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An Introduction to the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) Version 3 Contents Part 1 EIS and the investor PART 2 EIS and the company
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1 An Introduction to the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) Version 3 This print reflects the EIS legislation and HMRC online guidance as at January If it is some time since you printed it, you may wish to refer back to the Print this guidance page in the online guidance at to check it has not been superseded by a later version. Contents Introduction Part 1 EIS and the investor 1.1 The investment 1.2 The Tax Reliefs available Capital Gains Tax Exemption Loss Relief Capital Gains Tax deferral relief 1.3 Connection with the company Connection by financial interest Connection by employment Business Angels Summary of tax reliefs 1.4 How to claim tax relief 1.5 When is relief reduced or withdrawn? 1.6 Investment through EIS Funds PART 2 EIS and the company 2.1 The kind of company which can use the Scheme to raise money 2.2 Limit on money raised 2.3 How and when money raised by the share issue must be used 2.5 How a company qualifies Additional sources of information
2 Introduction The Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) is designed to help smaller higher-risk trading companies to raise finance by offering a range of tax reliefs to investors who purchase new shares in those companies. This guide provides an overview for companies and potential investors who have heard of the Scheme and want to know more about it and how it works. It does not cover all the detailed rules, so companies and investors should not proceed solely on the basis of the information in it, and should consider seeking professional advice. The information in this guide relates only to shares issued on or after 6 April It does not cover the legislation relating to shares issued before that date. And readers must bear in mind that the reliefs and legislation relating to them may change in the future. The Budget on 22 June 2010 announced changes to the Capital Gains rules. After that date as it will no longer be possible both to defer such gains under the EIS rules, and for them to qualify for Entrepreneur's Relief. If you think that you may be affected by this you should seek advice before proceeding with investment under EIS. HM Revenue & Customs provides more detailed guidance in the Venture Capital Schemes Manual (VCM), to which this guide occasionally refers. This guide is divided into two parts: Part 1 focuses on the investor Part 2 focuses on the company And there are pointers to additional sources of information at the end. It is strongly advised that you read both parts, irrespective of whether you are a potential investor or a company considering using the Scheme. It is important that investors are aware of the rules the company has to observe, not just at the time of the investment but for at least three years afterwards. If it fails to meet those rules tax relief will not be given, or, if it has already been given, will be withdrawn. Similarly, it is important that companies appreciate the conditions to be met by investors, so that shares are not issued on which the investor expects to be able to claim tax relief, only to find that no relief is due. Both investors and companies should note that no relief will be given (or if it has been given, it will be withdrawn) if any scheme has as its main purpose, or one of its main purposes, the avoidance of tax. (The tax reliefs available under the EIS are of course not considered to be avoidance of tax.)
3 Part 1 EIS and the investor 1.1 The investment All shares must be paid up in full, and in cash, when they are issued. They must be 'full-risk' ordinary shares, with no preferential rights to dividends, or to the company s assets in the event of a winding up. There must also be no arrangements to protect the investor from the normal risks associated with investing in shares, and no arrangements for the shares to be purchased by anyone else after the end of the relevant period. Investment can be directly into the company, or through an Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) Fund. For more on EIS Funds see paragraph The Tax Reliefs available Income Tax Relief This is available to individuals only, who subscribe for (although this can be through a nominee), shares in an Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) qualifying company. There has to be a minimum investment of 500 worth of shares in any one company in any one tax year. The relief is 20 per cent of the cost of the shares, to be set against the individual s Income Tax liability for the tax year in which the investment was made. Relief can be claimed up to a maximum of 500,000 invested in such shares, giving a maximum tax reduction in any one year of 100,000 providing you have sufficient Income Tax liability to cover it. (Please note that this relief cannot be set off against dividend income, as the tax credit attached to the dividend is not recoverable.) There is a 'carry back' facility which allows all or part of the cost of shares acquired in one tax year to be treated as though the shares had been acquired in the preceding tax year. Relief is then given against the Income Tax liability of that preceding year rather than against the tax year in which those shares were acquired. This is subject to the overriding limit for relief for each year. The shares must be held for a certain period or Income Tax relief will be withdrawn. Generally, this is three years from the date the shares were issued. But if the qualifying trade started after the shares were issued, the period is three years from the date the trade actually started. Income Tax relief can only be claimed by individuals who are not 'connected' with the company. (See 'Connection with the company' at paragraph 1.3.) Capital Gains Tax exemption If you have received Income Tax relief (which has not subsequently been withdrawn) on the cost of the shares, and the shares are disposed of after they
4 have been held for the period referred to at paragraph above, any gain is free from Capital Gains Tax Loss Relief If the shares are disposed of at a loss, you can elect that the amount of the loss, less any Income Tax relief given, can be set against income of the year in which they were disposed of, or any income of the previous year, instead of being set off against any capital gains Capital Gains Tax deferral relief This is available to individuals and trustees of certain trusts. The payment of tax on a capital gain can be deferred where the gain is invested in shares of an EIS qualifying company. The gain can arise from the disposal of any kind of asset, but the investment must be made within the period one year before or three years after the gain arose. There are no minimum or maximum amounts for deferral. And it does not matter whether the investor is connected with the company or not. Unconnected investors may claim both income tax and capital gains deferral relief. There is no minimum period for which the shares must be held; the deferred capital gain is brought back into charge whenever the shares are disposed of, or are deemed to have been disposed of under the EIS legislation. 1.3 Connection with the company You are not eligible for income tax relief on the cost of your shares if you are connected with the company. You can be connected in two ways Connection by financial interest in the company A financial interest in the company, or in any subsidiary of the company, can make you connected with it. If you control the company, or hold more than 30 per cent of the share capital (or share and loan capital taken together) or voting rights, you are connected with the company. If you are entitled to more than 30 per cent of the assets in the event of a winding up you are also connected; note that in looking at entitlement to assets, loans to the company are taken into account. These conditions apply throughout the period beginning two years before the issue of the shares and ending three years after the issue (or three years after the commencement of the trade if that followed the share issue). So if you take a 15 per cent stake and are given income tax relief, and a year later you take an additional 20 per cent stake, you have become connected, and the relief will be withdrawn. Shareholdings/voting rights/rights to assets in a winding up held by your associates are also taken into account. Associates are defined as business partners, trustees of any settlement where you are a settlor or beneficiary, and
