Category Archives: Transhuman News

AFRICA

The United Nations Development Programme defines human development as a process of enlarging the range of peoples choice by increasing their opportunities for education, healthcare, income and employment, and covering the full range of human choices from a sound physical environment to socioeconomic, education, health, and political systems. And sustainable development refers to a multidimensional process defined by Michael Todaro as involving the reorganisation and reorientation of entire economic and social systems.

The process aims at meeting human development goals such as longevity, increased purchasing power and increased adult literacy rates, while at the same time sustaining the ability of the natural systems to provide natural resources and ecosystem services on which the economy, people and society depend, now and in future.

Impactful research

In Africa and the world over, universities are responsible for research, scholarship and innovation and are depended upon to serve as agents for discovery, innovation, adoption and dissemination of knowledge generated. A major challenge that many researchers engaged in impactful research face is how to translate their seminal research findings into policy and practice. The standard research process is to design and conduct quality research, then to disseminate findings through peer-reviewed conference presentations and peer-reviewed publications.

The only limitation is that most times, the leaders, policy-makers, and practitioners are rarely at these conferences and may never read the peer-reviewed articles published in top tier journals in the field.

Some innovative researchers now prepare policy briefs, and distribute them to funders, leaders and policy implementers in government agencies, for-profit and not-for-profit agencies. In addition, blogs, podcasts and social media outlets such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn are being used to communicate pertinent research findings instantly. While these are positive steps, however, they do not guarantee research policy and practice adoption.

In the case of my own discipline of education, quality research findings exist on how to address absolute inequity and relative inequity in our schools, how to address equity and improve learning, how to tap into research findings on emotional intelligence to improve quality of learning in our schools and colleges, how to close learning opportunity gaps, and how to improve the quality of online learning during this time of COVID-19.

However the challenge remains: how to translate research findings into policy and practice and how to obtain buy-in from leaders, practitioners and community stakeholders, or how to successfully engage in translational research.

Technology impact

With advancements in technology, the advent of social media, and based on the science of data analytics, information on research findings is readily available. In most higher education institutions, we now have advanced tools that assist institutions to measure faculty productivity and to summarise the kind of impactful research findings being generated. In the case of some higher education institutions, however, the fact that data-analytical tools are not being utilised is institutional- and policy-dependent.

While it is no longer complex to access and disseminate research findings to policy makers and practitioners, the process requires additional resources as well as the institutional and governmental willingness to put in place policies and regulations that nurture collaboration among researchers and community stakeholders.

Faculty learning and development

The world over, university professors and graduate students produce the majority of research. However, in the case of many African countries, higher education systems seem to pay less attention to academic staff development through professional learning and development. For instance, in Kenya, the higher education system seems to pay less attention to faculty development, and only 43% of university faculty have PhDs.

The enrolment in PhD programmes has remained flat. It is estimated that 4,394, 1% of the total population of the students, enrolled for doctoral degrees and only 400 students graduate within five years (Commission for University Education, 2017). This situation is the same in many African universities. The challenge here is not only translating research findings to practice, but getting doctoral students to complete their research and then share their findings with policy-makers and practitioners in a timely manner.

Research policy and practice

The need to translate research findings into policy and practice is essential to guide policy and institutional leaders on how they may enhance research productivity in pursuit of their shared purpose, mission, and goals.

Given the increasing amount of funding allocated to research by governments, foundations, and non-government institutions, it is necessary to critically explore the issue of translating research to policy and practice. Aside from financial resources allocated to research and development, the translation of research findings into policy and practice ensures the accomplishment of the core mission of discovery and innovation.

As correctly noted by Dr Nailah Suad Nasir, president of the Spencer Foundation, as researchers we often do not think enough about the consumers of our work. In the case of education, Nasir observes that it is critical for researchers to think about how their work translates into educational policies, educational practice, and how they support their colleagues who are running school districts, teaching, and creating educational environments for children. This should be the case with all researchers in all disciplines, and they should involve policymakers and community stakeholders.

Going back to the So what? question: the core mission of every researcher has to be about how their research is impacting the world. In fact, research funding organisations such as the Spencer Foundation are now investing in scholars capacity to communicate their own research to a wider audience.

Interdisciplinary research

To successfully impact the world, researchers cannot continue working in silos and must engage in interdisciplinary research. In addition, researchers in Africa need to collaborate with researchers from within and without Africa, especially their colleagues in the diaspora.

Researchers engaged in interdisciplinary research have a leading role to play in addressing grand challenges facing humanity such as how can technological advances can work for everyone and not just for a few in society.

How should sustainable development be achieved for all, while addressing global climate change? How can everyone in the world have sufficient clean water without conflict? How can Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan, for example, share the water resources of the river Nile? How can humane economies be developed to help to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor and eliminate poverty in the world? How can we ensure equity and educational improvement?

These grand challenges are so complex that no single genius, no single academic discipline, no single institution, community or country can solve them alone. Researchers from all disciplines need to work together collaboratively beyond the silos of discipline, department, college, business or industry, to positively impact the world through research, policy-making and practice.

Fredrick Muyia Nafukho is professor of educational administration and human resource development and associate dean for faculty affairs in the College of Education and Human Development, Texas A&M University, United States. He can be reached at nafukho@gmail.com.

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Translating research findings into policy and practice - University World News

Theres plenty of evidence for it, Gallo said. The weakness is we dont really know the longevity [of the protection]. It will probably work only for months, but we cant say for sure.

Talk about flu vaccines comes as coronavirus vaccine trials remain underway.

Abram Wagner, a research assistant professor at the University of Michigans department of epidemiology, told Time magazine he thinks its understandable for some people to want the flu shot but feel skeptical about the COVID-19 vaccine considering the flu vaccine has been tried and tested.

If you have experience with getting the jab, and you have the shot, its no big deal, then I think you will be just more likely to get another shot in the future, even if its not the same shot you got in the past, Wagner said.

Mayo Clinc states that a coronavirus vaccine will take 12 to 18 months or longer to develop and test in human clinical trials. And we dont know yet whether an effective vaccine is possible for this virus.

For now, frequently washing your hands, wearing a mask and practicing social distancing are among the ways people can protect themselves and others against COVID-19, according to the CDC.

