Leettaschmidt

At the end of the prologue to my book The Cooking Gene (HarperCollins Amistad imprint, 2017/2018) I reflected on whether or not the Southern table could give us some insight into America’s second original sin–the enslavement of Africans and the consequences that resulted:

“The lazy, laughing South / With blood on its mouth /And I, who am black, would love her,” wrote Langston Hughes, a refugee of Joplin, Missouri, the poet laureate of black America. The poems I was bid to remember frequently referenced a place that was caught up in a weird braid of nostalgia, lament, romance, horror, and fear. Forsyth County, Georgia, is no longer the same place it was nearly thirty years ago, and black people have long since moved in. And yet across the region, flashpoints continue, the shootings, the draggings, the overreach of police authority, the obstruction of the vote, inequalities and inequities and silent and sturdy boundaries between white and black. For some, “we” are the South, but “they” are Dixie, and yet we and they all know the old hanging trees and the strange fruit they once bore. I dare to believe all Southerners are a family. We are not merely Native, European, and African. We are Middle Eastern and South Asian and East Asian and Latin American, now. We are a dysfunctional family, but we are still a family. We are unwitting inheritors of a story with many sins that bears the fruit of the possibility of ten times the redemption. One way is through reconnection with the culinary culture of the enslaved, our common ancestors, and restoring their names on the roots of the Southern tree and the table those roots support. The Old South is where I cook. The Old South is a place where food tells me where I am. The Old South is a place where food tells me who I am. The Old South is where food tells me where we have been. The Old South is where the story of our food might just tell America where it’s going. The Old South / With soul food in its mouth / and I, who am African American, must know her.”

Now we are here, another flashpoint, a triple threat in a perfect cauldron of a pandemic, a massive economic downturn and an election year under a controversial and often divisive presidency.  I had hoped originally this would be a cap to the Obama presidency, then I hoped it would be a great way to open the Clinton presidency and then I resigned myself to the fact that his project was going to have to suit itself to the challenges of the Trump era.  Now we are closing in on 4 years and I am just waking up from a weeklong fog.  My immense grief over the continued murder of African Americans and the brutal means by which peaceful protestors and others have been repulsed by rogue law enforcement has been too much.  The ticker tape of word salad flowing through my consciousness is muddied but slowly approaching some clarity.

In 2012 Rabbi Michelle Goldsmith sat me down after a presentation that I gave at her then synagogue in Birmingham, Alabama.  She said, “You realize your life isn’t going to be the same.” She elaborated and she was right.  Then I was still on my Southern Discomfort Tour, a trip though the South to find my family roots and trace food routes from the colonial and antebellum South through to the childhood of my grandparents, themselves one generation removed from enslavement.  Almost four years removed from the publication of The Cooking Gene, and having traveled through 8 countries in West Africa, the journey seems easier but the world seems so much less full of hope than it did when I thought my book would get me into the good graces of Barack and Michelle for a photo opp.  
So what does a detective story in drag about food and genealogy and contemporary food politics have to teach about race and systemic racism? Or a better question, what did I learn after the fact, once the book was closed thinking and linking back to what I wrote?

1. White America and African America are inherently connected, Black folks know this, but many white people are still surprised or in denial and it is this more than blatant appropriation that pisses us off.  

Why do many white people seem terrified about addressing their genetic, familial, historical and cultural connections to Black people? What does working through the technical difficulties look like?  

2. Food has meant working in historical and cultural spaces that are really challenging to Black mental health and contemporary identity from the big house kitchen to the contemporary urban dining room.  The inherent vulnerability you have to have to do this work and the fear that it is marketing our traumas is more repulsive and problematic to Black folks now than ever before. This is happening simultaneously as Black folks in America get more interested in genealogy and finding their family’s place in the bigger global narrative.  
What is it about the times we are living in that makes people far more reticent to rehearse and relate stories of past oppression and resistance in the ways those of the past two generations?  How can we achieve a better place where we can critique our experience in a brave new way?  How do we tell our family stories now and in the future?  

3. Acknowledging multiple languages and multiple ideologies is not “both sideism,” its just breaking down why we have an ongoing disagreement about the past, the present and the future.
Is it possible to engage in these conversations acknowledging the words and thoughts of “alternative visions,” of the same exact history without amplifying myths or lending them validity?  Can you understand and discuss their language and ideas without becoming toxic or losing your own sense of revolution and evolution?  

4. Food was a window for me into the fact Southern white people and their descendants are the most African-rooted white people in mainland North America.
How do we make sense of the engrained African, Afri-Creole and African American impact on Southern whites and at the same time acknowledge Black erasure and the decentering of Black narratives in the service of white supremacy?  

5. Africa was an absolutely necessary part of my journey, but I feel valid and full as an extension of Africa in America.
In a space where the Diaspora wars wage on social media and a racist president describes modern Africa and Africans in demeaning terms, what did Africa mean to my food and identity journey and how did it change my perceptions about being African American for the better?  What does it feel like to recover my original family names?  

6. The politics of race and food and culture in the American South is far from just Black and white and we must repeat that racial inequality and systemic racism are not only baggage born by the South.
How do we have a more inclusive conversation that includes all Southerners, addresses parallel issues in the Black or African Atlantic world and moves the discussion from being Southern to all-American?

7. People of all backgrounds really don’t know the full story of African American food in the South, and that’s because a simplistic, one note narrative that can be quickly digested and spat out has become the prevailing narrative of African American food—and most African American culture in the marketplace of ideas.  Soundbite size, one note, simple narratives are often how we communicate our feelings about “race.”
What will it take to guarantee that this story of Black resistance, travail, hope, memory and creativity becomes an ongoing movement for cultural literacy and cultural awareness for all?

For the next 7 posts, I’m going to try to tackle each one of these in 1500 words or less.  This is a very, very serious time for thinking about “race,” and what it means and how systemic racism and the legacy of 1526/1619 lives on with us 4 and almost 5 centuries later.  Each post will come with discussion questions that you can go over with a group.  If you have a copy of The Cooking Gene, great.  If you don’t please consider purchasing a RSADR (Retail Purchases Support Authors During Rona) copy and have an even richer conversation inside yourself and with your friends, family and neighbors about the themes of the work and politics of race and culinary history and culture in American life.  

Homework:
1. Use this time apart to collect family recipes over the phone or by computer.
2. Design a menu that reflects the life of one Ancestor in your family tree.
3. If there is a person in your family or community who is a culture or culinary tradition bearer surprise her with a meal to honor her knowledge and skill.
4. Eat well.

My friend, John Irving, is currently flying medical planes within the Navajo Nation that’s being devastated by COVID-19. I asked him to send me his story that I could post here to let people know what is actually going on. It’s just one story from the midst of this crisis. I want to add that John has been the chief pilot for heads of state as well as flying humanitarian missions around the world both professionally and personally, for instance to bring survival supplies to remote areas ravaged by floods or earthquakes. He’s one of the most caring people I know, who acts immediately to help those in need wherever they are. From this point on I’ll let John tell his story.

JOHN IRVING: I first started doing humanitarian flights in Alaska in 1976. One type of flight was taking Alaska State alcoholism counselors to native villages devastated by alcoholism. Frequently, after an emergency call-out, we would find all adults and teenagers in a village drunk and/or unconscious with children outside (exposed to the elements), kids who had not been fed for days. I also flew typical medevac flights in both helicopters (from oil platforms and fishing boats) and in airplanes.

Now I fly single-engine air ambulances for Guardian Flight, one of more than a dozen air ambulance companies owned by Global Medical Response (GMR). GMR operates ground and air ambulances in 40 states. In Gallup, New Mexico we normally have two Swiss-made single turbine-engine PC-12s, a twin engine Beech King Air 90C and one helicopter, all serving the Navajo and Zuni nations.

Now, during the corona virus pandemic about 80% of our flights are with Covid-19 patients, flying them from regional clinics and small hospitals on the reservation to larger hospitals in Albuquerque, Phoenix, Tucson and near El Paso.  

Covid-19 is slamming the Native reservations at a rate 3.5 times the rate of America in general.  This is a higher rate than even that suffered by America’s black and Hispanic communities.  

The reasons for this high rate of infection and death are simple.  Many American Natives suffer from diabetes, obesity, alcoholism, heart disease and respiratory problems, all of which increase the probability of getting Covid-19.  Social distancing is anathema in cultures where traditionally multiple generations live in a single dwelling, eat communally and care for each other instinctively.  Many of the homes on the reservation do not have running water.  Instead, they have an outside hand-pump.  This makes regular hand-washing difficult or impossible.  Many of these families live hours from the nearest medical facility, so often their illness is quite advanced before they go to a clinic or hospital.

We hear so little about the dire situation on the Navajo and other Native reservations because mainstream America has for centuries, paid little heed to the suffering of our poorer brown and black citizens.

Recently, many teen-age and young-adult Navajos and Zunis are collaborating in doing wellness-checks and bringing food, water, and sanitation supplies to elders who live alone.

