximize utility. This means that an action that maximizes happiness and reduces suffering would be described as a proper course of action (Jeremy 2009). The main proponent of this theory is John Stuart Mill who stated that an action that brings happiness to an individual’s life rather than bring suffering is an appropriate action. The theory is a form of consequentialism which holds that a person should be ready to accept the consequences of his action (Taylor 2008). According to the theory, the resulting outcome of a person’s actions determines if his action was of moral worth. Some theorists, however, argue that there should be a way to determine the moral worth of an action in consideration to foreseen actual and intended consequences. John Stuart Mill, the main proponent of the theory argues that every individual desires pleasure, freedom from pain and happiness as the ultimate consequence of his action (Taylor 2008). Every desirable thing in the contemporary society is desirable for pleasure that is inherent in the individual and a means to promote pleasure and freedom from pain. The theory focuses primarily on habits and actions that lead to happiness. Moral issue A moral issue is that which involves a difference in belief and not necessarily an issue of preference. These moral issues involve experiences that a person experiences and actions that might affect other people. Moral issues are those actions that have the ability to harm or help ourselves and others (Jung 2013). One of the moral issues that have raised many debates in society is the issue of tattoos. Tattoos are permanently inscribed writings or pictures in the human beings. Many people get tattoos for a variety of reasons one being that a person may get a picture of a lost loved one inscribed in his skin as an act of remembrance. Others get tattoos for the sole reason of enjoyment and fashion. This is the main reason that many teenagers get tattoos (Blair 2007). The utilitarian theory states that an action that leads to happiness is a proper action. Many people derive happiness and pleasure when getting tattoos. The utilitarian theory, therefore, would support the issue of getting tattoos because a person might derive happiness upon getting tattoos. A person is aware that a tattoo is a permanent mark that will stay with him until his demise (Blair 2007). This fact means that before a person gets a tattoo, he is ready to live with the consequences that the mark will be there with him until he passes on. The utilitarian theory holds that a person should be ready to accept the consequences of his action, therefore it would be in the support the idea of a person getting a tattoo because the person knows of the consequence i.e. the tattoo will be a permanent mark in his body. There is no proof that getting a tattoo directly or indirectly affects other people. A tattoo will only affect the person who has the tattoo. This fact is in accordance to the theory of utilitarianism because a tattoo is a personal mark that has the potential to bring happiness to a person (Taylor 2008). It is also a fact that a tattoo is a personal message to the person who has it inscribed in his skin. The Christian Bible holds that it is an act of sin to get permanent markings in one’s body. This is because the Bible states that the body is a temple of the lord (Jung 2013). It is therefore wrong, according to the Bible, for a person to get tattoos. The utilitarian theory gives the general principles of moral judgment in that a person’s sense and instincts informs him of what is right or wrong. A person might have a moral instinct that getting a tattoo is not necessarily wrong and this will prompt the individual to get a tattoo. The theory of utilitarianism holds that right, wrong, truth and falsehood is a question of observation and experience and should be deduced from principles. This may support the idea that getting a tattoo is not wrong. Works cited Blair, Lorrie. “Tattoos & Teenagers: An Art Educator’s Response.” Art Education 60.5 (2007): 39-44. ProQuest. Web. 3 May 2013. Jeremy, Bentham. Utilitarianism. S.l.: Bibliobazaar, Llc, 2009. Print. Jung, Patricia B, and L S. Jung. Moral Issues and Christian Responses. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2013. Print. Taylor, Stephen Craig. “John Stuart Mill’s Utilitarianism and Liberalism as Virtue and Character.” Bryn Mawr College, 2008. United States — Pennsylvania: ProQuest. Web. 3 May 2013.	https://www.premiumessayhelp.com/samples/utilitarianism/
Railton is addressing one kind of problem that we raised. In class, we discussed the case of a parent who is offered a choice between saving the life of her own child or saving the life of another child. Saving the life of the other child would produce overall more utility than saving the life of her own, so utilitarian consequentialism claims that she should save the life of the other child. To many people, this seems to be the wrong result: surely, they think, whatever duty she has to save the life of the other child is overridden by her duties and obligations to save the life of her own child. Samuel Scheffler presents us with a less tragic, but related problem for consequentialism. Scheffler observes that consequentialism demands that we don’t buy new shoes if we can spend that money in ways that will help other people more, or that we don’t watch TV if instead we could be doing more utility maximizing things. These two cases point to one important problem for consequentialism (here, under the guise of utilitarianism). Consequentialism seems to alienate us from the people we love and from things that make our lives richer. By focusing solely on the maximization of utility, it seems to ignore the value that other things bring into our lives: things like friendship, the love for one’s family, entertainment, art appreciation, etc. A life lived in line with consequentialist demands seems to be a very impoverished life, enslaved to the maximization of utility. Call this (i.e. the problem that consequentialism alienates us from the people close to us and some valuable life projects) the alienation problem. Railton addresses this problem in “Alienation, Consequentialism, and the Demands of Morality”. His defense stresses the importance of guiding ourselves by cultivating certain dispositions rather than by making utility calculations all the time. Alienation from something is a certain sort of separation or distancing from that thing that results in some loss. As I said above, the charge against consequentialism is that it imposes a set of demands that are too disconnected from our actual concerns, and in doing so, it alienates us from valuable elements in our lives. Here is an illustration. Imagine you ask your parents why they have been so nice to you by feeding you, taking you to school or taking care of you when you are sick. Doing all those things surely isn’t easy, so they must have a very good reason to do it. It wouldn’t be unnatural to expect them to answer that they did all those things because they loved you and they wanted you to have a happy life, or something along those lines. However, imagine they offer the following answer: Well, you know we are act utilitarians. We decided to have you in the first place because, after a series of calculations, we found out that would be the best way for us to maximize the total utility in the world, given our resources. The rest is history: once you were born, the best way to ensure maximization of utility was to take care of you and feed you. Don’t get us wrong, we love you very much, but that’s not why we did all those things. We did them because they were the morally right thing to do, and if they stopped maximizing utility, we would stop doing them. But we wouldn’t love you any less. Presumably, that would be hurtful and worrisome: in a way, it would show that there was nothing special about you in virtue of which they did all those things. Doing them just happened to be the thing that maximized utility at the time, but things could have changed at any moment, and they can still change. In other words, you were expendable in the eyes of utility maximization. The problem with the kind of reasoning of these hypothetical parents seems to be that their deliberation is completely separated from their affections. In this sense, their moral reasoning alienates them from their feelings of love towards their child. But our affections and relationships to others are very important elements of a life that is worth living. Since they are so crucial to our lives, we would expect any serious moral theory to at least consider them seriously. This is Railton’s take on the alienation problem. Railton doesn’t face the problem of alienation directly. Rather, he starts by offering an illustration of what he calls the paradox of hedonism. Later on, he will explain how the solution to this so-called paradox can help the utilitarian solve the alienation problem. Here is the paradox, in Railton’s words: One version of the so-called “paradox of hedonism” is that adopting as one’s exclusive ultimate end in life the pursuit of maximum happiness may well prevent one from having certain experiences or engaging in certain sorts of relationships or commitments that are among the greatest sources of happiness. The hedonist, looking around him, may discover that some of those who are less concerned with their own happiness than he is, and who view people and projects less instrumentally than he does, actually manage to live happier lives than he despite his dogged pursuit of happiness. The “paradox” is pragmatic, not logical, but it looks deep nonetheless: the hedonist, it would appear, ought not to be a hedonist. (p. 141) Railton is well aware that it’s not a matter of necessity that the hedonist way of making decisions will in fact prevent her from achieving maximum happiness. The problem is simply that under certain conditions, the hedonist way of deliberating won’t deliver the most happiness. In those cases, the best way to achieve the hedonist goal of maximum happiness requires one not to be a hedonist. Railton solves the problem on behalf of the hedonist by distinguishing between objective and subjective forms of hedonism. According to subjective hedonism, one should adopt the hedonistic point of view as a guide to action: whenever one deliberates on what to do, one should do whatever seems to contribute most to one’s happiness. According objective hedonism, one should follow the course of action that would contribute the most to one’s happiness, even if that course of action would require one not to adopt a hedonistic perspective in practical deliberation. A sophisticated hedonist, as Railton describes her, will be someone who adopts objective hedonism, but is not committed to subjective hedonism. Is sophisticated hedonism a tenable position? At first sight, one may think that there is some sort of tension between adopting objective hedonism and rejecting subjective hedonism. However, Railton dispels this impression by offering some compelling examples. Consider a chess player who is obsessed with winning. He enjoys the game and the like, but what really drives him is his aspiration to win every match, and one day to be the world champion. However, he has noticed as of late that his own ambition to win has led him to make some bad moves recently, which had ultimately made him loose the match. His friends and trainer suggest that he stops focusing on winning and focuses more on the game itself. His trainer may tell him: “Regain your interest in the game, study some theory just for the sake of it. When you play, do it just for the sake of the game itself, because it is interesting and enjoyable. As long as you do that, you will constantly improve, until no one can beat you.” Our chess player may decide to follow his trainer’s advice. He decides to focus again on the game. When he makes a move, he won’t make it merely because he wants to win, but because it is the best move, even if it leads to a stalemate. However, he only adopts this new way of deliberating because he thinks that winning is the best outcome for him, and he still wants to win. It’s just that in order to win, he must stop focusing so much on winning. As Railton would put it, the chess player need not always act for the sake of winning, since he may make some moves simply because they are the best move, but he would not make those moves if it were not compatible with his winning the game—for instance, unless there is no better move available, he wouldn’t play a move that he knows would lead to his defeat. The sophisticated hedonist is a bit like the chess player. She still wants to be happy, but she realizes that in order for her to be happy, she will sometimes have to deliberate in ways that don’t take into account what will maximize her happiness. If it turned out that even sophisticated hedonism makes it harder to live a happy life, our sophisticated hedonist may reject her hedonism at all.1 Railton thinks that alienation is not always a bad thing. Sometimes, we need to examine our interests and emotions from the outside to do what is right: our love for someone may preclude us from seeing that we are doing something that could harm them, or that better courses of action are available to us. However, it’s desirable to limit the alienating effects of moral considerations. Railton’s strategy has two components. First, he notices the sources of alienation in standard utilitarian doctrines, and sketches a perspective that gets rid of those sources. Second, he uses the distinction between objective and subjective forms of consequentialism to solve the problem of alienation for the moral view he sketched. According to Railton, act utilitarianism produces alienation because, in focusing solely on experiences, it separates us from reality—in this sense, he agrees with Nozick. Furthermore, it alienates us from many valuable interests because it takes goals other than happiness or utility to be merely instrumental—that is, it takes those further goals not to be valuable in themselves, but only because they will allow us to get some other thing that is valuable in itself. He thinks that these sources of alienation can be eliminated by adopting a pluralist view about value. On this pluralist view, many things are of value: happiness, personal relationships, knowledge, beauty, etc. The value of each of these things is to be weighted against the value of others in each particular case, and in general, no particular value overrides the others. Which action will deliver the maximum amount of value will depend on its consequences in a wide range of dimensions: consequences regarding utility, knowledge, etc. The second part of Railton’s defense consists in making a distinction between two kinds of consequentialism: objective and subjective. Just like he distinguished between objective and subjective hedonism in order to solve the paradox of hedonism, now Railton will use it to show that a pluralist consequentialist moral doctrine need not alienate us from our emotions and other elements that make our lives worth living. According to objective consequentialism, “the criterion of rightness of an act or course of action is whether it in fact would most promote the good of those acts available to the agent” (p. 152). According to subjective consequentialism,“whenever one faces a choice of actions, one should attempt to determine which act of those available would most promote the good, and should then try to act accordingly.” (p. 152) Railton thinks that we can escape the alienation problem by becoming sophisticated consequentialists: endorsing objective consequentialism but recognizing that sometimes this will require us to reject a characteristically consequentialist mode of deliberation. He thinks that we won’t be any less consequentialist if we adopt sophisticated consequentialism. Just like the chess player can still have winning as her main aim, but recognizes that not all of her moves have to be made having in mind what maximizes her chances of winning, so the sophisticated consequentialist wants to achieve the maximum possible good, but recognizes that she doesn’t need to perform every action guided by what will bring about the most good. Indeed, a consequentialist way of deliberation may prevent us from doing the most good in several cases: if you face an emergency, you probably won’t have the time to engage in all the computations of utility that subjective consequentialism would require you to do. Suppose for instance that you just saw a car crash, and you spot a dangerous gas leak. It’s very likely that there will be an explosion soon, but you don’t know how soon exactly. You can either examine all the available data until you determine how long there is left until the explosion, you can run for it and try to rescue the person who is still inside the car, or you can just stay away and call 911. If you go with the first option, by the time you finish your calculation it may be too late for you to either rescue the trapped person or to run for safety. A consequentialist style of deliberation can run into similar problems. Railton ridicules such style of reasoning as follows: before I deliberate about an act, it seems I must decide how much time would be optimal to allocate for this deliberation; but then I must first decide how much time would be optimal to allocate for this time-allocation decision; but before that I must decide how much time would be optimal to allocate for that decision; and so on. The sophisticated consequentialist can block this paralyzing regress by noting that often the best thing to do is not to ask questions about time allocation at all (pp. 153-4) If subjective consequentialism won’t lead to maximizing the good, then what will? Railton takes this to be mostly an empirical question. However, he thinks that it’s likely that we can maximize the good by developing certain kinds of dispositions that result in maximization of the good. Question: How is this different from rule-consequentialism? In p. 159, Railton addresses almost explicitly some of the problems that we raised in previous sessions. What is his answer to those problems? Railton ends his piece by making some observations on the demands of morality, from a consequentialist perspective: 1Think about certain examples in science fiction where a character erases her memory in order to achieve a goal that she couldn’t have otherwise achieve.	https://martinabreu.net/teaching/central-problems/lecture6.html
What is the difference between deontology and consequentialism? What are some of the best examples of each theory? Broadly speaking, consequentialism judges an action according to the consequences of the action. While a deontological judgement asks whether the action follows a given rule. 1) A main proponent of a deontological rule is Immanuel Kant. His fundamental rule is the categorical imperative. It states: Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law. 2) A main proponent of a consequentialist ethics is Jeremy Bentham. His prinicple of utilitarian ethics states: By the principle of utility is meant that principle which approves or disapproves of every action whatsoever according to the tendency it appears to have to augment or diminish the happiness of the party whose interest is in question: or, what is the same thing in other words to promote or to oppose that happiness. TLDR; they are about the right of everyone to define what is the best method to achieve the purpose. In fact they are not as different as many people think: Every rule have been estabilished to be so in either of following reasons: On a whim of ethics creators. Ethics creators followed some purpose. In case of 1 we do not have any reason to accept such ethics as we also could use the argument "I want another ethics". In case of 2 we must analyze what purpose is. Many people agree that purpose stands for some [set of] (desirable) outcome[s]. Thus, good enough consequences. In this case only the one[s] who established the rules is/are allowed to define the purpose and best methods (at least the rules, but deontology does not reject other ethics) to achieve that purpose. And everyone must follow these established rules. This is the cornerstone of deontology. On the contrary, consequentialism is about the right of everyone to decide what the best method to achieve the purpose is. Although, still not about the right to define the purpose itself. P. S. About examples I agree with Jo Wehler.	https://philosophy.stackexchange.com/questions/50026/deontology-ethics-versus-consequentialism-ethics
Utilitarianism is a form of consequentialism that support the idea that the consequences of an action determine whether it is right or wrong. Therefore, an act that maximizes on the goodness or benefit to a greater number of people, is considered to be right (Act Utilitarianism) and also the same applies if an act is considered to generally cause happiness to many people (rule consequentialism (Shafer-Landau 126). An example of a scenario that applied in my life, I had a sick grandparent at home who was really sick and needed to be rushed to the hospital. It was at night and there was little traffic but there was a speed limit within the estate road. Because of the emergency at hand, I saw it better not to obey the speed limit and drive fast to reach the hospital even faster. The consequences in this case were to either obey the laws and have my grandma worse off or dead, which would cause so much pain to the family, or break the rules, get a ticket and still save her life and make many more people happy. The utility in this case would be to ensure that my grandma arrived in hospital fast and received emergency medical attention. This option would bring the most happiness or utility even on the long term. It therefore is the right thing to do in this case. The choice I made would better fit into Kant’s formula for humanity. According to Kant, we should treat humanity as an end and not as a means to an end (Shafer-Landau 168). In my case, I treated my grandma as an end, her health and survival were the things that I focused on during the dilemma and choice to uphold. I would have used her as a means if I tried to justify her death with me following the traffic rules. Work Cited Shafer-Landau, Russ. “The fundamentals of ethics.” (2009).	https://prudentacademichelp.com/2021/08/page/10/
Caviola, L., Althaus, D., Mogensen, A., & Goodwin, G. (2021, April 1). Abstract We investigated lay people’s population ethical intuitions (N = 4,374), i.e., their moral evaluations of populations that differ in size and composition. First, we found that people place greater relative weight on, and are more sensitive to, suffering compared to happiness. Participants, on average, believed that more happy people are needed to outweigh a given amount of unhappy people in a population (Studies 1a-c). Second, we found that—in contrast to so-called person-affecting views—people do not consider the creation of new people as morally neutral. Participants considered it good to create a new happy person and bad to create a new unhappy person (Study 2). Third, we found that people take into account both the average level (averagism) and the total level (totalism) of happiness when evaluating populations. Participants preferred populations with greater total happiness levels when the average level remained constant (Study 3) and populations with greater average happiness levels when the total level remained constant (Study 4). When the two principles were in conflict, participants’ preferences lay in between the recommendations of the two principles, suggesting that both are applied simultaneously (Study 5). In certain cases, participants even showed averagist preferences when averagism disfavors adding more happy people and favors adding more unhappy people to a population (Study 6). However, when participants were prompted to reflect as opposed to rely on their intuitions, their preferences became more totalist (Studies 5-6). Our findings have implications for moral psychology, philosophy and policy making. From the Discussion Suffering is more bad than than happiness is good We found that people weigh suffering more than happiness when they evaluate the goodness of populations consisting of both happy and unhappy people. Thus, people are neither following strict negative utilitarianism (minimizing suffering, giving no weight to maximizing happiness at all) nor strict classical utilitarianism (minimizing suffering and maximizing happiness, weighing both equally). Instead, the average person’s intuitions seem to track a mixture of these two theories. In Studies 1a-c, participants on average believed that approximately 1.5-3 times more happy people are required to outweigh a given amount of unhappy people. The precise trade ratio between happiness and suffering depended on the intensity levels of happiness and suffering. (In additional preliminary studies, we found that the trade ratio can also heavily depend on the framing of the question.) Study 1c clarified that, on average, participants continued to believe that more happiness was needed to outweigh suffering even when the happiness and suffering units were exactly equally intense. This suggests that people generally weigh suffering more than happiness in their moral assessments above and beyond perceiving suffering to be more intense than happiness. However, our studies also made clear that there are individual differences and that a substantial proportion of participants weighed happiness and suffering equally strongly, in line with classical utilitarianism.	https://www.ethicalpsychology.com/2021/05/population-ethical-intuitions.html
Flashcards in Lecture 3: Utilitarianism and Justice Deck (19) Loading flashcards... 1 Does utilitarianism neglect justice? Objection from justice is one of the most important objections against utilitarianism Mill himself recognised that "one of the strongest obstacles to the reception of the doctrine that Utility or Happiness is the criterion of right and wrong, has been drawn from the idea of justice 2 What does the justice objection against utilitarianism target? -The aggregate principle -Sum ranking:best consequences are determined by the sum of individual happiness Mill takes idea of impartiality on which sum-ranking is based to honour the fundamental equality of all human-beings 3 Is the idea of impartiality on which sum-ranking is based sufficient to honour equality? Problem: as the tax example illustrates, sum-ranking may recommend unequal distributions Mill's response: - Equality of outcomes is not necessarily just -Inequalities which are necessary to maximise total happiness are just 4 What is justice? Mills list of moral issues we typically associate with concerns of justice: -Violation of rights legal and moral -Not receiving what is deserved, receiving what is not deserved - Violation of contracts Violations of impartiality -Failure to respect equality 5 What is Justice? Mill argues that we associate justice with the protection of important interests. "Justice is a name for certain moral requirements, which, regarded collectively, stand higher in the scale of social utility, and are therefore of more paramount obligation, than any others. 6 What does justice demand? There are multiple conflicting principles which relate to justice - "volenti non fit injuria" - Principles of retribution ( an eye for an eye) - Principles which specify desert - Principles which specify equality ( Mill points to the communist principle of "to each according to their needs") 7 Without a first principle. Mill argues, appeal to these principles of justice is arbitrary Mill thus defends utilitarianism as offering a basis for evaluating competing (secondary) principles of justice -Justice is a device to protect particularly important interests ( interests captured by the secondary principles) - Whether, and to what extent, we should honour these principles depends on their contribution to overall happiness 8 What is Act Utilitarianism?/ Whether an act is morally right depends on the consequence of that act itself 9 What is Rule Utilitarianism? Rule utilitarianism as a form of indirect consequentialism: whether an act is morally right depends on the consequence of the rule it follows 10 Is Mill advocating rule utilitarianism? Mills comments on secondary principles, and on punishment, in particular, suggest rule utilitarianism 11 Justice and rights? Mill proposes that we associate justice with perfect duties Problem; how plausible is the utilitarian account of moral rights? 12 What is a moral right? Moral right to x implies - One ought to have a legal right to x there ought to be some form of sanction if one is deprived of x one has a justified claim towards society for the protection of one's having x 13 What are the purposes of rights? rights are typically understood as devices to safeguard individuals from collective pursuits 14 claim rights? take the form of a claim towards someone else correlate with perfect duties 15 Liberty right? Take the form of an absence of duties to do certain things 16 In Utilitarianism what right does Mill focus on? Claim rights 17 The puzzle for the utilitarian theory of rights? - Rights limit pursuit of social utility - utilitarian theory justifies rights on the basis of what maximises social utility 18 The Separateness of Persons Objection John Rawl's 1971 objects that utilitarianism cannot do both -utilitarianism does not take seriously the distinction between persons"	https://www.brainscape.com/flashcards/lecture-3-utilitarianism-and-justice-3870880/packs/5707997
Utilitarianism succinctly answers two central questions that confront any potential metamorality: who deserves moral consideration and what should the common currency of morality be? Utilitarians believe in maximizing happiness, impartially. So happiness, or more specifically the overall quality of experience, is the common moral denominator across different groups. And everyone deserves moral consideration, equally. Furthermore, utilitarianism is based around consequences — the outcomes of, rather than intentions behind, specific actions are what determine whether the actions themselves are justified. This is not how most people are accustomed to thinking of morality. For many people, morality is defined by the values of their in group or ‘tribe.’ This more traditional approach is the basis for religious morality and tribal morality more broadly. Virtue ethicists ask what a ‘good’ person would do? The moral philosophy is grounded in the idea of Aristotelian idealism: that things are good when they conform to their natural purpose. The limitations of virtue ethics as a foundation for metamorality are obvious. The definition of a good person is highly dependent upon tribal modes of thinking. For Aristotle, it meant looking at role models within a society and working to emulate those who excelled. Virtue ethics is a philosophical codification of innate tribal ideals. It defines “good” in the terms of what is valued by a single group. While a philosophy of virtue ethics is good for inducing cooperation within a group, it cannot function effectively as a metamorality. The third model for a normative metamorality comes from Emmanuel Kant. Kantian ethics is highly humanistic — and initially appears as though it would provide a solid foundation for a type of universal morality. It is predicated on respect for humanity, the innate dignity of people and individual autonomy. Kant derives these noble principles through the empiricism of pure reason. For Kant, a good person follows the “laws they give themself.” And all of these self-derived laws should follow the categorical imperative. That is be unconditional moral obligations that is binding in all circumstances; it applies to everyone so must be universalizable. The core tenet of Kantian deontology is that people should not be used as means to an end. The deontological theory of ethics that Kant promotes would run into limitations as a universal metamorality. Kant arrives at his conclusions through some impressive rhetorical acrobatics. He appears to rationalize intuitive feelings about morality rather than providing the foundation for a self-consistent moral system. His theory of self-derived universal rules and duties lacks the symbolic clarity of utilitarianism. That’s not to say that utilitarianism is perfect. There are two categories of criticism that utilitarianism faces: (1) shallow, naive criticisms based on a facile understanding of the philosophy and (2) deep criticisms that engage with the philosophy and hit upon edge cases that appear morally questionable. This paper will focus on the later category. Criticisms that fall into this category tend to be thought experiments that in which maximizing ‘happiness’ seems to lead to problematic conclusion. This paper will examine three of these thought experiments: Ursula Le Guin’s short story, “The Ones Who Walked Away From Omelas,” Robert Nozick’s “Utility Monster” and the “Repugnant Conclusions” arrived at by Derek Parfit. In “The Ones Who Walked Away From Omelas,” noted science fiction author, Ursula Le Guin, describes the fictional almost-utopia of Omelas. It is a idyllic city where its citizens happiness is maximized: “With a clamor of bells that set the swallows soaring, the Festival of Summer came to the city Omelas, bright-towered by the sea. … Omelas sounds in my words like a city in a fairy tale, long ago and far away, once upon a time. Perhaps it would be best if you imagined it as your own fancy bids, assuming it will rise to the occasion, for certainly I cannot suit you all.” However this utopia is, for reasons that are left unclear, predicated on the suffering of a single, pitiful child who remains locked up, isolated, in the darkness of a cellar. This child has done nothing to deserve this treatment; it is not a punishment. And yet if the child were to be released, the city of Omelas would be crumble within the hour. This situation encapsulates what is, in many ways, the fundamental critique of utilitarianism: the discomfort of seeing an individual used as a means to an end. There is not justification for the child’s imprisonment, beyond the supernatural supposition that releasing the child would result in the disintegration of the utopia. Everything about this situation feels wrong. Le Guin describes in great detail the child: “It could be a boy or a girl. It looks about six, but actually is nearly ten. It is feeble-minded. Perhaps it was born defective or perhaps it has become imbecile through fear, malnutrition, and neglect. It picks its nose and occasionally fumbles vaguely with its toes or genitals… They all know it is there, all the people of Omelas.” Le Guin asks the reader to weigh the suffering of a child against utopia — and she freely puts her finger on the scale. The vivid details she includes certainly speak to her skill as a writer but perhaps not as a moral philosopher. The same moral question that her short story prompts could be stated more dryly: Is it right for the prevention of single person’s suffering to result in an increase in the suffering of many others? The framing of Omelas accentuates an emotional response to utilitarianism. By flattening the narrative of a child’s torture to a neutral, intellectual question, Le Guin’s critique loses some of its sting. It would be fair to respond that child of Omelas might experience a degree of suffering that outweighs the happiness of all the people. If this were indeed the case, the city of Omelas would be committing an immoral action. However, it would be immoral by the tenets of utilitarianism, in addition to violating Kant’s categorical imperative. The second deep criticism is Robert Nozick’s “Utility Monster.” This monster is a hypothetical creature that gets such gratification from eating a person that it outweighs all the enjoyment that that person will experience in their entire lives by many orders of magnitude. He writes in Anarchy, State & Utopia that “[u]tilitarian theory is embarrassed by the possibility of utility monsters who get enormously greater gains in utility from any sacrifice of others than these others lose.” According to Nozick, given these conditions, the good utilitarian would sacrifice herself to this “monster’s maw.” After all, this maximizes the total level of happiness. This obligation feels repellant. The individual asks herself, “Why should I be forced to sacrifice my life in order to satisfy this creature?” But isn’t it possible that this is the appropriate response? People are so grounded in the primacy of their own existence that it is easy to rationalize reasons that they shouldn’t be obligated to end it. Perhaps she would mention her right to life, or her desire to not be used as a means to this creatures’ end. This feels wrong because humans have evolved to value their own existence and this monster triggers a primal desire for life. When deconstructed, the core of Nozick’s thought experiment is the obligation of a single person sacrificing themselves in order to produce a good outcome — a better outcome than what would happen if they did not sacrifice themselves. The utility monster is one example of this phenomenon, but so is a soldier throwing himself on a grenade to spare the lives of several of his fellow comrades by shielding them from the blast. So is a starving mother giving the meager rations that she receives to her hungry child. The utility monster triggers outrage because the situation feels unfair and greedy; in fact the thought experiment is intended to do this. The hypothetical is designed to mask the true moral question, which when rephrased sounds decidedly more reasonable. A third criticism of utilitarianism comes from Derek Parift in the form of the repugnant conclusion that he arrives at in Reasons and Persons. He believes that the inevitable, immoral corollary of blindly maximizing happiness is that morality is reduced to a ‘mere addition’ problem. Consider two possible worlds. In the first everyone has a quality of life similar to what is experienced by those best off in our world, today. In the second, people experience a quality of life that is precisely half of what is experienced by those in the first world. However, in the second world, there are twice as many people as exist in the first, so the aggregate level of happiness is identical across both. Now add one more person to the second world. The aggregate level of happiness is now marginally higher in the second world. Which world would be better to live in? Most people would say the former. Yet if impartially maximizing happiness is what truly matters then, according to Parfit, the second world is morally superior. This logic seems like it can lead to a bizarre supposition. Does utilitarianism really advocate for endless slums over a small utopia? But assuming that each world is unaware of the possible existence of the other, this conclusion isn’t actually that problematic. For all we know, our civilization could be the second world in this scenario. It is easy to imagine a hypothetic alternate world with a dramatically smaller population, which is significantly happier. That doesn’t condemn our society to unhappiness — we simply don’t know what we are missing out on! Parfit has a response to this. He envisions as world of infinite mildly content rabbits. His critique is that, according utilitarian philosophy, this hypothetical world populated solely by rabbits — and not even the happiest of rabbits, mere somewhat content rabbits — is morally superior to our contemporary society. This is an extreme scenario. And again, on an emotional level, it feels like the logic of utilitarianism resulted in a repugnant conclusion. These critiques, for the most part, rely on hypotheticals — they are not real world situations and likely never could be. But the innate reactions people have when faced with these moral dilemmas is enlightening in it owns way. The common theme that ties these critiques together is their intention to trigger an emotional response: the defenseless, innocent child of Omelas being tortured; the greedy monster that one is obligated to satiate with the sacrifice of their own life; the mundanity of an infinite sea of rabbits replacing the vibrancy of human civilization. Many of the traditional criticisms of utilitarianism are simply creatively phrased tradeoffs that trigger a negative emotional response. They feel wrong. Yet when the true moral question of the thought experiment is extracted from the language of the experiment itself, the moral disgust evaporates. The answers that utilitarianism provides are intellectually correct, yet difficult to reconcile with intuitive moral reactions. When utilitarianism does run up against these uncomfortable conclusions, there are two responses. The first is accommodation: that the outcomes, while they do ultimately follow from the basic principles of utilitarianism, are morally abhorrent. In accommodating these outcomes, the utilitarian implicitly acknowledges that blindly following utilitarianism is not always good. Nonetheless, utilitarianism remains a viable philosophy because these bad outcomes stem from unrealistic situations that would not occur in the real world. The second response to criticism of utilitarianism is reform. Not reform of the moral philosophy itself, instead reform of society’s traditional conception of morality. This response asserts that though these outcomes intuitively feel wrong, a true metamorality shouldn’t be based on biologically derived emotional responses. In other words, utilitarianism isn’t producing immoral outcomes; rather, humans are just bad at judging what is moral and what is not. Utilitarianism is valuable as a metamorality precisely because it arrives at unintuitive conclusions. It is an intellectual mechanism that forces people out of the comfort of their traditional moral beliefs — whether those beliefs are based on Kantian deontology or Aristotelian virtue. Perhaps discomfort with utilitarian conclusions says less about the moral system itself and more about the how deeply tribal beliefs are ingrained in the way people intuitively think.	http://blogs.harvard.edu/mattschrage/category/evolving-morality/
