Category Archives: Post Human

By Joe Slezak Press & Guide Newspapers Twitter: @joeslezak1

Contract extended with developer offormer Montgomery Ward site

DEARBORN Alan Wozniak will celebrate his 30th anniversary with the citys Human Resources Department on Jan. 20.

On Tuesday night, though, he got to celebrate something different being named as the departments administrator.

The City Council voted 6-0 to appoint him to the top post. Council President Thomas Tafelski was absent because he was ill.

Wozniak, 57, was one of 20 applicants. Eight were offered interviews; seven accepted. The field was narrowed to three before he was picked.

The city has about 650 full-time and about 800 part-time employees.

Wozniak began with the city as a personnel specialist, working his way up to senior human resources analyst. Along the way, he earned a masters degree in general administration from Central Michigan University in 1991.

He said after the meeting that being named administrator was a goal of his.

I enjoy the challenge and the opportunity, he said.

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City hires human resources administrator

Nigeria is just two years away from becoming a 100years post amalgamation.Yet, when the United States of America, USA, celebrated her second centenary in 1976, the escapist wisdom dominant in Nigeria at that time was simply that Nigeria was merely 37years as an independent nation.

Today, that excuse no longer suffices because by the time America was two years from its first centenary, it had wrought many wonders. What wisdom has Nigeria wrought?

The new wisdom is about Nigeria becoming one of the greatest 20 economies of the world by 2020. A tall dream! In this interview with Chief Richard Osuolale Abimbola Akinjide, CON, SAN, FCI Arb. FCE, reflects on Nigeria, two years from its centenary post amalgamation. Excerpts:

The things he sees of Nigeria two years before its centenary as an amalgamated body?

Some times success, some times disappointment.

I do not want to make a judgment of which one is bigger than the other. But something over which I have no doubt is that Nigeria should have been a bigger and better country than what we are today.

At independence Nigeria was far better than Singapore and Malaysia and a number of other countries of the world; but today, Nigeria is not what it should be and I think the problem is human; it's a human problem.

It is not a question of resources because we've got enormous resources - is it cocoa, groundnut, oil and gas, rubber? We've got everything.

The critical factor is what do you make of what you produce and what do you make of the proceeds of what you produce?

Look at Sierra Leone, it was founded before Australia and Switzerland but look at these two Western countries and look at where Sierra Leone is - our African neighbour is one of the worst in the world.

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Nigeria: Nigeria Is a Country, Not a Nation - Akinjide

BHUBANESWAR: The complaint management system of the Odisha Human Rights Commission went hi-tech with the launch of Web-based Human Rights Complaint Management System (eHRCMS) here on Sunday.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik inaugurated the system, which will work as a data sharing platform between OHRC and its national counterpart, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).

"At times, complainants submit the same petition at OHRC and NHRC, leading to conflict in decisions. Through the online system, we can check the duplicity," OHRC registrar C R Mohapatra told TOI. The commission receives nearly 2,000 petitions from across the state in a year and disposes around 200 cases in a month.

"Until now, OHRC was sending letters by post to defaulters, which was time consuming. Now we have developed a software through which reminders would be shot off automatically through e-mails to the person concerned," said an officer of National Informatics Centre (NIC), a central government institution which provides e-government / e- governance solutions in the country.

eHRCMS would also improve the monitoring mechanism of recommendations made by the commission. Besides, complainants would now receive acknowledgement via SMS and e-mail soon after filing complaints at the OHRC. However, the complaint filing mechanism has remained manual as usual.

"Like before, complainants will either have to send their petitions by post or lodge them personally at the OHRC office. Later, they acknowledgement letters would be sent to them electronically," the NIC officer said, adding, "We will soon develop an online complaint filing mechanism also."

Though eHRCMS is aimed at simplifying the complaint management system, uncertainty looms large over its sustenance, thanks to acute shortage of skilled manpower at OHRC. "The commission is now relying on a few NIC officers to run the show. The government should appoint dedicated IT staff to manage it," said an officer. "Many of the employees here have either been appointed after their retirement from government service or come on deputation from different departments," he said.