Normally Gallup, New Mexico is the busiest air-ambulance base in the United States.  With the explosion of Covid-19, GMR has added 30 medical crew-members and seven addition air ambulances to the ‘four-corners’ region (New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado & Utah) occupied by the Navajo Nation.  This has made us much more responsive to the requests for emergency medical transport from the regional clinics and hospitals.

On a typical 12-hour shift I will fly two Covid-19 patients and one non-Covid patient from Gallop or one of the reservation airstrips, to an airport near a major hospital facility.  Typically I am in the air less than 30 minutes after being called out.  If the patient is local, I will prepare the aircraft readying it for the patient, while the clinical crew (nurse & paramedic) go to the hospital, assume the medical care of the patient, then bring the patient by ambulance to the airport.  If the patient is at a remote location, we will fly together to the nearest airport and operate from there.

With the Covid-19 patients, the pilot, nurse and paramedic are all wearing full personal-protective-equipment while loading the patient into the air ambulance, during the entire flight, unloading the patient into the ground ambulance and then to the receiving hospital.

While my clinical crew rides in the ground ambulance with the patient to the hospital, I will use spray alcohol and sterilizing wipes to thoroughly disinfect the aircraft; then I’ll drive a van to the hospital to take my crew back to the airport for our next mission.

The other night I had a singular honor.  My patient was a 100-year-old Navajo Code Talker; one of the great heroes of WW2.  He had served in the Pacific when my two uncles were there.  He was bright, funny and flirtatious with our medic who is 75 years younger than he is.  I am delighted to tell you we got him to the hospital in time and now he is well and back home with his family near Fort Defiance, Arizona.

Regularly, while flying back to base, Air Traffic Control will pass on a request from our dispatch center, asking us to divert to different airport for our next patient.  My normal shift is 12 hours, 12 off, but 16-hour days or nights are not unusual.

Best regards,
Capt. John Irving CEO, Drone Surveys & Reports, LLC

If you leave a message for John in the comments I’ll make sure he gets it.

• "I should not have been there.”
• Milley said his presence “created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics.”

America's top general said that showing up in combat fatigues with impeached President Donald Trump after a violent dispersal of protesters outside the White House last week was a "mistake."

General Mark Milley is Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He said he was "outraged" by the killing of George Floyd, and the protests speak to "centuries of injustice toward African Americans."

"As senior leaders, everything you do will be closely watched. And I am not immune. As many of you saw, the result of the photograph of me at Lafayette Square last week. That sparked a national debate about the role of the military in civil society," Milley, said in a pre-recorded speech to a group of graduates from the National Defense University released Thursday.

"I should not have been there. My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics. As a commissioned uniformed officer, it was a mistake that I have learned from, and I sincerely hope we all can learn from it," he added.

"I am outraged by the senseless and brutal killing of George Floyd. His death amplified the pain, the frustration, and the fear that so many of our fellow Americans live with day in, day out," added Milley, in the speech.

"The protests that have ensued not only speak to his killing, but also to the centuries of injustice toward African Americans," he added, saying "we should all be proud that the vast majority of protests have been peaceful."

Read more at CNN:
Top general apologizes for appearing with Trump in combat uniform after forceful removal of protesters

PHOTO: Army Gen. Mark A. Milley takes oath as 20th Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, photo by Jim Garamone | Defense.gov | Oct. 1, 2019

In March of 2019 — about a year after the Parkland shooting at Marjory Stoneham Douglas High School — the ACLU released a report titled "Cops and No Counselors: How the Lack of School Mental Health Staff Is Harming Students." Based on publicly available federal civil rights data from 2015-2016, this report offered a comprehensive analysis of the school support resources, breaking it down by state and demographic, to get a better look at how we're serving students in America.

The results were not good:

The ACLU’s report found over 90 percent of students nationwide attend schools that fail to meet the nationally recommended ratios for student-to-counselors, psychologists, nurses, and social workers. Over 14 million of these students were in schools that reported having law enforcement present despite lacking critical mental and physical health personnel. The report cites research indicating that students would benefit more from increased access to mental health professionals than the increased school hardening the commission recommends.

[…]

• The average number of students each school counselor serves is 444 — nearly double the already limited recommended student-counselor ratio of 250:1
• At least 43 percent of our nation's students attend schools with onsite police, and in some states more than 68 percent of schools have police
• 31 percent of the nation's students attend schools that have school police, but no psychologist, nurse, social worker, and/or counselor
• Black girls account for 16 percent of girls enrolled nationwide, but account for 39 percent of the girls arrested in school
• Native American and Pacific Islander students were more than twice as likely to be arrested as white students nationwide
• Black and Latino boys with disabilities are 3 percent of students, but were 12 percent of school arrests.

What I personally found most staggering was that 94 percent of "serious offenses" by students involved threats or actual physical fights … without a weapon.

It's not crazy to think that some kids are going to scrap in the schoolyard. Yet somehow, that qualifies as a "serious offense." And only a small chance of anything worse than a fight.

But this is still how we focus our resources:

When people worry about what would happen if we didn't have police in schools — well, the data shows that it can't be much worse than what's already happening when we do have police in schools. Police don't prevent mass shootings, for example; social workers do.

ACLU Report Highlights Staff Shortages, Over-policing, and Discriminatory Discipline in Schools

Image: Public Domain via U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Zoe M. Wockenfuss

The human race needs to figure out that we're all here to be born, live for a while, and then croak on this rock (or maybe in space). We are not all the same but we are all stuck with each other. This is not a bad thing if we can just stop being jerks. If you're blind to what's going on, staying out of it, adding to the problem, or just willfully ignorant, then wake up. We are officially living in the future but we are stuck in the past. I've been hearing the same racist garbage come out of people's mouths since I was a kid. Seriously, I'm 43 years old and the racist rhetoric and disgusting manipulation by those in power HAS NOT CHANGED. It's pathetic and it needs to stop right now.

So sign petitions, protest, donate $$ to causes, scream into the ether, or just listen to oppressed people. Whatever you need to do, do it. But give people understanding and help when they need it. Let's make compassion popular again. Let's rise above racism, homophobia, sexism, classicism, and religious persecution. End all inequality wherever its hiding. If that means overhauling our criminal justice system then let's make it happen. We can do this. So to all my friends of color, LGBTQ+ buds, frickin' awesome women, friends whose religions are different than mine, people of different economic classes, anyone different than me in any glorious way, etc. just know that I love you.

Protests and violent attacks by police continue across the country today, in response to the apparent killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers.

The murders of David McAtee today and Tony McDade last week at the hands of law enforcement officers have further fueled Black Americans' grief and rage.

The ACLU recently sent out a notice to activists “taking to the streets to express their pain, their outrage, and their demands for racial justice and an end to police violence against Black people.”

“As this happens, we want you to have what you'll need to know your risks and know your rights.”

Emerson Sykes, staff attorney for the ACLU's Speech, Privacy, & Technology Project, shared these essentials in a video direct from the New York City protests over the weekend.

As you come out to protest, here's what our video notes to keep in mind:

• The right to protest is a fundamental human right guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and the First Amendment.

• If you get stopped, ask if you are free to go. If the police say yes, calmly walk away.

• You have the right to record. The right to protest includes the right to record, including recording police doing their jobs.

• The police can order people to stop interfering with legitimate police operations, but video recording from a safe distance is not interfering.

• If you get stopped, police cannot take or confiscate any videos or photos without a warrant.

• If you are videotaping, keep in mind in some states, the audio is treated differently than the images. But images and video images are always fully protected by the First Amendment.

• The police's main job in a protest is to protect your right to protest and to de-escalate any threat of violence.

• If you get arrested, don't say anything. Ask for a lawyer immediately. Do not sign anything and do not agree to anything without an attorney present.

• If you get arrested, demand your right to a local phone call. If you call a lawyer for legal advice, law enforcement is not allowed to listen.

• Police cannot delete data from your device under any circumstances.

[SOURCE]

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“More than 3.44 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 243,015 have died,” Reuters calculated as of 0200 GMT on Sunday, based on public health data from around the world.

At least 66,441 people in the U.S. are confirmed to have died of COVID-19, as of May 3.

There is widespread understanding that the U.S. death toll undercounts coronavirus deaths, in part because of problems with access to testing.

Does this look like a flattened curve?

Does this look like a good time to lift restrictions?

A total rockstar in my Bay Area community has created an incredible program. A big shoutout to Sydney Gressel who started Frontline Foods, a nonprofit that raises funds for restaurants so they can feed the healthcare professionals on the COVID-19 frontlines. It allows struggling restaurants to stay afloat and gives the people tirelessly fighting COVID-19 healthy meals — a real win-win. In just a few short weeks, this fledgling organization has raised over $3M and is now serving food in 52 U.S. cities. Celebrities like Sting are endorsing Frontline, raising money for it on The Late Night Show with Jimmy Fallon, no less.

And on Tuesday, she got love from the Ellen show, appearing remotely as a guest along with Frontline celeb volunteers Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone. Here's Sydney (who has also been working 14-hour shifts as an emergency pediatric nurse, btw) talking about how it all began:

Isn't that terrific? Bravo, Sydney!