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Evidence suggests getting the flu shot could help protect you against COVID-19 - Atlanta Journal Constitution

The human brain is the command centre for the nervous system and enables thoughts, memory, movement, and emotions by a complex function that is the highest product of biological evolution. Maintaining a healthy brain during ones life is the uppermost goal in pursuing health and longevity. As the population ages, the burden of neurological disorders and challenges for the preservation of brain health increase. It is therefore vital to understand what brain health is and why it is important. This article is the first in a series that aims to define brain health, analyse the effect of major neurological disorders on brain health, and discuss how these disorders might be treated and prevented.

Human ageing is mainly reflected in the aspects of brain ageing and degradation of brain function. The number of people aged 60 years and over worldwide was around 900 million in 2015 and is expected to grow to two billion by 2050.3 With the increases in population ageing and growth, the burden of neurological disorders and challenges to the preservation of brain health steeply increase. People with neurological disorders will have physical disability, cognitive or mental disorders, and social dysfunction and be a large economic burden.

Globally, neurological disorders were the leading cause of disability adjusted life years (276 million) and the second leading cause of death (9 million) in 2016, according to the Global Burden of Diseases study.4 Stroke, migraine, Alzheimers disease and other dementias, and meningitis are the largest contributors to neurological disability adjusted life years.4 About one in four adults will have a stroke in their lifetime, from the age of 25 years onwards.5 Roughly 50 million people worldwide were living with dementia in 2018, and the number will more than triple to 152 million by 2050.6 In the following decades, governments will face increasing demand for treatment, rehabilitation, and support services for neurological disorders.

Opportunities and challenges exist in the assessment of brain health, the mechanism of brain function and dysfunction, and approaches to promote brain health (box 1).

Lack of metrics or tools to comprehensively assess or quantify brain health

Little knowledge about the mechanisms of brain function and dysfunction

Few effective approaches to prevent and treat brain dysfunction in some major neurological disorders, such as dementia

Need to precisely preserve brain functions for people with neurosurgical diseases

Defining and promoting optimal brain health require the scientific evaluation of brain health. However, it is difficult to comprehensively evaluate or quantify brain health through one metric owing to the multidimensional aspects of brain health. Many structured or semistructured questionnaires have been developed to test brain health by self-assessments or close family member assessments of daily function or abilities. In recent decades new structural and functional neuroimaging techniques have been applied to evaluate brain network integrity and functional connectivity.7 However, these subjective or objective measures have both strengths and weaknesses. For instance, scales such as the mini-mental state examination and Montreal cognitive assessment are simple and easy to implement but are used only as global screening tools for cognitive impairment; tests such as the digit span, Rey-Osterrieth complex figure test, trail making A and B, Stroop task, verbal fluency test, Boston naming test, and clock drawing test are used mainly to assess one or two specific domains of memory, language, visuospatial, attention, and executive function; and neuroimaging techniques, although non-invasive and objective, still have disadvantages of test contraindications, insufficient temporal or spatial resolution, motion artefact, and high false discovery rates, which limit their clinical transformation.

Another difficulty in measuring brain health is that age, culture, ethnicity, and geography specific variations exist in the perception of optimal brain health. Patient centred assessment of brain function, such as self-perception of cognitive function and quality of life, should also be considered when measuring brain health.8 Universal acceptable, age appropriate, multidimensional, multidisciplinary, and sensitive metrics or tools are required to comprehensively measure and monitor brain function and brain health.

To promote optimal brain health, we need a better understanding of the mechanisms of brain function and dysfunction. Unfortunately, little is known about the working mechanism of the brain. Although we have made considerable developments in neuroscience in recent decades, we still cannot totally decipher the relations between spatiotemporal patterns of activity across the interconnected networks of neurons and thoughts or the cognitive and mental state of a person.9 Recent progress in brain simulation and artificial intelligence provides a vital tool to understand biological brains, and vice versa.1011 The development of brain inspired computation, brain simulation, and intelligent machines was emphasised in the European Union and China Brain Project.912

Meanwhile, the mechanisms behind the brain dysfunction in some neurological disorders are still not well understood, especially for mental and neurodegenerative disorders. Further investigation of the mechanisms of brain diseases may indicate approaches to treatment and improve brain function. Brain imaging based cognitive neuroscience may unravel the underlying brain mechanism of cognitive dysfunction and provide an avenue to develop a biological framework for precision biomarkers of mood disorders.13

Most common neurological diseases, such as cerebrovascular diseases and Alzheimers disease, have complex aetiopathologies, typically involving spatial-temporal interactions of genetic and environmental factors. However, a single genetic factor could account for the disease progression of monogenic neurological disorders. These diseases could be more readily investigated by simplified cross species modelling, leading to better understanding of their mechanisms and greater efficiency in testing innovative therapies. Such research may provide a window to promote the investigation of common neurological disorders and general brain health, as discussed by Chen and colleagues elsewhere in this series.14

Few effective approaches are available to prevent and treat brain dysfunction in some major neurological disorders, such as dementia. Neurons are not renewable, and brain dysfunction is always irreversible. Recent trials targeting amyloid clearance and the selective inhibition of tau protein aggregation failed to improve cognition or modify disease progression in patients with mild Alzheimers disease.1516 More attention has focused on other potential therapeutic targets, such as vascular dysfunction, inflammation, and the gut microbiome, as discussed by Shi and colleagues.17 In particular, recent studies showed that the early impairment of cognition was induced by the disruption of neurovascular unit integrity, which may cause hypoperfusion and the breakdown of the blood-brain barrier and subsequent impairment in the clearance of proteins in the brain.1819 Physical activity, mental exercise, a healthy diet and nutrition, social interaction, ample sleep and relaxation, and control of vascular risk factors are considered six pillars of brain health. The AHA/ASA presidential advisory recommended the AHAs Lifes Simple 7 (non-smoking, physical activity, healthy diet, appropriate body mass index, blood pressure, total cholesterol, and blood glucose) to maintain optimal brain health.2 Pan and colleagues discuss how this may indicate a new dawn of preventing some cognitive impairment and brain dysfunction by preventing vascular risk factors or cerebrovascular diseases.20