Songs Without Borders Music helps us experience our common humanity. Singing together invites us to connect on a heart level beyond space and time, encouraging us to break down barriers that prevent us from loving and living fearlessly. In this time when it is so easy to react with hatred, anger, disgust, and contempt towards those with whom we disagree, when we are taught and conditioned to perceive those who are different than ourselves as inferior, how can we learn to take refuge in the sanctity of our interdependence with all people, and with all beings? Sharing rhythms and melodies helps me to get there, if only for fleeting moments. Music helps me realize that our interconnectedness is not only possible, but necessary for our survival as a species. Our Mother Earth is calling on us to wake up. Our ancestors are lovingly inviting us to wake up. Can you hear them singing? They are asking us to come together in unity, to join our hearts, minds, and voices so that we may recognize our shared existence and act to protect the sacredness of all life, not only for ourselves but for future generations. Let us come together and sing in unity beyond borders, in oneness and with joy, for all beings,	https://www.joereilly.org/newsletter/songs-without-borders/
The coming together of the left and right hands is common across many cultures. Some might think that bringing the hands together is only done in a religious setting. This is not true. In many cultures, bringing the hands together is a way to say hello, goodbye, to show respect, and to offer gratitude. Physically, when we bring the palms together at the level of the heart, we balance the left and right hemispheres of the brain. We center ourselves and calm down the nervous system. Our hands have many pressure points and when we push the palms together we activate many of our body’s functions. Remember back to a time when you clapped your hands for a few minutes. I bet you felt energized. When it comes to sensory-motor functions, did you know that our brains devote the most energy to using our hands? Try it out by sitting for a few minutes, closing your eyes, and bringing your palms together. Moving beyond physical benefits, we get to the deeper meaning. In India, Namaste means – as I bow to you, the divine in me sees the divine in you or the goodness in me sees the goodness in you. This is such a beautiful way to be while greeting and acknowledging another human being. When you walk into a store in India you bring the palms together, say Namaste, and slightly bow. The other person does the same to you. Immediately, there is a connection at a deeper level. When I came back to the States I found myself doing this in stores and restaurants and the people would look at me like I was crazy. It was a habit and it felt so natural and uplifting that I wanted to keep doing it. How would your life be if you took the time to show respect for everyone you came into contact with throughout the day? This includes not only your family and friends, but also people you don’t know such as the cashier at the grocery store. During the initial seconds of interaction, take a few seconds to connect and to honor the other person at a deeper level. Not at the superficial level by being consumed with what they look like, what they are wearing, or what name brand they have on. First connect at the heart-level and see yourself in the other person. We are all connected. I know, most of us, me included, run around each day and worry about our own issues and rush from here to there. If we would slow down and connect with each person whom we meet, then I promise, you will feel something special. You will start to see everyone around you as part of the bigger picture. We are all here doing the same things and living life. We all want to be happy, healthy, comfortable, and secure. Try it out. Place your hands together and bow to honor the goodness in the other person. If you live in the Western World, people might look at you funny, but who cares. At least start by feeling it on the inside and taking a few seconds to recognize the other person. Each time you acknowledge another person you are by default acknowledging yourself – to honor and respect yourself is to honor and respect others. Enjoy this video from Sadhguru and notice the people who have all taken time to put their hands together. Join them.	https://www.pamlilak.com/post/everybody-put-your-hands-together
Be it artistic works or scientific discoveries, the end results are all that generally remain visible of the creative process. What happens behind closed doors in the laboratory or studio tends to be just as invisible as it is mysterious. Stefanie Bürkle, a German artist and visual arts professor, chose to delve into these sites of creativity, using large and medium-format analogue cameras to photograph scientists’ laboratories and artists’ studios in Berlin. Bürkle’s photographic works present intriguing visual puzzles. Each is a bewildering mosaic of storage shelves, work benches, tools, equipment, and half-finished projects that convey a sense of energy and creativity. The viewer is compelled to imagine what these spaces look like when populated and what types of activities would take place. The photographs reveal a curious similarity between studio and laboratory. Would we see the same similarities if we were watching artists and scientists at work? Perhaps, but not necessarily. By pointing her lens at the work spaces rather than the workers, Bürkle encourages us to look past some of the superficial differences between artists and scientists and to consider whether at a deeper level there are significant parallels in the creative processes of the two disciplines and to better understand the nature of creativity. Stefanie Bürkle is an artist and a professor of fine art at the Technical University of Berlin, Germany. She studied scenography in Paris and fine art at the Berlin University of the Arts. Her artistic practice ranges from painting and photography to video and installation. In addition to highlighting the connections between art and science, her art and research focus on a critical examination of urban space, exploring topics such as construction sites and facades, architecture as scenography, and theme parks and tourism.	http://stefanie-buerkle.de/buerkle_neu/projekte/NAS_2019.php
Melissa Sommer is a transformational business coach, intuitive guide, and creative visionary. Her divine purpose is to empower others to live out their Inner Greatness and experience a life of freedom, fulfillment, and abundance. Melissa has worked with thousands of people globally to shift their current paradigm and breakthrough to new levels of success, health, and happiness and achieve results beyond what they thought was possible. She encourages entrepreneurs and transformational leaders to think from a higher perspective to generate creative solutions from a joyful, uplifting and highly energized, coherent state.This contagious energy results in commitment and moves people to take inspired action. Melissa believes that genuine success begins with staying true to who you are. She is devoted to guiding people to step into a deeper level of authentic power that is based on connection and higher service. She believes that obstacles and challenges are opportunities for growth when we slow down and reconnect to our innate wisdom. Melissa helps people gain insight and access the creative genius within themselves. She is dedicated to the elevation of human consciousness and heart-centered service to activate the full blossoming of potential in individuals and organizations around the world. Melissa will guide you on your entrepreneurial journey with enthusiasm, clarity, and focus. She will help you connect to your purpose, feel joy, find your soul tribe, and get into the flow of peace, balance, and ease. You will feel guided, empowered, and self-assured, with a clear game plan for your success.	https://www.melissasommer.com/about
Last update: 26/03/2020 Anxiety, depression and suicide affect millions of people around Australia, impacting how they connect with family and friends, thrive at work, and live productive and meaningful lives. Many people in the current situation are asking themselves “how can I feel better?” and “will I feel like this for the rest of my life?” Beyond Blue provides support to Australian people and helps them to understand that these feelings can change. Beyond Blue equips Australians with the skills they need to look after their own mental health and wellbeing, and to create confidence in their ability to support those around them. Beyond Blue provides support services, programs, research, advocacy and communication activities, they break down the stigma, prejudice and discrimination that act as barriers to people reaching out for support.	https://www.stimuluspackage.com.au/service/beyond-blue/
MBA Students Embrace Experiential Learning in Trip to Europe From January 6-13, 2018, five Cornerstone University graduate students enhanced their global learning during a trip to Ireland, Northern Ireland and the Netherlands. The trip was a partial fulfillment of course work requirements for the Master of Business Administration program. Led by Dr. Graham McKeague, associate dean of human services, the team visited businesses and cultural sites in Amsterdam, Dublin and Belfast. Embarking on Experiential Learning Experiential learning involves moving beyond textbook and classroom learning to interact with those ideas, theories and topics first hand. “There’s significant research in adult learning theory showing that the more you have experiential learning built into the students’ experience, the more that encourages deeper and more transformative learning,” McKeague said. “The more you can actively engage students in learning and have them experience something, the greater chance they’ll learn something of significance that will shape them and stick with them.” During this trip, students gained an understanding of what it’s like to be engaged in business in cities like Dublin, Belfast and Amsterdam. Their visits included a wide range of businesses and organizations, including the Dutch Chamber of Commerce, B Amsterdam and Ormeau Baths in Belfast. Some organizations that they visited, such as B Amsterdam, equip startups to develop and grow their own business. This support for entrepreneurs was something that trip participant Tonyai Garrison (M.B.A. ’18) found encouraging as an aspiring entrepreneur. “When we had those meetings with the companies that were helping entrepreneurs, I thought that was very interesting,” Garrison said. “It gave me hope that I have an idea of what I want to do and that I can have my own business and be successful.” Experiencing Cultural Differences While on the trip, students were exposed to cultural differences and similarities between the Netherlands and Ireland, as well as between Europe and the United States. Through visits with business leaders, participants not only learned what was happening in Europe but also reflected on the customs, business practices and daily life of West Michigan. “There are some similarities, yet I think there are enough underlying cultural differences where if you’re really paying attention, you can see some of those things, and students can learn those distinctions in culture,” McKeague said. For example, students observed differences in how business meetings in Amsterdam were more direct, while meetings in Ireland began with small talk. “When you actually see what happens in practice, that’s a way for students to really learn on a deeper level,” McKeague said. Beyond Knowledge In addition to business visits, the global trip itinerary also included cultural activities and interactions, such as a visit to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, that heightened students’ learning to incorporate additional experiences. “We want to move beyond a surface level of understanding people and cultures and move beyond stereotypes,” McKeague said. “We really want to get to know people as individuals and understand their stories and perspectives.” This aspect of global learning has the potential to equip students with skills and a practical understanding of cultural intelligence that they can and should use in business administration, management, leadership and in whatever situation they find themselves in the future. “It builds understanding, awareness and empathy,” McKeague continued. “I would hope that students have a better understanding of how to connect with people from different cultures and learn how to work alongside them.” Conclusion This capacity to develop skills and deepen one’s cultural knowledge is why global trips can have such value. Not only do participants gain experience in business operations of another culture, they cultivate skills in increasing awareness and relating to others with different cultural backgrounds. “The amount of learning that can happen in one week during a global trip is really a high-impact educational experience,” McKeague said. “A lot of learning and a lot of growth can happen in that short amount of time.” For some, this trip has been a life-changing experience. “This trip was an eye-opener,” Marx Ruiz (M.B.A. ’18) said. “It gave me an opportunity to see how businesses operated outside the United States and better prepared me when I actually go into my field of business.” For some students on the trip, this first international adventure to Europe may just be the beginning of their work in a truly global business field.	https://www.cornerstone.edu/mba-students-embrace-experiential-learning-in-trip-to-europe/
Sports programs are valuable tools for development, education, health, and the integration of youth and vulnerable populations—yet they are often underfunded and under-resourced, exacerbating participation barriers for many individuals worldwide but particularly for those living in developing countries. The obstacles to playing sports are even greater for those with disabilities, girls and women, and the LGBT community, causing them to bypass meaningful opportunities to increase self-esteem, life skills, and community integration. It is in the interest of actors across sectors to work together to break down barriers and boost worldwide participation in sports to ensure that everyone can play. • Develop long-term financing solutions for sustainable sports initiatives—particularly in developing and low-income regions. • Increase and improve non-monetary resources for sports, such as safe environments and access to equipment, coaches, and inclusive community programs. • Support partnerships that enable sports to bridge cultural and ethnic divides, promote tolerance and non-discrimination, and reinforce social unification.	http://www.wassermanfoundation.org/news/everyone-can-play-sports-as-a-catalyst-for-development-and-integration-cgi-2016/
In business, we often talk about the importance of selling. But what we seldom overlook or don’t talk about as much is the importance of “storytelling.” And that’s a shame because storytelling is an incredibly powerful tool when it comes to recruiting top talent, especially when candidates are increasingly looking for companies with a strong sense of culture and mission. Let me break it down for you. Storytelling is a communication method that engages the listener and creates an emotional connection. When used correctly, it can be a persuasive tool that can help you convince someone to see things from your perspective. The best stories are those relevant to the person you’re telling them to and paint a picture of what it would be like to work with you. It can help you connect with candidates on a deeper level, build trust, and create a sense of shared purpose. Read on as we explore the power of storytelling in recruiting and how you can use it to improve your results. Why is Storytelling So Powerful? We often rely on data and numbers to make our case in business, and while facts and figures are important, they can often feel cold and impersonal. This is especially true in recruitment, where we are trying to appeal to people on an emotional level. That’s where storytelling comes in. You immediately create a connection when you tell a prospective candidate a story about your company or its culture. The candidate can see themselves as part of that story, making them more likely to want to be a part of your company. It’s also more engaging than just telling people about your new ping pong table or how much your company grew last year. 1. Your Company’s Story Every company has a story to tell, but they are not all created equally. In order for your company’s story to be effective in recruiting, it needs to be compelling and authentic. It should also be reflective of your company’s values and culture. Prospective candidates should be able to read your story and say, “This is a place where I would want to work.” 2. Your Personal Story In addition to your company’s story, you also have a personal story that can be leveraged in recruiting. Your personal account includes your experiences, values, and motivations. Sharing your own story with candidates can help them understand you on a deeper level and why you’re so passionate about your work. A good story will allow them to visualize what you’re talking about and see themselves as part of that picture. This is especially important in recruitment, where we often have to sell candidates the idea of working in a certain company or country. If you can paint a picture of what life would be like for them in that new place, they’ll be much more likely to continue with the interview process. The Importance of Storytelling in Recruiting 1. It helps you connect with candidates on a deeper level. When done well, storytelling allows you to establish an emotional connection with candidates, which can be challenging to achieve through other means, such as job postings or traditional marketing materials. 2. It helps build trust. In order for candidates to want to work with you, they need to trust you. Sharing your company’s and your own personal story helps build that trust by providing insights into who you are as an organization and individual. 3. It creates a sense of shared purpose. A good story should be inspirational; it should make the reader believe that anything is possible if they join your team. This type of positive motivation can go a long way when attracting top talent. How to Use Storytelling in Recruitment? Let’s say you’re a recruiter trying to convince a talented finance manager to come work for your company. You could tell them about your firm’s great benefits package and state-of-the-art facilities. But chances are that they’ve heard all that before. Instead, try to tell them a story about one of your company’s employees who were able to make a real impact on the corporation or product they were working on. Or about how your company is passionate about innovation and encourages its employees to push boundaries! Such stories will resonate with top talents and help them see your company in a new light. As recruiters, it’s our job to tap into emotions and use them to our advantage. A good story will do just that; it will evoke an emotional response in the candidate, making them want to come work for you. Of course, no matter how good your story is or how good of a storyteller you are, you will still need to present them with the right offer regarding compensation and future growth. So, the next time you’re recruiting someone, don’t just give them the facts; tell them a story!	https://recruitcrm.io/blogs/experts-corner/jan-tegze-on-storytelling-in-recruitment/
This three-day Yoga & Meditation Retreat has been designed to unblock individual pools of energy within each of us. This retreat will provide a deep insight into how emotional blockages affect our thoughts and actions. From our ancient systems of knowledge, we learn that our individual energy pools are often suppressed and blocked. So much so, that we are not even aware of their existence. In a state of deep ignorance, an individual stumbles through bad relationships, a total disconnect with the self, through anger, resentments, jealousies. And somehow, the individual moves from day to day of an average, ordinary life. The broken relationships we have seen and lived through impact our choices. Our fears and insecurities impact our choices. And sometimes, the fear of loving impacts our choices too. Explore your self and discover your essence, which will enable you to lead a richer, more fulfilled life. Friday: \|Dates\|\|Schedule\| \|8am-9am\|\|Welcome Session\| \|9am-9.30am\|\|Breakfast\| \|10.30am-11.30am\|\|Havan & Meditation\| \|11.30- 1 pm (noon)\|\|Karma Yoga\| \|1pm-2pm\|\|Lunch\| \|2pm-3pm\|\|Rest\| \|3pm-4pm\|\|Meditation\| \|4pm-5pm\|\|Yoga Asana Class\| \|5pm–5.30pm\|\|Tea Break\| \|6.30pm-7.30pm\|\|Visit to Ganga Aarti\| \|8pm-9pm\|\|Dinner\| \|9.30pm\|\|Lights off\| Saturday: \|Dates\|\|Schedule\| \|6am-6.30am\|\|Jal Neti & Cleansing\| \|6.30am-7.30am\|\|Traditional Hatha Yoga Asana\| \|7.30am-8am\|\|Tea Break\| \|8am-9am\|\|Pranayama & short meditation\| \|9am-10 am\|\|Breakfast\| \|11am-12noon\|\|Mantra Chanting\| \|12noon-1pm\|\|Karma Yoga\| \|1pm-2pm\|\|Lunch\| \|2pm-4pm\|\|Rest\| \|4pm–5pm\|\|Ashtanga Yoga\| \|5pm-5.30pm\|\|Tea Break\| \|5.30pm-7.30pm\|\|Meditation\| \|8pm-9pm\|\|Dinner\| \|9.30pm\|\|Lights off\| Sunday: \|Dates\|\|Schedule\| \|5.30am-7.30am\|\|Conscious Walk near Ganges\| \|7.30am-8am\|\|Tea Break\| \|8am-9am\|\|Kundilini Yoga, Pranayama\| \|9am-9.30am\|\|Breakfast\| \|10.30 am-12 (Noon)\|\|Mantra Chanting\| \|12 pm –1pm (Noon)\|\|Fire Ceremony\| \|1pm-2pm\|\|Lunch\| \|2pm-4pm\|\|Rest\| \|4pm-5pm\|\|Vinayasa Flow Yoga\| \|5pm–5.30pm\|\|Tea Break\| \|5.30pm-8pm\|\|Meditation plus Celebration & Feedback\| \|8pm–9pm\|\|Dinner\| \|9.30pm\|\|Lights off\| NOTE: Payment above 8888 can be done through account transfer or in cash on arrival. Holistic Healer & Life Coach with expertise in Yoga, Art therapy and Tarot reading. After completing the Engineering & MBA followed by 10 years in the corporate sector, which she guess, is a path that gets defined by parents for every kid. She was not an exception to this and she was doing great in her career meeting my financial and materialistic goals but something was always missing which she could never connect. Longing for this unknown goal halted her quest for position and wealth. To follow her desire, She got into practicing Yoga & searching for ways to connect with herself at a deeper level that helped to redefine the path in her life, which she named as “Rejuvenate Life ”. Following the new path of life, She got Yoga and Marama Chikitsa certified from the Gurukula Kangri Vishwavidyalaya, which was set up in 1902. To pursue this path and get it aligned with the daily routine. She registered herself as an expert holistic healer by imparting knowledge and helping others to achieve their unknown goals. She is seeking to explore spiritual journey with dedicated practice through her expertise and make differences in others life. She is a keen follower of Maharishi Patanjali and has a deep belief in the ancient wisdom of “Yogas Chitta vrtti nirodhah”. Yoga has potential far beyond Asanas; rather it is a way of life we all must adopt for better and positive health. As a Reiki healer & Tarot Card reader, She helps people to discover themselves at a deeper level by providing guidance, which helps them to create a life they desire. Her expertise in PR, marketing and public speaking has helped her a lot to connect with people and to become a successful life coach. She can assist in nurturing the mental health of people across the lifespan by creating and reflecting on art to improve wellbeing, and quality of life by following the path carved out in Art Therapy sessions. My idea of life is not to live forever but to create something of value says Tanpreet. Join her if you have similar spiritual longing because it’s now or never. Let’s come together to build a balance into our life through our beliefs and experiences that will help-seeking answers to our spiritual questions. Be the first to review Other Related Workshops/Events Lama Fera Master Teacher Level 2 Lama Fera Grandmaster Level 3 Lama Fera Complete Course Lama Fera Master Healer Level 1 Diploma in Clinical Hypnotherapy Level 1. . . Extraordinary Workshop for Healing Medit. . .	https://www.lifepositive.com/workshop/yoga-meditation-retreat/NjEx
I have been practicing Sum Faht Meditation for the past 24 years and love to share this process with others. We have access to an inexhaustible resource that allows us to live with a sense of peace, fortitude, and love, no matter what complexities of life we encounter. This resource is awakened through Sum Faht Meditation, a heart-centered practice that allows us to clear away information overload, ease physical and emotional stress, and restore us to calm and balance. Sum Faht Meditation is also a method to tap into the energetic forces of life, awakening the divine within and opening the spiritual heart. It helps us to unlock the flow of vital energy, or chi, which supports all beings. From here we grow more intuitive, find harmony with the challenges of life, and bring the healing of compassion and understanding to ourselves and others. Sum Faht Meditation has its roots in Buddhism and ancient Taoist longevity teachings, and engages the vital life force energies found in nature. This meditation style encourages us to practice “being” rather than “thinking or doing”. One way to help ourselves “be” is through the integration of movement into our meditation practice. When we are connected with breath, and aware of our bodies, it is difficult for our brains to think of anything else. Through a combination of stillness and movement we integrate mind, body and spirit. Sum Faht cultivation allows us to awaken and connect with our inner wisdom, our higher self. This path encourages us to be deeply aware of the sensations in our bodies, remain connected to our breath, and allows our internal energies to arise and flow. This opens us to authentic movement (or stillness) which is driven by our own innate knowledge of what our bodies, spirits, and minds need in the moment. As we allow the mind to relax we begin to hear the wisdom expressed by our internal energy. We are able to cultivate a deeper sense of peace. We begin to see more clearly areas where we have been stuck and begin to move through them, using our inner wisdom as a guide rather than our intellect. And, we begin to understand that what we perceive with our eyes and minds can be very superficial, but what we see from our hearts is real. The practices and exercises in Sum Faht classes are designed to facilitate deeper connection with our higher self. Sum Faht focuses on the growth of each INDIVIDUAL. The goal is for each person to learn to trust that they have their own answers and can find their way in life from a knowing within themselves. Generally offered in a series of 5 classes in either morning or evening sessions. (REGISTRATION REQUIREDplease go to Meetup Orlando – Vibrations for class schedules and to sign up) In these classes we’ll explore: + Basics of Meditation – breathing, posture, focus + Mudra Meditation – a seated meditation that moves through 14 mudras (hand postures) + Introduction to Energy/Qi – you are guided in experiential exercises, which will produce a realization of energy/qi as tangible. + 12 Brocades Qi Gong – a formal qi gong series to help you deepen your awareness of your internal energy + Guided movements – moving meditations, which allow for the nature of energy within us to express itself through movement + Partner exercises – ways of practicing with the tools and techniques we have learned in class with each other This form of meditation is not new but thousands of years old, originating from the Chinese community in Malaysia. As is the Asian custom, it has been transmitted directly from teacher to student, and I look forward to sharing it with you. Sum Faht® Meditation.* When we meditate we are seeking purification through the blending of our personal energy with the energy of the Universe and through the circulation of spiritual energy through our physical bodies. The spiritual energy cannot communicate directly with our physical bodies, nor can it communicate with our egos, our intellects or our rational minds. It must communicate with our Inner Selves — our own spiritual aspects — our hearts. Sum Faht® is a form of meditation through which we activate the divine energies of the heart. The name comes from the Cantonese phrase “soi sum peen fah faht,” which loosely translated means whatever the heart desires will manifest. It combines traditional seated meditation in stillness with standing, walking and guided movements through which we integrate mind, body and spirit. Our Sum Faht® cultivation allows us to awaken and connect with our Higher Self while refining our lower nature.	http://www.maitlandmassageandenergywork.com/meditation-classes
Communication Doesn’t Mean We All Speak the Same Language One of the greatest obstacles to patient care in a foreign country is communication. Language barriers make it difficult to properly assess patient and understand underlying issues such as pain or mental status. Cultural barriers such as fasting during the month of Ramadan, or the care of women patients by male medics also presented challenges to helping local people during humanitarian operations. During part of one deployment, I worked with a group of Polish medical personnel, though I had far less comprehension of their language than they did mine. Despite these differences, we relied on each others help on numerous occasions. Through these experiences, we developed a level of trust and understanding that stepped over the barrier between us; overcoming that barrier requires effort—and a little faith. Through the courageous efforts of many interpreters, I have been able to provide assistance to those whom I would be unable to help otherwise. However, when one steps back, and realizes the underlying connection between all humanity, there is a way to see that despite the things that separate us in our daily lives, there is a place where we can come together and work to solve problems. Sometimes listening to a patient goes beyond mere language; it goes to heart of empathy, and being able to connect on another level. Underneath it all, we all have the same human soul.	http://www.beliefnet.com/wellness/health/2008/10/healing-lessons-from-a-war-zone.aspx?p=3
On May 7 we are charged with breaking down obstacles on National Barrier Awareness Day. We are responsible for dissolving stigmas that keep people with disabilities from advancing in education. It’s an opportunity to tear down walls and build ramps that will help provide access. Where there are misunderstandings, there is potential for the development of new technology that may bridge the gap. Policies that are antiquated and are preventing those with disabilities from accessing their full potential can be re-assessed. If there was ever a time to speak up about questionable treatment of a human being, National Barrier Awareness Day encourages us to do so now. “Today some 36 million Americans suffer from some form of handicap. Eighty percent of Americans will experience some disability in their lifetime. That makes it necessary for all of us to understand and appreciate both the barriers they must surmount and the contributions that they can make to our society. Visible and invisible barriers are equally difficult to overcome. With advocacy, education and awareness these obstacles can be lifted, empowering people with disabilities to live more independent fulfilled lives. Break the barriers and work toward eliminating all of the cultural, employment, legal, and physical obstacles that confront individuals with disabilities! Share your support using #BarrierAwarenessDay. Proclamation 5472, signed by United States President Ronald Reagan, was released by the Office of the Press Secretary on May 8, 1986, declaring May 7 of 1986 as National Barrier Awareness Day. Since that day, many people across the country have continued to observe National Barrier Awareness Day each year on May 7.	https://nationaldaycalendar.com/national-barrier-awareness-day-may-7/