5 relatives. Relatives are spouses or civil partners, parents and grandparents, and children and grandchildren; brothers and sisters are not counted as associates for the purpose of the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) Connection by employment If you are a partner, director (though see 'Business Angels' below) or an employee of the company, you are connected with it. You are also not eligible for relief if an associate (see above) is so connected. As with connection because of an interest in the company, this restriction applies not only at the time the shares were issued but to the two year period before the shares were issued and the three years after the issue (or the three years after the commencement of the trade if that followed the share issue) Business Angels However there is an exception for directors who are 'Business Angels'. Where your only connection with the company is as a director who receives no remuneration (and is not entitled to such remuneration), and you had not previously been involved in carrying on the trade the company is carrying on at the time it issues the relevant shares, an investment may qualify for Income Tax relief. That relief is not withdrawn if you subsequently become a paid director, providing the remuneration is reasonable. You can also claim Income Tax relief on investments made after becoming a paid director, providing those shares are issued during the period as covered at paragraph above relating to the shares issued before you became a paid director Summary of tax reliefs Reliefs available depend on whether an investor is connected with the company Unconnected Income Tax Relief on subscriptions Connected Capital Gains exemption on disposal of shares eligible for income tax relief Loss Relief on disposal of shares disposed of at a loss
6 1.4 How to claim tax relief You cannot claim relief until the company sends you a form EIS3. (See Part 2 for an explanation of what the company has to do to put itself in that position.) If you invest through an Approved Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) Fund you will receive a form EIS5; see paragraph 1.6. Your claim can be made on the Self Assessment tax return for the tax year in which the shares were issued. If the shares were issued in a previous year, and/or if the claim is for capital gains deferral relief, the claim part of the form EIS3 must also be completed and sent to your tax office. If you have an EIS3 for a year for which you have not yet received a tax return, you can request a change to your PAYE tax code, or an adjustment to any Self Assessment payment on account due. You will still have to make the claim itself on your tax return when you get it. Claims to relief can be made up to five years after the first 31 January following the tax year in which the investment was made. 1.5 When is relief reduced or withdrawn? Tax relief will be withdrawn if, during the period set out at paragraph 1.2.1: You or an associate become connected (see above) with the company. The company loses its qualifying status. The circumstances in which this can happen are set out in Part 2. It is important to realise that the company may do something over which you have no control which results in its losing its qualifying status, and your relief being lost. But if a company, for genuine commercial reasons, goes into liquidation during the period, any income tax relief is not withdrawn. Tax relief will be reduced or withdrawn if, during that period: Any of the shares are disposed of (unless the disposal is to a spouse or civil partner - in those circumstances the shares are treated as if the spouse or civil partner had subscribed for them). You (or an associate) 'receive value' from the company (or a person connected with that company). What constitutes receiving value is set out at VCM It includes receiving a loan or benefit from the company, or the company selling an asset to you at less than market value (or you selling an asset to the company at more than market value). Relief can also be withdrawn if the company repays or repurchases its own share capital from any shareholder. How much Income Tax relief is withdrawn will depend on the amount of the value received, but the whole of any deferred capital gain will be brought back into charge. However, 'insignificant' amounts of value received can be ignored, and there is also a facility in some circumstances whereby if the value received is replaced as soon as is practicable, relief will not be withdrawn.
7 Please note that you are required by law to inform your tax office within 60 days of any of the events above occurring. 1.6 Investment through EIS Funds You can also invest through an Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) Fund, which will invest on your behalf in a number of qualifying companies. You are still the owner of the shares, and the process for claiming relief is as set out above. Some Funds, set up in a particular way, are approved by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). If you invest through one of these funds, then providing certain conditions are met, there is no minimum investment per company requirement, and you can claim Income Tax relief as if the shares were subscribed for on the date the Fund closed, rather than the date when they were actually purchased. (Capital gains deferral relief is still claimed by reference to the date the investment in the EIS qualifying company was made.) In these cases, instead of you receiving an EIS3 for each investment, the managers of approved Funds will send you a form EIS5 covering all the investments made on your behalf. Please note that 'approval' by HMRC is relevant only to the tax treatment of the investments. It in no way bears on the commercial viability of the investments, and you are as liable to have relief reduced or withdrawn on any particular investment in the same way as anyone who invests directly into the company.
8 Part 2 EIS and the company In order for its investors to be able to claim, and keep, the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) tax reliefs relating to their shares, the company which issues the shares has to meet a number of rules regarding the kind of company it is, the amount of money it can raise, how and when that money must be employed for the purposes of the trade, and the trading activities carried on. The company must satisfy HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) that it meets these requirements, and is therefore a qualifying company. The process for doing this is set out at paragraph The kind of company which can use the Scheme to raise money Must be an unquoted company at the time the shares are issued. That means it cannot be listed on the London Stock Exchange or any other recognised stock exchange. It can subsequently become a quoted company without the investors losing relief, but only if there were no arrangements for it to become quoted in existence when the shares were issued. For the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) rules the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) and the PLUS Quoted and PLUS Traded Markets are not considered to be recognised exchanges, so a company listed on those markets can raise money under the EIS if it satisfies all the other conditions. Must not be controlled by another company (or another company and any person connected with that company). Nor must there be any arrangements in existence for it to be controlled by another company at the time the shares are issued. However, where a company needs, for commercial reasons, to put a new holding company above itself and: - all the shares in the old company are exchanged for shares of the same kind in the new holding company - various other conditions, set out at VCM15200, are met the tax relief applicable to the old shares is effectively transferred to the new shares. May have subsidiaries, but if it does they must all be qualifying subsidiaries, ie the company has more than 50 per cent of the ordinary share capital of the subsidiary, and it is not controlled (by other means) by another company. (If the EIS company has a property management subsidiary that must be at least a 90 per cent subsidiary.) Must be a 'small company'. The measure of whether a company is 'small' is the Gross Assets Test. The Gross Assets of the company or of the whole group if it is the parent of a group cannot exceed 7 million immediately before any share issue and 8 million immediately after that issue. VCM15100 and Statement of Practice 2/06 explain how assets are valued for the purpose of this test.