Hey, you can help! There are all kinds of volunteer opportunities, or you can simply make a donation to Frontline Foods.

image via Frontline Foods

Essential businesses across the country are trying to find ways to accommodate their community, while adhering to CDC guidelines. We respect and admire the first responders and healthcare providers who continue to work exhaustively for the betterment of the Tampa community.

We are also grateful to those who work to keep us fed. Grocery stores are beginning to enact measures to protect employees and shoppers alike. The Fresh Market has just announced that team members and shoppers will soon be required to wear masks in the store.

Here’s the full statement from Fresh Market leadership:

To help keep our communities safe during this time, our Team Members must wear face masks or cloth face coverings in the store, in accordance with the latest CDC recommendations.

Starting on Tuesday, April 14, we are requiring that all guests wear a face covering before entering the store.

This directive goes into effect on Tuesday, April 14.

Don’t have a mask? They’re simple enough to create at home. The Tampa Bay Times has a handy article that shows you exactly how to make one in just minutes.

Publix has also pivoted during this time. In addition to plexiglass at the registers, the store is also making its aisles one-way to assist in social distancing while shopping.

The Fresh Market has two locations in Tampa:

13147 N Dale Mabry Hwy
3722 Henderson Blvd

The Fresh Market in St. Pete is located at 2900 4th Street N.

The post Fresh Market will soon require customers to wear masks while shopping appeared first on That's So Tampa.

With the USF Library closed for the rest of the semester and all classes online, the facility’s computer lab was a big loss for students — until a laptop loan program was launched March 23.

After noticing that many students might not have reliable access to computers at home, the USF Library’s administration launched the program alongside the Tampa campus’ Student Government (SG), the St. Pete campus’ SG and Information Technology (IT).

The service started providing students who need computer access at home with laptops and webcams to complete their remote coursework.

Before the program was established, the USF Library had 97 laptops available, which were then repurposed for the program.

After SG partnered with the USF libraries, the number went up to 365 laptops available for loan across USF’s three campuses — Tampa, St. Pete and Sarasota-Manatee.

As of Tuesday morning, 79 laptops were checked out from the Tampa campus. Students have until May 12 to return the laptops.

In case a student needs to use the laptop for an extended period, Dean of USF Libraries Todd Chavez said that they can grant an extended loan.

For the program, the Tampa SG allocated approximately $35,000 of Activity and Service (A&S) Fees — students pay a flat fee of $7 per semester and $12 per credit hour — from the restricted reserves account, according to Student Body President Britney Deas.

Besides the SG funds, Chavez said the university provided additional funding by matching the total allocation from each campus.

All of the funds were used to purchase 136 units of the HP Pavilion T3 and the Lenovo I5 for the Tampa campus and 110 units of the HP Pavilion AMD for the St. Pete campus.

The average price per computer for the Tampa campus is $735, all of which contain built-in webcams and microphones. This is so students are able to participate in live lectures as well as complete proctored exams.

Chavez said the laptops purchased for the St. Pete campus were slightly less expensive than Tampa’s laptops because of when the orders were placed.

“That was not St. Pete trying to be cheap, they simply couldn’t get units that were at a higher performance level due to the availability,” Chavez said. “When the supply chain ran out, they sort of bought what they could.”

The idea of the program started when USF Provost Ralph Wilcox contacted Chavez about the USF Library providing remote services to students and faculty, especially after the university shifted to remote instruction on March 23.

During normal business operations, students were able to borrow laptops from the USF Library for a three-hour period.

While students were able to renew the loan, they would still have to return the computers on the same day and didn’t have the option to take them home.

“Since all the schools are closed, everybody’s fighting for their home computers,” Dean of Students Danielle McDonald said. “So we wanted to make sure that finances weren’t going to be another barrier to a student being able to academically complete this semester.”

To identify students eligible for the program, the Center for Academic Advocacy in Tampa and Compass Student Success Advocates in St. Pete considered three main variables: graduation, financial need and unforeseen circumstances surrounding COVID-19.

Out of the 5,502 who applied for graduation, 436 students qualified for first-round priority. For the second round, Chavez said that 996 were eligible to request a laptop.

During the first round of eligibility, students were contacted and invited to borrow a laptop on an as-needed basis while in the second round, students who are close to graduate regardless of financial need were invited to participate in the program.

Now, as the program works on its third round, students in need will be able to request a laptop on a first-come first-serve basis by contacting the USF Library.

Chavez said that despite having the loan program available to all students, it should not be used as an opportunity for an “upgrade.”

“We went for the lowest cost, sufficient laptops,” Chavez said. “They’re not high-end laptops or gaming machines. They’re pretty basic. They’re absolutely functional and they will help students with their coursework, research and so forth.”

Before the USF Library’s closure, students were able to get the laptops through a curbside pickup. Now, it has been shipping the laptops free of charge for students.

As the third week of remote classes comes to an end, McDonald said the focus of the initiative is to minimize barriers so students can “successfully complete the semester and graduation.”

“The university is going to try to support students as much as possible and to the extent that we can,” McDonald said. “What we’re trying to do is identify what could be some problems that students might be facing and then see what the university can do.

“Unfortunately, we can’t fix all of them and we can’t address all of them, but we’re really trying to help students overcome the barriers that we can.”

Businesses owners, residents, and community leaders are coming together in incredible ways to support those effected by the COVID-19 pandemic. No restaurant has a greater legacy in the state of Florida than The Columbia, and the restaurant group operates several concepts throughout the region, and Sunshine State.

The Columbia Restaurant Group’s street-side restaurants are closed to the public after the state mandate that dine-in restaurants close. While the doors are shut, the Restaurant Group is working hard to make sure its team is fed.

In times of crisis, it's good to remember the lessons of the past. The Columbia has 115 years of lessons to use as a…

Posted by Columbia Restaurant Group on Friday, April 3, 2020

Preparing meals for nearly 900 staff members

Richard Gonzmart and chef with the Restaurant Group, in partnership with Gordon Food Service Store, have been preparing and providing meals for its nearly 900 staff members. This is in addition to providing meals for first responders.

With the help of business friends who believed in the restaurants (including La Segunda Central Bakery, SSA, Naviera Coffee Mills, Gordon Food Service Inc, and even Mr Greens Produce) the Columbia Restaurant Group is raising ample funds for its staff. These local businesses are buying gift cards and providing product and supporting fundraising efforts through sales of Columbia Restaurant gift cards online.

Columbia Restaurant Group – Employee Support Meals

The Columbia Restaurant Group on Monday began providing pre-prepared staff meals for pickup at the Columbia in Ybor. Meals for staff at the Columbias in Sarasota and Sand Key and at Cha Cha Coconuts in Sarasota took place today (Tuesday). Celebration and St. Augustine will follow. These are for staff only; there’s no public takeout. The measures are part of an effort by Richard Gonzmart, president and 4th-generation caretaker of the 115-year-old company, to assist furloughed staff members, including selling Columbia Restaurant gift cards online at ColumbiaRestaurant.com. For purchases before the end of April, 100 percent of the money will go to the Columbia Restaurant Group Employee Assistance Fund, a pool of money that will be provided to employees at all the company’s brands: Columbia Restaurant, Ulele, Goody Goody and Cha Cha Coconuts. During the same period, for any purchase of $500 in gift cards, the company is adding another $50 to the buyer’s order. The direct link for purchasing gift cards: https://mgd.mercury-gift.com/columbiarestaurant. In addition, Gonzmart pledged to pay full health benefits for all furloughed employees until at least through April. “The last thing you need to worry about right now is your health coverage,” he wrote to staff members on Monday.

Posted by Columbia Restaurant Group on Tuesday, March 31, 2020

The Columbia is Florida’s oldest restaurant

The Columbia in Tampa’s Historic Ybor City was founded in 1905 and is Florida’s Oldest RestaurantSM. Additional locations include St. Armands Circle in Sarasota, the Historic District in St. Augustine, Sand Key on Clearwater Beach, Central Florida’s town of Celebration, the Columbia Cafe on the Riverwalk in Tampa and the Columbia Restaurant Cafe at Tampa International Airport.

All Columbia locations are owned and operated by 4th and 5th generation members of the founding family; except for Columbia Restaurant Cafe at Tampa International Airport, which is operated in partnership with HMSHost.

You can follow Columbia Restaurant Group on its website and Facebook for updates.

The post Columbia Restaurant Group provide prepared meals for staff, launches staff assistance fund appeared first on That's So Tampa.

You’re probably inundated with news and messages about coronavirus at the moment. But how do you know if you’re consuming evidence-based information or just speculation and myth?

There’s still a lot we don’t know but here’s what the evidence tells us so far about the coronavirus, called SARS-CoV-2, and the disease it causes, COVID-19.

How does it spread?

COVID-19 is transmitted through droplets generated via coughing and sneezing.

This means it can spread during close contact between an infected and uninfected person, when it’s inhaled, or enters the body via the eyes, mouth or nose.