For other neurological disorders with potential therapeutic approaches, the main aim is to preserve brain function. Impaired brain function due to anatomical structural damage is underestimated in patients with neurosurgical diseases such as brain tumours, trauma, and epilepsy. In recent years, treatment targets for neurosurgical diseases have changed from focusing on survival or life expectancy to balancing brain structures and functions. Precise preservation of brain function requires an understanding of the exquisite relation between brain structure and function and advanced technologies to visualise brain structure-function relations.21

Another example of the predicament associated with protection of brain function is uncertainty in the treatment response in epilepsy management. Current standard care for epilepsy relies on a trial and error approach of sequential regimens of antiseizure medications. The time delay due to this treatment approach means that such treatments may be less effective and irreversible damage may occur. Chen and colleagues22 describe how recent advances in personalised epilepsy management based on artificial intelligence, genomics, and patient derived stem cells are bringing some hope to overcome this predicament in epilepsy management and promise a more effective strategy.2324

Brain health is the maintenance of multidimensional aspects of brain function. However, several neurological disorders may affect brain health in one or more aspects of brain function. Deciphering and promoting the function and health of the brain, the most mysterious organ in the human body, will have a dramatic impact on science, medicine, and society.25 In the past seven years, a number of large scale brain health initiatives have been launched in several countries to promote the development of neuroscience, brain simulation, and brain protection.9 However, further challenges are raised by the different key research directions of brain projects in different countries. In the face of these challenges, Liu and colleagues argue that collaboration on brain health research is urgently needed.26 As the other articles in this series describe, coordinated research has enormous potential to improve the prognosis of brain disorders.

Brain health is the preservation of optimal brain integrity and mental and cognitive function and the absence of overt neurological disorders

Human ageing increases the burden of brain dysfunction and neurological diseases and the demands for medical resources

Further studies are required to assess brain health, understand the mechanism of brain function and dysfunction, and explore effective approaches to promote brain health.

Originally posted here:
What is brain health and why is it important? - The BMJ

Express News Service

KOCHI: Since 1992, the World Mental Health Federation has been observing October 10 as World Mental Health Day. Many world organisations and NGOs come together to use this day to spread the word about mental health.This year, the theme of World Mental Health Day is mental health for all; greater investment, greater access, everyone, everywhere. This theme rightly points to the need of the hour - to make standard mental health care accessible and affordable to everyone all over the world. An unexpected pandemic, the lockdown that followed and its socio-economic impact has sent a large section of the global population through unparalleled, unprecedented stress.

The prevalence of depression, anxiety disorders, substance use disorders, and somatoform disorders have increased. A large number of suicides are also being reported by people of all age groups. The stress experienced by health care workers is another area of grave concern.Even before the onset of the pandemic, the issue of accessibility to mental health care was an issue that affected many in our country.

A survey conducted by Kerala State Mental Health Authority in 2016 had identified that 12.8 per cent of the population in Kerala is suffering from at least one mental health problem that required treatment. The survey also pointed out that 9 per cent of the states population is are suffering from clinical depression.

The unfortunate fact is that only 15 per cent people who suffer mental health problems receive scientific treatment to help them through it. There are three very important factors affecting this treatment gap.The first is a lack of mental health literacy among the public. Though the state is considered 100 per cent literate, with a large section of the people highly educated, scientific knowledge about mental health problems is severely lacking here. Many are ignorant about the fact that mental disorders are essentially disorders of the functioning of the brain, and can be common. They are also oblivious to the fact that mental illnesses can be effectively controlled if treated in initial stages.

The stigma prevalent in society regarding mental illnesses is the second issue. Many people hide the fact that they suffer mental disturbances due to the fear of being ostracized by society. People who have been treated for mental illness are blacklisted for marriage proposals or even employment. If mental disturbances are properly treated and controlled, there is absolutely no problem in leading a married life or working to earn a living.

Lack of access to mental health care services is the third barrier. Many people still believe that they have to go to hospitals or Mental health centres to get treatment for mental illnesses. But the reality is that services of psychiatrists and other mental health professionals are available in all district hospitals and general hospitals as well. Moreover, all the fourteen districts in the state have a fully functioning District Mental health program ( DMHP), in which a mental health team under the leadership of a psychiatrist visits selected primary health centres once in a month, and provides treatment to patients there. So utilisation of all these services can improve access to mental health care.

Fifty per cent of all mental illnesses begin before 14 years, while 75 per cent begin before 24 years. So, early identification and intervention are of utmost importance in preventing long term complications. The Harward Human Development Study which began in 1938 has proved that the quality of human relationships developed in life, especially during childhood and adolescence accounts to longevity. In the days of this physical distancing, lets all pledge to keep ourselves mentally connected so that we can be of service to those in destress. The author is a consultant psychiatrist at MedicalCollege, Trivandrum

Make a small difference

What can you do if you find a person in your family, neighbourhood or workplace suffering from a mental health issues? A friend or acquaintance, without any formal training in mental health care, can do something called mental health first aid in such situations.Approach the person and proactively enquire whats troubling him.Patiently and non judgementally listen to him while he is narrating his problems. A feeling that someone is willing to listen maybe a source of great relief.Give him the necessary scientific and factual information to correct his misconceptions, if any.If problems are still persisting, encourage him to consult a competent mental health professional and take appropriate treatment.Ensure social support to the person in distress. We should ensure that they are not isolated. Its the responsibility of the family members, neighbours, friends, colleagues, and society at large to see that he receives enough social and emotional support.

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Mental health; its never late to seek help - The New Indian Express

The Columbine Health Systems Center for Healthy Aging is hosting a virtual panel discussion at noon on Friday, Oct. 16, to answer community questions about how young people can live longer, healthier lives.

One of the Centers new initiatives is to encourage people in their 20s and 30s to think about what they can do now to support longevity and health across their lifespan and into advanced age, says Nicole Ehrhart, director of the Center and professor in the Department of Clinical Sciences. Research shows that people in their second and third decades rarely explore these topics.

As such, the premise of the panel is to cut through the noise and abundance of health and wellness tips to provide clear recommendations for healthy aging in young adults.