9 Must have fewer than 50 full-time employees (or their equivalents) at the time the shares are issued. Can be either a company carrying on the qualifying trade, or the parent company of a trading group. The trade can be carried on either by the company issuing the shares or a subsidiary, but if it is carried on by a subsidiary, it must be at least a 90 per cent subsidiary. Note: the rule is worded so as to prevent any party other than the company issuing the shares or its 90 per cent subsidiary, from carrying on the trade. That means that if the trade is being carried on in partnership then the company will not qualify. See VCM The rules regarding not being controlled by another company, qualifying subsidiaries and the company carrying on the trade must be met throughout the period outlined in Part 1. If they are not, then the investors will lose their reliefs. 2.2 Limit on money raised Companies are not allowed to raise more than 2 million in any 12 month period from the three venture capital schemes. The three schemes are the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS), the Corporate Venturing Scheme (CVS) and Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs), Investments from any or all of these schemes must fall within the 2 million limit. If any share issue breaks that limit, none of the investors in that issue will be able to claim any of the EIS tax reliefs. 2.3 How and when money raised by the share issue must be used The money raised by the share issue can be used either for the purpose of an existing qualifying trade or for the purpose of preparing to carry on such a trade. Where the shares are issued before 6 April 2011 the trade, or the preparation for it, must be carried on wholly or mainly in the UK. That requirement is removed for shares issued on or after 6 April If the company is preparing to trade, the trade must start within two years of the shares being issued. Alternatively it can be used to carry on research and development intended to lead to such a qualifying trade being carried on. The money raised by the share issue must also be employed for the purposes of the trade or research and development within two years of the shares being issued (or within two years of the trade commencing, if that is later). If these requirements are not met then the investors will not be eligible for relief on the cost of their shares, and any relief given will be withdrawn. It is therefore important that companies do not raise money under the EIS unless they are reasonably confident of meeting these requirements.
10 2.4 Trading activities The trade must be conducted on a commercial basis with a view to the realisation of profits. Most trades qualify, but some do not. Those that do not are termed 'excluded activities' and are: dealing in land, in commodities or futures in shares, securities or other financial instruments dealing in goods, other than in an ordinary trade of retail or wholesale distribution financial activities such as banking, insurance, money-lending, debtfactoring, hire-purchase financing or any other financial activities leasing or letting assets on hire, except in the case of certain shipchartering activities receiving royalties or licence fees (though if these arise from the exploitation of an intangible asset which the company itself has created, that is not an excluded activity) providing legal or accountancy services property development farming or market gardening holding, managing or occupying woodlands, any other forestry activities or timber production shipbuilding coal production steel production operating or managing hotels or comparable establishments or managing property used as an hotel or comparable establishment operating or managing nursing homes or residential care homes, or managing property used as a nursing home or residential care home providing services to another person where that person s trade consists, to a substantial extent, of excluded activities, and the person controlling that trade also controls the company providing the services A company can carry on some excluded activities, but these must not be 'substantial' part of the company s trade. HMRC take 'substantial' to mean more than 20 per cent of the company s activities. There is no requirement that the qualifying company is resident in the UK, but for shares issued on or after 6 April 2011, the company must have a permanent establishment in the UK. If the company fails to meet these requirements throughout the period referred to at paragraph 1.2.1, relief will be withdrawn from investors. Please note that companies that have raised money under the Scheme are required by law to inform their Small Company Enterprise Centre (SCEC) office (see paragraph 2.5) if they fail to meet any of the above requirements, or an investor 'receives value' (see Part 1) from the company or an associate, within 60 days of the event which led to that failure.
11 2.5 How a company qualifies The Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) is administered in HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) by the Small Company Enterprise Centre (SCEC) see contact details at the end of this guide. The SCEC decides if a company and a share issue qualifies. If they do, the SCEC then takes responsibility for checking the accounts etc of the company to ensure that it continues to meet the requirements of the Scheme. The SCEC also operates an advance assurance scheme, whereby companies can submit their plans to raise money, details of their structure and trade etc. before the shares are issued, and the SCEC will advise on whether or not the proposed issue is likely to qualify. Information on the advance assurance procedure and the kind of information the SCEC will need to have to consider an application is at VCM21010 and VCM Although companies are not required to use it, we recommend using the Form EIS(AA) to make such an application. That form can be printed off the HMRC website.guidance on what kind of information the SCEC need to consider an application for an advance assurance can be found at VCM Companies are not required to obtain such an assurance, but companies, particularly those using the EIS for the first time, may consider it prudent to do so. It gives an opportunity to spot any problems before shares are issued, and an assurance from the SCEC is also useful for companies to show to potential investors. Once the shares are issued irrespective of whether or not an advance assurance has been given the company has to complete form EIS1 and send it to the SCEC. This form can be got from the SCEC, or downloaded from the HMRC website. A separate form EIS1 must be submitted for each share issue. Please note that a form EIS1 cannot be accepted by the SCEC unless the company has been trading for at least four months. And it also cannot be accepted if it submitted later than two years after the end of the year of assessment in which the shares were issued (or two years after the end of the four month period if that is after the end of that year of assessment). If the SCEC accepts that the company, its trade, and the shares all meet the requirements of the Scheme, it will issue a form EIS2 to that effect, and supply sufficient forms EIS3 for the company to send to the investors so they can claim tax relief (see Part 1). This process is repeated each time a company issues shares which it wishes to attract EIS reliefs for investors.
12 Additional sources of information The specialist staff at the Small Company Enterprise Centre (SCEC) are available to give advice on the workings of the Scheme. Their contact details are: Small Company Enterprise Centre (Admin team) 1st Floor Ferrers House Castle Meadow Road Nottingham NG2 1BB Tel: Fax : Small Company Enterprise Centre HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) cannot guarantee the security of s you send or they send to you over the internet. Information sent by over the internet is not secure and is at risk of being intercepted and read by people other than those it was intended for. Any information you send by is at your own risk. If you would like HMRC to reply by , please confirm in your message that you understand and accept the risks involved. However, if HMRC's response to you contains any personal or confidential information theywill only reply to you by letter or telephone. The Enterprise Investment Scheme Association (EISA), whose members are accountants and lawyers advising EIS companies and investors, may also be able to advise generally. EISA is the official trade body for the EIS. However, it does not deal with individual cases, which should be referred to HMRC, nor can it match companies and investors. Their contact details are: EISA 93/99 Upper Richmond Road London SW15 2TG Tel: Fax : EISA Website: Enterprise Investment Scheme Association
An Introduction to the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) Version 4 This print reflects the EIS legislation and HMRC online guidance as at November 2011. If it is some time since you printed it, you may
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a few months ago the guys from e16 team disabled the fake transparency. So I started with the last update the approach to use real transparency in e16. I got that working so far.