In a classic "Dreamland" piece (see Roy Rempel's book of the same name from Breakout Educational Network) in today's Ottawa Citizen, former PM Joe Clark says as the world becomes more changely in its changingness, Canada should use its diversity to bring diversity out of diversity or something. Perhaps I am unfair. But here are his own words: "As the world's religious, cultural and economic divides grow deeper, our diversity and our diplomatic abilities have become more relevant. The critical international skills needed to shorten these divides include prominently the ability to draw differences together, to manage diversity, to generate trust -- the traditional and genuine signature qualities of Canada." He praises the Harper government for spending more on the military but reproaches it because "our diplomatic and development resources are being run down now as steadily and certainly as our defence resources were run down in earlier decades." As for why we are just what this diversely diversified world of the diverse 21st century needs, he says "Let's list just five of our assets as Canadians that can be most relevant in this changing world: 1. Our diversity at home.... 2. Our ability to bridge differences.... 3. The different North America.... 4. Our multilateral instinct.... 5. Our ability to work with non-state actors...." At the risk of a chilly reality check, here's a plan. Given how fortunate Canada has been geopolitically and historically, how minor our governance problems are compared to those in many parts of the world, let's use these five splendid qualities to overcome Quebec's alienation within Canada before we strut onto the world stage in a cloud of self-congratulation. Or is that too much like hard work? What's going on in Iran?	https://thejohnrobson.com/blog/the-world-needs-more-smugness
Why Blogging is worthwhile This is my 100th blog post. So to celebrate I tried to come up with 100 reasons to blog. I have linked some to my blogs and a couple to external sites. I have loved blogging over the last 17 months, since my first post in March 2015 I have meandered around a few topics, but I have enjoyed writing each and every one. Some are for fun, others more serious. Some took me hours, some are copy and pasted from work I did for school, interviews or my NPQML project. I hope you have enjoyed reading them. Over 8000 people have viewed my blogs so far. - It clarifies your ideas - It opens up discussion beyond your school - It generates creativity - It encourages reflection - It improves your practice in the classroom and beyond. - It pushes you out of your comfort zone - It introduces you to new people - It opens doors - It gets you noticed by your peers - It stimulates innovation - It provides positive feedback or constructive criticism to help you develop - It demonstrates your areas of strength - It identifies areas to develop - It makes you look deeper - It can open up new areas of interest - It helps you form a professional identity - It makes you question your opinions - It makes you justify your opinions - It connects you to those with shared interests - It archives your thoughts or later projects. - It is cathartic - It frames your values - It can validate your beliefs - It can challenge your beliefs - It’s not limited by location, you can collaborate with educators worldwide. - You can make an impact outside your classroom - You can add value to your work - You don’t need answers, just ideas - It stops you watching TV - It forces you to consider other opinions - It raises awareness of your role - It can inspire others - You can use it to achieve professional goals - You learn to value others opinions - It reduces isolation - It creates a sense of community - You can showcase your identity - You can share things you enjoy - It challenges you to raise your game - You can build an online identity - It changes your routine and can give you a new hobby - It can provide routine and structure to rainy days. - It is free - It is fun - You can write about anything you choose - It provides an outlet - It can relieve stress - It keeps you up to date - It can reignite your passion - It can take as little or as much time as you want - You can solve someone’s problem - Someone might solve your problem - It can boost your engagement - You will develop new skills - You could change something important - It can make you more interesting - You can raise awareness of an important issue - You might make new friends - You can say you are an internationally connected educator - It organizes your thoughts - It can help break down big topics into achievable areas - You could turn it into a book, or ebook - It encourages you to take a stand - You can save someone else time by sharing resources. - It builds confidence that your ideas are valued - It breaks down barriers between school stakeholders - You can build real relationships with other professionals - Your audience is unlimited - It doesn’t matter how irrelevant you think your idea is someone will like it - It develops persistence, not every post will be popular - You don’t need to leave the house to do it - You can do it anywhere with the internet, or capture your thoughts on paper and upload. - It helps you stay in touch with people - It can provide a record of your achievements - It can build rapport with like-minded professionals - It tells your story as an educator - It can enhance your knowledge if you research your posts - It lasts longer than a tweet so you can share with new people. - You will get better at writing - You will #notice things around you to blog about - It is a platform for sharing your passion for teaching - It gives you a little buzz every time you get a comment - It helps you deal with criticism, not everyone will agree with you - It can show off your skills - It is professional development you control - It holds you accountable, important in our profession - It gives you something to talk about in interviews - It could become your legacy - It can get you out of a rut - You can encourage your students to do it - You might discover a new direction for your career - It gives individual teachers a voice - You can interact with people you would never otherwise meet - It will encourage you to try new things so you can blog about them - You can experiment with new ideas - It informs non-teachers about the work you do - You don’t have to do it alone, guest posts help you connect - It encourages you to self-critique - You will find you have more and better teaching ideas - It gives even the quietest teacher a voice in the field of education I was going to add “It can make you money” and there are ways to monetize your blog once people start reading it. If you are interested in making a little money from your blog Share-a-sale lets you choose merchants to link with. Thank you all for taking the time to read. What are your reasons for blogging? Add them to the comments section.	https://inclusiveteach.com/2016/08/12/100-reasons-to-blog/
Muggsy Bogues is a former American professional basketball player and basketball coach. He used to play from the point guard position. Bogues last played for Toronto Raptors in National Basketball Association(NBA). Muggsy is the shortest player to appear in NBA as well. Muggsy Bogues has played for multiple NBA teams throughout his career. In 1987, he made his professional debut as a Rhode Island Gulls player. Bogues was selected by the Gulls in the first round of the 1987 NBA Draft, with an overall choice of twelve. When he was at his peak, Bogues was one of the best and most capable basketball players on the team roster. In 1987 he won the rookie of the year award. Salary and Net Worth of Muggsy Bogues Muggsy Bogues, a former NBA basketball player, and the former trainer made his professional basketball debut as a coach in 2005. Muggsy has played for the multiple NBA team and coached multiple teams since his debut in American basketball, till his retirement as a coach in 2014. Muggsy's economic success is due mainly to his basketball profession. Muggsy Bogues has a $14 Million net worth. Muggsy maintains an opulent standard of living in his American residence. Muggsy Bogues has also taken part in the pastureland of contests and competitions. Muggsy Bogues has also received compensation for his accomplishments. Working with such clubs might therefore enable Muggsy to earn a sizable profit. Relationship status, Love Life, and affairs. Muggsy Bogues is a married basketball player. His wife's name is Kim Bogues. Bogues's pair is in a long-term relationship before their marriage. They got married in 1989. Kim Bogues is the founder and CEO of Flourish Business Consulting. Muggsy Bogues and his wife divided in 1995 and divorced in 1997. However, the pair remarried in 2015. Bogues's pair has three children, Tyrone Jr., Tyisha Bogues, and Brittney Bogues. Muggsy Bogues and Kim love to travel whenever they got a free time. Muggsy Bogues lives his retired life with his wife and child happily in his house in America. Muggsy Bogues Personal Details Tyrone Curtis Bogues, professionally known as Muggsy Bogues, was born on January 9, 1965, in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. Muggsy's star sign is Capricorn, and he is currently 57 years old. Muggsy is an American national and holds American citizenship. His father's name is Richard Bogues and his mother's name is Elaine Bogues. Muggsy Bogues stands 5 feet 3 inches tall and weighs over 62 kilograms. Furthermore, the former player maintains a fit and healthy body. Muggsy has a black complexion and a strong form. Bogues has short blonde hair and black eyes. Moreover, Also, read Scott Kennedy's biography, net worth, and relationship status. Social Media Presence Muggsy enjoys using social media a lot. Muggsy favors Instagram above other social media platforms. There is a blue checkmark on his Instagram account for Muggsy's Instagram to indicate that it has been verified. The main objective of Muggsy's supporters is to gain access to confidential information. At @therealmuggsy, Muggsy has 243k followers on Instagram. Anywhere he can, Muggsy promotes his clients and his companies. Muggsy is one of the most popular retired athletes in the United States of America. You can discover a wide range of gossip, sports news, and love affairs on Playerswiki.	https://playerswiki.com/muggsy-bogues
Muggsy Bogues is a basketball player from Baltimore, Maryland, USA. 5’3″ guard who became the shortest player in NBA history. He spent his 14-year NBA career playing with the Washington Bullets, Charlotte Hornets, Golden State Warriors, and Toronto Raptors. Continue to next page below to see how much is Muggsy Bogues really worth, including net worth, estimated earnings, and salary for 2020 and 2021. Muggsy Bogues was born in Baltimore, Maryland, USA on Saturday, January 9, 1965. Muggsy is currently 56 years old. He was born in 1960s, in the middle of Generation X, and in the Year of the Serpent. His birth flower is Carnation and birthstone is Garnet. He played for four years at Wake Forest University, where he averaged 14.8 points, 9.5 assists, and 3.9 steals per game in his senior year. \|Name:\|\|Tyrone Curtis Bogues\| \|Known As:\|\|Basketball Player\| \|Birth Date:\|\|January 9, 1965\| \|Birthplace:\|\|Baltimore, Maryland, USA\| \|Current Age:\|\|56 years old\| \|Nationality:\|\|American\| \|Zodiac Sign:\|\|Capricorn\| \|Generation:\|\|Generation X\| Muggsy Bogues is a member of famous people who are known for being a Basketball Player, celebrities who are 56 years old, was born in January, in the year 1965. His zodiac sign is Capricorn. Go to next page for details on Muggsy Bogues’s net worth and earnings.	https://www.celebsdetails.com/net-worth/muggsy-bogues-net-worth-earnings-salary/
Muggsy Bogues: biography Muggsy Bogues is a retired professional basketball player for the National Basketball Association. He has played for the Washington Bullets, the Charlotte Hornets, the Golden State Warriors, and the Toronto Raptors. Standing at 5 feet 3 inches(1.6m), he is the shortest player in history to play in the NBA. His performance made him a quick fan favorite during his 14-season long career from 1987 to 2001. Muggsy Bogues’s highlights in his career show what can be done with a lot of determination, as he achieved his dreams despite abject poverty and the discrimination against his height in the many courts he’s played in. His incredible ball-control statistics have made him a highly ranked point guard. In an interview for Sports Illustrated with Hank Hersch, he said that he has always kept a strong belief in himself, and believed that his talents and abilities earn him a place in the court. Early Life Bogues was born under the name of Tyrone Curtis Bogues on January 9, 1965, in Baltimore, Maryland. The east-side housing projects of Baltimore was a dangerous place to grow up in, where drugs and crime ran rampant. When he was 12, Bogues saw his dockworker father Richard imprisoned on an attempted robbery charge. In an interview with Bruce Newman for Sports Illustrated, he admitted that he wasn’t proud of what his father did, but understood that under their conditions, it might have been the only way they could survive. The other older members of the Bogue family remained in contact with Muggsy, sending encouraging letters on his efforts to get a career in basketball. Muggsy Bogues is now 54 years old. Career Bogues began his career with a short stint in the USBL with the Rhode Island Gulls. In the 1987 NBA draft, Bogues was drafted 12th overall in a selection list packed with talent, including Reggie Miller, David Robinson, Kevin Johnson, and Scottie Pippen. In his rookie year, Bogues and Manute Bol were in the same team. At the time, Bol was the tallest player in NBA history at 7 ft 7 in (2.31m) tall. The two had a height difference of 28 inches (71 cm). The two appeared together on three magazine covers. As a proof of his skill on the court, Bogues stats included 39 blocks in his NBA span. He once blocked Patrick Ewing, who stands at 7 ft 0 in (2.13m) tall. On April 14, 1993, in the first quarter of the game, he removed the ball from Ewing’s hand while he was pulling the ball up to make the shot. Muggsy Bogues’s vertical leap of 44 inches (110 cm) is well-known among basketball players and fans. However, the size of his hands made it difficult for him to dunk one-handed. There are claims that Bogues once dunked successfully on a pregame practice in December 1990, but the claims have never been confirmed. In the 1988-89 NBA season, the Charlotte Hornets and the Miami Heat were about to enter the NBA. The Bullets left Bogues unprotected even though they were weak in the point guard position. Bogues was selected by the Hornets in the expansion draft on June 22, 1988. He became famous for being an exceptional stealer, a great passer, and one of the fastest players in the game. Bogues stayed with the Hornets for 10 years alongside Alonzo Mourning and Larry Johnson, which led to the team being a consistent favorite for the playoffs and one of the most popular teams in the NBA. In the history of the Hornets, Bogues is one of their most famous players. He serves as the career leader in assists (5,557), assists per 48 minutes (13.5), steals (1,067), turnovers (1,118) and minutes played (19,768). Bogues’ career with the Hornets ended six games into the 1997 – 98 NBA season. Along with Tony Delk, they were traded to the Golden State Warriors for B.J. Armstrong. Bogues saw play with the Warriors for two seasons, then left to become a free agent in the Toronto Raptors. He finished his career there Although he was later traded to both the Dallas Mavericks and the New York Knicks, he didn’t play for either team. Achievements Muggsy Bogues’s awards are numerous. In 1987, Bogues received the Arnold Palmer Award in Wake Forest University, where he had his jersey number retired. He was the 12th overall pick in the 1987 NBA Draft, where he was picked by the Washington Bullets. In his 14-season long career, he played for the Bullets, the Charlotte Hornets, the Golden State Warriors, and the Toronto Raptors. In 1995, he was named Player of the Year in the Charlotte Hornets and the Jim Thorpe Award for Inspiration. He was inducted into the Wake Forest University Sports Hall of Fame in 2001. Personal Life When he left the NBA, Bogues started working in the real estate business. On August 3, 2005, he became the Charlotte Sting’s head coach in the Women’s National Basketball Association. At this point, he had a lack of coaching experience. He also stood shorter than all of his players, with the shortest player being Helen Darling who stood at 5 foot 6 inches (1.67 meters). Under Bogues’ coaching, the Sting went on a 14-30 record. The team folded in January 2007. In 2011, he served as the head coach of the United Faith Christian Academy’s boys high school basketball team in Charlotte, North Carolina. This was after he was an assistant to the team’s former head coach Shaun Wiseman. Bogues has written an autobiography entitled “In the Land of Giants”. In the book, he writes about his struggles when he was growing up in inner-city Baltimore as well as his path to success in the NBA. Bogues was assigned to be the Charlotte Hornets’ Ambassador on March 18, 2014. He would participate in the team’s rebranding efforts. Net Worth Muggsy Bogues’s net worth is $15 million which he earned after being a professional basketball player who took coaching positions as the head coach of the WNBA’s Charlotte Sting, as well as the United Faith Christian Academy’s boys basketball team.	https://24celebs.com/celebrity/97309-muggsy-bogues.html
Who has been the smallest player ever to play the NBA ? 1 Answer It is Muggsy Bogues Muggsy Bogues is the shortest player in NBA history, listed at 5'3”. He was drafted 12th overall by the Washington Bullets in 1987 and played later played for the Hornets, Warriors and Raptors. He is only 160cm tall. There is a list of shortest NBA players here.	https://sports.stackexchange.com/questions/25527/who-has-been-the-smallest-player-ever-to-play-the-nba
By Tyronne "Muggsy" Bogues and David Levine Ranking: This book is pretty solid. Bogues covers his life's story and covers the different eras in his life without by-passing ones that weren't favorable. He tells of growing up in the projects, playing for the legendary Dunbar High School team in Baltimore, arguably the greatest high school team ever, which featured Reggie Williams, Reggie Lewis, and David Wingate. He tells of his dream of joining Williams and Wingate at Georgetown, only to not be recruited by Georgetown coach John Thompson, and settling on Wake Forrest. He tells of his 4 years at Wake Forrest, where he became the first athlete there to receive an award (I forget which one) since Arnold Palmer. In Wake's match against Maryland, in order to neutralize Maryland star Len Bias' driving ability, Wake's coach opted to put 5'3" Bogues on 6'8" Bias, and Bias had his low scoring game of the year. He also tells about his first year in the NBA, when he rarely got to play at Washington, and how Moses Malone was a mentor to him. He also tells of the going to Charlotte and how his first coach there, Dick Harter didn't believe in Bogues and rarely had a good word to say about him. He goes into how eventually became a full time starter and how the team blossomed after drafting Kendall Gill, Larry Johnson and Alonzo Mourning. He also tells of Gill's anti-team sentiments that he felt after his shot attempts started decreasing as the team got better. He also covers their playoff series with New York and Boston and the grief he felt after his long time friend, Reggie Lewis, died. He also tells how he succeeds, in spite of being 1-2 feet shorter than most of the players on the court. He does suffer, somewhat, from a Napoleon complex and often refers to himself in the 3rd person. He also starts off nearly every chapter with quotes from others about himself, but it usually points to the extraordinary accomplishments of succeeding at the college and pro levels at such a short height. The book is somewhat witty and somewhat insightful and pretty enjoyable. The fact that he has beat such long odds, alone, make it an interesting read. Introspection: 3 Insight: 4 History: 1982-1993 Readability: 4 In the Land of Giants: My Life in Basketball. Tyrone "Muggsy" Bogues and David Levine. Little, Brown, and Co. 1994.	http://airjudden2.tripod.com/books/muggsy.html
What NBA players are under 6 feet tall? Reaching down to his hip before going all the way up and above his head made for one of the more unique forms the NBA has seen. - Calvin Murphy. 11 of 11. - Damon Stoudamire. 10 of 11. - Slater Martin. 9 of 11. - Terrell Brandon. 8 of 11. - Dana Barros. 7 of 11. - Isaiah Thomas. 6 of 11. - Michael Adams. 5 of 11. - Avery Johnson. 4 of 11. Is there anyone in the NBA under 6 feet? Tyrone “Muggsy” Bogues, the No. 12 overall pick out of Wake Forest in the 1987 draft, is the shortest player to grace the hardwood in the NBA. During his 14-year career with four teams, cameras often depicted the height difference between the 5-foot-3-inch Bogues and his taller counterparts. Which NBA players could play in the NFL? NBA to the NFL: Which Hoops Stars Could Play Pro Football? - Offense. - QB – Chris Paul (6’0″, 175) LAC. - RB – Ty Lawson (5’11”, 195) DEN. - WR1 – Russell Westbrook (6’3″, 187) OKC. - WR2 – Derrick Rose (6’3″, 190) CHI. - WR (Slot) – Rajon Rondo (6’1″, 186) BOS. - TE – LeBron James (6’8″, 250) MIA. - LT – Kendrick Perkins (6’10”, 270) OKC. Is there any 5 7 NBA players? Standing at 5-foot-7, Keith Jennings entered the NBA as an undrafted free agent with the Golden State Warriors. He managed to play in 164 games in his pro career, before heading overseas for several more. Are there any 5’11 NBA players? The player with the highest 2K Rating among current players whose height is 5’11” on NBA 2K22 is Jordan McLaughlin. He is followed by D.J. Augustin in second place, while Chris Chiozza is third….List of the Best 5’11” Players on NBA 2K22. \|#\|\|2.\| \|Player\|\|D.J. Augustin PG \| 5’11” \| LAL\| \|OVR\|\|73\| \|3PT\|\|87\| \|DNK\|\|25\| Did Otto Graham play in the NBA? After service in the U.S. Navy during World War II, Graham played professional basketball for one season, as a backup guard, for the Rochester Royals, who won the 1946 National Basketball League championship. Can you be in the NBA and NFL? Only two players in history managed to play in the NBA and the NFL. That is logical because the skills required to play basketball and football are polar opposites, as these two sports don’t mix well together. What is Muggsy Bogues height? 5′ 3″Muggsy Bogues / Height Are there any NBA players under 6 feet tall? Either way, the following is a closer look at 15 of the top NBA players who stand at under 6 feet tall. Far from a small deal, Louis Herman “Red” Klotz was a point guard for the original Baltimore Bullets. Although he only played in the league for a short time (he only played in 11 games) he has left quite an extensive resume. Who has played the most NBA seasons at 5 feet 9 inches? The most seasons played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) by a player listed at 5 feet 9 inches (175 cm) or shorter was 14 seasons by Muggsy Bogues who played from 1987 to 2001 . Who is the shortest NBA player in the Hall of Fame? The shortest NBA player to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is Calvin Murphy at 5′ 9″. With one exception, Dino Martin (a forward), all of the players listed here have played or play the position of point guard.When 5’7″. How many players in NBA history are 5’9 or shorter? This is a complete listing of the shortest players in National Basketball Association history at a listed height of 5 feet 9 inches (175 cm) or shorter. Only 25 players in NBA history have been at a listed height of 5′ 9″ or shorter. Two are currently active.	https://www.ufoscience.org/what-nba-players-are-under-6-feet-tall/
Muggsy Bogues is a retired professional basketball player who has earned a significant net worth over the years. He played for the Charlotte Hornets, and is currently a coach and an actor. Muggsy has also endorsed several fitness brands. He was born on January 9, 1965, in Baltimore, Maryland. Muggsy Bogues is a retired professional basketball player Muggsy Bogues is a 5-foot-3-inch retired American basketball player. He played as a point guard for four different NBA teams over the course of his fourteen-season career. A former All-Star, Bogues has a unique blend of skills and the athleticism to match his size. Bogues has been in the NBA for thirteen years and played for the Charlotte Hornets for ten years. He is known for his speed, passing ability, and ability to steal the ball from opponents. He holds several Hornets records, including averaging 10.7 assists per game in 1993-1994. He was also noted for his ability to block 7-foot center Patrick Ewing. Bogues retired from the NBA after the 2000-2001 season. After retiring from the NBA, Bogues started a coaching career. In 2005, he became the head coach of the Charlotte Sting. Later, he became the head coach of the United Faith Christian Academy. In 2014, he resigned from the coaching position. In addition to coaching, Bogues served as the ambassador for the Charlotte hornets and helped rebrand the franchise. He played for the Charlotte Hornets Mugsy Bogues was an outstanding guard and passer who played for the Charlotte Hornets for ten seasons. He was also known as one of the fastest players on the court. Bogues was a great stealer and passer. He was also a great rebounder. He played his best years in Charlotte and helped the team reach its first playoff appearances. After retiring from the NBA in 1999, Bogues continued his career by working in the real estate business. He also appeared in several movies and television shows. He currently works with the nonprofit Always Believe Inc. to provide guidance to youth in the Charlotte area. Throughout his career, Bogues helped the Charlotte Hornets reach the playoffs three times. Muggsy Bogues is an NBA legend who was featured in a documentary produced by ESPN, which featured his high school team, Dunbar Poets. Bogues was a top draft pick in 1987 and was the first African-American to play in the NBA. His story and his accomplishments in the league have made him a household name. He is a coach Mugsy Bogues is an American basketball player who played in the NBA for fourteen seasons. He stands 5 feet 3 inches tall and is a point guard. He played for four teams during his career. He is now a coach and a basketball analyst. In his coaching career, he has helped several teams reach the NBA Finals. Bogues is a married man. He and his wife Kim have two children, a son and a daughter. They live in Charlotte, North Carolina. He has three siblings. They met in college and got married in 1991. Their son, Anthony, is currently playing in the NBA. As a basketball player, Muggsy Bogues played for Dunbar High School. He played against Billy Thompson and Reggie Williams. Bogues, who was five feet tall, was a point guard. He often got hollered by opposing players and the crowd during games. But he remained unfazed. He is an actor Muggsy Bogues, an American actor, has had a long and varied career. He played basketball for the Golden State Warriors and the Charlotte Hornets and also ventured into the world of Hollywood, where he was well-known for his role as “Wild Bill.” In addition to being an actor, he also landed numerous endorsement deals with famous sports brands. In 2008, he retired from basketball and decided to focus on his acting career. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Muggsy Bogues has three siblings. He spent most of his childhood in a housing project. His family was poor, and he suffered from a troubled upbringing. When he was a child, he was struck by a piece of buckshot on the street and was hospitalized. His father had committed an armed robbery when he was twelve years old, and his brother had started using hard drugs. Despite his humble beginnings, Muggsy has achieved much in his career. He played basketball for 10 seasons with the Charlotte Hornets. His performance as a starter helped the team reach the NBA playoffs. He later joined the Toronto Raptors and played alongside Dell Curry. However, his career ended because of knee injuries.	https://radgor.com/mugsy-bogues-net-worth/
WEST PALM BEACH -- An estimated crowd of 1,800 came to the West Palm Beach Auditorium to watch a carnival-like show Monday night. The feature presentation included a short man (5-foot-3 Tyrone Bogues), a local sensation (Richard Rellford of Riviera Beach) and a big comeback. The West Palm Beach Stingrays outscored the Rhode Island Gulls 28-14 in the fourth quarter to win their USBL home opener 103-98. The win marked the start of a seven-game, 14-day homestand at the auditorium. Rellford led all scorers with 30 points and directed the Stingrays` late surge. He hit 6 of 6 from the free-throw line and added three field goals in the final quarter. Andrew Moten scored 20 and former Florida teammate Ron Williams added 19 for the winners. On defense, Moten and backup point guard Kelvin Upshaw solved -- then frustrated -- Bogues. Bogues finished with 21 points and 11 assists but was not a factor in the fourth quarter as the Stingrays played keep-away with the pint-size point guard from Wake Forest. ``Once Muggsy (Bogues) gave up the ball, we didn`t want to let him get it back,`` Stingrays general manager-coach Joe Ceravolo said. Rellford kept the Stingrays close early in the fourth quarter, shooting 4 for 4 from the line and scoring on a reverse dunk that brought them to within 5 at 86-81. Stingrays center Dan Ruland then scored on a 12-foot jumper before Rhode Island increased its lead to 90-83. Rellford and Upshaw scored to cut the lead to 90-87 with 6:41 left. Ruland hit a bank shot to cut the lead to 92-91, and following a Gulls` basket, Rellford converted a three-point play on a pass from Moten to tie it 94-94 with 3:43 left.	http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1987-05-19/sports/8702160651_1_stingrays-richard-rellford-andrew-moten
Bill Bradley has found fame in two very different careers, one on the basketball court and one in politics, by applying similarly high levels of determination and skill. Having opted not to play for a basketball powerhouse because of his academic interests, he made headlines as a standout on the Princeton team. As a dazzling shooter and deft freethrower, he led the Tigers to the NCAA finals and set two tournament records during the mid-1960s. Bradley went on to play with the New York Knickerbockers for ten years, becoming an important part of a star-studded team that won two NBA championships. He made a quick transition to politics in 1978, when he was elected U.S. Senator for New Jersey. Bradley later unsuccessfully challenged then-Vice President Al Gore for the Democratic nomination in the 2000 presidential election in a campaign focused on principles and policies. CONTACT INFORMATION Address: Allen & Company, 711 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10022. Phone: (212) 832-8000. Sketch by Paula Pyzik Scott Additional topics - Kobe Bryant - Went Pro After High School, Chronology, Awards And Accomplishments, Related Biography: Basketball Player Joe "jellybean" Bryant - Tyrone "Muggsy" Bogues Biography - City Kid, College Recruit, College Draft, Expansion Draft, Career Statistics, Other Points Of Interest - SELECTED WRITINGS BY BOGUES: - Bill Bradley - Privileged Childhood - Bill Bradley - Picks Princeton - Bill Bradley - Chronology - Bill Bradley - Highly-paid Rookie - Bill Bradley - Senator Bradley - Bill Bradley - Presidential Candidate - Bill Bradley - Awards And Accomplishments - Bill Bradley - Career Statistics - Bill Bradley - Selected Writings By Bradley: - Bill Bradley - Where Is He Now?	https://sports.jrank.org/pages/591/Bradley-Bill.html
"Always Believe" Muggsy Bogues is a former NBA star who was born in 1965 in the Lafayette public housing projects of Baltimore, Maryland. Beating the odds, Muggsy became known for his accomplishments in basketball despite the challenges he faced growing up in public housing and being only 5’3” tall. At his alma maters – Dunbar High School in Baltimore and Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem – Muggsy proved that he could beat all odds. During his high school junior and senior years, Dunbar won 59 consecutive games and was ranked the top high school team in the nation. He graduated from Wake Forest where the school retired his jersey number. Muggsy was selected 12th in the first round of the NBA draft by the Washington Bullets. For seven years he led the NBA in assist to turnover ratio and retired from the NBA as the 16th All-Time record holder in history for assists. Nicknamed the “Human Assist” and remaining the shortest player in history, he gained attention with his unique ball-handling skills and 44 inch vertical. Muggsy took the Hornets and Raptors to their first NBA playoff appearances. What is Muggsy doing today besides serving as President/CEO of the Muggsy Bogues Family Foundation? Muggsy is as an Ambassador for the NBA and Community Ambassador for the Charlotte Hornets. Muggsy also does motivational speaking appearances, endorsements, hosts annual basketball camps and a fast fan-favorite sports podcast “3 League OGs” alongside NBA Greats Charles Oakley and Earl Cureton.	https://boguesfoundation.org/about-muggsy/
Who is the shortest #basketball player ever in the #NBA? Answer The NBA’s Tallest and Shortest Together. At 7-7, Manute Boland and Gheorghe Muresan are the tallest players in NBA history. At 5-3, Muggsy Bogues is the shortest.	https://goooogleit.com/2017/02/03/who-is-the-shortest-basketball-player-ever-in-the-nba/?share=google-plus-1
Manute Bol and Muggsy Bogues had more in common than meets the eye While you might not think a 7′7″ player and a 5′3″ player would have much in common, Manute Bol and Muggsy Bogues both had to fight hard to do the same thing: prove they were more than just their height. This feat was made more difficult when a team with struggling attendance, the Washington Bullets, drafted both of them. As a former short basketball player/bench-sitter, I’m often quick to dismiss super-tall players as nothing more than trees, and laud short players as superior athletes in every single way. Make a statue for the short ones already; it’s not going to cost as much cuz you don’t need as much material. But Manute, though tall, is not easily dismissed. A Dinka tribesman who made his way to the pros in a new country and new culture, he’s is still the record holder for most blocks in a single game with 15 (tied with Shaq, but Shaq only did it once, Manute managed it twice). The tenacity, strength of character, and athletic skill Manute displayed to succeed in the NBA is extremely impressive. And Muggsy? Along with Alonzo Mourning and Larry Johnson, he rocketed the Hornets from expansion team to one of the most popular teams in the NBA. Oh, and he still holds the franchise’s record for most assists and steals. So, let’s just say we need to see a couple of statues.	https://www.all4ur.com/2020/09/13/manute-bol-and-muggsy-bogues-had-more-in-common-than-meets-the-eye/
Who has Nate Robinson dunked on? Nate Robinson pulled off the feat of dunking over Shaquille O’Neal on two occasions; at Boston Celtics practice and on set of the Uncle Drew film. The 5-foot-9 three-time NBA Slam Dunk champion’s first dunk happened in 2010 and the second dunk seven years later in 2017. Who did Nate Robinson jump over in the dunk contest? Robinson then jumped over Webb and threw down a fantastic dunk, getting the crowd on his side. Then at 27:15, Iguodala, needing a 45 to win, completed a between-the-legs lefty dunk that left the judges scrambling to decide what to do. Who dunked over Dwight Howard? Standing at 6-foot-1, Paul dunking on Howard, who is listed at 6-foot-10, was an incredible feat. The level of elevation and explosion Paul needed to pull that off was very high. Paul also surprised hoops fans, though, in the 2020 NBA All-Star Game. Has a white person ever won the dunk contest? He was on the San Antonio Spurs championship teams in 2005 and 2007. He won the Slam Dunk Contest in the NBA All-Star Weekend in 1996 with a Julius Erving-inspired slam dunk in which he took off from the free throw line to sail in and dunk one-handed. He was the first caucasian player to win the competition. Did Nate Robinson Blocks Yao Ming? Nate Robinson blocking Shaq and Yao Ming is unbelievable From the looks of it, Robinson let nothing stop him. Apparently, he is among the very players who have blocked 7’1 Shaquille O’Neal and 7’6 Yao Ming. Looking at these blocks, one can easily forget his embarrassing loss to Jake Paul. What was Muggsy Bogues vertical? Muggsy Bogues Dunk Workout: Check Out His 44 Inch Vertical Leap!	https://baloncestoestepona.com/basketball-game/who-did-nate-robinson-dunk-on.html
