Category Archives: Post Human

Readmore: Local, News, Crime, Business, Community, Local, News, Fire, 5 Alarm Fire, 219 Oak, Oak, 2Nd, Oak and 2Nd, Firefighters, Cabinet Shop, Wood Restoration, Fire Crews Battling Fire, Quincy Fire, Antique Wood Restoration, Rick Delaney, Mayor John Spring, Salvage Lumber Co., Human Remains, Joe Henning, Jane Doe, Unknown Remains, Woman's Body Found after Fire, Woman's Remains, Remains of a Woman

QUINCY, ILL. -- Click here to follow the latest developments in this story.

Investigators found human remains at the site of a Sunday night fire that damaged Salvage Lumber in Quincy. The announcement was made Monday at a press conference by Quincy Fire Chief Joe Henning.

Adams County Coroner gave a statement saying that the human remains are a full body and that it is currently unclear who it is. It's also unclear whether the remains had any connection to the late-night fire that gutted parts of the building.

Later in the day Monday, the Adams County Coroner called KHQA and confirmed that the body found is female and right now she is considered a Jane Doe.

At the present time we do not know the age or race of the victim or the exact cause of death. A post mortem examination or autopsy will beconducted in Quincy Tuesday.

The Illinois State Fire Marshal's Office will conduct an investigation.

The business, at 219 Oak St., caught fire Sunday just before 8:30 p.m. Crews were called to the scene of heavy smoke, which escalated to a five-alarm fire.Click here for our original story.

Salvage Lumber is an antique wood restoration shop. Owner Rick Delaney watched as the fire gutted his cabinet shop in the rear of the building. He said the front portion of the building is used for office space. Delaney said he had not been in the building since Friday and does not have insurance on the shop.

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Human remains found in warehouse fire

Residents happy local post office will not close

LORAINE, ILLINOIS -- The United States Post Office is losing $25 millionevery day.

The United States Postal Service has been in decline since 2005. Increasing use of technology is forcing the service to make big changes to local offices.

The Loraine community was surveyed on what changes should be made.

"We're here in the Loraine Post Office today to explain the community that we're going to 4 hours a day here in this office," said Pamela Meehan,manager of Human Resources for the U.S. Postal Service. "Previously, the office was open for the window hours about 6.5 hours a day but part of the postal service restructure plan in order to remain viable is to take a look at our rural post office hours and reduce them where we can in an effort to save money,"

Eighty-six percentof the community voted to realign hours at the post office instead of visiting other offices or using delivery options.

"Well we're trying to remain viable the postal service is self-supporting and right now we're losing money. So one of the alternatives to closing small offices was we listen to community input, we listen to input of our management of our organization and we decided. To the greatest extent possible to keep these small offices open," Meehan said.

Loraine residents like Johnny Anderson,were happy to keep their post office open but also realized they would have to make some changes to keep it that way.

Anderson says, "I use it primarily as a business person to buy stamps, postcards, things we need to mail like that and mail letters; which, I was mailing at home because I'm on a rural route. I'll stop doing that and bring it to the post office here,"

Anderson also worried how he could cope with the shorter hours.

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Loraine Post Office gets good news and shorter hours

2012-10-08 21:40

Cairo - A draft Egyptian constitution contains articles that could pose a serious threat to basic human rights in post-Mubarak Egypt, Human Rights Watch said on Monday.

A 100-strong panel picked in June and headed by senior judge Hossam al-Ghariani has been tasked with drafting the new constitution, after the old charter was suspended following the 2011 uprising which toppled Hosni Mubarak.

"The Constituent Assembly has a landmark opportunity to lay the groundwork for respecting human rights in tomorrow's Egypt," said Nadim Houry, deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa division at Human Rights Watch.

"But its current draft fails to meet that standard because of vague language or limitations that destroy the essence of many rights."

While the draft upholds some civil, political, social and economic rights, "other key provisions are inconsistent with international human rights standards and would pose a serious threat to the future of human rights in Egypt," the New York-based rights group said.