As desktop application to show some status informations I use gkrellm. That thing has a transparency theme. The combination of Esetroot in the gkrellm backgroundchanger and the gkrellm transparency theme worked quite well without any problems.
Now with composite extension enabled Esetroot sets the background picture only to the gkrellm background and ommited the rest of the screen. Don't know why.
So I tried feh to set the background. Found this article. That worked, when the pictures were in the same resolution as my desktop. But in a different resolution the background wallpaper will be tiled.
bg-center: pic will be displayed without scaling in the center of the screen - works as expected.
bg-fill: should scale the pic to the screen resolution with respecting the aspect ratio. In my case, it works like bg-tile. It displays the picture in original resolution on the upper left of the screen and fills the rest of the screen with parts of the pic.
bg-scale: scales the image to the screen size, but doesn't respect the aspect ratio. Until now it's the only usable option for me.
bg-tile: same as bg-fill and bg-max.
Maybe that bug is related to the usage in e16. Does anyone know more about that and has maybe a solution? Are there other tools than Esetroot and feh to set the background wallpaper?
I've tried some other tools.
Esetroot: called by gkrellm sets only the background of gkrellm. Called in xterm it sets the background of e16 but not the background in gkrellm.
display (imagemagick): same, didn't set anything.
hsetroot: weren't able to compile.
eesh background: same, didn't set.
I would suggest, the problem is e16 in that case, why most of the tools don't work. And especially the fake transparency of gkrellm in that combination maybe shuts down eesh and Esetroot.
Until I find out more, I'll keep using feh --bg-scale.


Our data shows that sourcing activity for Printed Circuit Boards has increased sharply in recent months. In fact, over the last 90 days alone, buyers and engineers have evaluated suppliers 25% more than the all-time average.
The trend shows no signs of slowing down – just last week, supplier evaluation activity reached an all-time high of 78% above the all-time average!
What's contributing to the surge in PCB sourcing? Let's take a look at the details behind the data.
There are five main components used in the manufacturing of PCBs: aluminum, glass fabric, resin, solvent and copper foil. That last item – copper foil – is currently in short supply around the globe. According to industry reports, global demand for copper foil sheets is greater than 516,000 tons per year. Unfortunately, just 480,000 tons are manufactured annually. This equates to a shortage of 36,000 tons of copper foil a year, or 2.8 million copper foil sheets every month.
Manufacturers are having a tough time sourcing the copper they need to make PCBs in a timely and cost-efficient manner. Unfortunately, this is a trend that's likely to continue.
That's because copper foil is a key component in the production of lithium ion batteries, which are used in electric vehicles. With companies like Tesla and Volvo committing more money and more production capacity to electric vehicles, along with new electric car manufacturers entering the market, and the Chinese government incentivizing production, the demand for lithium ion batteries (and, in turn, copper foil) will continue to rise.
Furthermore, because these batteries require a higher quality of copper foil than PCBs, suppliers can sell to the electric vehicle market at higher margins. Not surprisingly, that's where they are focusing their efforts – and their inventory.
This is a classic example of scarcity driving the market, and PCBs manufacturers are being forced to adapt in order to meet production demands.
To find out how the copper foil shortage is impacting manufacturers, we caught up with Stephen Gillissie, Marketing Director at VR Industries, a full-service electronic contract manufacturer based in Rhode Island.
He pointed out that the growing popularity of electronic vehicles isn't the only factor contributing to the shortage of copper foil. The material is also used in another booming sector of the economy – renewable energy.
As a result of the copper shortfall, Stephen says that industry lead times for PCBs have increased from 4 weeks to an average of 8-10 weeks. He believes the spike in buying activity is a sign that buyers are looking for faster lead times.
To help close the gap, Stephen suggests that manufacturers leverage their creative engineering and design skills in order to minimize the total amount of copper foil needed for each board.
Thanks to the copper foil shortage, the market is primed for PCB suppliers who can meet capacity. If you're one of them, the time to take advantage of the opportunity is now. Put your business in front of the buyers who need you — get listed on THOMASNET.com.
If you are a PCB buyer or are looking for new additions to your supply chain, register for free full access to the THOMASNET.com platform or start using it now by clicking the button below!


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Q: Draw a dynamic graph? I have a program that I wrote in Java takes in a set of actions and prints out a graph after every action. Another way to look at it is that the program prints out the output of the graph at every time-step. I need to display this dynamic graph visually and I have been considering some softwares like gephi. I would like to know that what would be the best way to go about doing it and it seems like gephi does not support this feature. Should i build a java applet and if so does java provide any libraries.
I want to display the entire graph with nodes and edges between them. The edges will display the actions between the nodes and each action will result in some values being changed in the nodes. The nodes will display the value being changed and edges will be marked with the action.
Thanks.

A: jfreechart supports dynamic graphs. There is a lot of tutorials on the web as well. I think this thread might be helpful
Using JFreeChart to display recent changes in a time series

A: check out Gephi, Sonia, or the ndtv and networkDynamic libraries in R (if you don't mind writing out to files and post processing).  Also, this thread has other suggestions: Java graph library for dynamic visualisation

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Molecular cloning, water channel activity and tissue specific expression of two isoforms of radish vacuolar aquaporin.
Cloning and expression analysis of two catalase genes from Aspergillus oryzae.
The glucoamylase-encoding gene (glaB) is expressed in solid-state culture with a low water content.
Deletion analysis of the catalase-encoding gene (catB) promoter from Aspergillus oryzae.


text:
Scientists use machine learning to identify source of Salmonella outbreaks
By Sharon Dowdy for CAES News
A team of scientists led by researchers at the University of Georgia Center for Food Safety in Griffin, Georgia, has developed a machine-learning approach that could lead to quicker identification of the animal source of certain Salmonella outbreaks.
In the research, published in the January 2019 issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases, Xiangyu Deng and his colleagues used more than a thousand genomes to predict the animal sources, especially livestock, of Salmonella Typhimurium.
Deng, an assistant professor of food microbiology at the center, and Shaokang Zhang, a postdoctoral associate with the center, led the project, which also included experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Minnesota Department of Health and the Translational Genomics Research Institute.
According to the Foodborne Disease Outbreak Surveillance System, close to 3,000 outbreaks of foodborne illness were reported in the U.S. from 2009 to 2015. Of those, 900 — or 30 percent — were caused by different serotypes of Salmonella, including Typhimurium, Deng said.