There aren’t too many sports that have players judged based off their height. Sure, it helps to be tall in sports like soccer and American football, but basketball players have been straight up sent packing with their NBA dreams in tatters because they don’t measure up. If you aren’t at least a solid six feet tall, you are going to be struggling to have any sort of imppac in the league. With that being said, there have been quite a few players of lesser stature that have not only made an impact, but become well known and rounded players. These 5 players have not only risen to the top of the league, but in some cases, walked away with hardware to show just how good they (or the team) were. There have been some controversial lists, and this one will be no different. Some lists will have players under 6 feet tall, others will say these players are well over. Either way, here are the top 5 NBA players of all time under 6 feet tall. 5. Nate Robinson An 11 year pro in the NBA, Robinson was a bit of a traveller during his time. A veteran who spent time at six different teams after being drafted in 2005 by the New York Knicks, his career was quite solid in both statistic and presence. Standing at 5’9, Robinson averaged a touch under 11 points a game across 618 total games. A career year came at the Knicks in the 2008-09 season, where he averaged 17+ points a game. This included a superb 41 points off the bench in a tight win against Indiana, and a game of 33 points, 15 assists and 9 rebounds in a loss to the Clippers. Robinson also has the most wins in the NBA dunk contest, with three to his name. For a man who on a good day is 5’9, that’s quite the accomplishment in what is already quite a good career. 4. Isaiah Thomas Isaiah Thomas Jr. is, on his day, one of the most electric players within the NBA today. Averaging over 18 points per game during his career, you would not think that he was the “Mr Irrelevant” of the 2011 NBA draft. Taken last by Sacramento, Thomas was able to nearly double his scoring average from 11.5 to 20.3 in his three years with the Kings. The 2014-15 season saw Thomas bounce from the Celtics, who he had been traded to during the off-season, to the Phoenix Suns after 20 games. It would see Thomas still average over 17 points throughout 67 games, facilitating a move back to the Celtics in which he would start to dominate the league. The next two years would see Thomas average 25.45 points a game, including that incredible 53 point game in overtime against Washington a day after the death of his sister. The following trade to Cleveland didn’t work as planned, nor has his stints at the Lakers and Denver thanks to injury. This season at Washington will show us if the old Isaiah Thomas will be back for a team who desperately needs him to step up. 3. Chris Paul This is where the list starts to get slightly controversial, as Chris Paul is listed at 6’0. According to the official stats from the 2005 NBA Draft combine, the latest acquisition for the Oklahoma City Thunder is 5’11 and 3/4 of an inch without shoes. So with that out in the universe, he just qualifies for the list based on his height. His stats though, sees Paul firmly in contention for the top spot. A 9-time All Star, Chris Paul has had a career so far that should see him move into the Hall of Fame one day. Averaging 18.5 points a game and just a touch under ten assists across three teams, Chris Paul is a beast of a player despite the “limitation” of being only 6’0 in shoes. The accomplishment list for Chris Paul is longer than a lot of players’ career span, with it ranging from rookie of the year awards to statistical championships and All-NBA teams. One can not argue that he has a major impact wherever he goes, getting to the finals every year since the 2010-11 season. A new start at the Thunder will see Paul take a leading role, as he looks to continue his dominance as well as bringing the Thunder to a finals appearance in 2019. 2. Tyrone Bogues How can a guy who only averaged 7.7 points a game be ahead of a 9-time NBA All Star? Well, Tyrone “Muggsy” Bogues was all of 5’3 in an era of the NBA that had more physical contact in it than some boxing matches. You had the likes of Michael Jordan, Dennis Rodman, Shaquille O’Neal and Karl Malone inside the paint trying to defend the smallest player in NBA history. The 12th pick of the 1987 draft, Bogues was a tenacious player who somehow never let the fact that he was playing against guys who at times, may have been over two feet taller get in his way. The stats do not line up with being the number two player on this list; in fact the stats suggest that he should not even be on this list. However, if there is one game that signifies why he should be on this list, it is the March 25th, 1999 game against Detroit. Bogues scored a double-double that game, however one would expect it to be in the assists category. He did, after all, average 7.6 assists per game during his career. Instead, he would manage to grab ten rebounds to go with 18 points. It tied Alonzo Mourning for the game high, with Bogues also getting his career high total in defensive rebounds too (9). The result of this game? Charlotte, with Bogues, out-rebounded Detroit by 12, and won by 13. - Allen Iverson Again, this one may be controversial, not because of the player but because of the height. Iverson is a bonafide Hall of Fame player, with a legendary career in the league. His height though, has been cause of debate. He is listed at being 6’0 on the nose, not an inch taller or shorter. Those to have met him though, claim that he is closer to 5’10 or 5’11. Barefoot, he is around 5’10 so we are going with that and that alone can put him at the top of this list. “The Answer” was a beast in his heyday, with a career average of a tick under 27 points. The 2000-01 NBA MVP, Iverson brought the 76ers as close as he could to the NBA championship before being dispatched by the legendary Lakers. Most of his career would be at the Philadelphia 76ers, with a few seasons in Denver to go with a guest appearance in both Detroit and Memphis. By the point that Iverson was bouncing around in Denver, his prime was well past him but he still had a big impact no matter where he went. An All-Star in each of the last 11 seasons that he played in the NBA to go with All-NBA recognition seven times, Iverson has every right to be in the Hall of Fame after his 2016 induction. He would be a statistical champion in both scoring and steals multiple times, as well as being the rookie of the year in 1996-97. That in itself is a Hall of Fame career, and is more than enough to be the best NBA player to be under 6’0, shoes or no shoes.	https://theathleteshub.org/the-top-5-nba-players-under-60/
It’s still incredible to think back on what Muggsy Bogues accomplished. Folks around here saw him at Wake Forest and watched him do insane things. Then he went to Spain in an international tournament - Duke’s Tommy Amaker and UNC’s Kenny Smith went too - and the Spanish fell in love with him. They actually invited him back to be the grand Marshall in a parade but the NCAA wouldn’t allow it. They called him la Chispa Negra - the Black Spark. He made a huge impression. That was true in the NBA too. This video is a compilation of what his NBA colleagues thought about him. Rex Chapman, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kenny Smith, Michael Jordan, Vlade Divac, Patrick Ewing and others talk about how phenomenal he was. Smith compared Ben Simmons to Muggsy, which was really interesting. He remains entirely unique in the history of the NBA. We’ll see another Jordan before we see another Bogues.	https://www.dukebasketballreport.com/2021/11/19/22788885/youtube-gold-nba-players-muggsy-bogues-wake-forest-michael-jordan-tommy-maker-kenny-smith-acc
1. Exercise May Help to Fend Off Depression. I would state it more definitively. 2. The Economic Gains of a Liberal Arts Education. 3. Two hundred years of health and medical care. 4. John Gruber’s 2018 Apple Report Card. 5. How Muggsy Bogues saved his brother’s life, and found the meaning of his own. Dig the pictures.	https://pressingpause.com/category/education/page/2/
The Muggsy Bogues Family Foundation proudly partners with SHARE Charlotte in November for #GivingTuesdayCLT. #GivingTuesday is a global event created in 2012 to encourage people to do good. We are thankful for all the generous people in Charlotte and around the globe who come together for GivingTuesday -- and every day -- to make their communities a better place to live, grow and thrive. Look for more information on our 2022 #GivingTuesdayCLT campaign this fall.	https://boguesfoundation.org/giving-tuesday/
Who is the shortest NBA player in history? Here's the top 10 list There are myths that one has to be 6 feet and above to play in the National Basketball League. Well, that is certainly not true. Although height is a factor, especially when taking shots, it takes skill and talent to have a successful career in the league like many basketball stars under 6 feet. So, who is the shortest NBA player? PAY ATTENTION: Follow Briefly News on Twitter and never miss the hottest topics! Find us at @brieflyza! The average height of NBA players is 6 feet and 7 inches. However, players on the opposite end of the size spectrum have piqued our curiosity. Most fans can relate to the smaller-statured, inspiring people worldwide to believe that they, too, can succeed in a game of giants. Who is the shortest NBA player? Among the shortest players in the NBA have shown what they lack in height, they cover for it with talent. They are responsible for some of the most significant achievements for their teams in the league. They include: 1. Muggsy Bogues Enjoy reading our stories? Download the BRIEFLY NEWS app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major South African news! Tyrone Curtis "Muggsy" Bogues, born on January 9, 1965, is an American former basketball star. Bogues played point guard for four teams during his 14-season career and is the shortest NBA player ever. So, how tall is the shortest NBA player? Standing at 5 feet and 3 inches, Bogues was in the Washington Bullets, Golden State Warriors, Toronto Raptors, and the Charlotte Hornets for ten seasons. After his NBA career, he became the head coach of the now-defunct Charlotte Sting of the WNBA. 2. Earl Boykins Earl Antoine Boykins is a former American professional basketball player and the second shortest player in the NBA. He stands at 5 feet, 5 inches and weighs 60 kilograms. He was the head coach for the Douglas County High School boys varsity basketball team. He is now serving as an assistant coach for the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) Miners. 3. Mel Hirsch Melvin M. Hirsch was an American professional basketball player. He was in the Boston Celtics of the Basketball Association of America, which would later become the National Basketball Association, for 13 games in the 1946–47 season. His height was 5 ft 6 in or 1.68 metres. 4. Spud Webb Michael Anthony Jerome "Spud" Webb is an American former professional NBA player. Webb is known for winning a Slam Dunk Contest despite being one of the shortest players in NBA history, is listed at 5 ft 6 in tall. Most scouts predicted that Webb would end up joining either a Europe team or Harlem Globetrotters because of his height. However, Webb was drafted in the 4th round of the 1985 NBA draft by the Detroit Pistons. After the guard-loaded Pistons released Spud, his agent, Bill Blakeley arranged for a tryout with the Atlanta Hawks where Spud beat out several seasoned guards to make the opening roster. 5. Greg Grant Gregory Alan Grant is a retired American professional basketball star. Growing up in a broken home, Grant worked in a fish market while in high school. After being discovered at the local playground, the 5'7" point guard enrolled at Trenton State College in 1986 and led Division III in scoring in 1989. 6. Keith Jennings Keith Russell "Mister" Jennings is an American basketball coach who was formerly in the National Basketball Association. Jennings, a 5'7" (1.70 m) tall point guard, attended East Tennessee State University for four academic years (1987–91). Jennings won the 1991 Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award, given to the outstanding collegiate senior six feet tall and under, and was a second-team consensus All-American. 7. Red Klotz Louis Herman "Red" Klotz also makes it to the list of short basketball players. He was a National Basketball Association point guard with the original Baltimore Bullets. He was best known for forming the teams that play against and tour with the Harlem Globetrotters: the Washington Generals and the New York Nationals. He stood at 5 feet and 7 inches. Unfortunately, he passed away on July 12 2014, in Margate City, New Jersey, United States. 8. Wat Misaka Wataru Misaka was an American professional basketball star. A 5-foot-7-inch point guard of Japanese descent, he broke a colour barrier in professional basketball by being the first non-white and the first player of Asian descent to participate in the National Basketball Association. 9. Monte Towe Monte Corwin Towe is an American basketball coach and retired player. He was the starting point guard on North Carolina State's 1974 NCAA championship team. In addition, he played varsity baseball for NC State, earning All-ACC recognition in basketball and playing on conference championship teams in both sports. In 1975, the 5'7" (1.7 m) Towe received the Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award as the year's best college player under 6 feet (1.8 m) tall. 10. Charlie Criss Charles Washington Criss, Jr. is an American former professional basketball player born in Valhalla, New York. A 5'8" guard from New Mexico State University, Criss began his professional career in the Continental Basketball Association, earning league Most Valuable Player honours with the Scranton Apollos in 1976, next playing for the Washington Generals. He joined the Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association the following year and participated for eight seasons in league with the Hawks, San Diego Clippers and Milwaukee Bucks. Criss was the league's shortest active player when he entered the NBA. Who is the shortest NBA player today? Markus Howard, the shortest NBA player now stands at 5 feet and 10 inches, weighing 175 pounds. He plays for the Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association on a two-way contract with the Grand Rapids Gold of the NBA G League. Facundo Campazzo is also the shortest active NBA player. At the height of 5 ft 10 in tall, he plays at the point guard position. He is also a member of the senior Argentina national basketball team. He, however, weighs 195 pounds. The shortest NBA player, Bogues, has proven that it takes more than height to have a successful career in basketball. He is an inspiration to all the upcoming basketball payers below 6 feet. READ ALSO: Top 20 most powerful countries in Africa 2021 (by Global Fire Power Index report) Briefly.co.za recently published an article top 20 most powerful countries in Africa in 2021. Egypt, Algeria and South Africa are slowly gaining global visibility due to their growing military strength over the years. So, which is the most powerful?	https://briefly.co.za/facts-lifehacks/top/117245-who-shortest-nba-player-history-heres-top-10-list/
The first player believed to have dunked a basketball in an organized game was Joe Fortenberry, captain of the 1936 U.S. Olympic basketball team. However, this is not officially recognized by any governing bodies. www.reference.com/article/can-person-dunk-basketball-67d2debc25966e62 A personÂ can learn how to dunk a basketball by strengthening the core muscles of his or her body, determining the proper jump-off pointÂ and practicing the move repeatedly. It is important toÂ work on learning to dunk a basketball in practice sessions before attempting the move in an actual game. www.reference.com/world-view/shortest-person-dunk-basketball-e7f816ae83b8398b The 5-foot-3-inch Tyrone 'Muggsy' Bogues was the shortest player to play in the NBA, and reports disagree as to whether he could dunk a basketball. His hands were too small to palm it, but he had a reported 44 inch vertical leap, which may have allowed him to dunk. www.reference.com/article/parts-basketball-goal-1b10825d8e54724f A basketball goal system is comprised of the rim and backboard. The National Basketball Association mandates that both meet precise measurements and placement relative to the court surface. www.reference.com/article/jump-higher-dunk-a6836d8ec98105b9 Vertical box jumps, side box jumps, box push-offs, depth jumps, knee tuck jumps, bounding and lateral hurdle jumps are the most common methods to increase the vertical jump and one's ability to dunk a basketball. These exercises are part of the training program known as "plyometrics." www.reference.com/article/shortest-nba-player-dunk-7386ee2fc7e18931 The shortest player in NBA history to dunk a basketball in a game is former guard Spud Webb. Boasting a 42-inch vertical jump, the 5-foot-7-inch Webb played for the Atlanta Hawks, Sacramento Kings, Minnesota Timberwolves and Orlando Magic from 1985 to 1998. www.reference.com/world-view/basketball-made-out-d937c2fec9405e00 NBA balls are made of a leather exterior housing a butyl rubber bladder, which holds the air and creates enough pressure to properly bounce the basketball, and a carcass made of nylon and polyester. There are not any official specifications as to what basketballs should be made of. www.reference.com/world-view/far-high-school-three-point-line-basketball-goal-b8ca4c544e64906a The three-point line on a high school basketball court is 19 feet and 9 inches from the center of the basket. The shooter must have both feet behind the line when initiating the attempt for the goal to count for three points. The line was added to the high school courts during the 1987 to 1988 seaso www.reference.com/world-view/long-basketball-season-c929a00938edf37c Basketball season starts in late October and runs until mid- to late June. All college and professional teams complete their regular and post-season play within this time frame. www.reference.com/article/basketball-court-made-7af76e3afbf6e34c Hardwood college and professional basketball court surfaces are constructed from hard maple. The courts are typically purchased from an MFMA-certified manufacturer or distributor that meets industry specifications to ensure the highest quality performance.	https://www.reference.com/web?q=pro+dunk+basketball+goals&qo=searchIntentBlock&sga=1
Prolog is a high-level fourth-generation programming language. It’s mainly used in artificial intelligence research, applications and software, and is usually only found in expert systems and very advanced tech. It’s an acronym for PROgramming in LOGic, and is a declarative language. That means that rather than telling the computer exactly what steps to follow, the programmer describes the problem that needs to be solved instead. Technipages Explains Prolog In its essence, Prolog closely resembles query languages that work with databases and in database management systems like SQL. There is an important difference though – while a query language has information that can be retrieved, a programming language does not. In SQL, it’s possible to ask a database ‘Is Susan Maier over 18?’ provided the information is present. In a declarative programming language, this isn’t possible, but instead it’s possible to solve mathematical problems by describing them closely. Prolog is particularly suited for AI work and computational linguistics. Expressions and code is written in terms of relations, facts, rules and standards. An actual computation is then run by entering information that is treated according to those standards. Prolog is also the most popular logic programming language and has been since its conception in 1972. Logic programming languages rely on clearly defined rules, making them very distinct from object-oriented programming (the type of language often used in user-oriented software). Common Uses of Prolog - Prolog is short for PROgramming in LOGic, and was first conceived in 1972 by Alain Colmerauer and his group in France. - Today, Prolog is very popular in AI research and applications that support machine learning. - Compared to languages like PHP or Java, Prolog is logic-oriented, meaning that it works via a precise set of rules unique to each application. Common Misuses of Prolog - Prolog is the first section of any piece of code.	https://www.technipages.com/definition/prolog
To infer is to draw a conclusion based on what one already knows and on that alone. Suppose you see rain on your window - you can infer from that, quite trivially, that the sky is grey. Looking out the window would have yielded the same fact, but through a process of perception, not inference (note however that perception itself can be viewed as an inferential process). Inference is studied within several different fields. Human inference (ie how humans draw conclusions) is traditionally studied within the field of cognitive psychology. The rules and process of inference are some of philosophy's oldest subject matters. Logic studies the laws of valid inference. Statisticians have developed formal rules for inference from quantitative data. Artificial intelligence researchers develop automated inference systems. 1.1 An example: the classic syllogism 2.1 An example: inference using Prolog 3.1 Common sense and uncertain reasoning 3.2 Bayesian statistics and probability logic 3.3 Frequentist statistical inference 3.4 Fuzzy logic Inferences can be correct or incorrect. Philosophical logic has attempted to define the rules of proper inference, ie the rules that when applied to true premisses lead to true conclusions. Aristotle has given one of the most famous statements of those rules in his Organon. Modern mathematical logic, beginning in the 19th century, has built numerous formal systems that embody Aristotelian logic (or variants thereof). Greek philosophers defined a number of syllogisms, correct three-part inferences, that can be used as building blocks for more complex reasoning. We'll begin with the most famous of them all: All men are mortal Socrates is a man ------------------ Therefore Socrates is mortal. The reader can check that the premisses and conclusion are true. The inference is valid - it strongly appeals to our common sense (whether that suffices to make a inference valid is an open question). In predicate logic (a simple but useful formalisation of Aristotelician logic), this syllogism can be stated as follows: ∀ X, man(X) → mortal(X) man(Socrates) ------------------------------- ∴mortal(Socrates) Or in its general form: ∀ X, A(X) → B(X) A(x) ------------------------ ∴B(x) ∀, the universal quantifier, is pronounced "for all". It allows us to state a general property. Here it is used to say that "if any X is a man, X is also mortal". Socrates is a man, and the conclusion follows. Compare to the following inference: All dogs are mortal Socrates is mortal ------------------- Therefore Socrates is a dog Formally : ∀ X, dog(X) → mortal(X) mortal(Socrates) ------------------ ∴dog(Socrates) This inference is obviously incorrect, because it led us from true premisses to the wrong conclusion. Note that while an inference that leads from true premisses to a wrong conclusion is necessarily incorrect, true premisses and a true conclusion do not necessarily imply that the inference was correct. Although in this particular example the error in reasoning is particularly easy to spot, it is not always so, especially if the conclusion appears true. An incorrect inference is know as a fallacy. Philosophers who study informal logic have compiled large lists of them, and cognitive psychologists have documented many biases in human reasoning that favour incorrect reasoning. Although now somewhat past their heyday, AI systems for automated logical inference once were extremely popular research topics, and have know industrial applications under the form of expert systems. An inference system's job is to extend a knowledge base automatically. The knowledge base (KB) is a set of propositions that represent what the system knows about the world. Several techniques can be used by that system to extend KB by means of valid inferences. An additional requirement is the conclusions the system arrives at are relevant to its task. Prolog (Programming in Logic) is a programming language based on a subset of predicate calculus. Its main job is to check whether a certain proposition is can be inferred from the KB using an algorithm called backward chaining. Let us return to our Socrates syllogism . We enter in our Knowledge Base the following piece of code : mortal(X) :- man(X). man(socrates). mortal(X) :- man(X). man(socrates). This states that all men are mortal and that Socrates is a man. Now we can ask Prolog about Socrates. ?- mortal(socrates). Yes Yes On the other hand : ?- mortal(plato). No No This is because Prolog does not know anything about Plato, and hence defaults to any property about Plato being false (the so-called closed world hypothesis ). Prolog can be used for vastly more complicated inference tasks. See the corresponding article for further examples. Traditional logic is only concerned with certainty - one progresses from certain premisses to certain conclusions. There are several motivations for extending logic to deal with uncertain propositions and weaker modes of reasoning. The reason most examples of applying deductive logic, such as the one above, seem artificial is because they are rarely encountered outside fields such as mathematics. Most of our everyday reasoning is of a less "pure" nature. To take an example : late at night, you're woken up by sounds of creaks in the ceiling. You infer from that that your neighbour upstairs (we assume you live in a flat) is having another bout of insomnia and pacing in his room, sleepless. You then proceed to go back to sleep. Although that reasoning seems sound, it does not fit in the logical framework descrived above. First, it is based on uncertain facts : what you heard are creaks, not directly footsteps. But even if those facts were certain, the inference is of an inductive nature : maybe you've often heard your neigbour at night, and the best explanation you've found is that he or she is an insomniac. Hence tonight's footsteps. But it is easy to see that this line of reasoning does not necessarily lead to true conclusions : maybe your neighbour had a very early plane to catch, which would explain the footsteps just as well. Uncertain reasoning can only find the best explanation among many alternatives. Philosophers and scientists who follow the Bayesian framework for inference use the mathematical rules of probability to find this best explanation. The Bayesian view has a number of desirable features - one of them is that it embeds deductive (certain) logic as a subset (this prompts some writers to call Bayesian probability "probability logic", following E. T. Jaynes). Bayesianists identify probabilities with degrees of beliefs, with certainly true propositions have probability 1, and certainly false propositions have probability 0. To say that "it's going to rain tomorrow" has a 0.9 probability is to say that you consider the possibility of rain tomorrow as extremely likely. Through the rules of probability, the probability of a conclusion and of alternatives can be calculated. The best explanation is most often identified with the most probable (see Bayesian decision theory ). A central rule of Bayesian inference is Bayes' theorem, which gave its name to the field. See Bayesian inference for examples.	https://www.fact-archive.com/encyclopedia/Inference
A free software framework for rapid development of ASP-encoded dynamic programming algorithms that are based on tree decompositions. D-FLAT is developed within the project "Extending the Answer-Set Programming Paradigm to Decomposed Problem Solving". D-FLAT (Dynamic Programming Framework with Local Execution of ASP on Tree Decompositions) is a tool that allows specification of dynamic programming algorithms operating on tree decompositions of a problem's (hyper)graph representation. This specification is done by means of logic programming under the answer set semantics. D-FLAT relieves the user from handling all the technical details concerned with parsing, tree decomposition, the handling of data structures, etc. Instead, it is only the dynamic programming algorithm itself which has to be specified in the ASP language. D-FLAT employs an ASP solver in order to compute the local solutions in the dynamic programming algorithm. It can therefore be used as a rapid prototyping tool for quickly implementing dynamic programming algorithms on tree decompositions.Top D-FLAT provides a command line interface with options to specify the file containing the dynamic programming algorithm, heuristics used for obtaining the tree decomposition of the input instance, and various output options, among others. For details, invoke D-FLAT with option -h, or have a look at the documentation. Running a simple 3-Col algorithm specified in the file 3col.lp, with the input graph in a file instance.lp and edges specified with the predicate edge/2, amounts to this call: dflat -p 3col.lp -e edge < instance.lp We provide different versions of D-FLAT as well as a collection of example D-FLAT encodings and input instances for download. The current development version of D-FLAT can be found in the D-FLAT repository on Github. Among the example encodings, we provide implementations of different semantics for argumentation frameworks (see, e.g., Argumentation Project). The monolithic encodings for the argumentation problems are taken from the ASPARTIX Project. We provide a real world collection of traffic network instances, a downloader for instances which are in GTFS format, and a collection of instances of small treewidth for various problems, which was used for preliminary experiments.Top People involved in the development of D-FLAT:	https://www.dbai.tuwien.ac.at/proj/dflat/system/
A copy of this work was available on the public web and has been preserved in the Wayback Machine. The capture dates from 2015; you can also visit the original URL. The file type is application/pdf. Filters Formality, Agility, Security, and Evolution in Software Development 2014 Computer Transformational programming method of algorithm derivation. ... Another paper uses this method to derive an implementation of program slicing from the formal definition of slicing, defined as a program transformation. ...doi:10.1109/mc.2014.284 fatcat:wbdonzj2rzdydjhxbmitzymnmy Introducing Formal Methods via Program Derivation 2015 Proceedings of the 2015 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education - ITiCSE '15 By restricting our attention to program derivation, we have identifed a small core of the formal method concepts that can easily be taught in the first two years of a computing curricula. ... Existing attempts towards including formal methods in introductory programming courses focus on introducing program verification tools. ... The work of the first author was supported by the Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Research Fellowship and a grant from the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. ...doi:10.1145/2729094.2742628 dblp:conf/iticse/ChaudhariD15 fatcat:tjuacgzgq5abbbmtnxcudnjkzq A Method to Deduce and Synthesize the Dafny Programs 2021 Wuhan University Journal of Natural Sciences Then, the derivation process uses program specification transformation technology to perform equivalent transformation. ... We propose a systematic method to deduce and synthesize the Dafny programs. First, the specification of problem is described in strict mathematical language. ... In our method, we use strict formal derivation technology and specification transformation technology to make the final derivation procedure more rigorous and correct. ...doi:10.1051/wujns/2021266481 fatcat:4d26gyluqrbgffj5erx6v6uvvq Transformational Programming and the Derivation of Algorithms [chapter] 2010 Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering The transformational programming, method of algorithm derivation starts with a formal specification of the result to be achieved (which provides no indication of how the result is to be achieved), plus ... The formal specification is then transformed into an implementation, by means of correctness-preserving refinement and transformation steps. ... In this paper we present a different method of programming, called transformational programming or algorithm derivation. ...doi:10.1007/978-90-481-9794-1_4 fatcat:b4bo6zztefdnlgg252qh4afvri How to Produce Correct Software - An Introduction to Formal Specification and Program Development by Transformations 1992 Computer journal deriving efficient programs by correctness-preserving transformations. ... To master these problems, we advocate a software development method where the whole process is split into smaller steps by introducing formal specifications for (parts of) the problem and then step wisely ... Instead, the particular strength of the method lies in deriving programs which are either very sophisticated or have to be 100 percent correct. ...doi:10.1093/comjnl/35.6.547 fatcat:5dzkroraiva63k2nie4wtzml5u Editorial 2017 Formal Aspects of Computing Formal methods based on logical theories are used widely and successfully in many areas of computer science, including software engineering. ... Program synthesis, program transformation, abstract interpretation, and other formal techniques improve both the process of software development and the quality and correctness of the programs. ... Programs are incrementally derived from their formal specifications, by repeatedly applying transformations to partially derived programs. ...doi:10.1007/s00165-017-0427-1 fatcat:ej4i24vlenal5nqud65wus76ma Formal synthesis in circuit design — A classification and survey [chapter] 1996 Lecture Notes in Computer Science This article gives a survey on different methods of formal synthesis. ... We define what we mean by the term formal synthesis and delimit it from the other formal methods that can also be used to guarantee the correctness of an implementation. ... Acknowledgements The authors are grateful to the anonymous referees whose constructive comments have improved the quality of the paper. ...doi:10.1007/bfb0031817 fatcat:bz6cob6jd5bo3izawypciavotq Formal Derivation of the Combinatorics Problems with PAR Method 2009 Journal of Software Engineering and Applications In this paper, we propose that PAR method is an effective formal method on solving combinatorics problems. ... Lastly, we obtain accurate C++ programs which are transformed by automatic transforming system of PAR platform. ... scheme, derived by PAR methods, is shown in Algorithm 1. ...doi:10.4236/jsea.2009.23026 fatcat:ilcomf2frnfz5mknb56s2x6hie SQAF-DS: A Software Quality Assessment Framework for Dependable Systems 2013 2013 IEEE 37th Annual Computer Software and Applications Conference Test cases are developed in the process of software development and used to test target system, while dependability requirements are derived from dependability analysis, such as FTA (Fault Tree Analysis ... If the formal checking succeeds, then we can assure that the dependability requirements are well implemented in the software system. ... ACKNOWLEDGMENT This research was supported by the MKE, Korea, under the Development of Performance Improvement Technology for Engineering Tool of Safety PLC program supervised by the KETEP" (KETEP-2010 ...doi:10.1109/compsac.2013.118 dblp:conf/compsac/YooY13 fatcat:ntndpii4pjfldcb7cb4ngprkru Validation And Verification Of Sysml Activity Diagrams Using Hoare Logic 2018 Zenodo In this paper, we propose a novel technique that makes use of Hoare Logic and testing to verify whether the SysML diagrams meet the requirement, called TBFV-M. ... The existing TBFV method is designed for error detection with full automation efficiency, only for code. For verifying the correctness of SysML diagram, we applying TBFV method into SysML diagram. ... After acquiring all the test path of the program, Hoare Logic will help to give a formal proof for each path, which guarantees the comprehensiveness of functional scenario, derived from the formal post ...doi:10.5281/zenodo.1344288 fatcat:3nac5d4b2veclc2j6hbfxebfra Page 1960 of Mathematical Reviews Vol. , Issue 80E [page] 1980 Mathematical Reviews Author’s summary: “We describe a formalized method of top- down programming. The core of the method is a formal pseu- doprogramming language with a set of program refinement trans- formations. ... The inference rules used are similar to those of other formalisms for program derivation, for example, to Darlington’s transformation rules [R. M. Burstall and J. Darlington, J. Assoc. Comput. ... Page 6825 of Mathematical Reviews Vol. , Issue 91M [page] 1991 Mathematical Reviews We consider classes of treelike programs introducing a concept of unary and binary edges in a tree to manage situations where a consequence A+ B of a Prolog program can be derived in several ways. ... The book can be recommended to students in computer science as well as to soft- ware engineers who are interested not only in knowing, but also in applying, formal methods. ... Software Engineering in the Twenty-First Century 1992 The AI Magazine In research laboratories, many prototype KBSE systems have been developed that have advanced the science of formalizing and automating software design knowledge. ... The first and third sections of this book describe pilot systems for software maintenance and special-purpose program synthesis. ... The views expressed in this conclusion are the sole responsibility of the author. ...doi:10.1609/aimag.v13i3.1012 dblp:journals/aim/Lowry92 fatcat:ovsullvmabaalhwclv4slacvjm Strongest postcondition semantics as the formal basis for reverse engineering 1996 Automated Software Engineering : An International Journal Changing architectures and improvements in programming methods, including formal methods in software development and object-oriented programming, have prompted a need to reverse engineer and re-engineer ... This paper describes the application of the strongest postcondition predicate transformer (sp) as the formal basis for the reverse engineering of imperative program code. ... Also, the authors wish to thank Linda Wills for her e orts in organizing this special issue. ...doi:10.1007/bf00126962 fatcat:wy5xuremcrbkvniqxc2v72hyau Page 4907 of Mathematical Reviews Vol. , Issue 95h [page] 1995 Mathematical Reviews This algebra is then used in the formal specification and derivation of some graph and sorting algorithms. ... From the text: “The calculus of predicate transformers has proved fruitful for the derivation of state-transformation programs in con- ventional languages with general recursion and demonic nonde- ...	https://scholar.archive.org/search?q=Formal+methods+in+transformational+derivation+of+programs.