It said Article 5 of the draft failed to ban torture, Article 36 threatened equality between men and women, while Article 9 - still under negotiation - "would amount to a serious threat to freedom of speech and religion".

The 2011 uprising that ousted Mubarak and changed the course of the Arab world's most populous nation was largely driven by popular anger at police impunity.

"The failure to fully prohibit torture is especially surprising given the fact that anger against police abuse played a central role in the January 2011 uprising," HRW said.

Shari'ah rules

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Egypt constitution threatens rights

CAIRO: A draft Egyptian constitution heavily influenced by Islamist conservatives contains articles that could pose a serious threat to basic human rights in post-Mubarak Egypt, Human Rights Watch said on Monday.

A 100-strong panel picked in June and headed by senior judge Hossam al-Ghariani has been tasked with drafting the new constitution, after

the old charter was suspended following the 2011 uprising which toppled Hosni Mubarak.

"The constituent assembly has a landmark opportunity to lay the groundwork for respecting human rights in tomorrow's Egypt," said Nadim Houry, deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa division at Human Rights Watch (HRW).

"But its current draft fails to meet that standard because of vague language or limitations that destroy the essence of many rights."

While the draft upholds some civil, political, social and economic rights, "other key provisions are inconsistent with international human rights standards and would pose a serious threat to the future of human rights in Egypt," the New York-based rights group said in a statement.

It said Article 5 of the draft failed to ban torture, Article 36 threatened equality between men and women, while Article 9 -- still under negotiation -- "would amount to a serious threat to freedom of speech and religion."

The 2011 uprising that ousted Mubarak and changed the course of the Arab world's most populous nation was largely driven by popular anger at police impunity.

"The failure to fully prohibit torture is especially surprising given the fact that anger against police abuse played a central role in the January 2011 uprising," HRW said.

Another cause for concern was Article 36 which has already prompted several demonstrations by women's rights activists.

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Egypt draft constitution fails to protect key rights: HRW

A recent graduate gaining fame as the human scarecrow is already being described as outstanding in his field.

Jamie Fox may not have thought his post-university days would be spent chasing partridges and pheasants out of rapeseed fields in Norfolk, England -- but the young man tells local media it's not a bad job.

"I usually take an assortment of weapons in the form of instruments," he said in a BBC radio interview Monday. He added that he sketches, listens to podcasts, snaps photos and hones his ukulele skills when the skies are clear.

Fox has described his job as a battle of wits, explaining that the birds are rather clever and seem to be able to tell when he's off his guard.

"I dozed off last week and as I woke up there was a whole group of them just staring at me," said the graduate, who uses everything from cowbells to accordions to drive the birds away.

Fox admits that the job isn't what he had in mind when working toward his degrees in English and Music.

"I don't think anybody likes to imitate inanimate objects," he joked, adding that no one aspires to be an alarm clock or a microwave.

Have you ever accepted an opportunity completely out of your field, or unrelated to your education? What's the oddest job you've ever taken on?

(This survey is not scientific. Results are based on reader's replies.)

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Human scarecrow battles birds in post-graduation gig

Steven Milloy's lawsuit against the EPA has gone forward into federal court. As I wrote in a previous post, Milloy, a biostatistician and securities lawyer who runs the site junkscience.com, is suing the Environmental Protection Agency overwhat he discovered through evidence from a Freedom of Information Act request.

Milloy found that "disturbing experiments" conducted for the EPA "are exposing humans to inhalable particulates" that the agency has said are deadly, theNational Legal and Policy Center noted.

Senator Jim Inhofe, Oklahoma Republican and ranking member of the Environmental Public Works Committee, is calling for a hearing to investigate this matter further.

According to Milloy, the EPA declared to a federal court that it asks human guinea pigs to risk their lives for regulatory purposes at $12 per hour.:

EPA responded (Thursday) to our emergency motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) against its ongoing human experiment (called CAPTAIN) involving the air pollutant known as PM2.5.