"We had at least three outbreaks of Typhimurium, or its close variant, in 2018. These outbreaks were linked to chicken, chicken salad and dried coconut," he said. "There are more than 2,600 serotypes of Salmonella, and Typhimurium is just one of them, but since the 1960s, about a quarter of Salmonella isolates linked to outbreaks reported to U.S. national surveillance are Typhimurium."
The researchers trained the "machine," an algorithm called Random Forest, with more than 1,300 S. Typhimurium genomes with known sources. After the training, the "machine" learned how to predict certain animal sources of S. Typhimurium genomes.
For this study, the scientists used Salmonella Typhimurium genomes from three major surveillance and monitoring programs; the CDC's PulseNet network, the FDA's GenomeTrakr database of sources in the United States, Europe, South America, Asia and Africa and retail meat isolates from the FDA arm of the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System.
"With so many genomes, machine learning is a natural choice to deal with all these data.
We used this big collection of Typhimurium genomes as the training set to build the classifier," said Deng who was awarded the UGA Creative Research Medal in 2017 for his work in this area. "The classifier predicts the source of the Typhimurium isolate by interrogating thousands of genetic features of its genome."
Overall, the system predicted the animal source of the S. Typhimurium with 83 percent accuracy. The classifier performed best in predicting poultry and swine sources, followed by bovine and wild bird sources. The machine also detects whether its prediction is precise or imprecise. When the prediction was precise, the machine was accurate about 92 percent of the time, Deng said.
"We retrospectively analyzed eight of the major zoonotic outbreaks that occurred in the U.S. from 1998 to 2013," he said. "The classifier attributed seven of them to the correct livestock source."
"I'd call this approach a proof of concept. It will get better as more genomes from various sources become available," he said.
In Tweets about the study, Frank Yiannas, deputy commissioner of the FDA, called the machine learning of whole genome sequences project "a new era of smarter food safety and epidemiology."
To the average person, the success of this project means strains of Salmonella Typhimurium could be traced back to the source faster. Identifying what causes a foodborne illness outbreak is key to stopping it and preventing further illnesses.
"Using our method, investigators can better link cases of the same outbreak and better match isolates from food or food processing environments to isolates from sick people," he said. "This will give investigators more confidence to implicate a specific source that is behind the outbreak."
On the UGA-Griffin campus, Deng's laboratory focuses on genomic epidemiology which uses genomics, bioinformatics and data science to study the epidemiology of foodborne pathogens. His interest in Salmonella began when Deng was an American Society for Microbiology Fellow at the CDC.
To learn more about the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Center for Food Safety, visit www.ugacfs.org.
Sharon Dowdy is a news editor with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
Sharon Dowdy
Experts/Sources:
Xiangyu Deng
Homeowners should test for deadly, invisible gas Posted on 01/01/21 by Pamela R. Turner
As it is every year, January is National Radon Action month. However, this year feels different, as many people are spending more time at home to keep each other safe and healthy. This makes it even more important that we test our homes for radon, a colorless, odorless gas that is the second-leading cause of lung cancer.
A Southern fir Christmas tree is on the horizon for ornamental and timber industries Posted on 12/23/20 by Mark Czarnota
During the holiday season in the U.S., more than 20 million freshly cut Christmas trees are sold every year, with fir trees topping the most-desired list. Unfortunately growers cannot meet the needs of consumers, and every year, there is a shortage of trees, primarily due to the incredible losses of susceptible firs — including balsam, Fraser, Canaan and others — to the root fungus Phytophthora.
CAES to hold fall 2020 convocation online Posted on 12/03/20 by Josh Paine
The University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences will hold a virtual convocation ceremony at noon on Friday, Dec. 18, to celebrate new graduates.
Pecan research to help Georgia producers meet demand Posted on 11/24/20 by Allison Fortner
The international popularity of pecans is trending upward, but more reliable measures for guaranteeing quality during storage are needed to meet demand in Georgia, the top state for pecan production.
CDC guidelines, precautions should guide holiday celebrations Posted on 11/24/20 by Maria M. Lameiras
As the holiday season arrives, the traditional images of loved ones crowded around a dinner table groaning under the weight of the holiday feast may look a little different this year: The recent surge in COVID-19 cases has prompted rising fears that holiday gatherings may accelerate the spread of the virus.
CAES researchers work to improve food safety in Senegal's growing dairy industry Posted on 11/17/20 by Maria M. Lameiras
The University of Georgia has received a $700,000 grant from the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Safety to help improve food safety in the rapidly growing dairy industry in Senegal.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Arts & Culture » Movies
Celebrity!
Director Errol Morris talks morality, manufactured male rape, the Mormon Church and cloned pit bulls
by Jeff Meyers
Tabloid: The former Miss Wyoming Joyce McKinney
Miss Wyoming. Kidnapping. Mormons. Cloned dogs. The latest documentary from Oscar-winning filmmaker Errol Morris (Standard Operating Procedure, Fog of War), Tabloid, chronicles the fabulously deranged story of brainy, busty, beauty queen Joyce McKinney and her obsessive love for a dumpy Mormon named Kirk Anderson. Back in the '70s, McKinney, convinced that her budding romance with Anderson had been derailed by the Church of Latter Day Saints, set off for England to "rescue" him from his mission assignment. What happened next is uncertain. Depending who you believe, either Joyce spent 72 hours raping poor Kirk in order to get pregnant, or Anderson was a willing paramour who enjoyed a weekend of wild sex then sicced the authorities on Joyce to avoid excommunication from his church. Whatever the truth, the story ignited a firestorm of tabloid coverage, pitting Britain's two top rag sheets against each other in an attempt to own the "Case of the Manacled Mormon." The feud turned McKinney into both a victim and celebrity.
Metro Times: You have such an entertaining subject in both Joyce and the media frenzy that surrounded her. But other than watching the crazed circus train wreck of what happened, what do you want the audience to take away from your movie?
Errol Morris: It's a kind of modern fairy tale about hopeless love, about journalism, about finding the truth, and about our need to tell stories about ourselves. Maybe it's Errol Morris' version of a modern morality tale.
MT: So, what's the moral?
