Parkour Fails and Hébertisme: laughing at the New Man

“Parkour Fails” represent a genre of comedic YouTube videos consisting primarily of compilations of failed stunts by practitioners of the extreme sport of parkour. Parkour originated in the suburbs of Paris and involves creative reappropriation of urban furniture. In mass media, it is usually coded as a defiant challenge to urban norms and a symbol of multicultural France’s growing social mobility. However, it was inspired by Hébertisme, a training system embraced by eugenicists and the Vichy government as a way to cultivate the New Man, an idealized figure incarnating fascist values. While parkour athletes do not endorse fascism, many promote their practice with a rhetoric of decadence and decline, return to nature, and masculine power that echoes Vichy’s New Man ideology. This article explores the extent to which parkour fail videos humorously problematize that rhetoric

EARTH/UNEARTH [on the Nature of G-d and Creation]

Inspired by creative research, EARTH/UNEARTH explores the nature of the divine and the act of creation. This triptych of poetry features poems such as “EXPERIENCE OF A TREE (AND SKY)”, “RITUAL/SENSUAL”, and “THE THING THAT DOESN’T COME FROM THINKING” as meditations on the following questions: Is there a hierarchy that exists from G-d to dirt? How does inspiration flow through the hands to creation? And in the strain of creation, how do we care for our bodies? Each section concludes with an opportunity for visual meditation and reflection

Walley School Community Arts Center Feasibility Study: Appendices

Having a large capacity (over 300 seats) in Walley School demands a major investment in space and cost. Taking this into consideration, the business planning team conducted research and spoke with several individuals in an attempt to inventory and assess the community’s auditorium capabilities. Our research on existing auditorium spaces uncovered many interesting things. We found that there are over 15 existing auditorium spaces available within a 17-mile radius from the Walley School building available for public use

The Universal Persistence of the Mandala Motif

This study of the universal persistence of the mandala motif covers the mandala concept, external mandalas, architectural mandalas, and current manifestations

Residential greenness is differentially associated with childhood allergic rhinitis and aeroallergen sensitization in seven birth cohorts

Background The prevalence of allergic rhinitis is high, but the role of environmental factors remains unclear. We examined cohort‐specific and combined associations of residential greenness with allergic rhinitis and aeroallergen sensitization based on individual data from Swedish (BAMSE), Australian (MACS), Dutch (PIAMA), Canadian (CAPPS and SAGE), and German (GINIplus and LISAplus) birth cohorts (n = 13 016). Methods Allergic rhinitis (doctor diagnosis/symptoms) and aeroallergen sensitization were assessed in children aged 6–8 years in six cohorts and 10–12 years in five cohorts. Residential greenness was defined as the mean Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) in a 500‐m buffer around the home address at the time of health assessment. Cohort‐specific associations per 0.2 unit increase in NDVI were assessed using logistic regression models and combined in a random‐effects meta‐analysis. Results Greenness in a 500‐m buffer was positively associated with allergic rhinitis at 6–8 years in BAMSE (odds ratio = 1.42, 95% confidence interval [1.13, 1.79]) and GINI/LISA South (1.69 [1.19, 2.41]) but inversely associated in GINI/LISA North (0.61 [0.36, 1.01]) and PIAMA (0.67 [0.47, 0.95]). Effect estimates in CAPPS and SAGE were also conflicting but not significant (0.63 [0.32, 1.24] and 1.31 [0.81, 2.12], respectively). All meta‐analyses were nonsignificant. Results were similar for aeroallergen sensitization at 6–8 years and both outcomes at 10–12 years. Stratification by NO2 concentrations, population density, an urban vs rural marker, and moving did not reveal consistent trends within subgroups. Conclusion Although residential greenness appears to be associated with childhood allergic rhinitis and aeroallergen sensitization, the effect direction varies by location

The utility and predictive value of combinations of low penetrance genes for screening and risk prediction of colorectal cancer

Despite the fact that colorectal cancer (CRC) is a highly treatable form of cancer if detected early, a very low proportion of the eligible population undergoes screening for this form of cancer. Integrating a genomic screening profile as a component of existing screening programs for CRC could potentially improve the effectiveness of population screening by allowing the assignment of individuals to different types and intensities of screening and also by potentially increasing the uptake of existing screening programs. We evaluated the utility and predictive value of genomic profiling as applied to CRC, and as a potential component of a population-based cancer screening program. We generated simulated data representing a typical North American population including a variety of genetic profiles, with a range of relative risks and prevalences for individual risk genes. We then used these data to estimate parameters characterizing the predictive value of a logistic regression model built on genetic markers for CRC. Meta-analyses of genetic associations with CRC were used in building science to inform the simulation work, and to select genetic variants to include in logistic regression model-building using data from the ARCTIC study in Ontario, which included 1,200 CRC cases and a similar number of cancer-free population-based controls. Our simulations demonstrate that for reasonable assumptions involving modest relative risks for individual genetic variants, that substantial predictive power can be achieved when risk variants are common (e.g., prevalence > 20%) and data for enough risk variants are available (e.g., ~140–160). Pilot work in population data shows modest, but statistically significant predictive utility for a small collection of risk variants, smaller in effect than age and gender alone in predicting an individual’s CRC risk. Further genotyping and many more samples will be required, and indeed the discovery of many more risk loci associated with CRC before the question of the potential utility of germline genomic profiling can be definitively answered