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Odisha Human Rights Commission's complaint management goes online

Jakarta (The Jakarta Post/ANN) - In spite of new evidence that the prosecution of alleged members of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) after the failed 1965 coup was a gross human rights violation, survivors from the tragedy do not hope that justice will be served anytime soon.

Historian Asvi Warman Adam said that the 1965 anticommunist purge, just like every other gross violation of human rights in the country, remains an unsolved mystery because of governmental inaction.

"Looking back at the long list of human rights violations in Indonesia, the buck stops at the National Commission on Human Rights [Komnas HAM] and none of the perpetrators were ever brought to court. The government failed to punish them," Adam told The Jakarta Post yesterday.

Adam, a historian with the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, said that survivors from the tragedy could take solace from the fact the Komnas HAM had declared the purge a gross violation of human rights.

In late July, Komnas HAM declared in its findings that the systematic prosecution of alleged members of the PKI after the failed 1965 coup was a gross human rights violation. The commission urged that military officials involved in the purge be brought to trial.

"It is very important for the history of our country that in 2012 Komnas HAM officially declared the 1965 purge to be gross violation of human rights. It was an official statement by a government institution, based on the commission's thorough investigation in all provinces in Indonesia," Adam said.

Adam said that the ball is now in the court of the Attorney General's Office (AGO), a government institution with a long history of failure to prosecute cases of human rights violations.

Chairman of Komnas HAM Ifdhal Kasim said that the biggest obstacle for the institution to finalise its findings was the absence of concrete evidence such as weapons and bullets that were used to execute the victims.

"The events happened long time ago and it is difficult to obtain such evidence. Komnas HAM only collected information and testimonials from victims, former members of the security agencies and forensic evidence from the crime scenes," Kasim said.

Kasim said that Komnas HAM could do little but call on the AGO to follow through its findings.

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Indonesian history may be rewritten but no rehabilitation yet for anticommunist victims

On the very first day of its new term Monday, the Supreme Court will hear Shell oil's challenge to a bizarre law used to sue corporations for human rights abuses abroad.

Under that 223-year-old Alien Tort Statute, foreign plaintiffs can sue big corporations and others in U.S. courts over alleged violations of "international laws" on foreign soil.

The law is odd because it can be used to bring suits that don't actually involve any U.S. partieslike the case against Shell.

In Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, Nigerian villagers filed suit in U.S. court claiming the Dutch-British corporation aided the Nigerian government in human rights abuses.

The lawyer John Bellinger has previously written in The Washington Post that the Supreme Court should limit the scope of the ATS because it could create international tension as it's currently used.

"International law does not allow courts of one country to exercise jurisdiction in civil cases over offenses in other countries," he wrote.

Bellinger noted a number of big corporations have been accused of "aiding and abetting" foreign governments' abuses abroad: Coca-Cola, Exxon-Mobil, Yahoo, and General Motors, to name a few.

For its part, the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard says the ATS is an important tool for survivors of horrific human rights abuses.

Given the corporate-friendly nature of the Supreme Court, those plaintiffs might not have this tool for long.

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Foreign Nationals Can Use An Obscure Human Rights Law To Sue Yahoo And Other Corporations In U.S. Courts

Most supporters of the government under Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra want Pol Gen Priewpan Damapong, the outgoing police chief, to take the post of deputy prime minister, according to the results of an Abac Poll revealed on Sunday.

The poll was conducted on Sept 20-29 on 2,487 supporters of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) and the Yingluck government in Bangkok, Pathum Thani, Samut Prakan, Chiang Mai, Phayao, Nakhon Sawan, Lop Buri, Chon Buri, Phetchabun, Suphan Buri, Khon Kaen, Surin, Udon Thani, Nakhon Ratchasima, Nakhon Si Thammarat and Songkhla provinces.

Asked who they thought was suitable to be appointed to the cabinet, the respondents' choices were as follows:

- Pol Gen Priewpan (83.6%) for the Deputy Prime Minister's post; - Yaowapa Wongsawan (72.9%) for an important cabinet post; - Jatuporn Prompan (69.4%) for the posts of Social Development and Human Security miniister or Labour minister; - Khunying Sudarat Keyuraphan (61.7%) for the post of Transport minister; - Chaturon Chaisaeng (60.5%) for the education portfolio; - Phumtham Wechayachai (58.4%) for the post of PM's Office or Interior minister; - Pongthep Thepkanchana (57.7%) for Justice minister; and - Pongsak Raktapongpaisal (52.1%) for the posts of Transport or economics minister.