EM: That we can get so lost inside of ourselves that our connection to reality can just vanish. It's true of Joyce and her obsessive pursuit of Kirk. It's true of the confabulating and fabricating tabloid journalists. One feature of modern documentaries ... or recent documentaries ... or maybe just my documentaries — is the attempt to tell two stories at the same time. If you can tell a story, and you can tell a story about telling a story, you acknowledge that the truth is jiggered. It's changed, it's manufactured, and it's manipulated. Those things are very evident here — the crazy competing interests of the tabloids, Joyce's deep need to see herself as a romantic heroine. Plus, the idea that she could realize her love story, she could finally get pregnant in the most unconventional way possible, by producing five cloned pit bull puppies ... who in a million years could come up with that?
MT: Isn't there a kind of meta-tabloid aspect to your film?
EM: Absolutely! Why deny it? You'd call me a liar.
MT: So, does that make the movie, for lack of a better word, an art-house version of a tabloid?
EM: I don't want to restrict the audience that shows up. I'll lose 95 percent of the possible audience that would see the movie. ...
MT: Then how about "highbrow" tabloid?
EM: You are correct. And I like it. It's an ironic tabloid story, one that doubles back on itself. It is meta-tabloid!
MT: Kirk Anderson didn't cooperate with the making of your movie. His absence is pretty notable. Did you consider other ways of making him more of a presence in Tabloid?
EM: We did toy with one idea, which I think was ill-advised. We considered using chloroform and kidnapping him, then interviewing him using a fake gun. It would have been a perfect conclusion to the tabloid story.
MT: Thus ensuring your meta status.
EM: It was a temptation I was able to overcome. But I am an investigator. I am curious about what really went down. I can't really answer that with just Joyce. I need Kirk. It would have been great if I had K.J., Kirk and Joyce but K.J. is dead. Even with my Interrotron, I have constraints with regard to the dead.
MT: A number of your films seem attracted to eccentrics and oddballs, the misfits in society. But this is probably the first time I've seen you focus so acutely on someone who ... how does that British journalist describe Joyce ...?
EM: Barking mad.
MT: Right. So, is Joyce barking mad? And if she is, are you worried that on some level you're taking advantage of someone who doesn't appreciate what she's getting herself into?
EM: I don't think she's any further gone than the men in the movie. Peter Tory can call her barking mad but, hey, people in glass houses. ... And guess what? The filmmaker who made a film about her, namely myself, what about me? I do worry whether I am taking advantage of a person but Joyce was very much a willing customer.
MT: But wouldn't someone who was crazy be a willing customer?
EM: Not necessarily. She does tend to see herself as a victim, a victim of the tabloid press and Mormon Church. My own two cents is that it's a little more complicated. Yes, I think she was victimized by the church and by the tabloids. But I also think that she contributed to that situation. She is not completely innocent. That's the problem with seeking publicity, you think you can control it, but you can't. You think you can tell your story, but your story is invariably going to change in the telling. But I tried my level-headed best to capture Joyce McKinney in as loving a portrait as I could.
MT: At the beginning of the film you really want to believe everything she's saying because she's so passionate and charismatic and funny?
EM: I do want to believe her. And in many instances I do, but I certainly don't believe everything she says to me. I kind of do believe that Kirk was willing and was turned against her by the church. I can't prove it. The evidence is spotty. I tried to recover all of the court documents and I couldn't get them. It's strange how much stuff has just disappeared associated with the case. Usually when you're investigating something that had a legal component, that's brought to trial, and results in an incarceration, there's a record or file that can be produced. In this case there's very, very little and I can't tell you why. And I'm a pretty determined investigator.
MT: Still, Joyce has been showing up at screenings of your films expressing that she's not happy with what you've done.
EM: Yes and no. I would respectfully describe Joyce's reaction as conflicted and complicated. I appeared with her after a screening on Saturday night and we took questions from the audience for over an hour. I'm not going to clear up every misunderstanding, and I'm not going to say she doesn't have some legitimate complaints but not all her complaints are legitimate. Her suggestion that I treated the two British tabloid journalists as though everything they say is gospel truth just isn't true. And the audiences pretty much agree with me there.
MT: Right now we have two people running for president who are with the Mormon Church. How much of the work on this film was an introduction to the church for you? For instance, the revelation that they believe they'll each get their own planet to lord over after death was a surprise to me.
EM: Someone recently asked me how weird it was that the Mormon Church seems to be everywhere all of a sudden. It wasn't intentional on my part that's for sure. [chuckles] I think that it's interesting that there are all these Jews worrying about the Mormon Church.
MT: Maybe it's because of all those post-mortem conversions.
EM: There you go. But the Mormon stuff isn't at the center of my movie. It is there as an element of the story to be sure, but let's not forget there's a lot of other stuff here. Now, if you interviewed Joyce — which I think you should — she would tell you that she really wanted this movie to be a screed against the Mormon Church and how they had destroyed her life. She blames them for a lot of things. And to the extent that I don't go after those people the way she would like me to, she gets annoyed. And I don't blame her, but, I'm sorry, that's not my agenda.
MT: With new revelations about The News of the World's practice of phone hacking coming out every day there's lots of talk about the tactics and values of tabloids. I'm sure you've become the go-to guy on this topic.
EM: Yes, indeedy!
MT: Is there something out there that's not being said that ought to be?
EM: The one thing I repeat is that The News of the World case is not about tabloid journalism per se. Now after seeing my movie you could obviously say there's a slippery slope. The journalists [interviewed in Tabloid] were obviously fabricating or concocting or however you want to describe it ... they're making up the news as well as reporting it. But it seems to me this is a pretty nasty story as the details come out. It's a story about journalism gone completely awry, with no longer any concern for the truth. One of the themes of my movies is the balancing act between narrative and the truth. But here we see that no one cares about the truth. The only thing that the people in this story care about is circulation, making money, and anything goes. There's no morality. It's creating news not reporting on it.
MT: What's your take on the proliferation of documentaries in recent years? There are a lot of good ones out there, and they seem to be pushing the envelope of what's expected from the form. I think it's safe to say you've had a pretty big influence.
EM: I've been told this by a lot of filmmakers and, of course, I'm pleased. The line I've been quoting from lately is from Conan the Barbarian. There's this road lined with thousands of crucified people and one penitent says to another, "It used to be just another snake cult, now you see it everywhere." And that's certainly true of documentaries; you see them everywhere. And they're every different kind. It's like the zoo. You can see all kinds of animals at the documentary zoo.