Infection can also occur when an uninfected person touches a contaminated surface.

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Read more: What is a virus? How do they spread? How do they make us sick?

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What are the symptoms?

COVID-19 causes similar symptoms to the flu. Fever is the most common symptom, occurring in almost 88% of cases, while a dry cough is the next most common, affecting almost 68% of those with the virus.

Data from 55,000 cases in China also show other symptoms can include:

• fatigue, in 38% of cases
• producing sputum or phlegm, 33%
• shortness of breath, 19%
• sore throat, 14%
• headache, 14%.

Unlike other coronaviruses that cause the common cold, COVID-19 is hardly ever associated with a stuffy nose. This is seen in just 5% of cases.

Diarrhoea is also uncommon, affecting only 4% with the virus.

Can I be infected if I don’t have a fever?

Yes, you can still have coronavirus if you don’t have a fever. This occurs in about 12% of cases.

How long does it take to get sick?

The incubation is the period from when you’re infected to when you become sick. For COVID-19, the range is 1-14 days, with an average incubation period of 5-6 days.

How sick do people usually get?

Most people who get sick (80%) have a mild illness which rarely involves needing to go to hospital. They recover after about two weeks.

But just over 20% of people sick with COVID-19 will need to be hospitalised for severe difficulties with breathing.

Of the 20% who need to be hospitalised, 6% become critically ill with either respiratory failure (where you can’t get enough oxygen from your lungs into your blood), septic shock, and/or multiple organ failure. These people are likely to require admission to an intensive care unit.

It appears to take about one week to become severely ill after getting symptoms.

How often do people die of it?

The case fatality rate refers to the number of deaths among those who have tested positive for coronavirus. Globally, the case fatality rate today stands at 4%.

But this rate varies country to country and even within countries. These variations may partially be explained by whether hospitals has been overwhelmed or not.

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Read more: How does coronavirus kill?

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The case fatality rate in Wuhan was 5.8% (although one model says it may be lower at 1.4%). In the rest of China, it was at 0.7%.

Similarly in Europe, Italy’s case fatality rate is (8.3%), greatly surpassing that of Germany (0.2%).

However the case fatality rate only includes people who are tested and confirmed as having the virus.

Some modelling estimates suggest that if you calculated the number of deaths from the total number of cases (those confirmed with tests and those that went undetected) the proportion of people who die from coronavirus might be more like 1%.

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Read more: The coronavirus looks less deadly than first reported, but it's definitely not 'just a flu'

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Who is most at risk of dying?

People aged over 60 years with underlying health problems are at highest risk of severe disease and death.

For people aged 60-69, 3.6% of those who are infected will die from COVID-19. This rises to 8% for for 70-79 year olds and 14.8% for those over 80.

Among people under 50 years, just 0.2-0.4% will die from the disease and this rises to 1.3% for 50-59 year olds.

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Read more: Why are older people more at risk of coronavirus?

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How infectious is it, and how does that compare with the flu?

COVID-19 and influenza are probably fairly similarly infections.

A single ill person with COVID-19 can infect more people than a single ill person with influenza. COVID-19 has a higher “reproduction number” of 2.0-2.5. This means one person will infect, on average, 2 to 2.5 people.

Seasonal influenza has a reproduction number of about 1.28, meaning one person will infect, on average, between one and two people.

But this is balanced by influenza’s ability to infect more quickly. It takes, on average, 3 days to become sick with the flu, but you can still transmit it before symptoms emerge.

It takes 5-6 days to become sick with COVID-19. We still don’t know if you can be infectious before getting coronavirus symptoms, but it doesn’t seem to be a major driver of transmission.

So influenza can spread faster than COVID-19.

The case fatality rate of COVID-19 is higher than that of seasonal influenza (4% versus 0.1%), although as noted above, the true fatality of COVID-19 is still not clear.

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Read more: The 'dreaded duo': Australia will likely hit a peak in coronavirus cases around flu season

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Can you be reinfected?

It’s too early to know if someone infected with COVID-19 can get it again.

On the basis of what we understand about other coronaviruses, it is likely that infection will give you long-term immunity. But it’s unclear whether that will mean one year, two years or lifelong immunity.

Sanjaya Senanayake does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

With much of the globe self-isolating, many people must suddenly manage the complexities of working from home while sharing a crowded space.

Kitchens, dining rooms and other spaces have become offices for remote work with computers, cords and paperwork spilling into what was, until very recently, private space. For people with children, these spaces are also the daycare and an impromptu home-school with everyone trying to remain productive in the middle of the chaos of competing demands.

The term “remote work” means different things to different people. Many think of it as working away from a central office or school by connecting through communication technologies, such as email, intranets and video conferencing. Academia has yet to establish a common definition for this type of work that is accepted by all. In this article, I’m using the term as it is currently being used by the public in reference to working from home.

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Read more: Coronavirus Q&As: Answers to 7 questions your kids may have about the pandemic

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As a teacher with a doctoral degree in business that focused on remote work, I have a unique vantage point for this emerging situation of working from home in a house full of people, of all ages. In order to be effective and minimize stress, I recommend taking time to create a structure that everyone agrees to.

Here are five ways to organize the home-work environment for a more successful transition.

Create workstations

Assigning a workstation to each person gives everyone a sense that they belong in the newly shared space, while setting boundaries for personal space.

The workstations should make sense for the work being done. If the work is loud and disruptive, like video conferences or multimedia streams, assign that work to a room with a door. For quiet work that requires concentration, ear plugs or headphones with white noise may be needed.

Taking a few moments to set up space for success will save the whole household from feeling frazzled.

Designate a work-free zone

If you have a home with a separate room for relaxing, such as a family room or den, consider making it a work-free zone.

In smaller places, this can be the bedrooms or even designated areas, such as a table with games and puzzles, or a corner with books and drawing materials. This can be especially helpful when there are children on the scene.

Designating a space that is not for work is part of creating healthy work-life boundaries for psychological wellness.

Take scheduled breaks

The most common misconception about remote work is that it enables slackers. In fact, slacking is often more about personality and fit than the work context.

Successful remote workers are driven by the outcomes they are trying to deliver, and research shows they are not always exemplars of work-life balance.

Taking scheduled breaks not only keeps your mind fresh, but it also signals to others that wellness is important. If you are in self-isolation with children, your behaviour is teaching them what work-life looks like, so be sure to infuse a priority for wellness by modelling it yourself.

Integrate physical and creative activities

As adults, we know that it is important to make time for exercising and engaging our minds. Children have such activities scheduled into their school day, through recess, gym and creative subjects like art and music.

If you are self-isolating, it is essential to schedule physical and creative activity into each day — for everyone. If the weather allows, get outside, or plan to do indoor physical activities like yoga, dance games and interactive video games. Make it timed. Make it fun. The important thing is to schedule it.

It is also important to schedule time for creative activities. Consider how you can add the arts to the schedule, and remember: if it makes noise or a mess don’t schedule it for children when you don’t have the capacity to manage it, or it might not be the positive experience you are trying to create.

Establish a firm quitting time

A set quitting time helps us feel we have psychological control over our work. It also establishes boundaries and a sense of routine.

Children who are accustomed to timed periods, bells for breaks and a set time to go home still require structure and routine to make them feel safe, especially during these uncertain times. For children and adults, setting a timer and establishing the norm that work-time has a beginning and an end can signal familiar norms of the workplace and school, and lead to more effective behaviours for sharing space together.

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Read more: Coronavirus weekly: expert analysis from The Conversation global network

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These five tips are research-informed, yet as a parent who has worked remotely for years, I have also used them. The most important thing, in addition to implementing each tip, is to have an open dialogue with family, roommates or whomever shares your space and to be flexible enough to adapt to the different, emerging needs as they arise.

Everyone feels the stress of uncertainty; everyone wants life to feel as normal as possible.

Brittany Harker Martin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Last week, the Unicode Consortium released the latest version of the Unicode Standard—the universal character coding system used in computer processing (which includes the international emoji portfolio ). We’re thrilled to announce that Creative Commons (CC) license symbols were included in this new release.

The latest Unicode Standard adds 5,930 characters, including 4 new scripts, 55 new emoji characters, and the following CC license symbols:

This is the result of years of hard work by several members of CC’s staff, including our former Director of Product and Research Jane Park who submitted our initial proposal in October 2016 and our second proposal in July 2017.

What is Unicode?

Unicode is the standard for encoding characters into text. Typical examples of encoded characters that we use every day are @, $, &, #, and %. Other examples are writing scripts, like Arabic (العربية) or Devanagari (देवनागरी). Due to the nature of the internet, more characters are created every day—like the mechanical arm emoji —so the Unicode Standard must be regularly updated. 

Put simply, the Unicode Standard enables virtually all text-based editing platforms and tools  (e.g. WordPress, Gmail, Twitter, etc.) to use the same characters and symbols.