- Computer ScienceAI Commun. - 2003 This paper provides polynomial-time constructible reductions mapping a given abduction problem into a quantified Boolean formula (QBF) such that the satisfying truth assignments to the free variables of the latter determine the solutions of the original problem. Representing Paraconsistent Reasoning via Quantified Propositional Logic - Computer Science, PhilosophyInconsistency Tolerance - 2005 It is shown how certain paraconsistent reasoning principles can be naturally formulated or reformulated by means of quantified Boolean formulas, and polynomial-time constructible encodings providing axiomatisations of the given reasoning tasks are described. Paraconsistent Reasoning via Quantified Boolean Formulas, I: Axiomatising Signed Systems - Computer ScienceJELIA - 2002 This paper shows how the family of corresponding paraconsistent consequence relations can be axiomatised by means of quantified Boolean formulas, furnishing an axiomatic specification of paracons consistent reasoning within the framework of signed systems. Reasoning in Argumentation Frameworks Using Quantified Boolean Formulas - Computer ScienceCOMMA - 2006 A generic approach to implement propositional argumentation frameworks by means of quantified Boolean formulas (QBFs) and the definition of suitable QBF modules provides us with a tool box in order to capture a broad range of reasoning tasks associated to formal argumentation. Comparing Different Prenexing Strategies for Quantified Boolean Formulas - Computer ScienceSAT - 2003 Experimental results show that different prenexing strategies influence the evaluation time in different ways across different solvers, in particular, some solvers are robust to the chosen strategies while others are not. Characterising equilibrium logic and nested logic programs: Reductions and complexity1,2 - Computer ScienceTheory and Practice of Logic Programming - 2009 This paper presents polynomial reductions of the main reasoning tasks associated with equilibrium logic and nested logic programs into quantified propositional Logic, an extension of classical propositional logic where quantifications over atomic formulas are permitted. Decision Procedures for the Propositional Cases of Second Order Logic and Z Modal Logic Representations - PhilosophyTABLEAUX - 2003 Decision procedures for the propositional cases of two different logical representations for an L-Predicate Logic generalizing Autoepistemic Logic to handle quantified variables over modal scopes are… Towards Implementations for Advanced Equivalence Checking in Answer-Set Programming - Computer ScienceAnswer Set Programming - 2005 This paper describes an approach to compute program correspondences in this general framework by means of linear-time constructible reductions to quantified propositional logic and describes how the translations provide a method to construct counterexamples in case a program correspondence does not hold. Representation and Evaluation of QBFs in Prenex-NNF - Computer Science - 2004 This paper shows how Zero-Suppressed Binary De-cision Diagram (abbreviated by ZBDD or ZDD) can be used to represent QBFs given in prenex-NNF and evaluatethem efﬁciently. FZQSAT: A QSAT Solver for QBFs in Prenex NNF (A Useful Tool for Circuit Verification) - Computer Science - 2004 This paper presents FZQSAT, which is an algorithm for evaluating quantified Boolean formulas presented in negation normal form (NNF), which manages to solve some standard QBF benchmark problems faster than best existing QSAT solvers. References SHOWING 1-10 OF 49 REFERENCES Sequent calculi for propositional nonmonotonic logics - Computer ScienceTOCL - 2002 A uniform proof-theoretic reconstruction of the major nonmonotonic logics is introduced. It consists of analytic sequent calculi where the details of nonmonotonic assumption making are modelled by an… Solving Advanced Reasoning Tasks Using Quantified Boolean Formulas - Computer ScienceAAAI/IAAI - 2000 This work presents translations of several well-known reasoning tasks from the area of nonmonotonic reasoning into QBFs, and compares their implementation in the prototype system QUIP with established NMRprovers. Computing Stable Models with Quantified Boolean Formulas: Some Experimental Results - Computer ScienceAnswer Set Programming - 2001 Experimental results show reasonable performance of the QBF approach and indicate possible improvements of QUIP by exploiting different QBFsolvers as underlying inference engines. Semantical Considerations on Nonmonotonic Logic - Computer ScienceIJCAI - 1983 An Algorithm to Evaluate Quantified Boolean Formulae - Computer ScienceAAAI/IAAI - 1998 Evaluate, an algorithm for evaluating Quantified Boolean Formulae, a language that extends propositional logic in a way such that many advanced forms of propositional reasoning can be easily formulated as evaluation of a QBF, is proposed. Encodings for Equilibrium Logic and Logic Programs with Nested Expressions - Computer ScienceEPIA - 2001 The method to implement equilibrium logic and stable models for logic programs with nested expressions, based on polynomial reductions to quantified Boolean formulas (QBFs), yields a practically relevant approach to rapid prototyping. Constructing Conditional Plans by a Theorem-Prover - Computer ScienceJ. Artif. Intell. Res. - 1999 This paper approaches conditional planning from a new viewpoint that is motivated by the use of satisfiability algorithms in classical planning and translates conditional planning to quantified Boolean formulae in the propositional logic. Improvements to the Evaluation of Quantified Boolean Formulae - Computer ScienceIJCAI - 1999 A number of techniques for reducing the amount of search that is needed are presented, and their effectiveness is evaluated by running the algorithm on a collection of formulae obtained from planning and generated randomly. Default Reasoning System DeReS - Computer ScienceKR - 1996 It is shown that a choice of a propositional prover is critical for the efficiency of DeReS, and a general technique is presented that eliminates the need for some global consistency checks and results in substantial speedups. A Deductive System for Non-Monotonic Reasoning - Computer ScienceLPNMR - 1997 A thorough investigation of disjunctive Deductive Databases is a basic requirement for building systems which render previous foundational work on DDDBs useful for practice.	https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Modal-Nonmonotonic-Logics-Revisited%3A-Efficient-for-Eiter-Klotz/085b994eee2495208e31e8ae327af999526705f4?p2df
A new algorithm MINERVA is proposed, which addresses the much more difficult and practical task of answering questions where the relation is known, but only one entity, and significantly outperforms prior methods. RNNLogic: Learning Logic Rules for Reasoning on Knowledge Graphs - Computer ScienceICLR - 2021 An EM-based algorithm for optimization of a probabilistic model called RNNLogic, which treats logic rules as a latent variable, and simultaneously trains a rule generator as well as a reasoning predictor with logic rules. DRUM: End-To-End Differentiable Rule Mining On Knowledge Graphs - Computer Science, MathematicsNeurIPS - 2019 DRUM is proposed, a scalable and differentiable approach for mining first-order logical rules from knowledge graphs that resolves the problem of learning probabilistic logical rules for inductive and interpretable link prediction. Convolutional 2D Knowledge Graph Embeddings - Computer Science, MathematicsAAAI - 2018 ConvE, a multi-layer convolutional network model for link prediction, is introduced and it is found that ConvE achieves state-of-the-art Mean Reciprocal Rank across most datasets. M-Walk: Learning to Walk over Graphs using Monte Carlo Tree Search - Computer ScienceNeurIPS - 2018 Experimental results on several graph-walking benchmarks show that M-Walk is able to learn better policies than other RL-based methods, which are mainly based on policy gradients. Differentiable Learning of Logical Rules for Knowledge Base Reasoning - Computer ScienceNIPS - 2017 A framework, Neural Logic Programming, is proposed that combines the parameter and structure learning of first-order logical rules in an end-to-end differentiable model and outperforms prior work on multiple knowledge base benchmark datasets, including Freebase and WikiMovies. YAGO3: A Knowledge Base from Multilingual Wikipedias - Computer ScienceCIDR - 2015 This work fuses the multilingual information with the English WordNet to build one coherent knowledge base that combines the information from the Wikipedias in multiple languages, and enlarges YAGO by 1m new entities and 7m new facts. A Re-evaluation of Knowledge Graph Completion Methods - Computer ScienceACL - 2020 This paper proposes a simple evaluation protocol that is robust to handle bias in the model, which can substantially affect the final results, and conducts extensive experiments and reports performance of several existing methods using the protocol. Observed versus latent features for knowledge base and text inference - Computer Science - 2015 It is shown that the observed features model is most effective at capturing the information present for entity pairs with textual relations, and a combination of the two combines the strengths of both model types.	https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/LPRules%3A-Rule-Induction-in-Knowledge-Graphs-Using-Dash-Gon%C3%A7alves/81e51c5d677338208f94f19488d86e6658f927af
Genetic Programming (GP) is a method of automatically inducing programs by representing them as parse trees. In theory, programs in any computer languages can be translated to parse trees. Hence, GP should be able to handle them as well. In practice, the syntax of Lisp is so simple and uniform that the translation process can be achieved easily, programs evolved by GP are usually expressed in Lisp. This paper presents a flexible framework that programs in various programming languages can be acquired. This framework is based on a formalism of logic grammars. To implement the framework, a system called LOGENPRO (The LOgic grammar based GENetic PROgramming system) has been developed. An experiment that employs LOGENPRO to induce a S-expression for calculating dot product has been performed. This experiment illustrates that LOGENPRO, when used with knowledge of data types, accelerates the learning of programs. Other experiments have been done to illustrate the ability of LOGENPRO in inducing programs in difference programming languages including Prolog and C. These experiments prove that LOGENPRO is very flexible. \|Original language\|\|English\| \|Title of host publication\|\|Topics in Artificial Intelligence. AIIA 1995. Lecture Notes in Computer Science\| \|Editors\|\|Marco GORI, Giovanni SODA\| \|Publisher\|\|Springer\| \|Chapter\|\|35\| \|Pages\|\|353-364\| \|ISBN (Electronic)\|\|9783540474685\| \|ISBN (Print)\|\|978354060437\| \|DOIs\| \|Publication status\|\|Published - 1995\| \|Externally published\|\|Yes\| \|Event\|\|4th Congress of the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence AIIA '95 - Florence, Italy\| Duration: 11 Jan 1995 → 13 Jan 1995 Publication series \|Name\|\|Topics in Artificial Intelligence\| \|Volume\|\|992\| \|ISSN (Print)\|\|0302-9743\| \|ISSN (Electronic)\|\|1611-3349\| Conference \|Conference\|\|4th Congress of the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence AI*IA '95\| \|Country\|\|Italy\| \|City\|\|Florence\| \|Period\|\|11/01/95 → 13/01/95\| \|Other\|\|The Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence. Springer-Verlag.\| Fingerprint Dive into the research topics of 'Learning programs in different paradigms using Genetic Programming'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.	https://scholars.ln.edu.hk/en/publications/learning-programs-in-different-paradigms-using-genetic-programmin
12. ILPS 1995: Portland, Oregon John W. Lloyd (Ed.): Logic Programming, Proceedings of the 1995 International Symposium, December 4-7, 1995, Portland, Oregon. MIT Press 1995, ISBN 0-262-62099-5 Invited Talks Nachum Dershowitz : Goal Solving as Operational Semantics. 3-17 BibTeX Philip Wadler : How to Declare an Imperative. 18-32 BibTeX William J. McClay : Surviving the AI Winter. 33-47 BibTeX Joxan Jaffar , Michael J. Maher , Gustaf Neumann : Logic Programming and Object Modelling: A Case Study (Abstract). 48 BibTeX Language Design Yves Bekkers , Paul Tarau : Monadic Constructs for Logic Programming. 51-65 BibTeX Michael Winikoff , James Harland : Implementing the Linear Logic Programming Language Lygon. 66-80 BibTeX Databases Mengchi Liu : Relationlog: A Typed Extension to Datalog with Sets and Tuples (Extended Abstract). 83-97 BibTeX David Toman : Top-Down beats Bottom-Up for Constraint Based Extensions of Datalog. 98-112 BibTeX Objects Giorgio Delzanno , Maurizio Martelli : Objects in Forum. 115-129 BibTeX Hasan M. Jamil , Laks V. S. Lakshmanan : A Declarative Semantics for Behavioral Inheritance and Conflict Resolution. 130-144 BibTeX Functional Logic Programming Christian Prehofer : A Call-by-Need Strategy for Higher-Order Functional-Logic Programming. 147-161 BibTeX Didier Bert , Rachid Echahed : Abstraction of Conditional Term Rewriting Systems. 162-176 BibTeX Foundations I Alain Hui-Bon-Hoa : Clause-based proofs for hereditary Harrop formulas. 179-193 BibTeX Steven Dawson , C. R. Ramakrishnan , I. V. Ramakrishnan , Terrance Swift : Optimizing Clause Resolution: Beyond Unification Factoring. 194-208 BibTeX Gérard Ferrand , Arnaud Lallouet : A Compositional Proof Method of Partial Correctness for Normal Logic Programs. 209-223 BibTeX Implementation Björn Carlson , Mats Carlsson , Sverker Janson : The implementation of AKL(FD). 227-241 BibTeX Thomas Conway , Fergus Henderson , Zoltan Somogyi : Code Generation for Mercury. 242-256 BibTeX Peter A. Bigot , Saumya K. Debray : A Simple Approach to Supporting Untagged Objects in Dynamically Typed Languages. 257-271 BibTeX Foundations II Marco Comini , Giorgio Levi , Giuliana Vitiello : Declarative Diagnosis Revisited. 275-287 BibTeX Jonas Barklund , Pierangelo Dell'Acqua , Stefania Costantini , Gaetano Aurelio Lanzarone : Semantical Properties of Encodings in Logic Programming. 288-302 BibTeX Christoph Brzoska : Temporal Logic Programming in Dense Time. 303-317 BibTeX Analysis I Roberto Giacobazzi , Francesco Ranzato : Functional Dependencies and Moore-Set Completions of Abstract Interpretations and Semantics. 321-335 BibTeX Gerda Janssens , Maurice Bruynooghe , Veroniek Dumortier : A Blueprint for an Abstract Machine for Abstract Interpretation of (Constraint) Logic Programs. 336-350 BibTeX John P. Gallagher , Dmitri Boulanger , Hüseyin Saglam : Practical Model-Based Static Analysis for Definite Logic Programs. 351-365 BibTeX Nonmonotonic Reasoning Yannis Dimopoulos , Antonis C. Kakas : Logic Programming without Negation as Failure. 369-383 BibTeX Jia-Huai You , Suryanil Ghosh , Li-Yan Yuan , Randy Goebel : An Introspective Framework for Paraconsistent Logic Programs. 384-398 BibTeX Nicola Leone , Francesco Scarcello : Declarative and Fixpoint Characterizations of Disjunctive Stable Models. 399-413 BibTeX Analysis II Maria J. García de la Banda , Kim Marriott , Peter J. Stuckey : Efficient Analysis of Logic Programs with Dynamic Scheduling. 417-431 BibTeX Thomas Lindgren : Control Flow Analysis of Prolog. 432-446 BibTeX Elena Marchiori , Frank Teusink : Proving Termination of Logic Programs with Delay Declarations. 447-461 BibTeX Transformation Morten Heine Sørensen , Robert Glück : An Algorithm of Generalization in Positive Supercompilation. 465-479 BibTeX Kung-Kiu Lau , Mario Ornaghi , Alberto Pettorossi , Maurizio Proietti : Correctness of Logic Program Transformations Based on Existential Termination. 480-494 BibTeX Michael Leuschel , Bern Martens : Partial Deduction of the Ground Representation and its Application to Integrity Checking. 495-509 BibTeX Constraints Jean-Francois Puget , Michel Leconte : Beyond the Glass Box: Constraints as Objects. 513-527 BibTeX Frank S. de Boer , Maurizio Gabbrielli : Modelling Real-Time in Concurrent Constraint Programming. 528-542 BibTeX Kung-Kiu Lau , Mario Ornaghi : A Formal Approach to Deductive Synthesis of Constraint Logic Programs. 543-557 BibTeX Semantics Marco Comini , Giorgio Levi , Maria Chiara Meo : Compositionality in SLD-Derivations and their Abstractions. 561-575 BibTeX Bernard Malfon , Gérard Ferrand : Type Correct programs: A semantic approach. 576-590 BibTeX James H. Andrews : A Paralogical Semantics for the Prolog Cut. 591-605 BibTeX Tutorial Abstracts Chris Moss : Logic and Objects (Tutorial Abstract). 609-611 BibTeX Herbert Kuchen : Implementation Issues for Functional Logic Programming (Tutorial Abstract). 612-613 BibTeX Håkan Millroth : Tradeoffs Explicit and Omplicit Parallelism (Tutorial Abstract). 614 BibTeX Danny De Schreye , Michael Leuschel , Bern Martens : Tutorial on Program Specialisation (Abstract). 615-616 BibTeX Panel Abstracts John W. Lloyd : Integration of Functional and Logic Programming Languages (Panel Abstract). 619-620 BibTeX Hassan Aït-Kaci : Déjá Vu - Or Whatever Are We Doing Here?... (Panel Abstract). 621-624 BibTeX Michael Hanus : Functional Logic Languages: Combine Search and Efficient Evaluation (Panel Abstract). 625-626 BibTeX Uday S. Reddy : Bridging the gap between logic and functional programming (Panel Abstract). 627-628 BibTeX Mario Rodríguez-Artalejo : The Challenge of Declarative Programming (Panel Abstract). 629-630 BibTeX Poster Abstracts Herbert Kuchen , Josef Anastasiadis : Higher Order Babel. 633 BibTeX Vasco Pedro , Luís Monteiro : An Approach to Verification in Contextual Logic Programming. 634 BibTeX Alon Y. Levy , Marie-Christine Rousset : Combining Rules and Description Logics: An Overview of CARIN. 635 BibTeX James Harland , David J. Pym , Michael Winikoff : Programming in Lygon: A Brief Overview. 636 BibTeX Kannan Govindarajan , Bharat Jayaraman , Surya Mantha : Relaxation in Constraint Logic Languages. 637 BibTeX Barbara Messing , Peter v. Stackelberg : Regular Signed Resolution Applied to Annotated Logic Programs. 638 BibTeX Corin A. Gurr : Declarative Annotations for Logic Programs. 639 BibTeX Man-lai Tse , Wing-hang Wong , Ho-Fung Leung : P&P: A Combined Parlog and Prolog Concurrent Object-Oriented Logic Programming Language. 640 BibTeX Lubos Brim , David Gilbert , Jean-Marie Jacquet , Mojmír Kretínský : Synchronisation in Scc. 641 BibTeX Paul Tarau , Verónica Dahl , Andrew Fall : Backtrackable State with Linear Assumptions, Continuations and Hidden Accumulator Grammars. 642 BibTeX Home \| Conferences \| Journals \| Series \| FAQ Search:	http://www.sigmod.org/publications/dblp/db/conf/slp/slp95.html
Compiled by Kevin W Chen, Ph.D. There has been an old saying, when Buddha was asked, “What have you gained from long meditation?” Buddha replied, “Nothing!” “However, let me tell you what I lost: Anger, anxiety, depression, insecurity, fear of old age and death.” That is a very wise answer, good enough for motivating all of us to start meditation. However, recent scientific studies of changes in brain images and brain chemicals during or after meditation found that, Meditation can not only quiet your mind and lose all negativity, but also bring significant changes to your brain for better and longer life. I am preparing for such a study, so I decided to share what I found out in recent scientific literature. 1. Meditation Could Slow Down the Brain’s Aging Process A new study published in January 2015 Frontiers in Psychology from the UCLA Brain Mapping Center reported that, meditation may protect the brain from aging, or slow down the aging process. The study used fMRI technology to scan participants’ brain, and compared 50 long-term meditators (average years of meditation 20 years) with 50 match non-meditators. While both groups showed a decline in gray matter with older age, the longtime meditators experienced significantly smaller reductions in gray matter volume than those who did not meditate, suggesting the gray matter in the long-term meditators was better preserved. While overall life expectancy has been increasing, the human brain still begins deteriorating after age 20, and continues degrading further with age. Thus, techniques that diminish the negative impact of aging on the brain are desirable. Meditation, in addition to boosting emotional and physical well-being at any time in life, may be an effective way to prevent neuro-degenerative diseases like dementia, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, as well as help stave off some of the normal cognitive decline that comes with aging. The strategy is free, and it comes with no side effects. This new study builds on 2011 research from the same team, which showed that people who meditate exhibit less age-related atrophy in the brain’s white matter, material that makes up nearly half of the brain and is composed of nerve fibers that the brain uses to communicate. Earlier, the same lab also reported that long-term meditation is associated with larger hippocampal and frontal volumes of gray matter (Luders et al. 2009, 2012). Another study using similar MRI technology from the experienced neuroscientists at Harvard University revealed that meditation literally rebuilds the brain’s gray matter in 8 Weeks. The research team’s MRI scans documented for the very first time in medical history how meditation produced massive changes inside the brain’s gray matter. “Although the practice of meditation is associated with a sense of peacefulness and physical relaxation, practitioners have long claimed that meditation also provides cognitive and psychological benefits that persist throughout the day,” says study senior author Sara Lazar, who has direct many studies in this area, “This study demonstrates that changes in brain structure may underlie some of these reported improvements and that people are not just feeling better because they are spending time relaxing.” http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3927233/ 2. Meditation May Rewire Our Brain In her enlightening book, Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain, Sharon Begley explains that the paradigm in the scientific community for centuries is that the brain is essentially fixed, hardwired, unchangeable. This view was summed up by Santiago Ramón y Cajal, a Spanish neuroanatomist, when he said, “In the adult centers the nerve paths are something fixed, ended and immutable.” In other words, “the circuits of the living brain are unchanging, its structures and organizations almost as static and stationary as a deathly white cadaver floating in a vat of formaldehyde,” as Begley summarized. However, study after study is changing this view to fit the facts. As Begley reports, it’s not just that thinking positive thoughts helps us to feel better and have a better attitude. Positive, productive thinking can actually change the biological structure of our brains. Amazing! Begley continues: Brain changes can be generated by pure mental activity … Something as seemingly insubstantial as thought has the ability to act back on the very stuff of the brain, altering neuronal connections in a way that can lead to recovery from mental illness and perhaps to a greater capacity for empathy and compassion. UCLA neuropsychiatrist Jeffrey Schwartz experimented with mindfulness meditation on his obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) patients. He hypothesized that mindfulness could make them aware that their obsessions were caused by malfunctions in their brain, not true signals of distress. Schwartz trained his patients to recognize obsessive thoughts, and then think, “My brain is generating another obsessive thought. Don’t I know it is not real but just some garbage thrown up by a faulty circuit?” The vast majority of his patients began reporting positive results within just one week. The research team performed PET scans before and after ten weeks of mindfulness-based therapy. For most of them, the final PET scans showed physical changes in their brains. ” Therapy had altered the metabolism of the OCD circuit,” Schwartz reported. “This was the first study to show that cognitive-behavior therapy has the power to systematically change faulty brain chemistry in a well-identified brain circuit.” His ultimate conclusion was that “Mental action can alter the brain chemistry of an OCD patient. The mind can change the brain.” Another recent study by Drs. Tang and Posner with diffusion tensor imaging technology, reported that meditation training can induce changes both in specific brain networks and in brain state. In both cases the efficiency of white matter as measured by diffusion tensor imaging is increased, often after only a few hours of meditation training. This dynamic pattern of white matter change involving the anterior cingulate cortex, a part of the brain network related to self-regulation, could provide a means for intervention to improve or prevent mental disorders. They hypothesized that frontal theta induced by meditation produces a molecular cascade that increases myelin and improves connectivity. An earlier study by Dr. Tang’s group has reported that short-term meditation training could produce significant change in brain’s attention networks that are related to alertness and conflict resolution (Tang et al. 2007). Another group in UCLA (Kilpatrick et al. 2011) reported the impact of mindfulness meditation on intrinsic brain connectivity. They applied fcMRI technology to determine if mindfulness meditation is effective in altering intrinsic connectivity networks after 8 weeks of training. Significant meditation-related differences in functional connectivity were found mainly in auditory/salience and medial visual networks. Compared to control group, meditation subjects showed (1) increased functional connectivity within auditory and visual networks, (2) increased functional connectivity between auditory cortex and areas associated with attentional and self-referential processes, (3) greater anticorrelation between auditory and visual cortex, and (4) greater anticorrelation between visual cortex and areas associated with attentional and self-referential processes. These findings suggest that 8 weeks of mindfulness meditation training alters intrinsic functional connectivity in ways that may reflect a more consistent attentional focus, enhanced sensory processing, and reflective awareness of sensory experience. - Meditation May Lead to Structure Changes in Key Areas of Brain The same group of neuroscientists from Harvard University interested in mindfulness meditation has reported that brain structures change after only eight weeks of meditation practice. The neuroscientists enrolled 16 people in an eight-week mindfulness-based stress reduction course. Everyone received audio recordings containing 45-minute guided mindfulness exercises, plus some mindfulness homework. On average, the meditation group spent an average of 27 minutes a day practicing some form of mindfulness. MRI scans of everyone’s brains were taken before and after they completed the meditation training (a control group didn’t do any meditation but also had their brains scanned). After completing the mindfulness course, the MRI scans showed that mindfulness groups increased gray matter concentration within the left hippocampus, the posterior cingulate cortex, the temporo-parietal junction, and the cerebellum. Brain regions involved in learning and memory, emotion regulation, sense of self, and perspective taking! Another group of neuroscientists from Seoul National University in Korea also applied MRI technology to examine the brain structure differences between a well-matched sample of long-term meditators and non-meditation controls. With whole-brain cortical thickness analysis based on MRI imaging, and diffusion tensor imaging to quantify white matter integrity in the brains, compared with 46 matched non-meditation volunteers, they found that the 46 long-term meditators showed significantly greater cortical thickness in the anterior regions of the brain, located in frontal and temporal areas, including the medial prefrontal cortex, superior frontal cortex, temporal pole and the middle and interior temporal cortices. Significantly thinner cortical thickness was found in the posterior regions of the brain, located in the parietal and occipital areas, including the postcentral cortex, inferior parietal cortex, middle occipital cortex and posterior cingulate cortex. Moreover, in the region adjacent to the medial prefrontal cortex, both higher fractional anisotropy values and greater cortical thickness were observed. These findings confirm that long-term meditators have structural differences in both gray and white matter. (Kang et al. 2013). http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3541490/ A similar study by that compared long-term meditators with matched control participants. The main findings were that meditators had larger gray matter volumes than non-meditators in brain areas that are associated with emotional regulation and response control (the right orbito-frontal cortex and the right hippocampus). (Luders et al. 2009) Leung and her colleagues from University of Hong Kong also reported increased gray matter volume in the right angular and posterior parahippocampal gyri among 10 long-term meditators, in comparison with novices (Leung et al. 2013). Vestergaard-Poulsen and his colleague (2009) from Aarhus University of Denmark also reported that long-term meditation is associated with increased gray matter density in the brain stem. Using MRI imaging, they observed higher gray matter density in lower brain stem regions of experienced meditators compared with age-matched non-meditators. Their findings show that long-term meditators have structural differences in brainstem regions concerned with cardiorespiratory control. This could account for some of the cardiorespiratory parasympathetic effects and traits, as well as the cognitive, emotional, and immunoreactive impact reported in several studies of different meditation practices. Pickut et al (2013) from University of Antiwerp (Belgium) reported that mindfulness meditation lead to structural brain changes on MRI among patients with Parkinson’s disease. In a controlled longitudinal trial they randomized 27 patients into either mindfulness intervention (n=14) or usual care (UC) control (n=13). MRI data sets of the brain were obtained at baseline and after eight weeks follow-up. Increased gray matter density (GMD) was found in the mindfulness group compared to the UC in the region of interest (ROI) analysis in the right amygdala, and bilaterally in the hippocampus. Whole brain analysis showed increased GMD in the left and right caudate nucleus, the left occipital lobe at the lingual gyrus and cuneus, the left thalamus, and bilaterally in the temporo-parietal junction. These areas have also been implicated in the functional networks mediating the benefits of meditation. After reviewing all these scientific evidences, I now believe that meditation is not just quiet the mind and stimulate relaxation response, but also generate significant changes in the brain, and produce prolonged effects on our brain and physical health. References: Hölzel BK, Carmody J, Vangel M, Congleton C, Yerramsetti SM, Gard T, Lazar SW. Mindfulness practice leads to increases in regional brain gray matter density. Psychiatry Res. 2011 Jan 30;191(1):36-43. Kang DH, Jo HJ, Jung WH, et al. The effect of meditation on brain structure: cortical thickness mapping and diffusion tensor imaging. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2013 Jan;8(1):27-33. Kilpatrick LA, Suyenobu BY, Smith SR, et al. Impact of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction training on intrinsic brain connectivity. Neuroimage. 2011 May 1;56(1):290-8. Leung MK, Chan CC, Yin J, Lee CF, So KF, Lee TM. Increased gray matter volume in the right angular and posterior parahippocampal gyri in loving-kindness meditators. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2013 Jan;8(1):34-9. Luders E, Toga AW, Lepore N, & Gaser C. (2009). The underlying anatomical correlates of long-term meditation: larger hippocampal and frontal volumes of gray matter. Neuroimage, 45(3), 672-678. Luders E, Phillips OR, Clark K, Kurth F, Toga AW, Narr KL. Bridging the hemispheres in meditation: thicker callosal regions and enhanced fractional anisotropy (FA) in long-term practitioners. Neuroimage. 2012 May 15;61(1):181-7. Luders E, Cherbuin N, Kurth F, (2015). Forever Young(er): potential age-defying effects of long-term meditation on gray matter atrophy. Frontiers in Psychology. Jan 21, 2015. Pickut BA, Van Hecke W, Kerckhofs E, et al. Mindfulness based intervention in Parkinson’s disease leads to structural brain changes on MRI: a randomized controlled longitudinal trial. Clin Neurol Neurosurg. 2013 Dec;115(12):2419-25. Singleton O, Hölzel BK, Vangel M, Brach N, Carmody J, Lazar SW. Change in Brainstem Gray Matter Concentration Following a Mindfulness-Based Intervention is Correlated with Improvement in Psychological Well-Being. Front Hum Neurosci. 2014 Feb 18;8:33. Tang YY, Lu Q, Fan M, Yang Y, Posner MI. Mechanisms of white matter changes induced by meditation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 Jun 26;109(26):10570-4. Tang YY, Ma Y, Wang J, Fan Y, Feng S, Lu Q, Yu Q, Sui D, Rothbart MK, Fan M, Posner MI. Short-term meditation training improves attention and self-regulation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2007 Oct 23;104(43):17152-6. Vestergaard-Poulsen P, van Beek M, Skewes J, et al. Long-term meditation is associated with increased gray matter density in the brain stem. Neuroreport. 2009 Jan 28;20(2):170-4. Kevin W Chen, Ph.D. – is an associate professor at the Center for Integrative Medicine and Department of Psychiatry, University ofMaryland School of Medicine (USA). Dr. Chen was educated in the universities of both China and the United States, and has years of experience and training in blending eastern and western perspectives, and in the practice of life-nurturing methods. As a long-time practitioner of Qigong Yang Sheng, he is one of the few scientists in the U.S. to have both hands-on knowledge of mind-body practice, and an active research career in mind-body medicine, which is funded through grants by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and various foundations. Dr. Chen devotes his career and life to the practice of Yang Sheng, and promotion of self-healing and mind-body-spirit integration through the non-profit organization, World Institute for Self Healing (WISH).	http://yang-sheng.com/?p=10991
15 Sep How Meditation Reshapes your Brain The Mind & Life Institute, founded by the dalai Lama, entrepreneur Adam engle, and the late neuroscien- tist and philosopher francisco Varela, is a pioneering nonprofit organiza- tion that brings together scientists and contemplatives for the purpose of understanding the nature of reali- ty, and ultimately creating a healthier, more balanced society. In addition to its landmark conferences, Mind & Life has research initiatives. notable among them is the Mind and Life summer Research Institute (MLsRI), an annual weeklong program held at the garrison Institute in garrison, new York. At once a retreat and a scientific conference, MLsRI encourages collaboration among behavioral scientists, neuroscientists, biomedical researchers, and practitioners and scholars of the contemplative traditions, and features presentations by some of the most progressive thinkers in those fields. since 2004, more than 1,000 faculty and participants have attended through competitive application. MLSRI’s long-term objective is to advance the training of a new generation of scientists and contemplative scholar–practitioners. Research fellows participating in the summer conference have the opportunity to present studies they’ve conducted, and, after- ward, may apply for the Mind & Life francisco J. Varela Research Awards. so far, Mind & Life has distributed $1,175,000 dollars in funding to support emerging scientists. The research areas of re- cipients have included mindful awareness practices for preschool children to improve attention and emotion regulation; the ef- fects of mind–body interventions in supportive care for people with cancer; and mindfulness training as both a way of treating drug addicts and investigating the mechanisms involved in addiction. One of these regions allows us to shift perspective, an ability that supports a variety of skills and behaviors, including empathy (when we take the perspective of another) and the management of emotional upheavals (when we step out of our reactivity). This is completely in keeping with what actually happens during mindful- ness practice. The shift of perspective from automatic-pilot reactiv- ity to a more aware and observant witness is a central component of meditation training. Over and over, you practice shifting from a dreamy nonawareness into the vividness of the present moment. Lazar and hölzel have also recently reported that the region of the brain most associated with emotional reactivity and fear—the amygdala—has decreased gray matter density in meditators who experience less stress. The most surprising find- ing was that both of these types of structural brain changes were increased attention. Amishi Jha is a pioneer in this area of investigation. she has applied sophisticated computer-based testing to measure atten- tional performance in meditators. Jha performed this type of test- ing on a group of medical and nursing students at the university of pennsylvania in philadelphia before and after an eight-week mindfulness-based training course. The class was designed to teach students to use meditation to manage stress, enhance com- munication, and cultivate empathy. (I also worked on this research and designed and taught the meditation course.) After only eight weeks of training, testing revealed that the stu- dents who were taught to meditate could intentionally direct and focus their attention more quickly than a matched group of un- trained students. Another study used similar tests to investigate the effects of a monthlong intensive group meditation retreat at shambhala Mountain Center in Colorado. These participants had considerably more practice experience than the students, and practiced for eight to ten hours each day during the retreat. Interestingly, the more experienced retreat participants did not demonstrate the increase in capacity to direct and fo- cus attention that was seen in the novice meditators; they were pretty good at that when the retreat started. Instead, the retreat participants had a change in the nature of their atten- tion. Their awareness became much more open and alert. This finding seems to describe the transition from focused mind- fulness to broader and deeper insight and awareness described in traditional meditation teachings. As expected, the retreat participants also had substantially less mental wandering, and more insight into wandering and distraction when it occurred. Other testing from Jha’s lab has demonstrated that meditation improves working (or short-term) memory as well as the ability to resist distraction. This has very significant implications for im- proving our ability to accomplish our goals in everyday life. she has found that even very short periods of regular practice, as little as twelve minutes a day, are associated with significant improve- ments in working memory. More practice is associated with better results, including both improved accuracy and reduced wandering. A Different Experience of Self Another recent stream of research on meditation has explored the way that practice affects the experience of the self. One recent set of reports from the university of Toronto explores the way medi- tation affects the way we construct a self out of our experience and the relationship between the narration we use to create a self and our direct moment-to-moment experience. Two distinct neural networks in different parts of the brain contribute to our experi- ence of a “self.” Activity in one region is associated with a descrip- tive narrative: thoughts about what is happening and how we are. The other region is associated with a more direct experience of sensation and emotion in the present moment. The two areas are linked so that activity in the “present- moment” awareness region activates the storytelling region. so a shift away from more direct sensory awareness into thinking is not just random; it is literally built into the nervous system. This might explain why the experience of nonconceptual mindfulness and awareness is often so fleeting. A moment of nonthought jump- The Toronto group demonstrated that meditation practice enhances the ability to disconnect these two regions and engage more robustly in experiential focus. As a result, the likelihood that an experience of present-moment awareness will auto- matically be followed by a self-centered monologue is reduced. even the habitual patterns that are deeply built into the body can be changed with practice. norman farb, the lead investigator of the study, says that the work demonstrates how “mindful- ness changes the very ground of the way that we experience the self.” ♦ Researcher and neuroscientist at Harvard, Sara Lazar, have found that your brain structure changes noticeably after less than 8 weeks of meditation. They saw no changes in the control group. Meditation has been found to increase the brain size – larger volumes of grey matter specifically – in the right orbito-frontal cortex, left temporal gyrus and significantly larger volumes in the right hippocampus. These areas are especially important in tasks associated with attention, emotional regulation and mental flexibility. Meditation has also been found to decrease the size of the amygdala. The amygdala is associated with fear and stress responses. In a research paper by Eileen Luders, et al, it was said that : The_Energy_Flow_of_Meditation_by_giorjoe“ Both orbito-frontal and hippocampal regions have been implicated in emotional regulation and response control. Thus, larger volumes in these regions might account for meditators’ singular abilities and habits to cultivate positive emotions, retain emotional stability, and engage in mindful behavior.” The hippocampus is essential in forming long-term memories, by consolidating short-term memories. If you’re not happy with your memory, there is a simple remedy. Sit down and let go of thoughts. References:	https://psychosocialsomatic.com/how-meditation-reshapes-your-brain/