CSU faculty members from the College of Health and Human Sciences will serve as panelists for the discussion, including:

All questions surrounding diet, nutrition, fitness, mental health and general well-being are welcome. Questions can be submitted by emailing healthyaging@colostate.edu. Some to be answered by the panelists include:

Thus, while the panel is geared toward younger people, it will provide general health advice that people of all ages can benefit from.

Attendees may register in advance for the webinar at col.st/pAe2s

The webinar will be recorded for later viewing on the Center for Healthy Agings YouTube playlist.

Excerpt from:
'Aging in Your 20s and 30s' panel to be held Oct. 16 - College of Health and Human Sciences - Source

Los Angeles is the city without a heart, we used to hear when I was growing up in England, few of us having come within 5,000 miles of California. Seventy-eight school districts in search of a center, a desert car culture in which every last soul is locked inside her own four doors, a teenage wasteland: The clichs came streaming in on us as we stood in the rain at bus stops in chilly Oxford, on our way to another unheated basement.

Of course, we all greedily devoured the pictures radiating out from L.A., but even they confirmed our sense that it was the City of the Image, home of the two-dimensional. Yes, the metropolis might have inspired weirdly alternative realities from Thomas Pynchon and Joan Didions passages of dissociation along the 405, but really it was, we assured one another, Disneyland writ large. Yes, we were secretly transfixed by the mean streets of Raymond Chandler nothing seemed to have happened in Oxford since 1555 and, later, the tanned bodies of Baywatch, but we told ourselves that even those who loved and lived in the city of fallen angels described life there as performance art. In Los Angeles its hard to tell if youre dealing with the real true illusion or the false one, wrote the ultimate L.A. woman, Eve Babitz.

Reputations have a longevity that real life might envy, so even today I know that my neighbors in Japan, my cousins in India, see Los Angeles very often as the place where ideas take a breather and a book is rough material for a treatment. If I could invite them over for a single weekend to dispel such secondhand images, it would be the brilliant April days when the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books explodes across the city.

This year, the 25th such festival will be held in the form of 25 virtual events, broadcast every day starting Oct. 18. Appropriately enough for this year of loss, the great Southern Californian rite of spring is being held in autumn. As such, it joins only a handful of years in more than two decades during which I havent cleared my calendar out months in advance to be there. Presenting a book at 18 of the first 20 festivals, I came to see it as the one time in the year when my faith in words in democracy, in diversity, in openness itself got a boost, precisely by overturning everything I had assumed of L.A. before I ever saw it.

A writer these days is paid or, at least, encouraged to spend most of his time not writing. Instead, he babbles about books hes hoping to write and masquerades as the unseen being whos usually, by definition, alone at a desk. Ive spent much of the last 30 years flying to literary festivals everywhere from Shanghai to Bogot and Wellington to Bhutan. Last year alone, in quick succession, I found myself at such gatherings in London, Belfast, Vancouver, Toronto, Berlin, Nashville, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Many of us know how such events play out. Groups of book-club veterans assemble to see in person their charming heroines while more pointy-headed types take notes on yet another discussion of auto-fiction. On comfy seats in big auditoria, writers pretend that the 200 souls in front of them represent the world. As a frequent audience member myself, I relish looking around to be reminded of how many others are thrilling to Dinaw Mengestus explorations of exile and Emma Clines unsettling evocations of young girls loose in the West.

Author Pico Iyer

(Brigitte Lacombe)

The Festival of Books is different in part because its at least as festive as it is bookish and the seats often arent so comfy. All of L.A. County seems to be there, as lovers of Octavia Butler bump up against readers of Hctor Tobar. Kids are carrying balloons on a family outing in the sun, and large groups are heading with delighted shouts toward the En Espaol Stage. Music is blasting from another area and some cheerleaders are strutting their stuff over there, while crowds throng the stalls from Vromans and the Travelers Bookcase and get to see their favorite KCRW or KPCC hosts in person.

Inside the halls, meanwhile, are wide-ranging chats that honor L.A.s status as a home to world-class universities, a capital of dreams for people from everywhere and a city that produces presidents (as well as their fiercest opponents). Ive seen Oliver Stone hold forth on our political landscape and Jared Diamond talk about nearly everything in human existence. Wherever I turn, there are Spanish-speaking writers and considerations of Southeast Asia that Id seldom find in Auckland or London.

Yet, crucially and essentially, the festival is an outdoors celebration in the usually stainless mid-April sunshine, where for once Baldwin Park and South Central and Brentwood and Van Nuys seem to come together. Just before the first Festival of Books, in 1996, Id been living in and around LAX, taking the airport to be a model of the global city of the future. I watched newcomers from Iran, Guatemala, Tibet and China stream into the arrivals hall, only to head out into the daylight and get into cars. And from inside those cars, Koreatown hardly seemed to touch Santa Ana, and Compton and Thai Town belonged to parallel universes.

Get Lit Words Ignite poets, from left, C.E Oldham, Tyris Winter, Khamal Iwvanyanwu and Mila Cudas break into a group poem for passersby at the 2019 festival.

(Ana Venegas / For The Times)

A few months later, at the festival, I saw everyone released from their vehicles and mingling all around me, freeing me at last from the latest L.A. clich. The city may indeed be spread out in a way that precludes the braided density of Toronto or New York, but at the festival, everyones on foot, sharing the same village green, gathering around the childrens stage or snapping up books about Paul Beattys visions of the city, or Cristina Garcias. Colors run.

____

L.A.s enduring advantage over every other city is, of course, its position at the heart of the planetary entertainment industry. So perhaps its fitting that the most high-toned and stimulating session I ever attended featured Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh delivering deeply literate answers about his memoir to a room packed with 800 Deadheads.

This might not be a coincidence. In my 20s, I used to haunt Dead concerts again and again, not for the music but for a sense of community. Suddenly one was off the freeway and out of the office and in some alternative universe in which people were smiling and things were given away for free and we all had the happily woozy sensation of loving something together. My first week of working in Midtown Manhattan, I hurried to catch the Dead at Madison Square Garden; around me were all the same tunes all the same fans but somehow the magic of the Ventura Country Fairgrounds was gone.

Elisa Sifuentes and Kaitlyn Bin, both 16, browse displays of books on the USC campus.

(Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)

Community! That or, rather, its seeming absence lay at the heart of all our cheap jibes about Los Angeles from afar. How could one begin to have a real city scattered across a county more populous than North Carolina (and, in fact, 40 other American states), in which everyone was nosing along those crisscrossing freeways? A city based on mobility is not known for constancy. A life based on fluidity cant be held up by tradition.

For everyone within 100 miles or more, the Festival of Books is a joy precisely because it has so quickly become such a rich and solid tradition. And as some of us return, year after year, it becomes a very human and specific community too. The festival has given me a new friend in Marc, who brings his high school English classes there. Nora, whom I met while I was signing a book of hers, invites me to her Saturday evening party every festival, a lead-up to her Cuban pig roast on Memorial Day. I even get to see my Santa Barbara neighbor T.C. Boyle, whom Ive never seen in Santa Barbara, loping back across a lawn from his Sunday afternoon reading.

There are many reasons to read, and the ones I learned about while studying literature in grad school speak for only a few. Books bring us together; I dont know of many groups that gather to discuss movies or music in the same way. Books put us inside the shoes, the skin, the soul of the Other, something ever more important in our violently polarized times. Books free us from the prison of the self. I like to believe that the Festival of Books honors this by not charging for its events, by offering a wild variety of authors Ive seen Ursula K. Le Guin and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar there, Paul Anka and Huston Smith and by flooding the campus of first UCLA and now USC with 450 authors, 500 booths and sunny diversions on every side.

Jason Ham and Baily Pham read books during the 2018 festival.

(Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)

Im thrilled that the festival will find a way to join us together again this fall even in an age of social distancing: the Year of Zoom has shown me that one can often get an even more intimate sense of an author onscreen than from the far end of a hall. At the same time, as a lifelong fan of the NBA and Major League Baseball, Ive been stunned at how much their games lose in the absence of a real-life crowd. The beauty of the festival lies in part in the fact of 200,000 people coming out to celebrate a pastime that each of us practices alone.

So Ill be keen on listening to Laila Lalami, Marilynne Robinson and Jerry Brown over the coming weeks, and celebrating 25 years of unexpected friendships and golden afternoons and rich memories. (How can I forget the time, as moderator, when I asked a question of a former prime minister of Vietnam, only to realize 30 minutes later that hed been waiting 40 years to offer a full answer?) But, as much as anything, Ill be waiting for next April, and the Aprils to come, to be reminded that conversation, literacy, surprise humanity itself might be alive and well in Los Angeles in ways that poor Oxford could never conceive.

Iyer is the author, most recently, of twinned books, Autumn Light and A Beginners Guide to Japan.

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Pico Iyer on the L.A. Times Festival of Books and community - Los Angeles Times

Now that Im finished crying and touching up my makeup from said tears, I can write about the Digimon Adventure I just finished, Last Evolution Kizuna.

I grew up watching Digimon. It premiered in North America in 1999 when I was just 9 years old. And while I was enjoying Pokemon at the time, choosing between that franchise and Digimon was never really an issue for me. I took the why not both? approach.

But while Pokemon just keeps going and going, making more games for me to buy, Digimon, its original story, finally concluded after two decades.

The story follows a group of kids (or DigiDestined) at summer camp who were transported into a parallel world called the Digiworld. There, they were met by digital monsters that became their partners. The digimon are a combination of different animals, elements, weapons and more. And at the heart of the story is their relationship with their human companions. The children and their digimon often end up fighting bad guys to save the human and digital worlds.

Thats kind of why Im crying as this final movie wraps up. Ive watched these kids and their digimon grow up for 20 years now, from brats at summer school to high school students and college grads. Its ultimately the message of Last Evolution Kizuna that everyone grows up, no matter what.

Sometimes friends grow apart, and sometimes people pass away. But ultimately, youll always have the memories and feelings those friends brought you. Its a bittersweet message, but one this movie delivers in its full capacity. The trailer for the movie makes it immediately clear what the story will focus on.

A mysterious digimon is attacking DigiDestined across the world and causing them to fall into comas. So our central heroes are asked to stop it. Theres just one problem. Two of the characters, arguably the main heroes of the whole series, find out their own time with their digimon partners is running out. And the more they battle, the faster that time passes.

If youre expecting to escape Last Evolution Kizuna without any sniffling, forget it. My wife watched the trailer with me earlier this week and said she was starting to get sad. She doesnt even watch Digimon.

Digimon has always boasted a large cast of characters. The original television series, which had 54 episodes, followed eight kids (and their digimon). Thats essentially 16 characters. But with 54 episodes, writers can give them enough time to develop. The second Digimon series added four more characters and their digimon, while also keeping the original kids involved in the story. Of course, it also had 50 episodes to weave their narrative all together.

Then there are some movies to follow, and it all culminates in Last Adventure Kizuna. So this isnt a movie you can just launch into without having seen all the other stuff.

I spent most of the weekend getting caught up on Digimon Adventure Tri, a multi-part film series that takes place between the TV show and this last movie. The character designs of all the digidestined aging from middle school to high school and college was fascinating to watch. And it just further imitates real-life where kids have grown up watching this show for so many years.

The pacing in Last Evolution Kizuna is quick. And the film doesnt waste time explaining much. If you arent on board with the story up until now, youre out of luck. And even if you are on board, youd best not blink, or youll watch the narrative zoom right by you. With an hour and 34-minute run time, Digimon knows it doesnt have five more movies or 49 more episodes. Everything goes into one punch.

And while I was glad to see the characters from the second television series return, ultimately it robbed some of the first series main characters of screen time. As much as I love the series number two characters being included, they feel kind of tacked on in this story, probably so fans wont complain about them being ignored. But they really dont add much.

The movie kind of bills itself as one last adventure for the main characters of Tai and his digimon partner, Agumon, before they have to say goodbye forever. And because Tais rival, Matt (and his digimon partner Gabumon), has always been sort of the secondary protagonist, the story really focuses on them. So much of the original story is based on their teamwork.

Just about every other character in the movie gets pushed to the side so the narrative can focus on Tai and Matt. But the character I feel gets dropped is Sora. She went from being the mother hen of the DigiDestined, and the romantic interest of both Tai and Matt, to maybe getting two scenes in this movie. Shes the only character who doesnt join in the final fight. Its kind of a bummer. I wondered if shed gotten more screen time if the series two characters hadnt been tacked on.