In the declaration of Martin W. Case, the EPA clinical research studies coordinator for CAPTAIN, Case claims he verbally warns study subjects before the experiment as follows:

My first approach after being introduced to the subject by the medical station staff is to ask the subject if they have read the consent form. The subjects for CAPTAIN have been given the informed study consent form on a previous visit, and, they are also given the same consent to read again if they have not read the consent the day of the training

I provide participants with information about fine particles (PM2.s). I say that PM2.s are particles so small that they are able past through your airways and go deep into your lungs, these particles are so small that your usual lining and cilia of your airways are not able to prevent these particles from passing into your lungs, Therefore, if you are a person that for example lives in a large city like Los Angeles or New York, and its been a very hot day, and you can see the haze in the air, and you happen to be someone that works outside, and if you have an underlying unknown health condition, or, you may be older in age; the chances are that you could end up in the emergency room later on that night, wondering whats wrong, possibly having cardiac changes that could lead to a heart attack; there is the possibility you may die from this

Heres the analysis of Cases remarkable admission that is, if we can even rely on Cases declaration:

Prohibition on human sacrifice. Every law, regulation and code developed since World War II strictly prohibits human sacrifice (i.e.,significant injury or death) for no health benefit to the patient (the wage of $12 per hour does not count as a benefit). EPA employee Case explicitly admits in this declaration that short-term exposure to PM2.5can be lethal.And though Case attempts to distance this warning from the experiment by explaining the risk in terms of a person living in a large city like Los Angeles or New York, EPA states in its IRB application for approval of CAPTAIN, The particle burden, on a mass basis presented to the volunteer will not exceed an exposure an individual receives over a 24 hour period while visiting a typical urban center in America on a smoggy day. Moreover, EPA has repeatedly stated in numerous regulatory documents and public statements that there is no safe level of exposure to PM2.5 and that any exposure to PM2.5 can kill within hours or days.

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PICKET: EPA told human test subjects - 'there's a possibility you may die from this'

CHICAGO, Oct. 8, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- ADP, a leading provider of human capital management solutions, today unveiled its next-generation ADP Workforce Now cloud-based platform for midsized organizations. The company showcased its new platform at the annual HR Technology Conference & Exposition in Chicago. This enhanced platform broadens ADP's lineup of human capital management (HCM) services by providing midsized companies with access to more sophisticated tools to manage their workforce. As midsized companies struggle to compete in tough economic times, ADP Workforce Now enables businesses to be more strategic in how they manage their employees while reducing time spent on administrative tasks.

To view the multimedia assets associated with this release, please click: http://www.multivu.com/mnr/58119-adp-enhances-human-capital-management-platform-for-midsized-companies

(Photo:http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121008/MM82922LOGO )

According to a recent survey by the ADP Research InstituteSM, only 15% of midsized business owners and executives are confident the U.S. economy will improve over the next 12 months compared to 52% who believe it improved during the last four years. Despite this pessimistic outlook, 43% plan to hire an average of 18 new employees in the next year.

The same ADP Research Institute study entitled, "Top Concerns of Business Leaders in the Post-2008 Economy," revealed the top three business concerns on the minds of midsized business owners are:

Of particular interest is the area of increased government regulation, where 81% of midsized business owners believe their business is in compliance with tax and labor regulations. Yet, 33% reported having incurred unintended expenses such as fines or penalties in the last year due to noncompliance not once, but an average of 6.4 times. Midsized companies can ill afford such preventable expenses and need HCM tools that can help business owners reduce risks and operate more efficiently.

"We're thrilled to unveil our enhanced platform for midsized businesses and understand companies of all sizes need access to sophisticated HCM tools," said Jessica Saperstein, Division Vice President of Strategy and Business Development at ADP. "Our newly enhanced ADP Workforce Now platform gives midsized companies greater controls in an all-in-one package so they can do more to confront human resources challenges."