Theories typically emphasize affordances or intentions as the primary determinant of an object's perceived function. The HIPE theory assumes that people integrate both into causal models that produce functional attributions. In these models, an object's physical structure and an agent's action specify an affordance jointly, constituting the immediate causes of a perceived function. The object's design history and an agent's goal in using it constitute distant causes. When specified fully, the immediate causes are sufficient for determining the perceived function--distant causes have no effect (the causal proximity principle). When the immediate causes are ambiguous or unknown, distant causes produce inferences about the immediate causes, thereby affecting functional attributions indirectly (the causal updating principle). Seven experiments supported HIPE's predictions. Zotero Collections: Zotero Collections: <p>Professor George has ventured into a comparatively unchartered area seeking, as he does, to explore the art and concept of performance in Buddhism -- more specially in the context of Buddhist meditation and theatre. Spelling out the epistemology of performance in all its different connotations and definitional nuances, his study opens out an astonishingly vast panorama of the Buddhist theatrical practices in Sri Lanka, China, Japan, Nepal, Tibet . . . and goes on to demonstrate how, within this panorama, three kinds of theatrical practice can be identified, each corresponding to one of the three paths open to a Buddhist: the karma path, the Bodhisattva option, and enlightenment, and each representative of one of the three main cultures of Buddhism -- the Hinayana, Mahayana, Vajrayana. Supported by extensive endnotes and bibliographic references, Dr. George's book also carries a range of case studies of the art of performance in Buddhism, with definitive examples, among others, of the Sri Lankan Kandy dance and Karma drama, Tibetan Chams and Chod, and Japanese Noh.</p> Zotero Collections: We propose that cognition is more than a collection of independent processes operating in a modular cognitive system. Instead, we propose that cognition emerges from dependencies between all of the basic systems in the brain, including goal management, perception, action, memory, reward, affect, and learning. Furthermore, human cognition reflects its social evolution and context, as well as contributions from a developmental process. After presenting these themes, we illustrate their application to the process of anticipation. Specifically, we propose that anticipations occur extensively across domains (i.e., goal management, perception, action, reward, affect, and learning) in coordinated manners. We also propose that anticipation is central to situated action and to social interaction, and that many of its key features reflect the process of development. The ability to accurately infer others’ mental states from facial expressions is important for optimal social functioning and is fundamentally impaired in social cognitive disorders such as autism. While pharmacologic interventions have shown promise for enhancing empathic accuracy, little is known about the effects of behavioral interventions on empathic accuracy and related brain activity. This study employed a randomized, controlled and longitudinal design to investigate the effect of a secularized analytical compassion meditation program, cognitive-based compassion training (CBCT), on empathic accuracy. Twenty-one healthy participants received functional MRI scans while completing an empathic accuracy task, the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET), both prior to and after completion of either CBCT or a health discussion control group. Upon completion of the study interventions, participants randomized to CBCT and were significantly more likely than control subjects to have increased scores on the RMET and increased neural activity in the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC). Moreover, changes in dmPFC and IFG activity from baseline to the post-intervention assessment were associated with changes in empathic accuracy. These findings suggest that CBCT may hold promise as a behavioral intervention for enhancing empathic accuracy and the neurobiology supporting it. Zotero Collections: Many spiritual traditions employ certain mental techniques (meditation) which consist in inhibiting mental activity whilst nonetheless remaining fully conscious, which is supposed to lead to a realisation of one’s own true nature prior to habitual self-substantialisation. In this paper I propose that this practice can be understood as a special means of becoming aware of consciousness itself as such. To explain this claim I conduct some phenomenologically oriented considerations about the nature of consciousness qua presence and the problem of self-presence of this presence. Zotero Collections: Concepts develop for many aspects of experience, including abstract internal states and abstract social activities that do not refer to concrete entities in the world. The current study assessed the hypothesis that, like concrete concepts, distributed neural patterns of relevant nonlinguistic semantic content represent the meanings of abstract concepts. In a novel neuroimaging paradigm, participants processed two abstract concepts (convince, arithmetic) and two concrete concepts (rolling, red) deeply and repeatedly during a concept-scene matching task that grounded each concept in typical contexts. Using a catch trial design, neural activity associated with each concept word was separated from neural activity associated with subsequent visual scenes to assess activations underlying the detailed semantics of each concept. We predicted that brain regions underlying mentalizing and social cognition (e.g., medial prefrontal cortex, superior temporal sulcus) would become active to represent semantic content central to convince, whereas brain regions underlying numerical cognition (e.g., bilateral intraparietal sulcus) would become active to represent semantic content central to arithmetic. The results supported these predictions, suggesting that the meanings of abstract concepts arise from distributed neural systems that represent concept-specific content. <p>How do we, as humans, take in the feelings and thoughts of other people? Theory-of-Mind (ToM) and Embodied Simulation (ES) approaches hypothesize divergent neural and behavioral mechanisms underlying intersubjectivity. ToM investigators assert that humans take in the belief states and intentions of another person by holding "a theory of mind" that cognitively posits the other person's mental contents, with some experiments identifying the right temporo-parietal junction as a specific ToM brain region. ES theorists hypothesize that humans perceive the other's state of mind by simulating his/her actions, emotions, and goals in the "mirror neuron system" in the brain. A historical review suggests these understandings rely on opposing, dualist models of cognition and perception. William James's intervention on this earlier debate is informative in anticipating recent findings in low-level sensory neuroscience. Of specific interest are studies showing that intersubjectivity and low-level sensory attentional filtering are both processed in the same cortical area (the temporo-parietal junction) suggesting that the ability to entertain other minds may be related to the ability to perceive salient stimuli during attention-demanding tasks.</p> Experienced Qigong meditators who regularly perform the exercises “Thinking of Nothing” and “Qigong” were studied with multichannel EEG source imaging during their meditations. The intracerebral localization of brain electric activity during the two meditation conditions was compared using sLORETA functional EEG tomography. Differences between conditions were assessed using t statistics (corrected for multiple testing) on the normalized and log-transformed current density values of the sLORETA images. In the EEG alpha-2 frequency, 125 voxels differed significantly; all were more active during “Qigong” than “Thinking of Nothing,” forming a single cluster in parietal Brodmann areas 5, 7, 31, and 40, all in the right hemisphere. In the EEG beta-1 frequency, 37 voxels differed significantly; all were more active during “Thinking of Nothing” than “Qigong,” forming a single cluster in prefrontal Brodmann areas 6, 8, and 9, all in the left hemisphere. Compared to combined initial–final no-task resting, “Qigong” showed activation in posterior areas whereas “Thinking of Nothing” showed activation in anterior areas. The stronger activity of posterior (right) parietal areas during “Qigong” and anterior (left) prefrontal areas during “Thinking of Nothing” may reflect a predominance of self-reference, attention and input-centered processing in the “Qigong” meditation, and of control-centered processing in the “Thinking of Nothing” meditation. Zotero Collections: Zotero Collections: This article presents a framework for emotional intelligence, a set of skills hypothesized to contribute to the accurate appraisal and expression of emotion in oneself and in others, the effective regulation of emotion in self and others, and the use of feelings to motivate, plan, and achieve in one's life. We start by reviewing the debate about the adaptive versus maladaptive qualities of emotion. We then explore the literature on intelligence, and especially social intelligence, to examine the place of emotion in traditional intelligence conceptions. A framework for integrating the research on emotion-related skills is then described. Next, we review the components of emotional intelligence. To conclude the review, the role of emotional intelligence in mental health is discussed and avenues for further investigation are suggested. Zotero Collections: Zotero Collections: People believe they see emotion written on the faces of other people. In an instant, simple facial actions are transformed into information about another's emotional state. The present research examined whether a perceiver unknowingly contributes to emotion perception with emotion word knowledge. We present 2 studies that together support a role for emotion concepts in the formation of visual percepts of emotion. As predicted, we found that perceptual priming of emotional faces (e.g., a scowling face) was disrupted when the accessibility of a relevant emotion word (e.g., anger) was temporarily reduced, demonstrating that the exact same face was encoded differently when a word was accessible versus when it was not. The implications of these findings for a linguistically relative view of emotion perception are discussed. Difficulties in social cognition are well recognized in individuals with autism spectrum conditions (henceforth ‘autism’). Here we focus on one crucial aspect of social cognition: the ability to empathize with the feelings of another. In contrast to theory of mind, a capacity that has often been observed to be impaired in individuals with autism, much less is known about the capacity of individuals with autism for affect sharing. Based on previous data suggesting that empathy deficits in autism are a function of interoceptive deficits related to alexithymia, we aimed to investigate empathic brain responses in autistic and control participants with high and low degrees of alexithymia. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we measured empathic brain responses with an ‘empathy for pain’ paradigm assessing empathic brain responses in a real-life social setting that does not rely on attention to, or recognition of, facial affect cues. Confirming previous findings, empathic brain responses to the suffering of others were associated with increased activation in left anterior insula and the strength of this signal was predictive of the degree of alexithymia in both autistic and control groups but did not vary as a function of group. Importantly, there was no difference in the degree of empathy between autistic and control groups after accounting for alexithymia. These findings suggest that empathy deficits observed in autism may be due to the large comorbidity between alexithymic traits and autism, rather than representing a necessary feature of the social impairments in autism. This commentary reflects on the articles in this Special Issue. The appearance of this group of articles underscores the important idea that a major target of mindfulness practice is on emotion. Transformation in trait affect is a key goal of all contemplative traditions. This commentary addresses several key methodological and conceptual issues in the empirical study of mindfulness. The many ways in which the term "mindfulness" is used in the articles in this Special Issue are noted, and they include its reference to states, traits, and independent variables that are manipulated in an experimental context. How the term "mindfulness" is conceptualized and operationalized is crucial, and for progress to be made it is essential that we qualify the use of this term by reference to how it is being operationalized in each context. Other methodological issues are considered, such as the duration of training and how it should be measured, and the nature of control and comparison groups in studies of mindfulness-based interventions. Finally, the commentary ends with a consideration of the targets within emotion processing that are likely to be impacted by mindfulness. This collection of articles underscores the substantial progress that has occurred in the empirical study of mindfulness and it is a harbinger of a very promising future in this area. Zotero Collections: Background Transcendental Meditation (TM), a sitting meditation technique designed to quiet the mind and induce physical and mental relaxation, has been widely studied in adults. Objective Our objective was to explore systematically the first-person experience of young adolescents who practice TM. Design A descriptive, qualitative study using semistructured interviews. Setting Middle school setting. Participants Participants included 10 seventh grade students who have practiced TM for a one-year period of time. Results Themes described by students resulting from meditation included the following: (1) an increasing state of restful alertness; (2) improvement in skills indicative of emotional intelligence (self-control, self-reflection/awareness, and flexibility in emotional response); and (3) improvement in academic performance. The state of restful alertness induced by meditation appeared central to facilitating growth in social-emotional capacities, academic performance, and flexibility in emotional response. The inner state of restful alertness provided students with greater capacity to expand their ways of looking inwardly at themselves and their relationships with others (emotional intelligence) as well as focusing their attention on controlling their behavior and keeping on task in school. Conclusions Students described beneficial effects of TM: an increased state of restful alertness and greater capacity for self-reflection, self-control, and flexibility as well as improved academic performance. The state of restful alertness induced by meditation may facilitate the growth of social-emotional capacities necessary for regulating the emotional labiality and interpersonal stress of adolescence. Future empirical validation is needed to analyze systematically the impact of this practice on students’ social-emotional and cognitive development and to determine whether its practice can serve as a protective function for helping students successfully meet the challenges of adolescence. Zotero Collections: Many recent behavioral and neuroscientific studies have revealed the importance of investigating meditation states and traits to achieve an increased understanding of cognitive and affective neuroplasticity, attention and self-awareness, as well as for their increasingly recognized clinical relevance. The investigation of states and traits related to meditation has especially pronounced implications for the neuroscience of attention, consciousness, self-awareness, empathy and theory of mind. In this article we present the main features of meditation-based mental training and characterize the current scientific approach to meditation states and traits with special reference to attention and consciousness, in light of the articles contributed to this issue. Zotero Collections: Zotero Collections: BACKGROUND: The broad autism phenotype includes subclinical autistic characteristics found to have a higher prevalence in unaffected family members of individuals with autism. These characteristics primarily affect the social aspects of language, communication, and human interaction. The current research focuses on possible neurobehavioral characteristics associated with the broad autism phenotype. METHODS: We used a face-processing task associated with atypical patterns of gaze fixation and brain function in autism while collecting brain functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and eye tracking in unaffected siblings of individuals with autism. RESULTS: We found robust differences in gaze fixation and brain function in response to images of human faces in unaffected siblings compared with typically developing control individuals. The siblings' gaze fixations and brain activation patterns during the face processing task were similar to that of the autism group and showed decreased gaze fixation along with diminished fusiform activation compared with the control group. Furthermore, amygdala volume in the siblings was similar to the autism group and was significantly reduced compared with the control group. CONCLUSIONS: Together, these findings provide compelling evidence for differences in social/emotional processing and underlying neural circuitry in siblings of individuals with autism, supporting the notion of unique endophenotypes associated with the broad autism phenotype. According to the Conceptual Act Theory of Emotion, the situated conceptualization used to construe a situation determines the emotion experienced. A neuroimaging experiment tested two core hypotheses of this theory: (1) different situated conceptualizations produce different forms of the same emotion in different situations, (2) the composition of a situated conceptualization emerges from shared multimodal circuitry distributed across the brain that produces emotional states generally. To test these hypotheses, the situation in which participants experienced an emotion was manipulated. On each trial, participants immersed themselves in a physical danger or social evaluation situation and then experienced fear or anger. According to Hypothesis 1, the brain activations for the same emotion should differ as a function of the preceding situation (after removing activations that arose while constructing the situation). According to Hypothesis 2, the critical activations should reflect conceptual processing relevant to the emotion in the current situation, drawn from shared multimodal circuitry underlying emotion. The results supported these predictions and demonstrated the compositional process that produces situated conceptualizations dynamically. Zotero Collections:	https://sources.mandala.library.virginia.edu/sources-search?field_zotero_collections=All&sort_by=sort_stripped_node_title&sort_order=ASC&condition_option=all&advanced_search_publication_year=range&search_text_zotero_tags=Multiple%20Intelligences%20Theory&view_mode=collection
A study from UCLA found that long-term meditators had better-preserved brains than non-meditators as they aged. Participants who had been meditating for an average of 20 years had more grey matter volume throughout the brain. Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01551/full Meditation Reduces Activity in the Brains "Me Center" An interesting study conducted at Yale University found that mindfulness meditation decreases activity in the default mode network (DMN), the brain network responsible for mind-wandering and self-referential thoughts. https://www.pnas.org/content/108/50/20254.short Its Effects Rival Antidepressants for Depression, Anxiety A study at Johns Hopkins looked at the relationship between mindfulness meditation and its ability to reduce symptoms of depression, anxiety, and pain. Researcher Madhav Goyal and his team found that the effect size of meditation was moderate, at 0.3. The effect size for antidepressants is also 0.3. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/1809754 Meditation May Lead to Volume Changes in Key Areas of the Brain Harvard found that mindfulness meditation can change the structure of the brain: Eight weeks of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) was found to increase cortical thickness in the hippocampus, which governs learning and memory and in certain areas of the brain that play roles in emotion regulation and self-referential processing. There were also decreases in brain cell volume in the amygdala, which is responsible for fear, anxiety, and stress. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3004979/ Just a Few Days of Meditation Training Improves Concentration and Attention One recent study found that just a couple of weeks of meditation training helped people focus and remember during the verbal reasoning section of the GRE. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797612459659 Meditation Reduces Anxiety and Social Anxiety Studies have shown its benefits in reducing anxiety, even years after the initial 8-week course. Research has shown that mindfulness meditation can reduce anxiety in contrast to attending to the breath only. https://academic.oup.com/scan/article/9/6/751/1664700 Meditation Can Help with Addiction A growing number of studies have shown that, given its effects on the brain's self-control regions, meditation can be very effective in helping people recover from various types of addiction. https://academic.oup.com/scan/article/9/6/751/1664700 Kayla Barnes is an Entrepreneur, Certified Brain Health Coach by the Amen Clinics, and founder of @superbrain.co, the world's first boutique brain health coaching company. Barnes has been working with clients in the health and wellness industry for over ten years and has trained under one of the nation's leading psychiatrists and brain health experts, Dr. Daniel Amen.	https://www.sportyandrich.com/blogs/wellness/7-ways-meditation-changes-the-brain
Attention works much like a muscle. Work it well and it grows. Use it poorly and it can wither. Attention directed in a special manner changes brain structure and as a result of this – our thinking, emotional responses and behavior. It happens due to neuroplasticity – an ability of our brain to change it’s structure in response to experience. Mindfulness is the practice of intentional, nonjudgmental awareness of moment-to-moment experience. According to neuroscientist Richard Davidson, one of the pioneering researchers of mindfulness and meditation, “mindfulness can help us to cleanse the interior lenses of perception so that we can see our own minds with greater clarity. It also can be used to cultivate attention and emotion regulation”. “Mindfulness” is an umbrella term used to describe a wide range of techniques and practices that develop familiarity with and understanding of the mind and its activity. Most of these techniques have their origins in Asian meditation traditions but have been adapted to a secular context and are used successfully in stress-reduction programs, in education and in the corporate world. Some mindfulness practices involve focusing one’s attention on breathing and returning it there each time a person notices that his/her mind has wandered. Other practices help us to become more aware of our physical bodies, emotions and thoughts and as a result to gain more freedom in making conscious decisions, rather than being driven by emotional triggers or mental stereotypes. Third, practices train us to be very relaxed yet very vigilant in different life situations — during hard negotiations, while working on an important project, when driving or walking in a park. It helps us not to waste inner resources for unconscious defenses and tensions — physical and emotional — and to develop an ability to react faster and more flexibly. Fourth, practices help us to develop empathy and intuition, to trust our inner voice and to be able to hear it even in crises. Our life consists of many present moments, and the way we live these moments — if we are full of energy and relaxed, happy and trust in ourselves and our future, if we are alive right here and now — ultimately determines our life experience as a whole. Why do leaders need mindfulness? Attention is the most precious resource a modern person possesses. As the Nobel laureate economist Herbert Simon noted in 1977, “what information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently”. Today the wealth of information in our everyday lives is so huge that we are facing another challenge — how to develop attention control and to defy numerous distractions. We also live our lives in autopilot mode, and this is another problem. We are rarely connected to what is happening here and now and this mindlessness of the current moment costs us and our business a lot. We would like to be creative and to think out of the box, to find paradoxical decisions and embrace novelty, but our default brain wiring doesn’t further this. The human brain is the most energy-consuming organ and the autopilot mode of living is a natural energy-saving mechanism developed in the evolutionary process. Mindfulness helps us to change this default autopilot mode to the direct experience mode and to be more agile, vigilant and sensitive to the life we are living right now. Daniel Goleman distinguishes three types of focus essential to every leader: inner (on ourselves), outer (on other people) and other (on larger systems). Goleman writes: “A leader tuned out of his internal world will be rudderless; one blind to the world of others will be clueless; those indifferent to the larger systems within which they operate will be blindsided”. This third focus – on larger systems – is not innate and must be developed intentionally. Mindfulness can become one of the main instruments to develop such a focus. Mindfulness is easy, engaging, and has enormous benefits. The simple process of mindfully noticing feels good, and is clearly good for us both personally and professionally. Mindfulness is a super-skill that brings out the best in people. Daily mindfulness will make you a healthier, more productive person. I enjoy meditation, which I've been doing for over a decade. Meditation is a major part of my life. I enjoy meditation, which I’ve been doing for over a decade. Meditation is a major part of my life. Mindfulness is an idea whose time has come. For a long time practitioners knew, but the science wasn’t there. Now the science has caught up. From a neurobiological point of view, we are our attention. How we deploy our attention determines the way we feel, make decisions, communicate with others, and interact with the larger systems around us. For centuries, wisdom traditions have developed different skillful techniques to master attention and to cultivate well-being. Today, modern science is confirming many of the benefits mindfulness promises to bring into our life. The basic mechanism underlying these changes is neuroplasticity — the ability of our brain to change in response to experience. There are many different mechanisms of neuroplasticity, ranging from the growth of new connections between neurons to the creation of new neurons. When we intentionally shape our internal focus of attention in mindfulness practice we induce a new state of brain activation, which with repetition can become an enduring trait of the individual as reflected in long-term changes in brain function and structure. MRI scans of the brain show that the grey matter of the hippocampus, the area associated with learning, memory and self-awareness, increases in participants of mindfulness practice. Conversely, the grey matter of the amygdala — which is a part of a limbic system and associated with fight-or-flight response — has been shown to decrease. Modern scientific findings invite the view that many qualities that previously were regarded as relatively fixed — our level of happiness and well-being, the way our nervous system works, our cognitive potential — should be regarded as the product of skills that can be enhanced through special mental training. Our attention is similar to a muscle — when we don’t use it, it withers; when we work it, it grows. Through mindfulness practice we also gain an ability to change our responses to stress and everyday challenges. Recent scientific studies prove that it is not stress that kills us, but rather our reaction to it. Changing these reactions by becoming aware of them at the level of our bodies, emotions and thoughts, we approach stress with a completely different bias. Another study was done by Norman Farb at the University of Toronto. Along with six other scientists, he discovered that there are two neural circuits in our brains which are inversely correlated: the narrative network and the direct experience network. The narrative one is the default one — it is active for most of our waking moments and doesn’t take much effort to operate. It is responsible for the continuous dialog inside our head. When the direct experience network is activated, we experience information coming into our senses in real time: our bodily sensations, our breath, the freshness of the present moment around us. Normally the narrative network tries to get back to operational mode as soon as possible and to build meaning on these direct experiences — that’s why the minutes of presence and inner silence are so rare. But meditation practitioners are able to control these circuits and to dive into inner stillness for longer periods of time — which is often the source of great insights. There is experimental evidence that 30 minutes of practice every day for eight weeks can substantially reduce cortisol level (one of the main hormones associated with stress), make us more empathetic, and increase emotional control and the executive functions of the brain. What is really great is that you don’t need any special environment or outfit to become more mindful — all you need is to bring your attention back to the current moment wherever you are: during a meeting, while driving your car, or while flying on a plane. And this fresh and living presence changes the way our brain works and the quality of our life as a whole.	http://mindfulbusinessrussia.com/en/about/the-science-of-mindfulness/
Who knew there were multiple ways to eat a raisin? Though it may sound a bit strange, the concept of “mindful” eating is firmly based on neuroscience. In the case of 10th-grade math teacher and nationally known mindfulness advocate, Richard Brady, raisin-eating meditation is just one form of contemplative education. Professor of Education at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, Kathryn Byrnes, defines contemplative education as an approach that integrates knowledge “through the senses and the mind.” In keeping with this rationale, Brady’s mindful eating task allots students five minutes to consume three raisins, while focusing on taste and texture. The objective is to fully commit to the present moment, relishing each experience as it occurs. Brady urges students to employ the same concentration to nighttime homework assignments, and consciously delve into their work. Although it may sound like mere whimsy, contemplative education is rooted in scientific fact. Behavior depends on brain activity, which in turn is tied to neural structure. Yet this structure is always changing, as lifetime experiences prompt neurons to make and break synaptic connections. This phenomenon is known as neuroplasticity. Recent findings support the notion that the brain can be altered by purely internal activity (i.e. mindful practices), and educators are designing curricula more conducive to this method of learning. After all, childhood is the best time to instill enduring mental habits; the brain is never more malleable than in its early years. Contemplative education emphasizes physical and mental focus (through yoga, meditation, attention to specific objects and stream of consciousness, etc.). The aim of mindful practice is to foster concentration, manage stress, improve self-understanding, and gain emotional control. Despite traditional origins, these skills are increasingly relevant to our fast-paced society. “Contemplative education opens the potential to deeper, longer-lasting, integrative learning,” Byrnes said. “It connects the external world of sciences, arts, social sciences, languages and physical activity with the internal world of mind, emotions, and sensory awareness.” For instance, mindfulness has been shown to enhance concentration, an attribute especially relevant in a world where competing technological sound bites vie for our attention. Mental overload can wreak havoc on the developing mind, and full schedules often deny students the luxury of fully mastering concepts before speeding on to new material. Fast-paced lifestyles lead to stress early on, which may have negative, structural repercussions. Mindfulness training, on the other hand, reduces anxiety and combats these negative consequences. In addition, modern education often promotes detachment and objectivity, rather than cultivating ways of learning that rely on an interior “psychological space.” By comparison, contemplative methods promote insight into internal events as a way to manage and understand external experiences. “Neuroplasticity describes how our brain changes due to experience,” Byrnes said. “Contemplative education harnesses this capacity of the brain to become less habitual and more flexible, so individuals can respond more skillfully — and face their internal and external environments.” This idea is consistent with mounting support that mindfulness training improves neural circuitry involving emotion and attention, empathy and compassion, not to mention resiliency to stress. Research has demonstrated that contemplative practices have a positive impact on the hypothalamus, an area of the brain involved in hormone regulation. Specifically, mindfulness prompts the hypothalamus to decrease the release of cortisol (a hormone that initiates the “fight or flight response” and is tied to feelings of stress). These benefits extend to hippocampus as well. A region involved in learning and memory, the hippocampus is highly sensitive to hormone levels. Too much cortisol reduces the creation of new neurons while increasing the likelihood of developing certain psychological conditions. Thus, contemplative practices can prevent this cascade of detrimental events. Beyond hormonal implications, mindfulness also augments the amount of neural connections within areas like the prefrontal cortex, involved in emotional and cognitive development. As a result, mindful habits continue to improve working memory and attention, even as we age. This decline in stress is attributed to enhanced connectivity within other brain regions involved in emotional processing and stress, like the amygdala. Thinking requires information exchange between neurons, so the more lines of communication, the better. These are small-scale changes with immense effects. But how exactly are mindfulness skills applied to the classroom? One method requires students to concentrate on specific objects (such as breathing, sounds, or physical movements), before starting their classwork. Additionally, some teachers have introduced short periods of yoga or meditation prior to quizzes. This “receptive awareness” to fleeting feelings and thoughts mentally prepares children for upcoming tasks, improving academic performance. Public and private journal writing is yet another mindfulness technique. Similarly, implementation of a “peace corner” — an appointed physical space — encourages expansion of mental space. Students retreat to this corner when in need of respite or calm. In this way, Byrnes said, children and educators alike are learning to mesh the internal with the external. “Students and teachers with a contemplative approach to learning cultivate the capacity to understand how the body (including the brain) and mind (as well as emotions) operate,” Byrnes said. “Deepened self-awareness can lead to an awareness of others and the external world.” Although there is much to be said on the topic of contemplative education, Brady summed up the concept of mindfulness in a nutshell — though in this case, a raisin might be the more relevant metaphor. He wrote in Learning to Stop, Stopping to Learn: Discovering the Contemplative Dimension in Education, “Chew each homework problem thoroughly. Digest it fully before going on to the next one. In that way you’ll receive the full nourishment that the problem has to offer you.” It may be true that you are what you eat, but when it comes to your brain, neural structure most certainly depends on what you experience. Make sure to stop and smell the raisins once in a while. And everything else, too.	https://www.parentingnh.com/contemplative-education-emphasizes-mindfulness-and-focus/