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Poll: Priewpan befits dep PM post

British adventurer Chris Todd, 35, is going to attempt to walk 66 miles across the Irish Sea for two days non-stop.

But he doesn't think he can walk on water. According to the Daily Mail, he plans to make the 48-hour journey across open water in a human hamster wheel that he calls a Tredalo.The metal wheel will be powered by Todd walkingon wire mesh, with two floats on either side to act as stabilizers.

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"The Irish Sea crossing is on the very edge of what I believe is possible," Todd told the Daily Mail. "But I am looking forward to a cold Guinness on arrival."

Todd has worked to build his wheel in his garden with his wife and friends for nearly a year, reported the Huffington Post. In order to keep the Tredalo turning on the water for the two-day trip, he will need to burn 36,000 calories, which is equal to what is spent during almost three weeks of exercise. Todd will also have to drink about 30 liters of water and eat about 60 chocolate bars.

"It will be like running 10 back-to-back marathons," he said.

And he's doing it all for charity. According to The Australian, Todd hopes to raise $32,000 for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and the Wiltshire Blind Association.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/weird-wide-web/human-hamster-wheel-cross-irish-sea-video

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Human hamster wheel to cross Irish Sea (VIDEO)

(CNN)

A Bahraini man won a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council Advisory Committee the same day a young protester in the country was killed, officials and a human rights group said Saturday.

King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa expressed support for Said Al-Faihani on his unanimous election Friday as the Asian group representative, Bahrain's Information Affairs Authority said.

The nomination "represents the international community's confidence in Bahrain's progress in the human rights' field," the authority said in a statement.

A 17-year-old protester died Friday in clashes with security forces in the village of Sadad.

The interior ministry said a mob armed with Molotov cocktails and iron rods attacked a police patrol, prompting officers to defend themselves. The attacker was killed, the ministry said.

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights decried the incident as an example of "summary executions."

In a statement, the center said that Ali Neamah was taking part in a peaceful protest, and that he was killed by a "deadly shot of a shotgun by the riot police from a close range." It posted photographs of wounds to Neamah's back.

Bahraini activists posted online photographs and videos of the clashes on Friday and Saturday. In them, protesters chanted "Down with Hamad," referring to the king, while police shoot tear gas canisters.

CNN cannot verify the authenticity of the images.

Originally posted here:
Bahraini wins UN rights post amid protests

This is a sponsored post on behalf of Wellcome Collection.

Join a special symposium inspired by the Superhuman exhibition exploring the capabilities and possibilities of human bodies and minds.

Human Limits will open up discussion around our relationship with technology past and present drawing on science fiction and science fact, questioning our desire to explore new environments and imagining future humans.

It starts off sociably on Friday with an opportunity to explore the exhibition after hours, mingle over drinks and watch silent film Aelita: Queen of Mars, one of the first films to depict space travel, accompanied by a live band, Minima.

On Saturday a roster of top speakers talk about how science and medicine have changed the way we look at ourselves, the impact electricity has had on our lives, science fiction and space exploration, the implications and future possibilities for enhancing human bodies and whether cross-channel swimmers are, in fact, superhuman.

All this plus breaks for refreshments, networking, chit chat and lunch thrown in.

Human Limits is on Friday 28 September from 7-9.30pm and Saturday 29 September from 10.30am-5pm. Tickets 30 full price/25 concessions for both days, including drinks on Friday evening and lunch, tea and coffee on Saturday. To book, please call 020 7611 2222.

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Explore Human Limits @ Wellcome Collection

John Hawks prompts to reemphasize an aspect of my thinking which has undergone a revolution over the past 10 years. I pointed to it in my post on the Khoe-San. In short, the common anatomically modern human ancestors of Khoe-San and non-Khoe-San may not have been people. Rather, people may have evolved over the past 100-200,000 years ago. Of course the term people is not quite as scientific as you might like. In philosophy and law you have debates about personhood. Granting the utility of these debates I am basically saying that the common ancestor of Khoe-San and non-Khoe-San may not have been persons, as well understand them. Though, as a person myself, I do think they were persons. At this point I am willing to push the class person rather far back in time.