The ADP Workforce Now platform is a key component of ADP's fast-growing HCM portfolio, which includes ADP Vantage HCMSM for large organizations and ADP GlobalView for multinational organizations. ADP recently announced its HCM services now support more than 30,000 clients worldwide.

"I've used ADP Workforce Now for years to efficiently manage my organization's employees, and I'm excited about how the new functionality on this evolving platform provides even greater control over HR tasks," said Tom Aldrich, Vice President/Human Resources Director, at Teche Federal Bank, an existing ADP Workforce Now client in New Iberia, La. "In fact, the technology behind ADP Workforce Now allows me to perform most human resources activities from anywhere with an Internet connection, which is critical during hurricanes and other natural disasters that periodically impact the Gulf Coast."

Designed for the Midmarket's Evolving Needs

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ADP Broadens its Human Capital Management Offer to Help Midsized Companies Gain a Competitive Edge

The Terminator ... an infamous cyborg.

On September 2, 2010, Karen Throsby became the 1153rd person to swim the English Channel, taking 16 hours and nine minutes, and keeping herself going on handfuls of jelly babies.

Many Channel swimmers are purists: wetsuits are banned, never mind performance-enhancing drugs. The sport sees itself as an assertion of human ability in natural form. But Throsby, a sociologist researching the effects of extreme sports, takes a different view.

She was a speaker at Human Limits, a Wellcome Collection symposium linked to its Superhuman exhibition in London on physical and mental enhancement. The question it investigated was how much technology can humans use before they become something else a cyborg, perhaps, or a superhuman, a post-human, or a trans-human. What are our limits?

Some speakers discussed the "singularity": the idea that in a few years' time, we may converge with our technology to the point that some as-yet inconceivable superhuman entity emerges.

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Others highlighted the fear we can feel when new inventions threaten our sense of who we are; uneasy about our authenticity, we look back nostalgically to an era assumed to be more human.

Throsby's contribution was to remind us that even something as apparently basic as marathon swimming involves many artificial techniques: gaining weight, acclimatising to the cold, monitoring one's psychology, and developing new micro-senses an awareness of tiny differences in water temperature, a heightened kinetic sense of the body's balance and position, and so on.

It means self-transformation, and is filled with "uncountable, mundane bodily technologies". Channel swimmers use rubber caps, sunblock, Vaseline to prevent chafing, sleek swimsuits, and energy-boosting snacks. They are accompanied by boats with GPS.

And they use goggles, an invention variously attributed to Polynesians, Persians and the Inuit, but later improved by innovators such as first female Channel swimmer Gertrude Ederle, who smeared paraffin wax on motorcycle glasses in 1926 to make them watertight. More recently, goggles have been made with better rubber, adjustable straps, and prescription lenses. It would be hard to swim far or fast without them.

Link:
Technology for the body on the road to cyborgs?

Ever since his post-debate turnaroundon his 47 percent comments, Mitt Romney (or a "spirited fellow claiming to be Mitt Romney") has been employing a novel campaigning strategy: Trying to convince voters that he is human. (Ann can't do all the work herself.) Of course, Romney's not super experienced when it comes to this sort of thing, so his efforts have been a little awkward. Mostly, he's been talking about dead people.

Romney spent the weekend in Florida where he debuted a new version of his stump speech containing three"revealing and personal" stories about deaths that impacted his life. The firstwas about an old friend from graduate school Bill Hulse, aquadriplegic as a result of an accident who recently attended a campaign event:

"It's not easy for Billy to get around. Quadriplegiche can't move, of course, his arms and his legs, and he can barely speak," Romney said. "I reached down and I put my hand on Billy's shoulder and I whispered into his ear, and I said 'Billy, God bless you, I love ya.' And he whispered right back to me and I couldn't quite hear what he said. He tried to speak loud enough for me to hear."

Hulse died the day after the encounter. "Its rare that you get the chance to tell someone how much you love them while you still can," Romney added.