But I would be lying if I said I was disappointed that the film focused mostly on Tai (and Agumon). Theyve been my favorite characters since 1999 (Im biased). What made this movie even more amazing was I snagged an interview with Tais voice actor, Joshua Seth, before I watched Last Evolution Kizuna.

Hes been homeschooling his kids down in Florida, trying to survive the pandemic like the rest of us. I asked him what its been like to play this character for 20+ years. Seth told me its been amazing, rare, and lucky hes gotten to play the role for so long. He credited fans for his longevity playing Tai.

And Seth said Tai has changed as a character over the years.

Hes become more of the reluctant warrior [and] quiet. Hes hesitant to jump into battle because he realizes the destruction itll have on the world around him and shows himself to be a better leader as a result, Seth said.

His assessment of Tai? Spot on. Tai has always been the leader of the DigiDestined, and they fall to pieces without him. But I do feel like this movie really shows hes not the same cocky kid he was in 1999. Theres much more focus and thought that goes into his actions now. Its great to watch that kind of development in a character I love.

Seth, as the voice of Tai, has a unique perspective on what this final movie means for the group leader and his relationship to Agumon. Because the digimon really do become best friends with their human partners. Seth said Last Evolution Kizuna shows its important to value special relationships in your life and hold dear memories you have of others.

At the same time, when its time to move on, let that person go. We all have to deal with this. Its part of the nature of life, loss, and change. Were going to experience that with Tai and Agumon, he said.

Keeping that quote in mind, I asked Seth if he was ready to say goodbye to Tai, and he said Last Evolution Kizuna feels like an ending. But he added Digimon has millions of fans across the globe. And he could see new places the producers could go with Tai and the franchise, maybe even prequels.

I feel like Tai is part of me, especially since Im using my own voice for him, he said.

Seth said the character defined his career, going back to the beginning when he was pounding the pavement in Los Angeles.

And he left the door open for more.

As always, if they call me, I will come back and voice again, he said.

I blubbered for the entire ending of the movie. No matter what the Digimon writers come up with in the future, Last Evolution Kizuna really feels like a satisfying goodbye.

The animation is stellar, the music is good, and the story is solid.

Id say the only complaint I have about the movie is more about the series as a whole. Continuity is a problem. And what I mean by that is, the way the movie ends, it seems to contradict how the second television series concluded.

The final episode of the second television series gave fans a view of the DigiDestined in 2028. And what we were shown when the episode aired in 2001 doesnt seem to match up with how Last Evolution Kizuna ends.

Maybe I missed something along the way, but I dont know how the two endings can both be canon. And sure, I know its a nitpick. But sometimes, thats what we geeks do.

If youre ready to watch this conclusion two decades in the making, I only have two pieces of advice. Make sure youre up to date. And bring the tissues. Youll need them.

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OPINION | PLATFORM DIVING: Message in new 'Digimon' film is that everyone grows up - Arkansas Online

Tom Brady is 43 years old now, and in some ways his age is showing. His hair is a little more salt and pepper than it once was, theres a few more wrinkles here and there, his legs arent as nimble. Entropy happens to us all.

Tom Brady is also a 43 year old who has one of the best diets a human can have and still plays the game of football at a high level. The now Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback is the greatest QB of all time. With 6 Super Bowl rings and 9 appearances overall, thats a topic that shouldnt even be a discussion present day. Even when youve received all the accolades of yesteryear like Brady has, he still has to continuously prove himself once more.

Just like most times in his career when he struggled, Brady battled back. He turned things around during the game. The Bucs faced a 17-point deficit, but being behind by that score isnt something that is going to make Brady put his head down. Instead, Brady ended up having one hell of a second half. Brady completed 15 of 17 passes in the second half for 263 yards, 3 touchdowns with a perfect 158.3 passer rating. Tampa won 38-35. Brady threw 5 touchdowns to 5 different receivers, the first time hes done that in a game in his career.

Bradys passes still have a lot of zip on them, he can still deliver an accurate deep ball. His mental prowess is unparalleled. Hes Tom effin Brady. Not much has changed. Hes still someone you dont want to go toe-to-toe with in Week 4, and definitely not in the playoffs.

Its quite hilarious to see some of the narratives play out when Brady makes any error. Those reactions tend not to age well. Weve seen this for the better part of a decade now, and Brady keeps proving doubters wrong. Beyond Bradys love for the game, the fact he still has to prove himself is reason enough for him to keep playing.

In a relatively weak looking NFC, Brady and the Buccaneers have a realistic shot at making the Super Bowl. With that in mind, now would be a good time to stop doubting Tom Brady and his longevity. Instead, appreciate greatness and look into what the hell hes doing to stay so physically fit and healthy. The TB12 method seems to be working.

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Doubting Tom Bradys longevity never ages well - Maize n Brew

City trees lead difficult lives. A lot of things are trying to kill them, particularly the trees planted on sidewalks: Tightly compacted soil with high alkaline content makes it harder for them to absorb nutrients. Tiny plots of land admit very little rainwater. Theyve got dogs peeing on them, people dropping cigarette butts nearby, and cars belching pollution.

Were talking about trees that are very vulnerable, says Nav Strauss, the head of street-tree planting for New York City. His team manages the planting of new trees on streets and public rights of way; there are more than 666,000 street trees in the city, and the team plants about 16,000 new ones annually. For decades, New York arborists have tended to prefer tough, hardy species that thrive well against adversitysuch as the London planetree, which sports grayish bark and big, maple-like leaves that offer sidewalks tons of shade.

But lately, Strauss has been looking for trees that can handle an even tougher challenge: climate change.

In the past century, the United States has heated up as much as 1.9 degrees Fahrenheit. The natural cycle of cities is already being pushed in new directions; in New York, spring now begins a week earlier than in the 1950s. Current predictions suggest that the temperature in the city will rise by up to 6 degrees by the 2050s, and up to 10 degrees by the 2080s. This hotter climate will bring longer periods of drought too. That will require some entirely new trees that can survive, and thrive, in the decades to come.