Why we proposed adding CC license symbols to Unicode

Way back in 2017, we surveyed more than 700 people to understand how they marked their works with CC licenses. We found that more than half (62%) use the CC license icons or buttons, which must be downloaded from our website or made accessible via an external plugin (e.g. CC WordPress Plugin). However, many more (96%) said they would like to be able to place the CC license symbols directly in their text to indicate the particular CC license being applied—hence the need for our proposal.

Font developers—please be sure to include the CC symbols in your fonts! With the CC license symbols being added to the Unicode Standard, you can help make it much easier for people to mark their work with a CC license.

The post The Unicode Standard Now Includes CC License Symbols appeared first on Creative Commons.

The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting all aspects of life in the Tampa Bay region. We’re grateful to the City of Tampa for their response to the situation, and their continued support of the Tampa business community.

Ubereats, a meal delivery service, announced that it would waive delivery fees for all orders from independent restaurants in light of current circumstances.

$0 delivery fees for local delivery

The hope of the $0 delivery fee is done in hopes that it will help continue to stimulate business for locally owned and operated businesses in cities across the country.

You can learn more by visiting the Ubereats App on your iPhone and Android.

Additionally, the company announced a new opt-in program for all restaurants in the U.S. and Canada that use Uber Eats to get daily payouts, rather that the standard weekly payout.

MLB season pushed back

On March 16, it was officially announced that the MLB season would be pushed back as well. Initially just spring training was put to a halt, but following the CDC’s new recommendations, officials have decided to push the season back.

Other local businesses like Kahwa Coffee, which operates multiple locations throughout the Tampa Bay region, will only offer takeout service at this time.

Amalie Arena staff compensated through shutdown

The Tampa Bay Lightning also announced that all employees scheduled to work games at Amalie Arena through the end of March would be compensated. This includes both Lightning hockey games and NCAA Tournament games. In addition, Vinik Sports Group (VSG) established a fund to provide temporary assistance to employees who need support during the shutdown.

Scholastic assists kids during school closures

Scholastic is also pulling through for kids and families stuck home during the pandemic.

Scholastic set up a ‘Learn From Home’ website with four categories: PreK and Kindergarten, Grades 1 and 2, Grades 3-5, and Grades 6+. Each section is already equipped with one week of content for students with 15 additional days on the way.

Each day of content is filled with videos, and learning challenges. The students can even go on virtual field trips or meet best-selling authors.

The website provides up to three hours’ worth of content each day and can be completed on multiple devices.

The post Uber Eats offering free delivery from independent restaurants appeared first on That's So Tampa.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced that all Florida bars and nightclubs will close for the next 30 days during a press conference on March 17.

More than 170 Florida residents have tested positive for coronavirus as of this writing.

The Governor also outlined new guidelines for restaurants, stating that employees should be screened before entering the business to be sure they don’t have the virus.

Restaurants are currently advised to limit capacity by 50%, and provide staggered seating arrangements so no tables are at least 6 feet apart.

DeSantis noted that city’s in Florida can go beyond these guidelines, but wanted to set these as the minimum standards going forward.

The post All Florida bars and nightclubs to close for at least 30 days during COVID-19 pandemic appeared first on That's So Tampa.

Touch has profound benefits for human beings. But over the last few decades, people have become increasingly cautious about socially touching others for a range of reasons. With the novel coronavirus spreading, this is bound to get worse. People have already started avoiding shaking hands. And the British queen was seen wearing gloves as a precaution not to contract the virus.

The coronavirus could very well have long-term implications for how hands-on we are – reinforcing already existing perceptions that touch should be avoided.

Why is touch so important? It helps us share how we feel about others, enhancing our verbal communication. A touch on the arm when comforting someone, for example, is often what shows that we really care. People benefit from physical touch throughout their lifespan, and there is a large body of evidence showing that it has the ability to affect both short and long-term wellbeing. For babies, it is even crucial for healthy brain development.

The emotional impact of social touch is ingrained in our biology. There is evidence that it triggers the release of oxytocin, a hormone that decreases responses to stress. In fact, touch has been shown to cushion stress levels in humans.

We know that a simple touch by a nurse prior to surgery can reduce stress levels in patients. It can also reduce feelings of social exclusion and even increase food intake among elderly people living in a nursing home. So given how essential social touch is to people’s wellbeing, it is important to ensure that it is a part of everyday life.

Decline in social touch

The last few decades has seen a decrease in social touch. Partly, this is down to the fact that we are living in a technology-focused, socially disconnected world, where people are more likely to communicate virtually rather than through meeting in person. This means that we are touching each other much less than we used to.

But the decline in touch is primarily due to a fear that it may result in an accusation of inappropriate touching. Such fear has been moulded by society as people are frequently hearing stories of inappropriate behaviour. People therefore rather resist touching others than risk having a social touch misinterpreted. The message is simple: avoid hugging a work colleague who is upset and don’t pat someone on the back for a job well done.

At the same time, the fear of accusations of child abuse has been disproportionate to the number of actual occurrences. This has seen professionals developing distorted thinking. Teachers often avoid being alone with children, and don’t touch pupils in a natural and affectionate way.

The impact of coronavirus

With the novel coronavirus, people have yet another reason to be fearful of touching others, as it means approaching people who potentially may be carriers. While we should remain careful with touching during this serious outbreak, we have to make an effort not to let it get out of control. After all, a lot of people suffer from high levels of anxiety about the virus, and touch is a way to reduce it.

The longer this goes on, the more likely that an association will be formed between social touch and a sense of negativity. People may eventually forget all about the virus, but still be wary of social touch without knowing why. This is because negative associations often create more readily available memories for people than positive associations.

So while it is not advisable to carry on touching people as usual during the outbreak, especially not people who are old or have underlying health conditions, physical contact with loved ones can still continue, as long as we take precautions and wash our hands.

More broadly, the key is to be aware that negative life events such as this epidemic could impact on social touch in the long run in an undesirable way. Bringing this to the forefront of our minds can counterbalance what may otherwise generate negative memories about touch.

Once the outbreak is over, one vital challenge will be to reset our thinking about touch, keeping in mind its importance. After all, a hug may be just what we need to move on from the traumatic experience of the coronavirus.

Cathrine Jansson-Boyd does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Over the last few days, a growing number of organizations have shut down their offices and told employees to work from home in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Here at Creative Commons (CC), we’ve also taken necessary precautions such as postponing all work-related travel and canceling the in-person component of the annual CC Global Summit in May. 

Fortunately, however, our daily operations haven’t been disrupted to the same extent as other organizations because CC has been a global, fully remote nonprofit since 2015. Our staff is spread across Europe, North America, and South America; and although this working environment presents incredible benefits, like flexibility and rich cultural exchanges, it also presents unique challenges. For example, staff on the west coast of North America are often just waking up as staff in Europe are signing off! 

In the spirit of open access and promoting good health, we’d like to share some tips for both organizations and individuals on the subject of remote work. 

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For organizations

• Create clear policies and guidelines that are accessible to all staff. Make sure to anticipate questions and/or concerns that your staff may have, and include answers in a FAQ.

• Craft an internal communications strategy that maintains clear, reliable, and regular communication across the organization and within teams. In fact, don’t be afraid of  “overcommunication.” 

• Schedule video conferencing—encourage leadership and/or management to schedule informal video conferencing with their team members to maintain team morale and cohesiveness.

• Don’t assume all staff has access to the latest technology—in particular, don’t assume all staff members have access to high-speed internet. If they don’t, work with them to figure out alternatives or to set expectations.

• Ensure contact information is up-to-date—for emergency purposes, ensure that all staff’s contact information is correct.

• Assess and adjust expectations and deadlines on projects that may be impacted by the lack of in-person engagement or by a disruption in schedules due to schools closing, individuals becoming ill, etc.

• Provide mental health resources—it’s important to provide staff with appropriate resources in case they begin to feel isolated and/or depressed while working remotely.

• Showcase flexibility, patience, and empathy—leadership and/or management should showcase these qualities in order to reduce employee anxiety and stress under challenging circumstances.

• Give regular updates, either via email or through video check-ins, on the status of COVID-19.

• Don’t micromanage your staff’s activities—instead, set realistic goals and trust they’ll get their work done.

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For individuals 

• Keep your normal workday morning routine—this includes brushing your teeth, changing your clothes, eating breakfast, etc.

• Do work in another room, not in your bedroom—if you live in a small apartment, try to create a space that you can designate as your “office.”

• Take breaks throughout the day—make some coffee, go for a walk, read a book, or stretch.

• Keep in touch with coworkers outside of formal meetings—this can help prevent social isolation, anxiety, or depression. CC staff, for example, schedule “lunches” over video or take “walks” together while talking over the phone. 

• Create boundaries between your life and your work—stick to your regular work hours and set expectations about email response times. This is often one of the biggest challenges of working from home!

• Find other remote workers in your town—schedule coworking days with them or meet up for lunch (if it’s safe)!

• Don’t buy (only) unhealthy snacks—you will eat them! Make sure you buy healthy snacks that will keep you energized throughout the day.

• Be wary of your tone—especially when communicating through messaging applications (e.g. Slack) because these forms of communication can feel impersonal and cold.