Next up was a tribute to a 14-year-old Mormon church member who Romneycounseled during the boy's battle withleukemia. At one point, he asked "Brother Romney" to help him draft his will: "So I went to the hospital and got my legal pad to make it look official," Romney recalled. "[David] said, I want my fishing rod to go to one friend, and I want my skateboard to go to another friend, and I want my rifle to go to my brother.'" For extra human appeal, he concluded the story with a Friday Night Lights reference:I thought of that wonderful slogan some years later: clear eyes, full heart, cant lose. David passed away, but Ill always remember never forget his courage, his clear eyes, full heart. He wont lose."

Finally, he talked about meeting a woman at the Republican National Convention whose husband had been killed inAfghanistan. Anti-war protesters had picketed the funeral. When asked "What do you think of these people?" she told Romney: "Chris died for them to be able to protest." The lesson? "This is quite a nation we live in."

The response to this new, sad Romney seems to be mostly positive. As one woman who saw him speak in Florida told Politico,"Everyone has him on this pedestal, thinks that hes untouchable, but stories like this make him more human." Her friend, however, found the address to be a little morbid: "There was one too many. After the second one, I thought, 'Please, no more dead people.'"

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Mitt Romney Tries to Prove He Is Human by Telling Sad Stories

Public release date: 3-Oct-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Katie Delach katie.delach@uphs.upenn.edu 215-349-5964 University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

PHILADELPHIA A team of researchers led by Samir Mehta, MD, chief of the Orthopaedic Trauma & Fracture Service at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has received a $2.5 million grant from the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP), provided through the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), to begin Phase 2 human trials of a study that examines the effective treatment of post-surgical orthopedic infections using Microbion Corporation's topical BisEDT drug. The University of Pennsylvania will work with a team of researchers from Microbion and the University of California-San Francisco on the trial, set to begin pending FDA approval.

"We're honored to be given this award from the DoD, and are hopeful that the Phase 2 trial will allow us to offer improved treatments and standards of care to a significant number of patients," said Mehta. "Orthopaedic trauma and fracture patients are at an increased risk for infection. If successful, this new treatment strategy could be a significant step toward reducing instances of amputation, disability, and even death."

Studies show that patients requiring orthopaedic trauma surgery may be three times more likely to experience post-operative infections (8.7 percent) than patients undergoing other forms of surgery (2.8 percent) as a result of the high-energy nature of the injury. With approximately 2.6 million orthopaedic devices implanted annually in the United States, approximately 4.3 percent (112,000 patients) will suffer from a post-operative infection.

Orthopaedic extremity injuries also constitute the majority (65 percent) of combat casualties experienced in recent U.S. military conflicts. The risk of infection developing after surgical treatment of traumatic, open military wounds represents an extremely serious threat; reports indicate that military wound infection rates may be as high as 77 percent. Such infections frequently lead to death, amputation, disability, and other significant morbidity, despite the best available care.

"The goal of our study is to examine the efficacy and safety of administering a single application of Microbion's topical BisEDT gel to infected extremity wounds," said Annamarie Horan, MPA, PhD, director of Clinical Research for Penn Orthopaedics. "The gel is not a replacement for standard antibiotics, but the promising results of the Phase 1 trial provide strong evidence suggesting the drug may be an effective supplemental treatment."

Phase 1 human trials of BisEDT were successfully completed in 2011. In June 2012, the CDMRP award team met with the FDA in Washington D.C. to discuss the team's plan to advance to Phase 2 human clinical studies for the treatment of infections associated with orthopedic trauma. Clinical studies for Phase 2 will begin next year at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and at UCSF/San Francisco General Hospital.

Last year, the World Health Organization noted a significant rise in the rate of infections that are able to ward off antibiotic treatment. The alarming rate of antibiotic resistant infections has since been labeled a global health crisis. The research team is hopeful that future research and development of drugs like BisEDT will lead to new standards of health care and improved treatments for all patients.

Dr. Mehta and Dr. Horan do not have any financial affiliation with Microbion Corporation.

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US Department of Defense awards Penn researchers funding to investigate new anti-infection drug