One stands out: Theres this crazy tree out in Arizona, where it's highly, highly dry, Strauss told me. A few of its relatives, the northern catalpa, have already migrated to New York and thrived, sporting huge leaves and flowers. Youll see them growing in vacant lots, where youd be likeWheres their food source? he laughed. Thats why he thinks this new hybrid ought to be able to handle the coming droughts. So he pulled the trigger, and 10 of them went into the ground. Within a few years, Strauss and his team will know whether this tree will be a useful part of New Yorks warmer, weirder climate.

Read: Trees have their own songs

Urban foresters think a lot about their cities distant future, because when you plant trees, you have to. A well-maintained tree in an urban park can last 150 years or longer. A sidewalk tree lives a shorter period, but it still might get 30 years or more. So a city arborist is always thinking: Whats this city going to be like 20 years from now? Or 50? Or 100? Trees are time machines, connecting us to the future.

American cities are host to 3.8 billion treeson sidewalks, in parks, in our front yards and backyards, outside houses of worship and office complexes. Theyre crucial for urban life: Most notably, trees cool down cities by creating shade and engaging in transpiration, the process by which they return water vapor into the atmosphere. Together, these effects can lower the temperature of a city street a few degrees (and as much as 10 degrees, as one recent study found). Studies have also found that well-placed trees can reduce air-conditioning costs by about one-third. Trees also remove up to 24 percent of dust; studies show that kids who live near urban trees have lower rates of asthma. Trees can even make pavement last a decade longer.

If cities want to keep those benefits, theyve got to plan for a future with a different, more hostile climate. As cities heat up, they effectively become different places, where a species that has persisted for hundreds of years can no longer thrive. By some estimates, the habitable zones for 130 of the countrys tree species could move north by more than 400 miles by the end of the century. New invasive species will arrive. Unless cities continually adapt, these shifts could significantly erode their tree canopies, making urban landscapes uglierand more unlivable.

If you wander around Louisville, Kentucky, youll find trees tucked in nooks all oversome dotting the downtown sidewalks, big clusters of mature ones along the snaky banks of the Ohio River, and even a few young trees adding a splash of green in front of the KFC Yum! Center sports complex.

But those trees are in danger. After an assessment of its urban forest in 2015, the local government discovered that the city was losing its canopy at a startling rate of 54,000 trees a year. The reasons for the decline are multifaceted, ranging from real-estate development to disease. The emerald ash borer, an invasive Asian beetle species that has been on a rampage across the United States, poses a particular problem. It destroys ash, a tree commonly planted in urban areas because of its good leaf cover and (normally) hardy nature. More than one in 10 trees in Jefferson County, where Louisville is located, are ash.

But on top of those problems, Louisvilles rate of heating is intense: Research by Brian Stone, the director of the Urban Climate Lab, discovered that Louisville had the fastest-growing urban heat-island effect of any other American city he and his team had studied.

Big red flag, big red flag, says Cindi Sullivan, a horticulturalist who used to work for the city and is now the executive director of TreesLouisville, a group that funds tree planting across the city. On top of regular climate warming, Louisville has the curse of geography; its in the Ohio Valley, and the air will tend to kind of hang, as Sullivan told me. Unfortunately, thats why were also called the allergy and asthma capital of the world. Some of the citys local climate change can likely be attributed to the loss of trees. Trees are, in effect, lo-fi geoengineering on an urban scale. Plant them, and things cool down; remove them, and things heat up.

Read: The best technology for fighting climate change? Trees

So Louisville needs to plant more trees, and ones that are future-proofed. This means working with private citizens, because in Jefferson County, most of the trees arent on public land such as streets or parks. Fully 70 percent grow on private property, rooted in peoples yards. Rebuilding the canopy thus means making it as easy as possible for everyday citizens to plant a new tree; among other things, Sullivans group raises money to subsidize all this planting. It connects residents with software from the Arbor Day Foundation that lets a Louisville resident find the best place on their property to plant a tree thatll provide maximum shade and energy savings.

But which species of tree will survive Louisvilles emerging climate? Lately, Sullivans group has been looking for trees that are native a bit farther south, such as Ulmus crassifolia, the cedar elm. It produces a big cloud of oval leaves, offering terrific shade, and its also good at dealing with drought.

And drought resistance is maybe even more important than heat resistance, if you want a tree thats future-proof. Under climate change, city planners note, their precipitation is increasingly arriving in bursts; they get longer jags with less rain, followed by torrential downpours. When weather becomes spiky like that, a healthy urban canopy is even more crucial to have around, because trees help reduce the runoff that would otherwise overwhelm a citys drain system. But the catch is finding a tree that can handle those erratic, feast-or-famine rainfall patterns. Crassifolia, Sullivan thinks, fits the bill for Louisville, and, as a bonus, its aesthetically interesting. Its a really cool tree, she told me. It has quirky bark, quirky stemthere are these ridges that fall all along the branches and stems.

On a personal level, Sullivan also has high hopes for the zydeco twist, a species of black gum she planted at her own Louisville home nine years ago. The zydeco twist is originally from Louisiana, and Sullivan bubbled with excitement as she described it to me. It has great fall colorsoh my gosh, it is fluorescent everything, all at the same time. Its purple and its red and its yellow and its orange. I mean, it is amazing; its a beautiful tree! She predicts that hers could survive another 50 to 90 years, well into maturity.

Sullivans sheer joy at her zydeco twist points to another reason cities need trees: They lift the human spirit. Trees dont just keep the city cool and the air clean. They also have powerful aesthetic and psychological effects.

You can see it even in the numbers. People are more likely to walk down tree-laden streets, and they pay a premium of 6 to 9 percent for homes in neighborhoods with good tree cover. Sick people do better when surrounded by trees, too: One study found that patients recovering from surgery spent 8.5 percent less time in the hospital when they had a view of nature, compared with those who didnt. Other research found that children with ADHD displayed better concentration after a 20-minute walk in a green park. Trees even appear, remarkably, to correlate with lower rates of crime: Academic research in 2001 discovered that apartments with abundant greenery experienced 52 percent less crime than those with less foliage.