The goal of this course is to explore meditative and contemplative tradition in various cultures and spiritual traditions, and study the ways in which contemplative practice can contribute to psychotherapy, both indirectly through the meditative practice of the therapist, and directly through application in the therapy proper. Zotero Collections: <p>This article draws on research in neuroscience, cognitive science, developmental psychology, and education, as well as scholarship from contemplative traditions concerning the cultivation of positive development, to highlight a set of mental skills and socioemotional dispositions that are central to the aims of education in the 21st century. These include self-regulatory skills associated with emotion and attention, self-representations, and prosocial dispositions such as empathy and compassion. It should be possible to strengthen these positive qualities and dispositions through systematic contemplative practices, which induce plastic changes in brain function and structure, supporting prosocial behavior and academic success in young people. These putative beneficial consequences call for focused programmatic research to better characterize which forms and frequencies of practice are most effective for which types of children and adolescents. Results from such research may help refine training programs to maximize their effectiveness at different ages and to document the changes in neural function and structure that might be induced.</p> Zotero Collections: Zotero Collections: Concepts develop for many aspects of experience, including abstract internal states and abstract social activities that do not refer to concrete entities in the world. The current study assessed the hypothesis that, like concrete concepts, distributed neural patterns of relevant nonlinguistic semantic content represent the meanings of abstract concepts. In a novel neuroimaging paradigm, participants processed two abstract concepts (convince, arithmetic) and two concrete concepts (rolling, red) deeply and repeatedly during a concept-scene matching task that grounded each concept in typical contexts. Using a catch trial design, neural activity associated with each concept word was separated from neural activity associated with subsequent visual scenes to assess activations underlying the detailed semantics of each concept. We predicted that brain regions underlying mentalizing and social cognition (e.g., medial prefrontal cortex, superior temporal sulcus) would become active to represent semantic content central to convince, whereas brain regions underlying numerical cognition (e.g., bilateral intraparietal sulcus) would become active to represent semantic content central to arithmetic. The results supported these predictions, suggesting that the meanings of abstract concepts arise from distributed neural systems that represent concept-specific content. <p>Background: Mindfulness is the development of a nonjudgmental accepting awareness of moment-by-moment experience. Intentionally attending to one’s ongoing stream of sensations, thoughts, and emotions as they arise has a number of benefits, including the ability to react with greater flexibility to events and sustain attention. Thus the teaching of mindfulness-based skills to children and their carers is a potential means of improving family relationships and helping children achieve more positive developmental outcomes through increased ability to sustain attention and manage emotions. We provide a review of recent studies evaluating mindfulness-based interventions targeting children, adolescents, and families in educational and clinical settings.Method: Searches were conducted of several databases (including Medline, PsychINFO and Cochrane Reviews) to identify studies that have evaluated mindfulness-based interventions targeting children, adolescents or families published since 2009.Results: Twenty-four studies were identified. We conclude that mindfulness-based interventions are an important addition to the repertoire of existing therapeutic techniques. However, large-scale, methodologically rigorous studies are lacking. The interventions used in treatment evaluations vary in both content and dose, the outcomes targeted have varied, and no studies have employed methodology to investigate mechanisms of change.Conclusions: There is increasing evidence that mindfulness-based therapeutic techniques can have a positive impact on a range of outcome variables. A greater understanding of the mechanisms of change is an important future direction of research. We argue that locating mindfulness-based therapies targeting children and families within the broader child and family field has greater promise in improving child and family functioning than viewing mindful parenting as an independent endeavor.</p> Zotero Collections: Many investigators have hypothesized that brain response to cortisol is altered in depression. However, neural activation in response to exogenously manipulated cortisol elevations has not yet been directly examined in depressed humans. Animal research shows that glucocorticoids have robust effects on hippocampal function, and can either enhance or suppress neuroplastic events in the hippocampus depending on a number of factors. We hypothesized that depressed individuals would show 1) altered hippocampal response to exogenous administration of cortisol, and 2) altered effects of cortisol on learning. In a repeated-measures design, 19 unmedicated depressed and 41 healthy individuals completed two fMRI scans. Fifteen mg oral hydrocortisone (i.e., cortisol) or placebo (order randomized and double-blind) was administered 1 h prior to encoding of emotional and neutral words during fMRI scans. Data analysis examined the effects of cortisol administration on 1) brain activation during encoding, and 2) subsequent free recall for words. Cortisol affected subsequent recall performance in depressed but not healthy individuals. We found alterations in hippocampal response to cortisol in depressed women, but not in depressed men (who showed altered response to cortisol in other regions, including subgenual prefrontal cortex). In both depressed men and women, cortisol's effects on hippocampal function were positively correlated with its effects on recall performance assessed days later. Our data provide evidence that in depressed compared to healthy women, cortisol's effects on hippocampal function are altered. Our data also show that in both depressed men and women, cortisol's effects on emotional memory formation and hippocampal function are related. In a test of the effects of cortisol on emotional memory, 90 men were orally administered placebo or 20 or 40 mg cortisol and presented with emotionally arousing and neutral stimuli. On memory tests administered within 1 hr of stimulus presentation, cortisol elevations caused a reduction in the number of errors committed on free-recall tasks. Two evenings later, when cortisol levels were no longer manipulated, inverted-U quadratic trends were found for recognition memory tasks, reflecting memory facilitation in the 20-mg group for both negative and neutral information. Results suggest that the effects of cortisol on memory do not differ substantially for emotional and neutral information. The study provides evidence of beneficial effects of acute cortisol elevations on explicit memory in humans. How does language reliably evoke emotion, as it does when people read a favorite novel or listen to a skilled orator? Recent evidence suggests that comprehension involves a mental simulation of sentence content that calls on the same neural systems used in literal action, perception, and emotion. In this study, we demonstrated that involuntary facial expression plays a causal role in the processing of emotional language. Subcutaneous injections of botulinum toxin-A (BTX) were used to temporarily paralyze the facial muscle used in frowning. We found that BTX selectively slowed the reading of sentences that described situations that normally require the paralyzed muscle for expressing the emotions evoked by the sentences. This finding demonstrates that peripheral feedback plays a role in language processing, supports facial-feedback theories of emotional cognition, and raises questions about the effects of BTX on cognition and emotional reactivity. We account for the role of facial feedback in language processing by considering neurophysiological mechanisms and reinforcement-learning theory. The corticotrophin-releasing hormone (CRH) system integrates the stress response and is associated with stress-related psychopathology. Previous reports have identified interactions between childhood trauma and sequence variation in the CRH receptor 1 gene (CRHR1) that increase risk for affective disorders. However, the underlying mechanisms that connect variation in CRHR1 to psychopathology are unknown. To explore potential mechanisms, we used a validated rhesus macaque model to investigate association between genetic variation in CRHR1, anxious temperament (AT) and brain metabolic activity. In young rhesus monkeys, AT is analogous to the childhood risk phenotype that predicts the development of human anxiety and depressive disorders. Regional brain metabolism was assessed with (18)F-labeled fluoro-2-deoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography in 236 young, normally reared macaques that were also characterized for AT. We show that single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) affecting exon 6 of CRHR1 influence both AT and metabolic activity in the anterior hippocampus and amygdala, components of the neural circuit underlying AT. We also find evidence for association between SNPs in CRHR1 and metabolism in the intraparietal sulcus and precuneus. These translational data suggest that genetic variation in CRHR1 affects the risk for affective disorders by influencing the function of the neural circuit underlying AT and that differences in gene expression or the protein sequence involving exon 6 may be important. These results suggest that variation in CRHR1 may influence brain function before any childhood adversity and may be a diathesis for the interaction between CRHR1 genotypes and childhood trauma reported to affect human psychopathology. Demands faced by health care professionals include heavy caseloads, limited control over the work environment, long hours, as well as organizational structures and systems in transition. Such conditions have been directly linked to increased stress and symptoms of burnout, which in turn, have adverse consequences for clinicians and the quality of care that is provided to patients. Consequently, there exists an impetus for the development of curriculum aimed at fostering wellness and the necessary self-care skills for clinicians. This review will examine the potential benefits of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) programs aimed at enhancing well-being and coping with stress in this population. Empirical evidence indicates that participation in MBSR yields benefits for clinicians in the domains of physical and mental health. Conceptual and methodological limitations of the existing studies and suggestions for future research are discussed. Zotero Collections: Zotero Collections: Zotero Collections: Zotero Collections: <p>Abstract Objective: This study examined whether mindfulness increased through participation in movement-based courses and whether changes in self-regulatory self-efficacy, mood, and perceived stress mediated the relationship between increased mindfulness and better sleep. Participants: 166 college students enrolled in the 2007–2008 academic year in 15 week classes in Pilates, Taiji quan, or GYROKINESIS. Methods: At beginning, middle, and end of the semester, participants completed measures of mindfulness, self-regulatory self-efficacy, mood, perceived stress, and sleep quality. Results: Total mindfulness scores and mindfulness subscales increased overall. Greater changes in mindfulness were directly related to better sleep quality at the end of the semester after adjusting for sleep disturbance at the beginning. Tiredness, Negative Arousal, Relaxation, and Perceived Stress mediated the effect of increased mindfulness on improved sleep. Conclusions: Movement-based courses can increase mindfulness. Increased mindfulness accounts for changes in mood and perceived stress, which explain, in part, improved sleep quality.</p> Zotero Collections: <p>This paper describes the initial development of a scale to assess the effects of meditation. The scale consists of two sections: Experiences During Meditation (EOM-DM) and Effects of Meditation in Everyday Life (EOM-EL). Scale evaluation on 236 participants involved factor analysis, reliability and validity analysis. The EOM-DM scale had five subscales: Cognitive effects, Emotional effects, Mystical experiences, Relaxation and Physical discomfort. The physical, emotional, expanded consciousness and cognitive item groups of the EOM-EL were analysed separately. Each scale had a single factor structure whereas analysis of the EOM-EL-cognitive scale identified four factors: Social relations, Cognitive ability, Non-judgemental acceptance and Behaviours and habits. Construct validity was explored by assessing correlations with existing measures: Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, FACIT Spiritual wellbeing subscale and POMS-Short Form. Although further development is required, the scale showed adequate psychometric properties and may be useful for clinicians and researchers to improve understanding of the effects of meditation practices.</p> Zotero Collections: Zotero Collections: Raised in the tumult of Japan's industrial powerhouse, the eleven men and women profiled in this book have all made the transition to sustainable, fulfilling lives. They are today artists, philosophers, and farmers who reside deep in the mountains of rural Japan. Their lives may be simple, yet they are surrounded by the luxuries of nature, art, contemplation, delicious food, and an abundance of time. For example: Atsuko Watanabe is an environmentalist and home-schooler who explores Christian mysticism while raising her two daughters in an old farmhouseAkira Ito is an ex-petroleum engineer who has become a painter and children's book illustrator and explores the role of "chi" (life energy) in the universe through art and musicKogan Murata grows rice and crafts elegant bamboo flutes that he plays for alms in the surrounding villagesJinko Kaneko is a fine artist and fabric dyer who runs a Himalayan-style curry restaurant in the Japan AlpsBy presenting the journeys of these ordinary--yet exceptional--people, Andy Couturier shows how we too can travel a meaningful path of living simply, with respect for our communities and our natural resources. When we leave behind the tremendous burdens of wage labor, debt, stress, and daily busyness, we grow rich in a whole new way. These Japanese are pioneers in a sense; drawing on traditional Eastern spiritual wisdom, they have forged a new style of modernity, and in their success is a lesson for us all: live a life that matters.Andy Couturier is an essayist, poet, and writing teacher. He lived in Japan for four years where he taught, was a journalist, and worked on environmental causes. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Zotero Collections: Zotero Collections: Guided by appraisal-based models of the influence of emotion upon judgment, we propose that disgust moralizes--that is, amplifies the moral significance of--protecting the purity of the body and soul. Three studies documented that state and trait disgust, but not other negative emotions, moralize the purity moral domain but not the moral domains of justice or harm/care. In Study 1, integral feelings of disgust, but not integral anger, predicted stronger moral condemnation of behaviors violating purity. In Study 2, experimentally induced disgust, compared with induced sadness, increased condemnation of behaviors violating purity and increased approval of behaviors upholding purity. In Study 3, trait disgust, but not trait anger or trait fear, predicted stronger condemnation of purity violations and greater approval of behaviors upholding purity. We found that, confirming the domain specificity of the disgust-purity association, disgust was unrelated to moral judgments about justice (Studies 1 and 2) or harm/care (Study 3). Finally, across studies, individuals of lower socioeconomic status (SES) were more likely than individuals of higher SES to moralize purity but not justice or harm/care. Zotero Collections: <p>How do we, as humans, take in the feelings and thoughts of other people? Theory-of-Mind (ToM) and Embodied Simulation (ES) approaches hypothesize divergent neural and behavioral mechanisms underlying intersubjectivity. ToM investigators assert that humans take in the belief states and intentions of another person by holding "a theory of mind" that cognitively posits the other person's mental contents, with some experiments identifying the right temporo-parietal junction as a specific ToM brain region. ES theorists hypothesize that humans perceive the other's state of mind by simulating his/her actions, emotions, and goals in the "mirror neuron system" in the brain. A historical review suggests these understandings rely on opposing, dualist models of cognition and perception. William James's intervention on this earlier debate is informative in anticipating recent findings in low-level sensory neuroscience. Of specific interest are studies showing that intersubjectivity and low-level sensory attentional filtering are both processed in the same cortical area (the temporo-parietal junction) suggesting that the ability to entertain other minds may be related to the ability to perceive salient stimuli during attention-demanding tasks.</p> Zotero Collections: Sensitivity, specificity, and reproducibility are vital to interpret neuroscientific results from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments. Here we examine the scan-rescan reliability of the percent signal change (PSC) and parameters estimated using Dynamic Causal Modeling (DCM) in scans taken in the same scan session, less than 5 min apart. We find fair to good reliability of PSC in regions that are involved with the task, and fair to excellent reliability with DCM. Also, the DCM analysis uncovers group differences that were not present in the analysis of PSC, which implies that DCM may be more sensitive to the nuances of signal changes in fMRI data. Zotero Collections:	https://sources.shanti.virginia.edu/sources-search?field_zotero_collections=All&sort_by=sort_stripped_node_title&sort_order=ASC&condition_option=all&advanced_search_publication_year=range&search_text_zotero_tags=Diagnosis%20of%20disease&view_mode=collection&page=2
Meditation and mindfulness are both becoming more topical, although there is some confusion around the differences between these disciplines and the other introspective practices that exist. Here is an easy way to remember the differences: Still time This is the act of silent enquiry, where the practitioner withdraws into silence and becomes an observer of what is taking place within the mind, not becoming attached to any ‘event’, thought or feeling, but acknowledging and then releasing it. There is natural learning that comes from this ‘observation’. One can also use still time to focus on a particular question or area of concern in order that it may be better understood. Mindfulness Mindfulness is fully focusing one’s mind on whatever one is doing or experiencing. It is the practice and the art of being so present within the perimeter of the self that only the present moment matters. One is neither being consumed by the past nor distracted by the future. It is believed that this practice of raising ‘awareness’ and being ‘present’ in the moment, offers a richer experience for us all, enabling greater self-mastery where it is lacking and the opportunity to live a more contented and fulfilled life. Mantra mind thinking This is where you take a positive affirmation (mantra) and you recite it repeatedly, making the mantra the focus of your attention. In this way you use the mantra to push away all other distractions, therefore immersing yourself in positivity. The result is greater concentration, clarity and confidence. This practice is able to mould the mind in accordance with the practitioner’s desires. Meditation In its original form meditation is the process where the practitioner focuses on the divine. It’s an active effort to connect with that which is greater than the self. Of course this practice will vary according to one’s tradition, heritage and beliefs. However, the research is clear, that those who focus their minds in kind, loving ways, as demonstrated with loving-kindness meditation, reap substantial emotional, psychological and physical benefits. Deep relaxation Deep relaxation is where one has the experience of ‘trance’. Trance is a beautifully receptive state, where the mind is open to positive suggestion. There are a variety of ways that one might enter this deeply relaxed state, such as: listening to a piece of music, sitting observing a wonderful scene in nature, the practice of deep breathing, creative visualisation etc. Hypnosis is also another medium where deep relaxation is used as a positive vehicle for healing and empowerment. Should you be making more time for this kind of introspective activity? Below is a brief summary of why we should all be taking introspective activities more seriously. These pastimes should not be fads or fashion statements – they are lifestyle choices. A brief introduction to the brain. The human brain is a reddish grey mass, with the consistency of firm jelly, which weighs on average the same as three bags of sugar and houses 100 billion individual brain cells called neurons. Each neuron has a cell body, which houses its processor, the nucleus. Branching from the bodies are countless finger like dendrites which, fan out forming extensive, tree like structures that intertwine with the dendritic trees of other neurons. Each neuron makes up to 1000 different connections with its neighbours and different areas of the brain. This extensive connectivity allows electrical signals, and thus information to travel from one brain-processing centre to another in a matter of milliseconds! The human brain is organised in a hierarchical manner: the oldest parts controlling the more primitive, instinctual behavioural reflexes, whilst the newest parts control the more sophisticated cognitive, sensory and motor functions. The human brain is made up of three main blocks: the forebrain, the midbrain and the hindbrain. See: Brain Matters. The oldest part of the human brain, the hindbrain, closely resembles the brain of a modern reptile, so is sometimes called the ‘mammalian’ brain – given the ancestry of modern reptiles. The hindbrain is responsible for automatic physiological reflexes that control breathing, heart rate and digestion, and coordinates movement and sensory perception. The midbrain contains neurons responsible for temperature control and the fine-tuning of movement. It relays sensory information from the body’s sensory organs to the forebrain. It also plays an important part in the limbic system, a group of brain structures associated with the expression of emotion. The most evolved part is the forebrain, which is composed of cerebral hemispheres and the hypothalamus and thalamus. The neurons of the forebrain control cognitive, sensory and motor function, as well as regulate reproductive functions, eating, sleeping and the display of emotion. Right brain and left brain Although you may often hear people referring to “left brain thinking” or “right brain thinking” there are extensive connections between the two brain hemispheres and information is processed often by using both hemispheres of the brain. Imaging studies have shown that most cognitive tasks such as problem solving or strategic planning activates neurons in more than one brain region simultaneously, or at least in close succession. For example if you are inspecting a new, never seen before object, the left hemisphere examines the object logically to see how it has been made, what it is made from, any distinguishing marks, and attempts based on the information gathered to guess what the object might be, and may even try to categorise it. However, this only gives a partial description and understanding of its use. The right hemisphere looks at the object more holistically, notes any functions in its design, or clues about what it may have been used for, how it feels and notes any emotions it may evoke. The right hemisphere gives the object a context based on what it already ‘knows’ about the world and then offers creative suggestions for its function. By working together as a team, sharing logical and creative information, the two hemispheres can generate a more complete description. So, in summary, the left hemisphere is associated with analytical rational and logical processing, whereas the right hemisphere is associated with abstract thought, non verbal awareness, visual and spatial perception and the expression and modulation of emotions. In the western world, most individuals navigate through their everyday life in a fashion dominated by left brain thinking. Missing out on right brain activity results in too much thinking going on – too much frantic doing, not enough time being. See: Knowing to Doing and Doing to Being. Right brain, left brain and mindfulness According to neuroscientist, Dr Shanida Nataraja, westerners use the left hemisphere of their brain too much, therefore missing out on the values of creative intelligence, spiritual insight and awareness. Practising mindfulness can bring about calmness, stilling the brain chatter, and help us shift towards right brain mode. By engaging our right brain we activate the parasympathetic nervous system (as opposed to the adrenaline releasing sympathetic system). More parasympathetic activity means less stress and therefore better health. According to Dr Nataraja’s studies, those new to meditation practices such as mindfulness often put pressure on themselves to be successful and are impatient about ‘getting there’ quickly, which is a left brain approach – ‘are we there yet?’ – and consequently it takes longer to achieve the benefits. See: The Three Ps. Dr. Nataraja suggests that the key is to be kind to yourself, acknowledging thoughts and then letting go (still time and loving-kindness meditation). This activates certain pathways in the brain, which reduces left brain activity. Cognition improved by mindfulness meditation Some of us ‘believe’ we need regular amounts of coffee or other chemical enhancers to make us cognitively sharper. But is this true? The research into meditation and mindfulness is pointing out that our reliance on stimulants provides us with the illusion of more energy and maybe even clarity, but these are not states that last. In fact they create dependency as we end up needing more of the stimulant to sustain the feeling. While past research using neuroimaging technology has shown that meditation techniques can promote significant changes in brain areas associated with concentration, it has always been assumed that extensive training was required to achieve this effect. Surprisingly, the benefits may be achievable more easily than we thought. Psychologists studying the effects of mindfulness found that mindfulness-trained participants showed a significant improvement in their critical cognitive skills (and performed significantly higher in cognitive tests than a control group) after only four days of training for only 20 minutes each day. So it might be possible to find inner peace more quickly by looking within rather than looking outside of ourselves. See: Meditation Alters Biochemistry. The Amygdala ‘Hijack’ Emotions are triggered in the brain by thoughts, which are often unconscious. When we are confronted by a potential threat, this can trigger fear, anger or the urge to flee (sometimes called the amygdala hijack). The reaction is often disproportionate to the actual provocation. When in the grip of these emotions, your capacity for higher rational brain thinking is diminished, and you are likely to revert to deeply enshrined behaviours stored in the amygdala and hippocampus. The practice of mindfulness helps us to recognise and observe our thought patterns. Practitioners develop the ability to recognise when thoughts arise, and observe them in a detached manner, without the need to become involved in them, thus not triggering an emotional or automatic reaction. Empathy There is increasing evidence that shows how relaxation, self-hypnosis, hypnosis, mindfulness, creative visualisation and other introspective practices are enhancing the brain and body health. We mentioned loving-kindness meditation (LKM) earlier and this practice has brought to the fore the value and the power of empathy. LKM is where the practitioner is asked to concentrate on feelings of love, compassion, and understanding. By comparing MRI scans of novices to those of expert Buddhist monks (each with more than 10,000 hours of practice), researchers watched as emotional stimuli (sounds of people in distress) caused those areas of the brain linked to empathy to light up; the monks exhibited greater degrees of empathic response than the novices. In turn, the scientists concluded that compassion meditation can make a person more empathic. Also see: The Compassionate Mind.	https://www.thereachapproach.co.uk/2017/08/28/the-power-of-introspective-practices/
Given that brainwaves control and connect such a vast range of human experience from thought to feelings to actions, it is easy to see how the deliberate control of brainwaves can affect mood, behaviors, motivation, and even physical health. Brainwave entrainment is a safe, simple, and scientifically proven method for quickly guiding the brain into a beneficial brainwave frequency to facilitate healthy sleep, lower stress, heal emotional problems, and improve physical health. The mechanism for this is that when your eyes or ears are exposed to a particular frequency of pulses or beats, the thalamus first distributes this information to the entire brain, including the visual and cerebral cortex where neural activity begins to synchronize to the incoming frequency, producing hemispheric synchronization and a balance of brainwave activity across the brain. Because the mind and body are a single system, changing our brainwaves and spending more time in harmonious, relaxed, and restorative mind-states also affects our physical health. Physical health then reinforces our mental-state, and a feedback loop of either positive or negative processes becomes established. Research studies have shown beneficial effects of using brainwave entrainment for treating migraine headaches, premenstrual syndrome, and for managing physical pain. As a relatively new technology, fMRI has only recently been used to assess brain state changes during meditation. Recent studies have shown heightened activity in the anterior cingulate cortex, frontal cortex, and prefrontal cortex, specifically in the dorsal medial prefrontal area during Vipassana meditation. Similarly, the cingulate cortex and frontal cortex areas were shown to have increased activity during Zen meditation. Both studies comment on the possibility that these findings could indicate some state of heightened voluntary control over attention during mindfulness meditation. Review works by Cahn and Chiesa state that these results indicate consistency in meditation’s effect on these regions of the brain, citing a multitude of other studies spanning other meditative disciplines, but mention the need for further investigation with better controls. People who meditate grow bigger brains than those who don't. Researchers at Harvard, Yale, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have found the first evidence that meditation can alter the physical structure of our brains. Brain scans they conducted reveal that experienced meditators boasted increased thickness in parts of the brain that deal with attention and processing sensory input. During meditation, people often feel a sense of no space. Scientists investigating the effect of the meditative stateon Buddhist monk's brains have found that portions ofthe organ previously active become quiet, whilst pacified areas become stimulated. Using a brain imaging technique, Dr. Newberg and his team studied a group of Tibetan Buddhist monks as they meditated for approximately one hour. When they reached a transcendental high, they were asked to pull a kite string to their right, releasing an injection of a radioactive tracer. By injecting a tiny amount of radioactive marker into the bloodstream of a deep meditator, the scientists soon saw how the dye moved to active parts of the brain. I like it. I like the fact that I can just sit there and observe my thoughts and feelings and then go back to watching my breathing. It really does teach me to be centered and balanced. I look forward to the next several weeks. By the way, what I am doing now is meditating for 23 minutes in the early morning and again 23 minutes in the early evening. I’ll check back with you. The main point is, you can be asleep while listening to any of them, but you won't be awake to feel anything. If you fall asleep while a beta binaural beat is playing, you may start to get anxious and start sleeping restlessly, you may even have a bad dream. This is because too much use of the higher beta range is associated with anxiety and stress, it's the “fight or flight” response you will experience. Binaural beats is a method where two sound waves of different frequencies are introduced into each ear. These frequencies when processed by the brain cancel each other out, creating a whole new frequency. So if we had a tone of 500 Hz in one ear and a 510 Hz tone in the other, the result would be a 10 Hz tone. So while a 10 Hz tone couldn’t be directly heard, using binaural beats we can create that tone inside our brain. There’s a growing body of research suggesting that binaural beats can reduce different forms of anxiety, from mild to chronic. One especially interesting study looked at the effects of binaural beats on anxiety among patients preparing to undergo surgery—a life circumstance that is pretty anxiety provoking for most anyone. Over a period of six months, patients spent 30 minutes on the day of their surgery listening to binaural beats. Compared to patients who listened to a soundtrack that did not include binaural beats—and patients who received no “beats” therapy at all—the binaural beat listeners experienced significantly greater reductions in their anxiety levels. Both brainwave entrainment and neurofeedback deal with brainwaves, but the similarity stops there. Entrainment pushes your whole brain into a pre-determined state, while neurofeedback teaches you how to move specific parts of your brain on your own. It is the differeence between forcing the brain into a given position, and skills building so you can move it there yourself. Similar results have been achieved with the use of music alone, the most famous example being the so-called Mozart effect. In his book "Pourqui Mozart?" Dr. Alfred A. Tomatis claims that the composer’s music promoted healing and brain development. The idea has been further popularized by Don Campbell in his book "The Mozart Effect", which claims that listening to Mozart can temporarily boost a person’s scores on portions of an IQ test . The functional role of neural oscillations is still not fully understood; however they have been shown to correlate with emotional responses, motor control, and a number of cognitive functions including information transfer, perception, and memory. Specifically, neural oscillations, in particular theta activity, are extensively linked to memory function, and coupling between theta and gamma activity is considered to be vital for memory functions, including episodic memory. But we don't need any studies to tell us that different people can listen to different kinds of music and be affected. A lot of people who work out have a workout playlist on their iPod that keeps them energized. Some people listen to certain music to help them fall asleep. The Muzak company has built an industry on relaxing music that will keep people in the mood to shop. Music does affect our mood, and so we already have every reason to expect binaural beat recordings to produce the same effect. Different people may find certain binaural beats to be relaxing or energizing. But, we've never found any reliable indication that a binaural beat's connection to our brain is any deeper or more meaningful than any other music track. We do know for a reasonable certainty that specific claims made by most sellers of binaural beats are not credible, and that there is no reason to think that the effect they're claimed to produce will work for you.	http://brainwaveentrainmentforums.com/binaural-beats-brain-tumor-binaural-beats-meditation-15-minutes.html
Lived Experience As Expertise Individuals with first-hand experience often have ideas and solutions but are not always positioned to influence outcomes. In this series, we discuss how philanthropy is uniquely positioned to acknowledge institutional oppression and to shift course, center equity and counter oppression, enable understanding and healing, and drive inclusive solutions. This monthly four-part series covers key methods, including: - Personal Interviews: With a guiding principle of “just listen,” we interviewed shelter residents to create programmatic solutions that vastly improved healthcare access for New Yorkers staying in the City’s shelter system. - Focus Groups: In Los Angeles, focus groups engaged people with lived experience as partners. Their input resulted in better strategies to reduce homelessness, especially among marginalized communities. - Lived Expertise Partnership: Prioritizing first-hand experience, we teamed with a professional with lived experience to address racial justice and criminal legal reform in New York. - Inclusive Data Integration / Bayesian Analytics: Recognizing the importance of qualitative data and community knowledge to center equity and guide inclusive decision making, we engaged diverse voices to center racial equity in a research design framework. Read on as we encourage you to consider how you guide your philanthropic approach. Lived Experience As Expertise: Leveraging Focus Groups to Create a More Inclusive Strategy Who we consider an expert and why influences funding allocations, policy design, and service implementation. Philanthropy has built a common practice of interviewing grantees, researchers, and other experts as they develop strategies. Only a handful include lived expertise as a source of knowledge. There is great opportunity to include and center the perspectives of people living the issue, as they have learned to navigate the systems themselves. As one example, a team at Redstone facilitated virtual focus groups with experts who have experienced homelessness in Los Angeles to highlight and incorporate their perspectives. The focus groups created a path to include the voices of those most impacted and opened the door for ongoing engagement and relationship. Through this work, our Redstone team devised accessible and intentional approaches to incorporate lived expertise into strategy, an important first step toward weaving that expertise into the fabric of philanthropic efforts. “We need different leadership – those who are making decisions – to come together in a room and share what’s working in their respective cities. Then we figure out the best strategies together and go from there.” CONTEXT IN LOS ANGELES At the start of 2020 in Los Angeles County, more than 66,000 people experienced homelessness. Over 70% of those Angelenos experienced unsheltered homelessness, meaning they were living on the streets, in vehicles, in abandoned buildings, or other locations. The issue has persisted through the pandemic. The complex landscape of local governments, public agencies, and service providers lack coordination and alignment toward the goal of getting these Angelenos housed. The Housing and Homelessness Action Team at the Committee for a Greater Los Angeles (CGLA) has been working to recalibrate the governance structure of the region to drive toward a more coordinated and strategic approach among the State, County of Los Angeles, cities, and the service providers responsible for responding to the homelessness crisis. CGLA commissioned Redstone to help develop its action plan – the specific steps it would take to improve homelessness governance in Los Angeles. As a part of developing that plan, we sought to create meaningful engagement with those who had experienced homelessness because we believe they had valuable insight to both the problems of and solutions for the system. We partnered with Ann English at the Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) to run focus groups of people who had experienced homelessness to improve the strategies CGLA would pursue. The voices of those most impacted by poor homelessness governance improved our strategy development process and demonstrated the power of using focus groups to center lived expertise. FOCUS GROUP DESIGN People who experience homelessness are not a monolith – they lead distinct lives before, during, and after they connect to permanent housing. With this is mind, we first identified key questions and the types of lived expertise that would raise unique and challenging perspectives. We worked with CGLA and community partners to identify topics and specific questions to ask (e.g., what is the impact of governance challenges on those experiencing homelessness, what are bright spots and challenges in homeless outreach and rehousing, and how can communications build a more robust community of advocates) to inform the recruitment step. We then worked with CSH to refine the questions and identify the types of expertise needed. CSH is a trusted partner in the field and has invested significant time and resources into building relationships with unhoused and formerly unhoused Angelenos (e.g., through the Speak Up! program). Given the questions at hand, we recruited a diverse set of participants that had experienced homelessness in Los Angeles County and were housed at the time of the focus groups. Many of them also interacted with the system as advocates, case managers, and advisors to various organizations and agencies, which contributed nuanced perspectives that were invaluable to the process. Finally, as we prepared for the sessions we coordinated with participants and community organizations about compensation for the groups. We worked with the Inner City Law Center to discuss best practices for compensation and ensure that payments would not impact any individual’s eligibility for public benefits. Implementing these simple best practices in the focus group design and recruitment steps helped to launch a process that prioritized accessibility and equity. CREATING A TRUST-BASED SPACE TO SHARE INSIGHTS The steps taken ahead of the focus groups built a strong foundation for rich discussions. First, the Redstone team hired two co-consultants with lived expertise to inform the focus group design and co-facilitate the conversation. Amiyoko Shabazz and Jon Christian played a crucial role in preparing participants, deepening engagement during the focus groups, and synthesizing the results. Led by Ann English, Senior Program Manager at CSH, the team then moderated preparation sessions with each of the focus groups to give individuals an opportunity to meet one another, ask any context questions, and share some of their experiences in a low-stakes environment. While not a regular practice in traditional focus groups, the preparation sessions created a trust-based space conducive for sharing more sensitive stories. Context questions and clarifications about the project and homelessness governance at large made the engagement more accessible. Intentionally cultivating this space enabled participants to quickly dive into the diverse set of topics and share their insights and recommendations. Finally, each focus group started with a conversation about norms to establish a foundation for how to engage one another and communicate with various perspectives and experiences of the system. The discussions did not look for agreement – they sought to surface perspectives on key challenges and potential solutions. “The joining and alignment of the system is what is so important. I don’t understand why everyone is in the same game, but they don’t act like partners. They act like competition, and that doesn’t help solve homelessness.” SETTING EXPECTATIONS ON NEXT STEPS AND FOLLOW THROUGH As the focus groups concluded, participants were vocal about wanting to know how their insights would be used and what opportunities there might be for ongoing engagement. Far too often people with lived expertise are asked to provide their insights in a one-off setting and do not get to see the changes that their insights create. The Redstone team clearly described how the insights would be synthesized into a set of recommendations for CGLA to then advocate for changes across the County. At participants’ request, we cited all the focus group participants by name in the final report. The CGLA Housing and Homelessness Action team incorporated many of the focus groups’ insights into their action plan, including: - Expanding access to more types of housing, and improving the services offered, is key to supporting individuals to connect and remain in permanent housing - Centralized leadership and a regional strategy are needed to ensure accountability to resolving homelessness - The various entities tasked with building housing and providing services need to be better coordinated - Compassionate case managers, navigators, and advocates, including those with lived expertise, have successfully navigated participants from street homelessness to stability and deserve ongoing investment - People who have experienced homelessness should have formal roles on the ground and in senior leadership across the system, given their expertise - An improved public narrative about people who experience homelessness can strengthen the ongoing and future efforts to combat homelessness in Los Angeles Armed with the knowledge of individuals with lived expertise, CGLA and its partners are hard at work coordinating a diverse coalition of advocates to take action on these recommendations and advance toward a more equitable and inclusive Los Angeles. “…more money should be invested in those who are doing the footwork. You can’t house people from behind a computer.” In the following months, watch for our additional strategies used in our Lived Experience As Expertise posts. In July we will share how a professional with lived experience helped inform our strategy. And in August we will show how Bayesian analytics integrate and elevate data sourced from community knowledge to drive meaningful and robust solutions.	https://www.redstonestrategy.com/2022/06/23/lived-experience-focus-groups/