Tabloid opens Friday, July 22, at the Landmark Main Art Theatre, 118 N. Main St., Royal Oak; 248-263-2111.
Jeff Meyers is a film critic for Metro Times. Send comments to letters@metrotimes.com.


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Dover to Spin Off Wellsite Business
Soma Somasundaram, President and CEO – Energy Segment, Dover Corporation, and PESA Advisory Board Member
Dover has announced that it plans to spin off its upstream energy businesses within the Dover Energy segment (collectively know as "Wellsite") into a stand-alone, publicly traded company. The plan to pursue a tax-free spinoff of the segment concludes Dover's strategic alternatives review that was announced in September, and is the culmination of a comprehensive process to determine the best separation alternative to maximize shareholder value.
Upon completion, the spin-off will be a leading provider of a full range of oil and gas production technologies and solutions, wellsite productivity software and IIoT solutions. Soma Somasundaram, President and CEO – Energy Segment, Dover Corporation, is a member of the PESA Advisory Board. He will become President and CEO for the new company upon completion of the transaction. He has 14 years of experience at Dover and has served in his current role since 2013.
The new company is to be named at a later date.
PESA Board Member Paul Coppinger Appointed to NOW Inc. Board


For many organizations, security now tops the agenda. When identification documents, certificates, banknotes and checks are susceptible to forgery and manipulation, the integrity of institutions - even public safety and civil government - can hang in the balance.
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Custom size sheets and rolls are available.


Tagság kezdete: 2016. április 7.
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March Wellness News From New Life Wellness Center!
Happy March! Spring is just a few short weeks away!
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TBI has been in the spotlight over the past several months with recent speculation that over 90% of football players are believed to suffer from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a progressive neurodegenerative disease found in those who've sustained repetitive concussions.
While TBI is often associated with sports, slips and falls are actually the most common cause of brain injury. In the elderly, statistics show that falling once doubles the chance of falling again, increasing the risk for repetitive brain injuries. Those who sustain a TBI often face long-term cognitive and motor function challenges due to the injured brain's production of slow delta brain waves.
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If you or a loved one has suffered a concussion or other brain injury, check out our video above and then call our office to schedule your QEEG brain map to discover how BrainCore neurofeedback can help improve TBI symptoms. This month we are offering a "Q" at the reduced price of $75 for TBI. 631.265.1223.
Traumatic injuries to the head can have long-term effects including changes in the brain that are characteristic of Alzheimer's disease, according to a new study published in Neurology.
British researchers using brain scans identified a buildup of sticky Amyloid proteins in the posterior cingulate cortex, a highly connected, metabolically active area of the brain responsible for attention and memory. The region is also known to be involved in the early stages of Alzheimer's Disease, a neurodegenerative disorder that slowly destroys cognitive function. Clumps of these "A-beta" proteins are suspected to be triggered by damage to the brain's white matter at the time of injury and are responsble for killing cells vital to brain function. The plaque buildup was noted in patients experiencing injury from 11 months to 17 years.
For those involved in sports, wearing proper equipment and taking precautions for training and playing are obviously key to prevent concussion, however brain injuries are oftentimes unavoidable. All head injuries should be evaluated by a physician immediately to avoid long-term effects and a return to play, school or work plan should be put in place that encourages a gradual increase in physical and cognitive activities.
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Summer 2016 Brain Booster Camp is Approaching.
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Essential oils have many uses as natural remedies for a variety of health conditions. Learn how natural, plant-based oils can enhance your family's well-being by attending this free lecture at New Life Wellness Center's Smithtown office.
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Pursuing an ethic of empathy in journalism: A Blog
My book: Pursuing an Ethic of Empathy in Journalism
Getting Acquainted with India
Photos of the Great Plains
Prairie Chickens
Resources on Empathy
Good Websites on Empathy
Good Resources on Empathy
Student articles
Interviews From the Heart
Archives Select Month March 2017 February 2017 May 2015 February 2015
It's a FACT: White Supremacy is Immoral
The profession of journalism is in something of a pickle these days. Its practitioners are covering news and ferreting out and disseminating facts that are deeply connected to questions of morality. Back in February, a young reporter named Lewis Wallace started shining some light on this relationship, and even suggested that the profession start rethinking the way it does its work. He scared up a fair amount of journalistic angst. When New York Times or Washington Post reporters write columns, they can express their thoughts about the morality of myriad complex issues: the president's decision to ban individuals from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States; the ramifications of a wall on vulnerable individuals who cross the border illegally, the immorality of denying health care to poor people. On the op-ed page reporters can question the decency of legislation that stands between a poor child and his or her right to a free breakfast. Continue reading It's a FACT: White Supremacy is Immoral
Posted on March 9, 2017 March 28, 2017 1 Comment on It's a FACT: White Supremacy is Immoral
Reading Ta-Nehisi Coates
Recently, while teaching a course that focused on journalism and the importance of one's employing an ethic of empathy, my students and I read and studied Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. A national correspondent for The Atlantic, Coates is well known for his analytical and opinion pieces. His book, a letter to his 15-year-old son, is at once intimate and expansive, his attempt to explain what it means to grow up black in this world and, in particular, in the United States of America. He expresses his hopes and fears for his son, who is coming of age in a culture within which racism persists.
What does it mean, he pushes the reader to wonder, to have to tell your child, when that child is old enough to understand, that there are those who think themselves superior–and others therefore lesser–because of the color of their skin? Coates wants not only his son but all others who read his work to resonate with his belief, his deep and personal understanding, that the American Dream "rests on the bodies of black people."
At this moment in our history, we are witnessing the bold resurgence of white supremacists, among them Richard Spencer, a leading voice for the alt-right. Spencer, at a rally in a federal building in D.C. this past November, quoted Nazi propaganda and proclaimed that America belongs to white people. He and others extended their arms to salute Trump, shouting, "Heil, Trump!"
Every time I visualize this scene in my mind's eye I am overcome with grief. And rightly so. But this I believe: Their voices will not carry the day. For now, though, their presence in this world stands as evidence of just how far the human race has yet to go to become a species defined by love, not hate. Most of us are smarter and better than Richard Spencer and his ilk. We'll persist and we'll triumph.
I hope my students enjoyed reading Coates as much as I did. I hope they found themselves empathizing with his feelings and his perspective. Empathy is never easy, but when, for example, a young white woman reads the work of a black man who is a father, an intellectual, a realist, and someone who has known the bottomless pain of oppression, she must be willing to open herself not only to feeling as he feels and to taking on his perspective as her own, but also to acknowledging her own biases and assumptions. Reading Coates becomes, if one lets it, a journey into self-examination.