• Log off distracting websites—social media sites are especially distracting, so either log off of them or use a browser plugin to help you stay focused.

• Be proud of working from home—just because you don’t go to an office doesn’t mean your work is less important or you’re less productive.

Here’s the gist: On an individual level, try to create a routine that makes you feel productive, included, and motivated. On an organizational level, actively listen to and check in with staff to ensure everyone feels supported and included. Most importantly, as the World Health Organization (WHO) says, “Be safe. Be smart. Be kind.”

For more insights on remote working that our staff has found helpful, check out this article from Deekit, this guide from Trello, this guide from GitLab, and this podcast from Remoter. Also, this post is licensed CC BY, so please remix and reshare it! 

The post We’re a Fully Remote Nonprofit; Here’s Some Advice on Working From Home appeared first on Creative Commons.

The copyright symbol (©) is one of the most ubiquitous and most easily-recognized symbols in the world.

It is literally on everything. You can find it anywhere from the places you’d expect, such as books and movies, to virtually anything with writing or images on it include tissue boxes and (the most bizarre in my office) cans of compressed air.

Its inclusion is a bit strange. In most of the world, including the United States (since 1989), there’s no requirement to include any kind of notice to claim copyright in a work. Copyright exists by fixing the work into a tangible medium of expression.

Still, the copyright symbol is everywhere. and we see it hundreds of times a day, usually without thinking about it.

But where did the copyright symbol come from and how did it get started? Why is it so much less useful today? To answer those questions we have to go back to a much earlier time, back before the copyright symbol existed but it probably would have been very welcome.

Before the Copyright Symbol

Before the symbol we all know today, there were a variety of symbols and marks used to indicate copyright or some other official status. This was especially true in the times when “copy right” was used as tool to restrict what printers could publish as the symbol, usually some form of a seal, indicated that the permission was granted and that the book was authentic.

Copyright notices, however, didn’t become an element of United States law until the Copyright Act of 1802. It required publishers, if they wished to enjoy copyright protection to insert a copyright notice in their books, to publish a copyright notice either on the title page or the page behind it.

That notice was very specific and read as follows:

Entered according to act of Congress, the _____ day of _____ 18 _____ (here insert the date when the same was deposited in the office) by A. B. of the State of _____ (here insert the author’s or proprietor’s name and the State in which he resides).

If that sounds like a mouthful, it certainly is but all copyrighted works had to include it. The Copyright Act of 1870 gave some reprieve to works of fine art, allowing it to be inscribed on the side that would be mounted. An amendment four years later would shorten that lengthy notice to just “Copyright, 18__, by A. B.”

To those in the 21st century, this is a much more familiar notice and closely mirrors the notices that we use today. However, there’s no copyright symbol involved. Instead, we are just using the word “Copyright”.

The actual symbol would come around in the nearly 20th century.

The Birth of the Copyright Symbol

The Copyright Act of 1909 was a major rewrite of the United States copyright code. Among other things it extended the term of copyright from a maximum of 42 years to a maximum of 56 years.

However, like most sweeping reforms, the act had many points of contention. One of them was how to apply the notice requirement to various types of works. Something of a compromise was struck.

For most works, a notice would require either the word “Copyright” or the abbreviation “Copr.” (this is a terrible abbreviation and they should feel bad). However, for maps, copies of art, photographs and prints, they introduced a new symbol.

“The notice may consist of the letter C inclosed (sic) within a circle, thus: ©, accompanied by the initials, monogram, mark or symbol of the copyright proprietor…”

It wouldn’t be until 1954 when the symbol would be considered an acceptable alternative for the word “copyright” on all types of works.

However, that was oddly the least important thing to happen to the copyright symbol around that time. The symbol was also starting to go international.

Becoming an International Symbol

In the 1950s the United States had a problem. Copyright was becoming a much more international affair but was not a member of the Berne Convention, the leading international treaty on copyright at the time.

The specific issue was these very formalities. The Berne Convention required that all nations remove such formalities, including notices and registrations. The United States wasn’t prepared to do that at the time.

This brought about the Universal Copyright Convention. It was created in 1952 and took effect in 1955. It harmonized copyright between the various signatory countries and, most importantly, ensure that works in UCC countries would be protected in Berne Convention countries and vice-versa.

Another key point was that, in countries that required formalities, they would have to treat foreign works the same as they had been registered in the state. However, that was only if they carried the © symbol and state the name of the owner.

To be clear, the prominence of the United States meant that many international works used copyright notices well before this. However, the UCC took the copyright symbol international, with many, including in countries outside of the UCC bloc, using it to ensure that their work was properly protected in the United States.

However, the UCC did not have a long life. In March 1989, the United States finally joined the Berne Convention (more than a century after the first signatories). Around that same time, negotiations began on the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), which would take effect in January 1995.

Signing on to TRIPS was a requirement of joining the World Trade Organization and the TRIPS agreement also got rid of formalities and is currently the leading trade agreement on matters of copyright.

In just a few decades, the copyright symbol went from an international fixture to, in many cases, nearly useless. That said, it has clearly stuck around. You would be hard-pressed to find a book, album or movie that doesn’t have it.

But is it really useless? The answer is: Not completely.

The Continued Use of the Copyright Symbol

Under U.S. law, there’s really no requirement that you use a copyright symbol. You aren’t going to lose your copyright if you omit it (as with Night of the Living Dead) and, most likely, nothing bad will happen if you forget it.

One area where a copyright notice (including the symbol) still has an impact is with “innocent infringers”. Innocent infringers are subject to significantly lowered damages however, with the presence of a proper copyright notice, such a defense is impossible.

Ultimately, the much more likely way a copyright notice can benefit a creator is that it prevents some infringements. Given that some still believe works without copyright notices are public domain, including a notice (including the symbol) might stop at least some infringers.

Given that it doesn’t cost anything to include a copyright notice and it’s so common and ubiquitous, there isn’t really a reason not to. If it has any benefit at all, that’s more than enough to justify its inclusion for most.

Bottom Line

The copyright symbol is the face of copyright. It is one of the most common symbols we see on a daily basis and, yet, it’s something we think about very little. It’s just something that’s always been there and never really warranted questioning.

However, it’s a symbol that has a surprisingly colorful history and one that illustrates many of the problems with any kind of copyright formalities.

Still, one has to admit that its continued widespread use is somewhat bizarre. It’s extremely limited benefits outweigh the even more significantly limited costs. There’s little reason to have it but even less reason not to have it.

So, the copyright symbol lives on. Archaic and nearly useless, it remains just as common.

It’s a long, bizarre history of a very mundane thing.

In 2017, Marlin Jackson boarded a cross-country flight. When he got to his row, another passenger was already in the middle seat with an emotional support dog in his lap.

According to Mr. Jackson’s attorney, “The approximately 50-pound dog growled at Mr. Jackson soon after he took his seat…and continued as Mr. Jackson attempted to buckle his seatbelt. The growling increased and the dog lunged for Mr. Jackson’s face…who could not escape due to his position against the plane’s window.” Facial wounds requiring 28 stitches were the result.

Untrained emotional support dogs don’t just attack people. They attack highly trained service dogs, as well, sometimes ending their working lives.

I can relate. I am a visually impaired person partnering with my fourth guide dog over a 20-year period. In the past decade, I have increasingly needed to cope with clueless handlers allowing their pets to interfere with my dog’s work.

As a professor of ethics, I teach students to consider first the needs of the most vulnerable. I wish I could teach the same lesson to those who risk public safety with their ill-trained dogs, most of whom are emotional support animals, a category not recognized by the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Dogs, dogs, dogs

Over the past decade, purported emotional support animals have increasingly appeared in stores, restaurants and airports. While peacocks, pigs and kangaroos make the headlines, almost all the animals found in no-pet zones are dogs. Dog biting, barking, growling, urinating and defecating are top complaints, with one airline reporting an 84% increase in dog-related incidents from 2016-2018.

The influx of inappropriate dogs has also generated unwarranted suspicion toward the approximately 10,000 Americans who, like me, partner with legitimate, trained guide dogs.

Animal public access in the U.S. is currently governed by a patchwork system of inconsistent laws, creating confusion for people with disabilities, citizens and, particularly, gatekeepers – the store managers, restaurant owners and building supervisors tasked with deciding which dogs should be allowed in their no-pet spaces.

In other countries, IDs are issued only to professionally trained service dogs who have demonstrated ability to behave in public. In the U.S., there is no such validation. As a result, pet owners have become increasingly brazen in fraudulently claiming their animals warrant legal public access.

Service dogs versus emotional support animals

The Department of Justice, which enforces the Americans with Disabilities Act, allows people with physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual or mental impairments to have public access with service dogs who have been individually trained to perform tasks that mitigate their owners’ disabilities.

The Department of Transportation and Department of Housing and Urban Development allow service dogs on public transportation and in housing, respectively, but also grant access to people with mental and emotional disorders accompanied by emotional support animals – untrained animals who need only to contribute to their owners’ emotional well being, as any good pet would.