Valuing your Experience The access initiative seeks to address systemic barriers to equal access and opportunities. Most often, these types of barriers will take the form of substantial discrimination on grounds recognized in the Ontario Human Rights Code (race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, religion, family status or disability). The Access Initiative in the Faculty of Education recognizes applicants who may be subjected to differential treatment in society and its institutions based on their social identities, including: - Indigenous Persons (First Nations, Métis, Inuit, Status, Non-Status) - Disabled People/People with disabilities - Racialized Persons (A racialized group is a group of people who may experience social inequities based on their racial background and intersections with ethnicity, faith/spiritual worldview, and place of birth. Examples may include those who identify as Black, Asian, Latinx, Muslim and so on.) - Other Minoritized Persons (Examples may include: people marginalized by poverty, gender and sexual orientation, language, accent, dialect, and refugees or people with refugee experiences) Applicants are encouraged to select all relevant categories that are applicable to their lived experience. All eligible individuals will have their varied experiences valued throughout the application process. As we read access files, we are committed to recognizing, valuing, and fairly assessing applicants who have diverse experiences and insights into teaching and learning. We are actively recruiting and supporting applicants from communities in the Greater Toronto Area in which there has been historical underrepresentation of teacher candidates. How to Apply Applicants who apply under the Access Initiative will complete the same application process as non-Access applicants applying for either the Bachelor of Education concurrent or consecutive program models. In addition, those applying under the Access Initiative are asked to include the following: - On the supplementary application form check either yes or no beside the Access categories. - Refer in the personal statement to the individual and/or systemic barriers encountered. - Explain how your learning through these experiences might be valuable when building relationships and working with diverse groups of students. The Access Initiative seeks to provide opportunities for all eligible individuals to have their varied experiences not only considered, but valued. Our commitment is to graduate an outstanding cohort of educators who will reflect and inspire a diverse student population.	https://www.yorku.ca/edu/community/access-initiative/
Generational Interview Paper (Signature Assessment) Please dumb down the level of intellectual content meaning not such the use of advance wording. I included chapter 8 if needed to complete paper. Signature Assessment SWK 510: Generational Interview Paper Competency 6: Engage with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities Social workers understand that engagement is an ongoing component of the dynamic and interactive process of social work practice with, and on behalf of, diverse individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities. Social workers value the importance of human relationships. Social workers understand theories of human behavior and the social environment, and critically evaluate and apply this knowledge to facilitate engagement with clients and constituencies, including individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities. Social workers understand strategies to engage diverse clients and constituencies to advance practice effectiveness. Social workers understand how their personal experiences and affective reactions may impact their ability to effectively engage with diverse clients and constituencies. Social workers value principles of relationship-building and inter-professional collaboration to facilitate engagement with clients, constituencies, and other professionals as appropriate. Social workers: - apply knowledge of human behavior and the social environment, person-in-environment, and other multidisciplinary theoretical frameworks to engage with clients and constituencies; and - use empathy, reflection, and interpersonal skills to effectively engage diverse clients and constituencies Identify an individual who was born in any of the categories below; they must be of a different generation and era from the student. Students also may not interview their siblings, romantic partners, or children for this assignment. See the generational categories below. - 2001-2016: Generation Z. USE - Interview an individual concerning his or her personal experiences with the shift in socio-political culture and trends. This can include such items as WW II, the Korean conflict, the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, the Women’s Movement and other relevant social problem shifts. The idea is to gain information about the individual’s life experiences and to understand how those experiences influence his or her perception of the world. The Person-In-Environment perspective views how an individual has been affected by their surroundings (physical environment, other people, culture, economic status, historical events . . .). Sample questions might include, but are not limited to (you are encouraged at add your own): - What are your earliest memories of the world around you? What was happening? - Which important family events affected you as you grew up? - Which important societal events affected you as you grew up (e.g. JFK, MLK, violence, the arts)? - Did racial or ethnic discrimination affect your life? - How have social problems changed in your lifetime? - What are the important things you would tell future generations? - What lessons do you think we need to learn from the past? - Introduction: Complete an introduction section to your paper that includes all of the following: - ** Informed Consent: Before the interview, please ask the person’s permission to be interviewed for a class assignment that will result in a written paper read by your class instructor; provide written evidence that this has been completed. - A description of the interview (time, place, etc.) - A discussion about who you are interviewing and why (including which generation they are from & a statement of any relationship of the student to the interviewee) - Interview Summary:Complete a narrative summary of the interview you conducted (do not write in a question and answer format). In the narrative, include information about all of the following - A summary of the dialog you had (again, do not do this as a Q&A, it needs to be summarized in paragraph form) - Provide some discussion on how the interviewee experienced oppression and/or discrimination. Remember that oppression and discrimination can be experiences because of age, race, ethnicity, disability, sexual preference, gender, religion, tradition and individual beliefs. - Include at least two paragraphs that provide examples of family, group, organization and community connections the interviewee identifies as significant (both positive and negative). - Under a separate heading Social Work Skills, include a section in your paper that describes the social work interpersonal skills you used to engage your interviewee (e.g. active listening, eye contact, body language, clarification, and summarizing –and others.) - Under a separate heading Theoretical Framework, discuss at least one theory/ theoretical framework that could relate to this interviewee (e.g. cognitive behavioral theory, rational choice theory, etc.) Explain why the theory is relevant and how it can be applied. (You must provide citations and references for this discussion that include sources other than the course textbook) I attached articles. - Include a Conclusionsection that addresses how you think these events impacted the interviewee’s life. (Note: the interviewee may not recognize the impact on her/his life but you may have thoughts from the information you receive.).	https://www.globalcompose.com/homework-help/generational-interview-paper-signature-assessment/
The American community comprises of several minority groups that include the African Americans, Asian Americans and the Hispanics among others. They comprise of people from different places with different cultural orientations yet they have some unifying factors. One of the major challenges that these groups face is defining their Identity within the American context. This paper seeks to discuss the identity of the Hispanics and the concept of ethnicity as structured in Latin America. Latin America has the most diverse composition of people. The indigenous group of people in Latin America was the Euro-Metstizo (Gracia, 2011, p. 564). However, the immigration of people in the region has led to a complex society. It comprises of people from almost all regions of the word. Currently, the largest groups of the inhabitants are people with European-ancestry (Schemelkes, 201, p. 90). African Americans and Native Americans also form a large proportion of its inhabitants. There are also several groups from different countries, which include Argentina, Brazil, Chile Venezuela and Paraguay. Owing to the diversity of the groups of this region, the region exhibits diversity in cultures societal composition and identity. It was not until 1976 that the term ‘Hispanics’ came into existence. The Federal Bureaucrats who were working under President Richard M. Nixon coiled the term. The term was essential in the 1980 census since it helped the government to get an accurate count of all the citizens who either were Latin Americans or had a Spanish descent. According to Raul, we can refer to the term ‘Hispanic’ as an ethnic label as opposed to a racial label (1998, 21). The group comprises of Spanish speaking Americans. The Mexican War led to the immigration of the first Spanish-speaking group of people (Mexican Americans) in America. Others include immigrants from Cuba, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and South America. There has been an increasing trend of the number of people within the Hispanic label. The Hispanic population has shown a tremendous growth from 39.9 Million people in 2003 to approximately 50 Million people in 2010 making it the largest minority group in America (Gracia, 2011, p. 567). The increase in population of the Hispanics has led to a heated debate about their identity within the American Population. As discussed above, the Hispanics are comprised of several groups of people with diverse historical backgrounds. This makes it difficult to group Hispanics according to a common set of shared traits. The Mexican Americans form the largest group of the Hispanics. Their culture has undergone several changes through their interaction with different groups in their history. Between 1520 and 1809, there was a synthesis of Spanish and Indian cultures took place. Other than their interactions with the Indians during the three centuries, the Mexicans also experienced a cultural change from their interaction with different groups (Raul, 1998, p. 22). In 1910, they migrated from Mexico to the U.S. During the same year, many groups of people migrated into the U.S among which were Europeans and people from the Far East. The immigration trend to the U.S continued until the start of the great depression in the 1930s. Until then, the Mexicans have borrowed some cultural aspects from the other immigrants. Despite the effects of the interactions, the Mexicans managed to conserve Spanish as their main language. The Puerto Ricans and the other groups, just like the Mexicans, have inherited a mixture of cultures. The common trait that the Hispanics share is their language. However, the use of the language has decreased over the centuries due to several factors. One of the main aspects that have led to the fading of the language is generational changes. The recent generations of the Hispanics portray a high affinity for English language. For instance, it weakens the ties that the people have as far as language is concerned. Additionally, intermarriages between the Hispanics and non-Hispanic groups have made the ties between the Hispanic groups weak. Grouping them based on the Spanish language would be similar to grouping Arab Americans, African Americans and Native Americans based on the English language. Different groups of the Hispanics have different cultural backgrounds in terms of their ancestry. They belong to different races. Additionally, through their life experiences they have developed different attributes or rather traits from other groups. From their ways of living, one can say that they can be sometimes Asians, Indians, Italians, black, middle Easterners or even Native Americans (Raul, 1998, p. 25). This poses a challenge in the identification of a common trait since they seem to lack a common uniting factor other than their language, as aforementioned. Defining Hispanic identity in terms of historic events and relations has several merits. The different groups within the ‘Hispanic’ label will not object such form of identification since they know the significance of the events in their History. Additionally, historic events and relations act as a unifying figure in the Hispanic American community. Therefore, besides acting as a form of identification, they would play a pivotal role in enhancing more unity within the groups in question. The identification of the Hispanics using historic events and relations enable the larger American community to appreciate them more because such events also have an impact on the entire nation. The American community should not use any markers to identify any group of people. The markers usually have some generalizations of a given group of people, which might not be fulfilling. They also propagate disintegration of a nation, which may yield certain social evils such as discrimination against the group in question. This has been evident in the U.S whereby the Whites undermine the minority groups because of their color, race or even culture. The African Americans, Hispanics as well as the Asian Americans have been termed as illegal aliens in their motherland an aspect that is not only demeaning but also humiliating. As aforementioned, the term Hispanics came into being in the mid 1970s as the federal bureaucracies were searching for a term to label the Spanish-speaking immigrants in America. Research has shown that most people would not prefer such branding thus they should be given a chance to define themselves. For instance, most of the Hispanics prefer their country of origin’s name to the group name. The markers usually refer to a large group of people, which may not have many unifying factors. For instance, in the case of the Hispanics the only unifying factor is their language, Spanish. Therefore, the mark might not capture the identity of the people adequately. This deprives the groups in question the freedom to express their cultural aspects since some of them might violate the principles of the other groups under the markers. The group markers also force the group members to live up to the standards or rather requirements of the given marker. This is because a certain group may not be familiar with the regularities within a given group and may end up straining to fit in the group. In conclusion, Latin America stands out as the region in the world that has inhabitants from diverse ancestries. They include inhabitants of the European descent, blacks and Asians among others. Hispanics form the largest minority group in America. The term ‘Hispanic’ was first used during the 1980 census in America as a form of identity for all the Spanish-speaking groups from different regions of the world. Over the years, there has been a lot of controversies about Hispanic identity. The Hispanics lack common traits to be grouped together. The only unifying factor within the Hispanics is the Spanish language. However, the language has continued to lose its significance within the group. Defining Hispanic identity according to the Historical events and relations presents several merits not only to the group but also to American nation. It will boost the esteem of the Hispanics besides increasing the unity among the different groups since all of them are familiar with such. The use of markers in identifying a given group of people does not give a full representation of all the different socio-cultural aspects of the groups in question. However, if any markers were to be used, the people in question should be given the chance to define such markers rather than being branded. For instance, some Hispanics still identify themselves with their country of origin. They are members of different cultures so they cannot be merged based on their cultural traits. REFERENCES Gracia, J. (2011). Hispanic/ Latino Identity: A Response to Tamello. Ethnicities, 11(4), 563-569. Raul, Q. (1998). Hispanic or Latino? The Struggle of Identity in a Race-based Society. Diversity Factor, 6(4), 20-25. Schemelkes, S. (2010). Adult Education and Indigenous People in Latin America. International Review of Education, 57(2), 89-105.	https://www.wowessays.com/free-samples/hispanic-identity-essay/
A charrette is a focus group that brings together a wide variety of stakeholders in order to map solutions. Originally used in the Public Health field, our CDA Team and others have borrowed the term for community and cultural heritage work. Our charrettes bring individuals together to collaborate and workshop ideas for a common community vision. We focus on topics such as promoting and protecting cultural heritage, telling underrepresented histories, and discovering archival assets in communities. For our CDA team, we collaborate with a diverse group of stakeholders and individuals such as funders, librarians, community members, professors and academics, town officials, activists, artists, and archivists. These diverse participants ensure that the charrette isn’t an echo-chamber. Rather, members share a desire to invest in and protect a community but from different angles and perspectives. A good charrette invites community expertise and specific knowledge of the historical and cultural dynamic; members within the community know the needs far better than we ever could. A common and often deadly shortcoming of any institutional project is to assume the institution knows what’s best for the community. Equally devastating is when an institution has a real desire to participate but struggles to have meaningful, sustained engagement. Both examples lead to institutions flailing in a sea of uncertainty and ineffectiveness. Charrettes are one way to counter these outcomes. It can be eye opening and humbling to have community members speak to historic problems and instances of broken trust face to face. For the charrette hosted by CDA in April at Black Communities: A Conference for Collaboration we asked individuals to share their knowledge of an African American community, its needs, and some hidden history highlights. Our charrette was an informal lunchtime meeting. We provided a worksheet (with consent form to use the data collected included!) with a few questions, each probing a little more deeply into the needs and histories of communities. These questions asked participants to identify a place and describe how history is either being preserved or ignored. Our focus was (and remains) geared towards archival and cultural heritage so our questions related to storytelling and preservation of histories and materials. Our first question asked participants to identify a place and a little-known history from that area. Some of the towns and communities identified were Starkville, MS, Riceville, TX, Shreveport, LA, Halifax County, NC, Chicago, IL, and Winston-Salem, NC. Some participants told their family’s history while others focused on broader groups such as the Indigenous peoples and industries. The second question was “What does this community need to better tell its story?” One participant from Halifax County, NC wrote: “support with National Park Service applications, (land owner contacts and research) oral history interview compilation and other related supports.” Another participant interested in Riceville, TX noted that their community need “oral history work” and a project to address that was underway. The third question asked specifically “How is African American history preserved and shared in this community?” A participant from Shreveport, LA wrote “Southern U archives, (opening soon) North Louisiana Civil Rights Museum and NORLA Preservation Project (restoring shotgun houses).” Another participant from Chicago IL stated “History is preserved through oral conversations, research and personal narratives. We celebrate the lives of our ancestors through continual community building and grass roots organizing.” The emphasis on in-person communication is something that a charrette works hard to emulate and build upon. Our final question asked to identify next steps. Preservation is important, but it must lead to something. We wanted to know how the ideas from this charrette could inform not only our work but work within the community. Charrettes can be all day affairs or an hour, like ours at Black Communities. Charrettes are connective, collaborative, exploratory and possibly explosive. All these attributes indicate that these types of in-person focus groups are necessary to identify need and ultimately movement. As one participant perfectly summed up, “information has to drive advocacy.” We post every week on different topics but if there is something you’d like to see, let us know either in the comments or email Claire our Community Outreach Coordinator: [email protected].	https://blogs.lib.unc.edu/shc/2018/10/15/what-is-a-charrette/
What happened to the first Californians? Before 1769, over 300,000 Native Californians lived in the state. This population was made up of over 100 tribes that practiced diverse cultural and linguistic traditions. In 1870, 22 years after the discovery of gold in California, less than 30,000 were left. You and your investigative team will have an opportunity to become Internet sleuths. Your team will investigate reasons why the first Californians practically disappeared from the state. 4.3.3. Analyze the effects of the Gold Rush on settlements, daily life, politics, and the physical environment (e.g., using biographies of John Sutter, Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, and Phoebe Apperson Hearst). a. Provide an introductory paragraph. b. Establish and support a central idea with a topic sentence at or near the beginning of the first paragraph. c. Include supporting paragraphs with simple facts, details, and explanations. d. Conclude with a paragraph that summarizes the points. 1.2. Summarize major ideas and supporting evidence presented in spoken messages and formal presentations. 1. Students place key events and people of the historical era they are studying both in a chronological sequence and within a spatial context; they interpret timelines. 3. Students identify and interpret the multiple causes and effects of historical events. Why did the Native Californian population decrease at such a rapid rate during the years 1769-1870? List the three main reasons. Who caused the decrease in population to happen? Where in California did the decrease in population happen? Why did the decrease in population happen? When did the decrease in population happen? How did the decrease in population happen? Meet with your team members. Choose your roles. These roles include: chief inspector, historian, reporter, and press agent. Go to the Gold Rush website at the Oakland Museum of California. Follow the California Indian Pathway. To follow the California Indian Pathway, first click on the words California Indian. After you finish reading the page, find the purple words California Indian at the top right hand corner of the page. Click on the right arrow. DO NOT click on the pointed finger at the bottom of the page. Once you have answered the first question listed in the task section, click on the colored box below that matches the color at the top of your groups question sheet. For many people, the California Gold Rush continues to represent a time of prosperity and opportunity. Unfortunately, for the first Californians, it represents a period in their history of destruction and loss. As people from around the world rushed in with the hope of seizing vast fortunes, they trampled a wealth of native cultures and natural resources. What lessons can we learn from the experiences of the first Californians? How has the treatment of Native Californians changed? What can we do to insure that future generations of Californians benefit equally from the next "Gold Rush"?	http://explore.museumca.org/goldrush/curriculum/1stcalifornians/
University of Plymouth's undergraduate alumni and current postgraduate student of the School of Law, Criminology and Government, Katie McBride (nee Pratt) is undertaking research to understand experiences of violence and hate crime in everyday life for people who identify as transgender. Before re-joining the University, Katie was previously Chief Executive of the regional equality and human rights body, Equality South West. The organisation supported individuals and groups, via seven regional equality networks to engage, educate and influence key institutions across the South West on issues of rights, discrimination and victimisation experienced by potential service users, customers, and staff. The aim was to encourage a greater understanding within the organisations of their responsibilities to support and protect the rights of individuals from a range of diverse backgrounds, including those who identify as transgender. As part of this work, Katie and her colleagues supported the Regional Transgender Equality Network to host events, deliver training and facilitate discussions with key decision makers in organisations including the police, health care commissioners, education and housing providers. Over the past 12-18 months there has been a growing academic and societal interest in expanding our knowledge and understanding of transgender identities. But, as Katie’s work with the Network over the previous decade demonstrates, discrimination, victimisation and hate crime are long established realities and norms for many who identify as transgender. Research that recognises these experiences and shines a light on them can play a part in increasing wider recognition of such identities and experiences within our society and in doing so has an opportunity to influence greater protection and support for those targeted by others as a result. Following a short career break to raise her child, Katie joined the University receiving a scholarship to undertake research in this is specialised area. Katie’s research, supervised by Dr Zoë James, expert in Hate Studies, is to understand the lived experiences of transgendered people. In particular, experiences of society’s treatment and perceptions and how these experiences impact upon individuals throughout their lives. The research approach that Katie has selected recognises the diversity of individual experiences and a broad interpretation of hate crime that spans from the daily 'looks', or discrimination in accessing services, to the brutal violence we see splashed across the international media. Katie is interested in hearing from anyone who has in the past or currently self- identifies as transgender. Katie’s research recognises the breadth of identities that such a label can encompass and as such you will not be excluded if you identify your gender as something other than transgender but nonetheless as outside of societal notions of gender as fixed and binary.	https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/research/criminology-criminal-justice-and-law/understanding-transgendered-people-s-experiences-of-hate-crime
YOUR LIFE YOUR STORY… unleashing the power of relationships Your Life Your Story, is a small charity managed by a group of 4 trustees who are care experienced adults, caregivers or both. We deliver creative based workshops & training to professionals, perform at conferences, exhibitions & events, and work with children & young people to explore their story through creativity and the arts. Collectively we understand the value of creativity and connection, not only in the lives of people who have experienced adversity but also in providing insight for those who work along side them. Many Your Life Your Story participants remain connected and our community has grown nationally since the first event in the Autumn of 2017. Your Life Your Story is home to a hugely diverse community with a shared identity, and as our collective voice grows louder so does our determination to make a positive contribution to improving services for vulnerable children and the adult’s they become through mutually rewarding relationships reclaimed through the shared narrative of lived experience.	https://www.ylys.org.uk/about
History Built to Last History takes many forms. HistoryBuilt can tailor a service package to your organization’s particular needs. Services include research, writing, oral histories, educational programs and events, and walking tours. We are a leading expert in Pacific Northwest regional history, and specialize in representing and exhibiting diverse voices and experiences through our work. Services Research Using historic and contemporary written materials, online resources, photographs, and audio & visual recordings to uncover the histories for: organizations, businesses, communities, individuals, and buildings. Writing HistoryBuilt regularly publishes in print and online media, and will provide its same clear, effective, and intriguing writing to any project. Oral History We can help conceptualize a project, conduct interviews using audio & video recording equipment, provide transcription, and oral history training. Educational Programs Janice is an experienced and captivating speaker who offers illustrated talks on a variety of Oregon and Pacific Northwest topics. Walking Tours Putting history “on the ground” by preparing and leading educational and fun walking tours of historical events, people, and places. Consulting HistoryBuilt will assist you in developing your historical projects and connecting you with additional resources and potential collaborators.	https://historybuilt.com/services/
Working as part of a collegiate team, the successful candidate will have input into all aspects of client relationship activities from attending pitch meetings through to on boarding and managing on-going client relationships. This individual will be responsible for a book of predominantly UK institutional client relationships. The company prides itself on being a forward thinking and innovative asset management firm. As markets evolve and the whole complexity of the pensions’ mandate increases, they are constantly seeking to be at the forefront of innovative thinking, providing solutions to address these challenges. The firm seeks like-minded individuals who are interested in the evolution of investment solutions and are open to new ideas and ways of doing things, whilst also placing huge focus on doing the basics exceptionally well. Key responsibilities: Requirements: William Blake Group is a privately-owned recruitment consultancy led by experienced members of the industry. We specialise in partnering with the world’s leading investment managers, placing experienced professionals into roles within Distribution, Finance and Fund Operations. Working in a consultative, client-focused and flexible manner, the team partners with a select group of clients to identify and hire diverse and talented professionals.	https://www.efinancialcareers.com/jobs-UK-London-Institutional_Client_Director.id10898483
In 2016, the Stella Prize will release its inaugural Diversity Count. Modelled after the annual Stella Count, which tallies the publication and review of women’s fiction and non-fiction books, the Diversity Count will look to statistically collect ‘data about race, disability, non-binary gender identification, and sexual orientation’. Inspired by the VIDA Women of Color Count, which documents the number of publications by self-identified women writers of colour, the methodology of the Stella Prize’s Diversity Count is still being developed, but is likely to solicit data from reviewed book authors who self-identify as being from ‘diverse’ backgrounds. For many, this is a welcome, pioneering initiative. Statistics are a valuable addition to diverse writers’ lived experiences. They help identify what can be done to address the barriers that prevent the publication and review of quality work by diverse writers. These statistics could potentially remove the burden of exposing unequal representation and unfair industry practices from the shoulders of writers from diverse backgrounds, making the diversification of the publishing scene every culture-making Australian’s responsibility. It is a daunting task. There will always be things that can be done better, that might only become obvious after much work has been done. The collection of evidence will be hard enough, but the consequent task will be much harder: the task of making cultural production and reception more representative of publics that seek cultivation, who seek stories that resonate with their experiences, hopes, and fears. Nevertheless, early contributions from relevant parties can help identify problems that are best resolved in the initial stages. The comments below are given in the spirit of collaboration, and it is hoped they are received in kind. What does ‘diversity’ mean? Who gets to be considered ‘diverse’ in Australia today? Besides those who identify as Indigenous, all others might be considered ‘settlers’ or ‘migrants’. Yet various settler and migrant groups have experienced barriers to cultural production at different stages in Australian history. At what point does someone from a migrant background become part of the majority? The question then becomes, are there specific ethnic backgrounds that should be considered ‘diverse’ for the purposes of the Stella Diversity Count? In the 2014 VIDA Women of Color Count, race identification was based on a self-selected set of boxes to tick based on US census categories. The only category for those who do not identify as belonging to several categories of ‘Asian’, ‘Black’, ‘Latin/Spanish Hispanic’, and various combinations of mixed-race options, is ‘white’ – a category that many Mediterranean and Middle Eastern writers in Australia might find problematic. The question then is, what kind of ‘white’ should constitute the majority standard of ‘whiteness’ against which ethnic diversity should be counted? Religious identification is absent from the early formulation of the Diversity Count. Freedom of worship, respect for human rights, and upholding multiculturalism within a secular state, are relevant issues in contemporary public life. The prevalence of anti-Islamic sentiment in the light of recent global events indicates that some religions are associated with particular values, and individuals who practice these religions are often subject to street, school and employment discrimination based on behaviour and values perceived to be associated with religion. Whether religious identification should or shouldn’t be included in the inaugural Count is worth considering. Questions of publication choices and reviewing opportunities The Diversity Count intends to survey Australian books published and reviewed in 2015. Results may show that non-white, and/or non-binary-gender-identifying, and/or non-heterosexual, and/or people with disabilities, have not published much reviewed work. Books published and reviewed in 2015 is a difficult baseline for assessing the range of diverse publications in this or any year. The choice of what kind of work will be counted excludes quality work in other types of publications, or works that have not yet been reviewed. The small networks of self-identified writers of colour make it harder to find independent, qualified reviewers of colour with the time and willingness to take on reviewing tasks. It would be helpful to track who reviews diverse work. Just as the previous Stella Counts tracked how often, and who, reviews women’s work, the Diversity Count would show whether writers of colour review each other’s work, or white writers’ work, and whether white writers review the work of writers of colour. The problem of making visual comparisons The visual representation of data requires clearly distinct variables. The need for clarity makes it necessary to consider how to depict the intersections of various categories of diversity. For instance, trends involving the work of men of colour might be different to trends for women of colour; disparate trends might also be observed in the work of queer men and queer women, and in the work of men and women living with disabilities, and so on. All of this would then have to be referenced against a range of independent variables, which might include white men (vis-à-vis everyone else), white women (vis-à-vis women of colour, queer women of colour, etc.), heterosexual-identified whitefellas, able-bodied writers, and the list goes on. Many more pie charts might be needed to map out the nuances of representation issues in Australian book publishing and reviewing. I wonder if a resulting data overload might reduce the framing of the problem and proposed solutions to a mere numbers game. What do we risk losing if the priority becomes changing the annual show of numbers, rather than taking stock of how we can do cultural production differently, and more democratically? All this said, I wish the Stella Diversity Count team all the best in their efforts to undertake this large and complex challenge. I look forward to seeing their data. Statistics will be a helpful foundation for checking if Australian publishing is as diverse as the Australian public, and if it has truly given a fair go to this diverse Australian public. I hope, however, that the end-goal is not merely data generation but an improved quality of public debate, and increased efforts to encourage the publishing and reviewing of diverse writing. I hope the Diversity Count encourages readers to reflect on their book-reading and book-buying habits, book club organisers to consider diverse work for their groups, librarians to make diverse work accessible to their visitors, booksellers to stock more diverse work on their shelves, educators to add more diverse work to their curricula. Just as publishers and reviewers have a say in what books contribute to enhancing Australia’s cultural output, so too do readers, librarians, booksellers, parents, and teachers. This is our collective Australian culture, after all. We are thus all invested. About Angela Serrano Angela Serrano is a freelance writer and visual arts entrepreneur living and working in Melbourne. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2007 at the Ateneo de Manila University. She tweets almost everyday at @angelita_serra and blogs less frequently on http://angelitamaldita.tumblr.com This commission was supported by the Australia Council for the Arts and edited by Peril Magazine.	https://writersvictoria.org.au/writing-life/news/the-stella-prize

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