Exactly why trees have such a powerful effect on us is not clear, though in the 1980s, the biologist Edward O. Wilson advanced the concept of biophilia, an innately emotional affiliation of human beings to other living organisms. Weve co-evolved with trees, so maybe we have an emotional bond with them. Some scientists note that trees have self-replicating fractal patternsthe structure of a leaf resembles the structure of an entire treewhich may tickle human brains in ways that few other urban objects do.

You start seeing, through biophilia, what the dappled shade does, says Janette Monear, the head of the Texas Trees Foundation, a nonprofit that supports urban forestry in the state. Your reptilian brain really connects to nature.

Read: Trees that have lived for millennia are suddenly dying

I remember noticing this effect myself after Hurricane Sandy swept through Brooklyn, where I live, in 2012. It destroyed 319 trees in Prospect Park, a huge, 585-acre green space where some 30,000 trees grow. Of those trees that were killed, almost 50 were very maturemore than 150 years old, planted when the park was constructed in the 19th century. When I wandered through the park two days after the hurricane, local residents were standing in little clusters around the huge, toppled elms and oaks, and I saw a few people weeping. I feel like someone has died, one cleanup volunteer told the local radio station WNYC.

Sandy was a big wake-up call to us to make sure that were considering planting trees that are going to be climate-adapted, New Yorks Nav Strauss told me. Kristen King, a colleague of Strausss, is the citys director of natural-areas restoration and management, in charge of planting and maintaining New Yorks parkland, which has about 2 million trees. King and Strauss know that climate change means more superstorms like Sandy. Theyre easing back on planting trees that wont thrive in the hotter, wilder weather to come, such as sugar maple (they need that cold, Strauss says) and northern red oak.

Increasing the diversity of trees is also crucial, King told me. In previous decades, the city had a fairly small range of trees, with only 40 different species. Now King oversees parks and forests with 180 species.

If you have diversity, you have some built-in resilience, she says. If you lose one species, you dont lose them all. This is arguably what got cities in such trouble when they overplanted the ash in the 20th century, only to be sideswiped by the ash borer decades later. Our work in forest management is to fight against monoculture, King says.

Trees dont show you your results right away, as Rob Davis told me. You can build a new building, you can put new sod in, you can build new roadsbut no matter how much money and power somebody has, they cant put back 50-year-old trees.

Davis, back when I spoke with him two years ago, was a forester for Denver, and he was making a crucial point about urban trees: They are the acme of civic planning. You want a street lined with mature, 50-year trees with tons of shade? Great! Even if you find the money and space to plant them, you need to wait half a century to see the fruits of your labor. Odds are youll be dead by then. This means that urban trees require serious forethought; theyre the opposite of whats-in-it-for-me-right-now transactional politics.

The White House has abandoned serious climate planning, and federal climate legislation has also flagged. But some state and local governments have enacted effective climate action. Cities are more responsive, because theyre closer to where early climate problems are already being feltincluding flooding coastal towns and sweltering inland ones. And city councils are a lot more accessible to activists too. When it comes to the urban canopy, everyday citizens have led the way: Some cities created an urban-forestry department after being urged by local nonprofit groups that had spent years doing volunteer work to aid green spaces; in others, urban-forestry departments rely on volunteer labor, such as citizen pruners (permitted to clear dead or hanging branches as they wander the town) and residents who walk around with clipboards doing tree censuses.

Thus far, Denvers trees have survived the temperature increase of the 20th and early 21st centuries pretty well. Davis has seen pictures taken in the late 1800s showing American elm trees that still stand today. But Denver is now heating up in ways that longtime locals can notice too. Ive lived in Colorado all my life, and we used to play ice hockey on ponds here, he noted. Good luck playing ice hockey on a pond here anymore.

Sara Davis, who worked as Denvers urban-forestry program manager when I interviewed her in 2018 (shes currently the city forester for Carmel-by-the-Sea, California), agreed. Were getting heavy, wet snow at the wrong time, she said. It was a couple of years ago that we had a huge storm on Mothers Day. Everything was in leaf, and it washow many inches of wet snow? Eight inches?

So they, too, are focusing on trees that might survive the hotter, spottier weather in decades to come. Kentucky coffeetreeswith pointed oval leaves that cast a mountain of shadewill thrive, they suspect, because they handle drought easily and dont seem much bothered yet by invasive species.

It might also be that, when it comes to trees, our urban future will borrow from our truly ancient past.

I asked Jenny Willoughby, the sustainability manager for Frederick, Maryland, how the citys trees would fare in the hotter decades to come. She worried that one loser would be the sugar maple.

Were getting out of their range, she said. Her phrasing reminded me that the language of cities and climate change can be odd. When you speak of a city going out of range for a tree, it makes it sound like the city is the thing thats movingas if it were an unmoored ship, floating away, pushed along by the tides of climate. Willoughby is also concerned about the fate of the eastern white pine, and the chestnut oak, which is already showing signs of distress.

When I asked her what trees might thrive, she brightened: Ginkgo! The ginkgo tree, as she noted, has a strange history. More than 200 million years ago, it was native to the landmass that became North America, back when the Earth was composed of one supercontinent, Pangaea. When continental drift broke Pangaea apart, the ginkgo vanished from North America. It thrived in Asia, though, where it became a common, hardy tree with large, fan-shaped leaves, and one famous for longevityJapan and China have ginkgo trees that are more than 1,000 years old.

In 1784, William Hamilton, a wealthy botanical collector in Philadelphia, brought ginkgo trees back to the United States to plant on his property. The architect Frank Lloyd Wright loved them, and partly because of Wrights influence, the ginkgo spread into cities across the country. Its still an extremely hardy tree; two of those Hamilton originally planted were alive two centuries later. After hundreds of millions of years, the ginkgo had finally come back to America.

Its technically native, Willoughby noted, so it thrives almost anywhere in the United States. But it doesnt have any species that attack it, nor any that it attacks and crowds out, which makes it a useful addition to a citys forests. Its a really weird conundrum. Ecologically, it exists outside of the whole webits a living fossil. It really hasnt changed over the years. And it really can survive cold and heat, and seems to be happy wherever you put it. One of the trees that helps cities survive climate change may well be one that survived the dinosaurs.

Read more here:
City Trees Need to Be Future-Proofed - The Atlantic