Technically, the individual seeking access with an emotional support animal must have certification of a mental or emotional disorder, which is a much lower standard than the disability requirement of DOJ.

Some mental health professionals have been willing to attest to an individual’s “need” for an emotional support animal without having a professional relationship with them. And none vouches for the appropriateness of specific animals.

ADA service dogs may legally accompany their handlers almost anywhere. Emotional support animals may not. For example, emotional support animals currently allowed in aircraft cabins are not legally permitted in airport shops and restaurants. Emotional support animals allowed to live in college dorms may not go with their owners to class or the cafeteria.

Online purveyors of official-looking letters, vests and patches guaranteed to get dogs access in pet-free zones take advantage of the confusion between service dogs and emotional support animals, liberally mixing the classifications. They also fail to mention that the individual seeking such accommodation must have proof of a mental disorder. This omission, itself, is an ethical problem.

A predicament for gatekeepers

Gatekeepers have to weigh the consequences of confronting an individual accompanied by a dog. Denial of access to a disabled handler with a legitimate service dog can result in a US$10,000 fine by the DOJ. The fine for a handler who falsely portrays a pet as a service dog or emotional support animal ranges from $100 to $1,000 and happens only if the handler supplies identification or waits for the police.

It is cheaper and easier for gatekeepers to just hope that questionable dogs don’t put patrons at risk. Airline attendants face a unenviable dilemma, as passengers cannot escape aggressive or stressed dogs in the tight confines of an airplane.

Change on the horizon?

There are recent signs that DOT and HUD are moving toward DOJ’s more stringent regulations. On Feb. 5, 2020, DOT opened a 60-day public comment period for a plan that would reclassify emotional support animals as pets and restrict free aircraft cabin access only to service dogs. HUD recently posted new guidelines to help housing providers better determine animal access.

In my view, more federal intervention is needed. Medical documentation of disability should be the entry point for service dog access, just as it is for handicapped parking permits. Offering a nationally recognizable ID for service dog owners who voluntarily provide documentation would eliminate some fraud.

Ideally, a dog’s ability to behave appropriately in public should be proven prior to access and affirmed annually by testers, who use a public access test to verify a dog’s manners and handling of disability-specific tasks, such as that developed by Assistance Dogs International or those performed by all U.S. guide dog schools.

Some argue documentation and testing is burdensome or a violation of disabled people’s civil rights. But physicians, who diagnose ADA-defined disabilities, already provide their patients verification for state and federal benefits. Behavior tests assure handlers their dogs can work in stressful situations. And ensuring public safety protects the civil rights of all people.

[Like what you’ve read? Want more? Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter.]

Deni Elliott does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

A bill pending in Missouri’s legislature takes aim at libraries and librarians who are making “age-inappropriate sexual material” available to children.

The measure, championed by Ben Baker, a Republican lawmaker, calls for establishing review boards who would determine whether materials in libraries contain or promote “nudity, sexuality, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or sadomasochistic abuse.” In addition, the boards, which would be comprised of parents, would root out materials lacking “serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.”

Librarians who defy the review boards by buying and lending such materials would be subject to misdemeanor charges, fines upward of US$500, and a potential jail sentence up to one year.

As a librarian, and now as an educator who teaches aspiring librarians, I see this bill as the latest chapter in a long history of books being banned from public and school libraries.

Censorship and book banning

Often, efforts to censor and muzzle libraries originate with members of the public rather than public officials or school leaders.

Censoring and banning library materials and programs is nothing new. Many classic books have been challenged and banned, including classroom favorites like “1984” by George Orwell, “The Catcher in the Rye” by J. D. Salinger, “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker, and “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou.

The children’s book “And Tango Makes Three,” by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell and illustrated by Henry Cole, was challenged and banned from libraries around the country for many years after its publication in 2005. The picture book is based on a true story of two male penguins in New York City’s Central Park Zoo who adopt and care for an egg and then keep caring for their daughter, Tango, after she hatched.

J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series is also regularly challenged and banned.

Separately, opponents of the storytime program known as “Drag Queen Story Hour” at libraries and other community venues, have held protests to ban and condemn such events aimed at children. The objections voiced by protesters stem from their belief that drag performers are evil and amoral and that exposure to drag queens will, in their view, cause children to become gay.

The Missouri bill is not the first of its kind. State lawmakers in Colorado and Maine both tried to pass similar legislation in 2019. Both efforts failed.

A profession

American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom, the Missouri Library Association, and PEN America – a nonprofit that defends free expression – are among the literary and library groups that have voiced their objections.

Many of the drag queens who read to kids are planning a protest against the measure on March 7. Baker has said his concerns about these readings were a factor in inspiring him to draft the bill.

Librarians are professionals. Librarians working in K-12 school libraries also earn certification as school library media specialists. Librarians have expertise in children’s literature, collection development, child development, psychology, readers’ advisory, reference services and other specialized skills needed to serve children and young adults in a variety of settings.

In short, librarians are more than capable of selecting and purchasing quality books and other materials for people of all ages.

To imply otherwise, as I believe the proposed Missouri measure would, is to insult these skilled educators. If it should be enacted, I would consider it a potential threat to information access, intellectual freedom and the freedom to read.

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Nicole Cooke works for the School of Library and Information Science at the University of South Carolina. I belong to professional library associations that advocate for librarians and free speech, several of which are mentioned in the article.

Motherboard has an interesting new piece about musical copyright law, and the fact that there are only so many musical sequences using half-step frequencies possible. What happens when they're all used up, and the copyright trolls take everyone to court for any song that even remotely resembles another one, just by virtue of the fact that it relies on the same music theory?

Think about Lana Del Rey accidentally ripping off of Radiohead, who had accidentally ripped off of the Hollies. It's not crazy to write a song that goes from the I to the extra tension of a Chromatic Mediant III before resolving on a IV, which then walks down to a minor iv and returns to the tonic.

(Or, in simpler terms, as Motherboard puts it: Sam Smith's "Stay With Me" ripping off of Tom Petty's "Won't Back Down")

To get around the potential future copyright trolls, Damien Riehl and Noah Rubin developed a MIDI algorithm to automatically generate a series of melodies, then released those datasets into the public domain using a Creative Commons Zero license. The method for achieving this is pretty neat:

To determine the finite nature of melodies, Riehl and Rubin developed an algorithm that recorded every possible 8-note, 12-beat melody combo. This used the same basic tactic some hackers use to guess passwords: Churning through every possible combination of notes until none remained. Riehl says this algorithm works at a rate of 300,000 melodies per second.

Once a work is committed to a tangible format, it's considered copyrighted. And in MIDI format, notes are just numbers.

"Under copyright law, numbers are facts, and under copyright law, facts either have thin copyright, almost no copyright, or no copyright at all," Riehl explained in the talk. "So maybe if these numbers have existed since the beginning of time and we're just plucking them out, maybe melodies are just math, which is just facts, which is not copyrightable."

Ideally, this would mean that any new music that gets written is arguably remixing and adapting from these public domain melodies … which means there's no copyright infringement, just new songs. Though whether this holds up in court remains to be seen.

Musicians Algorithmically Generate Every Possible Melody, Release Them to Public Domain [Samantha Cole / Vice]

Image: AidenIreland / Wikimedia Commons (CC 4.0)

Lawyers have their legalese. Academics have their own intra-academialogical post-linguistic theories. And it was only before the MBAs joined the fray with their own self-important syntax. If you've ever been in the sleek office setting of a start-up or some tech-savvy corporation, you've heard it. You may have even picked up on its tics to help you sound smarter, too; after all, that's how it works.

Molly Young has a great new piece at Vulture about this phenomenon, which she has coined "Garbage Language." Her article is full of insight not only into the ways that we do and don't communicate, but also how that reflects the other issues inherent in these kinds of office cultures:

[G]arbage language works because garbage is what we produce mindlessly in the course of our days and because it smells horrible and looks ugly and we don’t think about it except when we’re saying that it’s bad, as I am right now.

But unlike garbage, which we contain in wastebaskets and landfills, the hideous nature of these words — their facility to warp and impede communication — is also their purpose. Garbage language permeates the ways we think of our jobs and shapes our identities as workers. It is obvious that the point is concealment; it is less obvious what so many of us are trying to hide.

[…]

When we adopt words that connect us to a larger project — that simultaneously fold us into an institutional organism and insist on that institution’s worthiness — it is easier to pretend that our jobs are more interesting than they seem. Empowerment language is a self-marketing asset as much as anything else: a way of selling our jobs back to ourselves.

It's a long-ish article, but unlike that padded-out garbage language, the diction is actually substantial and useful.

Garbage Language [Molly Young / Vulture]

Image: Canva Studios / Pexels (Public Domain)

The Smithsonian Institution has just released 2.8 million images (2D and 3D) into the public domain via a new Smithsonian Open Access online platform where anyone can browse and download high-res files. And then reuse them! Or remix them! For whatever! For free! From Smithsonian:

Featuring data and material from all 19 Smithsonian museums, nine research centers, libraries, archives and the National Zoo, the new digital depot encourages the public to not just view its contents, but use, reuse and transform them into just about anything they choose—be it a postcard, a beer koozie or a pair of bootie shorts.