As I suggested earlier there is an implicit assumption that personhood is a shared derived trait of our species. Or at least it is a consensus today that all extant members of H. sapiens are persons. Since Khoe-San are persons, the common ancestor of Khoe-San and non-Khoe-San must also be persons if personhood is a shared derived trait. But, we also know that there are many aspects of realized personhood on a sociological or cultural scale which seem to diminish the further back in time you go. For example, the Oldowan lithic technology persisted for ~1 million years. A common modern conception of persons is that persons in the aggregate are simply never so static. Persons have culture, and culture is protean. Therefore, one might infer from the nature of Oldowan technological torpor that the producers of that technology were not persons.

But theres a large gap between the decline of the Oldowan and the rise of anatomically modern humans. Where to draw the line? Lets take a step back about a decade. Heres an extract from Richard Kleins excellent Dawn of Human Culture:

Our third and final observation is that the relationship between anatomical and behavioral change shifted abruptly about 50,000 years ago. Before this time, anatomy and behavior appear to have evolved more or less in tandem, very slowly, but after this time anatomy remained relatively stable while behavioral (cultural) change accelerated rapidly. What could explain this better than a neural change that promoted the extraordinary modern human ability to innovate? This is not to say that Neanderthals and their non-modern contemporaries possessed ape-like brains or that they were as biologically and behaviorally primitive as yet earlier humans. It is only to suggest that an acknowledged genetic link between anatomy and behavior in yet earlier people persisted until the emergence of fully modern ones, and that that postulated genetic change 50,000 years ago fostered the uniquely modern ability to adapt to a remarkable range of natural and social circumstances with little or no physiological change.

Arguably, the last key neural change promoted the modern capacity for rapidly spoken phonemic language, or for what anthropologists Duane Quiatt and Richard Milo have called a fully vocal language, phenmiized, syntactical, and infinitely open and productive.

The non-moderns were not ape-like, but they were clearly not human-like, if they lacked language as what we understand language to be. Today this view is likely in the minority position, but why? I think the possibility of admixture between these distinct human lineages suggests that the gap between them and us was not quite as large Klein postulates above. And even then there is a major problem with Kleins thesis: there was mitochondrial and archaeological evidence even then that the divergence of the Khoe-San and non-Africans far pre-dated the 50,000 year time period alluded to above. Since then the evidence has become even stronger that the divergence of the Khoe-San from other humans, and likely Africans from non-Africans, pre-dates the emergence of behavioral modernity.

An implicit assumption that personhood is a shared derived trait from a common human ancestor to me speaks to the same needs and urges which posit a specific ensoulment or creation of humanity from clay. Our minds are not very good at continuities, so we must create distinctive breaks. One moment an animal, and another moment a man! The occasional scientist who speculates that there may be a set of genes which define humanity I think falls into the trap of assuming discontinuity where there is none. There may be no genetic variant necessary or sufficient to being a human. Let me finish by quoting John Hawks, who inspired me to be a bit more explicit in my own line of thinking:

Personally, I think that cognitive modernity is a red herring. Todays people learn some kinds of technical and symbolic complexity that were never present in ancient peoples. Somepeople living today in Western cultures, despite all our educational efforts, fail to attain levels of technical knowledge that are regular outcomes for the majority of people in the same environment. Human performance varies continuously.

I assert that it is unreasonable to suppose that Neandertals had a stupid gene. If so, it should be just as unreasonable to suppose that a smart gene could explain the evolution of human cognition during the last 100,000 years. These unrealistic assumptions are widespread, and impede our understanding just as thoroughly as assumptions about the nature of biological species impeded our understanding of Neandertal ancestry of living human populations. Some archaeologists have concluded that Neandertal cognition is an either/or proposition. Some look at Neandertals, find a lack of evidence that they behave identically to later people, and conclude that the Neandertals were therefore unquestionably cognitive inferiors. Others look at Neandertals, find some signs of modern-like behaviors, and conclude that Neandertals were therefore unquestionably our cognitive equals.

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Humanity isn’t, it becomes | Gene Expression