I resonated with Coates's perspective because I encountered in his words and in the deep love that motivated them our shared humanity. Coates's book–his letter–is a call to our deepest, best selves. It is an invitation to become acutely conscious of the interior life of another human being and the history he represents. It is an invitation to understand and internalize his perspective by connecting and resonating with his concern, his pain, his hope, and most of all his love. It has taken up permanent residence in my mind and in my heart.
Posted on February 12, 2017 February 28, 2017 Leave a comment on Reading Ta-Nehisi Coates
Prairie Chickens on the Grasslands
Prairie Chickens Dance — Here in South Dakota, the prairie chicken has seen its habitat disappear as the land, acre by acre, has been plowed under. Many times, my husband and I have watched the chickens perform their spring mating ritual on the rough ground of the prairie. They dance for a future that we must protect on their behalf.
Posted on May 6, 2015 February 12, 2020 Leave a comment on Prairie Chickens on the Grasslands
Empathy compels fair treatment of sources
Marc Ian Barasch, author of Field Notes on the Compassionate Life, defines empathy as "our ability to feel and perceive from another's point of view." At the Jaipur Literary Festival in India in January 2011, David Finkel, Washington Post reporter and author of The Good Soldiers, told a rapt audience that he was obligated to be empathetic not only with the soldiers in Iraq but also with the policy makers in Washington, D.C., including then President George W. Bush. He noted that it might be more difficult to summon empathy for Bush than for the soldiers but that it was no less important that he do so. In saying this, he acknowledged the most basic precursor for empathy: recognition of human equality, no matter the differences, and no matter one's personal perspective. "It's impossible," he said, "not to have empathy for American troops and Iraqis." It is more difficult, he said, to have empathy for those making policy in D.C.—but "you have to." Somehow, one has to "keep empathy for all the players."
His point is key to two parts of my definition of empathy: First, empathy allows one to gain understanding, and, second, it does not require that agreement follow from the connection. In addition, empathy, given this definition, compels fair, unbiased treatment of all sources.
Posted on February 26, 2015 February 18, 2017 Leave a comment on Empathy compels fair treatment of sources
Journalism: Accepting the necessity of an ethic of empathy
Compassion is integral to the creation of an ethical life; nonetheless, the institution of journalism has worried for more than a century that compassion might somehow provoke the profession's downfall. And it might—but not because we have ever actually let loose its imagined power to wreak havoc. Quite the contrary. The profession has largely stifled its promise—the potential to strengthen the quest for truth—through a dogged dedication to objectivity.
But journalism, despite itself, is evolving, as is a multidisciplinary theory of empathy, one that contains elements and principles essential to good journalism. In the past few decades, a body of journalists has become the moral compass of an institution deeply in need of one: the press. These individuals reflect in their work an ethic of empathy and a respect for the principle that grounds any democratic system: the life, liberty, and happiness of the many must be protected. A couple years ago David Finkel, Washington Post, skyped with 10 or so students enrolled in a course I was teaching on the relationship between empathy and journalism. At the end of our conversation, Finkel summed up in five words his motivation as a storyteller who uses the narrative form: "The world needs more witnesses," he said. The students wrote Finkel's words in their notebooks, as did I. Through his words he evoked a basic truth essential to the evolution of humanity—and therefore journalism: People must diminish the distance that exists between self and other.
Because my students had been studying Finkel's work, they knew just how closely he had taken himself to soldiers of the 2-16 in Iraq. Aware of those who argue that the narrative form invites subjective bias, Finkel emphasized that reportage must undergird every sentence in a narrative work, that the reader must be able to connect the writer's interpretation, as well as his or her own, to verifiable facts, strong sourcing, and unfiltered observations. We were moved not only by the power of Finkel's words but by the tone in Finkel's voice: an amalgamation of conviction, purpose, and hope. The conviction that drives Finkel—the need to witness, the obligation that one human being ought to feel toward another—drives many writers today. Journalists are and should be humanitarians and storytellers who can, through their work, alleviate suffering and promote change in the world of the 21st century. Journalists must be witnesses, and they must be witnesses that gain understanding of the other through connection.
For information about JBL: http://www.augie.edu/faculty-7
Posted on February 19, 2015 February 11, 2016 Leave a comment on Journalism: Accepting the necessity of an ethic of empathy
Empathize to Understand, Not to Agree
Every day, reporters cross, or should, the boundaries that exist between self and Other.
Once a person navigates that transition, his or her world expands, and in the newly created space, the self comes to know better the potential of its humanity. At times, though, we may find the act of empathy repulsive. We may want to retreat, not reach out. Do I want to see through the eyes of a serial killer? The answer is yes, if my purpose is understanding, a goal decidedly different from agreement. Do I want to see through the eyes of the 14-year-old girl who has been trafficked, suffering sexual assault after assault, beating after beating? To be empathetic one must feel her pain, her loss, her desperation, her fear. And one must feel the evil intent that drives the abuser. One who works empathetically knows his or her purpose: to translate for the dominant culture the reality of the Other.
Michael Schudson, in his book Why Democracies Need an Unlovable Press (2008), argued that social empathy ranks among the six functions of the journalist in a democratic society. "[J]ournalism," he wrote, "can tell people about others in their society and their world so that they can come to appreciate the viewpoints and lives of other people, especially those less advantaged than themselves" (12). Social empathy, the ability to understand people from diverse socioeconomic classes and racial and ethnic backgrounds, enables "insight into the context of institutionalized inequalities and disparities" and "can inspire societal change and promote social wellbeing" (Segal et al, 2012, 541). Martin Hoffman argued in his book, Empathy and Moral Development: Implications for Caring and Justice, that the outcome of teaching empathy would be a more moral and just society: "If caring and justice are valued in our society and children are socialized to internalize them both, and if I am right about empathy's links to caring and most justice principles, it follows that most mature, morally internalized individuals have empathy-charged caring and justice principles in their motive system" (21). He encouraged training in the art of empathizing (24). Such training, one would hope, would lead the individual to see him- or herself as part of an interconnected world. To do so helps one understand that what happens to another human being is relevant to oneself.
Posted on February 19, 2015 March 1, 2015 Leave a comment on Empathize to Understand, Not to Agree