And this gargantuan data dump is just the beginning. Throughout the rest of 2020, the Smithsonian will be rolling out another 200,000 or so images, with more to come as the Institution continues to digitize its collection of 155 million items and counting...

Spanning the arts and humanities to science and engineering, the release compiles artifacts, specimens and datasets from an array of fields onto a single online platform. Noteworthy additions include portraits of Pocahontas and Ida B. Wells, images of Muhammad Ali’s boxing headgear and Amelia Earhart’s record-shattering Lockheed Vega 5B, along with thousands of 3-D models that range in size from a petite Eulaema bee just a couple centimeters in length to the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant, estimated at about 29 light-years across.

Smithsonian Open Access

As the brutal reality of climate change dawned this summer, you may have asked yourself a hard question: am I well-prepared to live in a warmer world?

There are many ways we can ready ourselves for climate change. I’m an urban forestry scientist, and since the 1980s I’ve been preparing students to work with trees as the planet warms.

In Australia, trees and urban ecosystems must be at the heart of our climate change response.

Governments have a big role to play – but here are five actions everyday Australians can take as well.

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Read more: Go native: why we need 'wildlife allotments' to bring species back to the ‘burbs

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1. Plant trees to cool your home

At the current rate of warming, the number of days above 40℃ in cities including Melbourne and Brisbane, will double by 2050 – even if we manage to limit future temperature rises to 2℃.

Trees can help cool your home. Two medium-sized trees (8-10m tall) to the north or northwest of a house can lower the temperature inside by several degrees, saving you hundreds of dollars in power costs each year.

Green roofs and walls can reduce urban temperatures, but are costly to install and maintain. Climbing plants, such as vines on a pergola, can provide great shade, too.

Trees also suck up carbon dioxide and extend the life of the paint on your external walls.

2. Keep your street trees alive

Climate change poses a real threat to many street trees. But it’s in everyone’s interests to keep trees on your nature strip alive.

Adequate tree canopy cover is the least costly, most sustainable way of cooling our cities. Trees cool the surrounding air when their leaves transpire and the water evaporates. Shade from trees can also triple the lifespan of bitumen, which can save governments millions each year in road resurfacing.

Tree roots also soak up water after storms, which will become more extreme in a warming climate. In fact, estimates suggest trees can hold up to 40% of the rainwater that hits them.

But tree canopy cover is declining in Australia. In Melbourne, for instance, it falls by 1-1.5% annually, mainly due to tree removals on private land.

This shows state laws fail to recognise the value of trees, and we’re losing them when we need them most.

Infrastructure works such as level crossing removals have removed trees in places such as the Gandolfo Gardens in Melbourne’s inner north, despite community and political opposition. Some of these trees were more than a century old.

So what can you do to help? Ask your local council if they keep a register of important trees of your suburb, and whether those trees are protected by local planning schemes. Depending on the council, you can even nominate a tree for protection and significant status.

But once a development has been approved, it’s usually too late to save even special trees.

3. Green our rural areas

Outside cities, we must preserve remnant vegetation and revegetate less productive agricultural land. This will provide shade and moderate increasingly strong winds, caused by climate change.

Planting along creeks can lower water temperatures, which keeps sensitive native fish healthy and reduces riverbank erosion.

Strategically planting windbreaks and preserving roadside vegetation are good ways to improve rural canopy cover. This can also increase farm production, reduce stock losses and prevent erosion.

To help, work with groups like Landcare and Greening Australia to vegetate roadsides and river banks.

4. Make plants part of your bushfire plan

Climate change is bringing earlier fire seasons and more intense, frequent fires. Fires will occur where they hadn’t in the past, such as suburban areas. We saw this in the Melbourne suburbs of Bundoora, Mill Park, Plenty and Greensborough in December last year.

It’s important to have a fire-smart garden. It might seem counter-intuitive to plant trees around the house to fortify your fire defences, but some plants actually help reduce the spread of fire – through their less flammable leaves and summer green foliage – and screen your house from embers.

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Read more: Low flammability plants could help our homes survive bushfires

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Depending on where you live, suitable trees to plant include crepe myrtle, the hybrid flame tree, Persian ironwood, some fruit trees and even some native eucalypts.

If you’re in a bushfire-prone area, landscape your garden by strategically planting trees, making sure their canopies don’t overhang the house. Also ensure shrubs do not grow under trees, as they might feed fire up into the canopy.

And in bad fire conditions, rake your garden to put distance between fuel and your home.

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Read more: Keeping the city cool isn't just about tree cover – it calls for a commons-based climate response

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5. What if my trees fall during storms?

The fear of a whole tree falling over during storms, or shedding large limbs, is understandable. Human injury or death from trees is extremely rare, but tragedies do occur.

Make sure your trees are healthy, and their root systems are not disturbed when utility services such as plumbing, gas supplies and communication cables are installed.

Coping with a warming world

Urban trees are not just ornaments, but vital infrastructure. They make cities liveable and sustainable and they allow citizens to live healthier and longer lives.

For centuries these silent witnesses to urban development have been helping our environment. Urban ecosystems depend on a healthy urban forest for their survival, and so do we.

Gregory Moore does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Facebook is designed to make you anxious, depressed and dissatisfied, three states of mind that make you more vulnerable to advertising and other forms of behavioral manipulation. Small wonder, then, that people who quit using Facebook report higher levels of life satisfaction and lower levels of depression and anxiety [pdf]. Bloomberg's article about the study is a few months old but one that should be revisited regularly between now and November.

People who deactivated Facebook as part of the experiment were happier afterward, reporting higher levels of life satisfaction and lower levels of depression and anxiety. The change was modest but significant — equal to about 25 to 40 percent of the beneficial effect typically reported for psychotherapy.

Why are people willing to pay so much money for something that reduces their happiness? One possibility is that social media acts like an addictive drug — in fact, the people Allcott et al. paid to deactivate Facebook ended up using it less after the experiment was over. But another possibility is that people use services like Facebook because they’re compelled by motivations other than the pursuit of happiness.

Back in 1938, a local Florida cruise operator called Colonel Tooey — "Colonel" was in fact his first name, according to the New York Times — let loose about a dozen rhesus macaque monkeys onto a man-made island inside Silver Springs State Park. According to National Geographic, Colonel had big plans to build a Tarzan-themed attraction there.

But naturally, the monkeys escaped, and over the years, multiplied. The International Primate Protection League tried to keep their eye on them, and they (apparently) became a bit of a tourist attraction. Eventually, wildlife officials tried to tame the population, approving the removal of more than 1,000 of these feral macaques. As of 2018, a study in the Journal of Wildlife Management estimated that there were still around 300 of them now roving around the strip malls of suburban Florida. And some of them have migrated more than 100 miles away, as far as Jacksonville.

And about 30 percent of the remaining feral rhesus macaques also have Herpes-B, also known as "monkey herpes."

Monkey herpes is rare in humans, with only about 50 known cases (none of which were actually contracted from monkeys). But it can kill a person in just six weeks.

More and more of these rhesus macaques have been found roaming around residential neighbors in Florida. While they tend to be pretty skittish, they can also get aggressive around humans; they've even been known to organize mass raids of deer feeders in Florida. So local authorities are raising red flags, in hopes of preventing the inevitable Florida-Man-Gets-Bitten-By-Feral-Herpes-Monkey headlines.

Roving band of herpes-ridden monkeys now roaming northeast Florida [Paula Froelich / NY Post]

These wild monkeys thrive in Florida—and carry a deadly virus [Annie Roth / National Geographic]

Image: Tapas Biswas / Wikimedia Commons (CC 4.0)

Starting in 2007, photographer and visual effects artist Dimitris Tsalkanis has been building a digital 3D model of ancient Athens. The result is an immersive historical recreation where everyone online is invited. How did Tsalkanis handle this Herculean (rather, Heraklean) task? He learned as he went. From Sarah Rose Sharp's article about Ancient Athens 3D in Hyperallergic:

“I had no previous experience on 3D and I started experimenting in my spare time,” said Tsalkanis in an email interview with Hyperallergic. “I always liked archaeology and since I am from Athens, I was always interested in its monuments and history. During my research, I realised that up until then no one had attempted a complete 3D reconstruction of ancient Athens..."

Tsalkanis stays up to date with his fantasy city, updating reconstructions constantly for better quality of models and better archaeological and historical accuracy...

Visitors to the site can browse reconstructions that date back as early as 1200 BCE, the Mycenaean period — or Bronze Age — through Classical Athens, featuring the rebuilds made necessary by the Greco-Persian War, and ages of occupation by Romans and Ottomans.

"Explore Ancient Athens Online Through 3D Models, Created by One Animator Over 12 Years" (Hyperallergic, thanks Mark Dery!)

Images below: "Aerial view of the Library of Hadrian" and "Panoramic view of the Acropolis," Dimitris Tsalkanis/Ancient Athens 3D