GREENSBORO Robin Britt has nearly cleared his office of any semblance of decades of a life in early childhood education when he starts his final visits to the classrooms at the other end of the building, which takes up a city block.

In a classroom of 4-year-olds, the retiring president and CEO of Guilford Child Development joins their semicircle and asks what their favorite subjects are.

A young girl with braids yells out "science," and a boy across the room "math."

On a table behind them are the pieces of a spaceship they've been making out of papier-mache and plastic cups, that, when assembled, will tower over them. The students, who head to public school and kindergarten next year, are using measurements and numbers as part of this work.

"They don't see limits," Britt will later say.

The 77-year-old, who served in Vietnam and upon graduation from UNC-Chapel Hill was recruited by one of the best law firms in the state before he was elected to Congress nearly a decade later, resisted the possibility of a lucrative career as a lobbyist on Capitol Hill.

As he worked back home for the children of Guilford County, his ideas caught on elsewhere even landing him on the cover of The Wall Street Journal. Instead of lobbyist, he became a national voice in early childhood education and recognized leader in the war on poverty.

While in office in the 1990s, former Gov. Jim Hunt asked Britt to take on an idea he had about a statewide early childhood education initiative that would make sure children were healthy and ready to learn on the first day of kindergarten.

The Smart Start Initiative would have local controls and strong state support and would go on to win the coveted and high-profile Innovations in American Government Award from Harvard University and the Ford Foundation.

"I looked all over the state to pick the person that I thought had the heart, the energy and the commitment to do early childhood education in a different way from any place in the country," Hunt said earlier this week.

"Robin went to work on it like a man possessed," Hunt said. "It was just what he believed in. It worked in the way that I thought things should work. It was some of the best work thats ever been done for our state."

Britt will be honored for those decades of work on Tuesdayduring an Early Childhood Champions Luncheon at the Koury Convention Center with Gov. Roy Cooper among the other honorees.

The Asheville native, who says his work is part of his spiritual journey, understands that his own life could have been very much like that of the children for whom he advocates.

"I think a lot of times your calling is connected to your pain," Britt said.

Both of Britt's parents died when he was 4 and his older sister, who was 22 and working a factory job at the time, took in him and their other brother, who was 10.

"Probably for three years we were living below the poverty line but didn't know it," Britt said.

When his sister later married, they became part of the middle class.

The Morehead Scholar at UNC was drafted after graduation and spent a year as a crew member of the USS Kearsarge before returning to law school.

It was former 6th District Congressman Richardson Preyer who talked Britt, then a lawyer with Smith Moore, into running for office.

Preyer had lost that seat to Gene Johnston, a Republican, as part of the first Ronald Reagan landslide in 1980.

"And I was running for Congress," Britt said.

The young tax lawyer beat Johnston and would serve on the Select Committee on Hunger.

"If you had asked me what percentage of children in the richest country in the history of the world were in poverty, I would have said 3%, 4%, " Britt said.

It was 20% of the children in America higher when you factored in minorities and single female-headed households.

After losing the next election to Howard Coble, Britt could have gone back home to that lucrative law practice where he was a partner or taken a well-tread path as a lobbyist.

Instead, he went back home and founded Project Uplift, a program to help disadvantaged preschoolers that was set up in the basement of a church near the Ray Warren public housing community. The program was chosen early on as one of President George H.W. Bush's 1000 Points of Light.

Britt had hired Angelia Lester Faison away from UNCG, where she was a teacher in the education lab, as the center's director.

He saw a learning gap, but also a services gap in the communities that needed help the most.

"My thought was how is he going to make that happen?" Faison said. "He always used the term 'quality care.' He always used the term 'qualified staff.' He always used the term, 'Children deserve the best.' "

Businessman Mike Weaver, a member of the Project Uplift board, made a donation of $150,000 over five years to encourage others to give. The group also went after public funding as it worked on both those gaps.

Britt entrenched himself in the research to dig deeper about the stress of living in poverty and ways it's magnified, such as domestic violence and neglect. And it fueled his need to be part of the solution.

"All of these things create a toxic stress in our families, which is very venomous for young children," Britt said.

And it has tremendous impact on schools and even the workforce, he said.

"If you're in the woods and you see a bear and your adrenaline starts pumping and your heart is beating fast, that gets you out of there," Britt said.

Others might "live with the bear," he said.

"If you are in this constant state of fear and your adrenaline is constantly running, you lose the ability to control your emotions. There's no thermostat. And what might mildly make you or me uncomfortable in an interchange with a teacher they explode, they don't have control of their emotions.

"And that can lead to dysfunction, dropping out, incarceration," Britt said.

In the classrooms, teachers tried to provide learning opportunities that other children might have.

Once, the children talked about places they had never been but would love to go, like the beach. Britt found a UNCG professor who could create virtual field trips. The children then "went to the beach" and examined the ocean through the images on the oversized screen. And then they made replicas of what they had seen.

The program was an early forerunner to efforts that would catch on decades later on how best to help at-risk and low-income children, which included requiring parents to be involved.

Parents who didn't have jobs could help prepare lunch, lead children's activities or chaperone field trips. Working parents could help with after-school events.

Project Uplift also offered self-help programs for parents through workshops and helping them with training and resources, such as financial literacy courses, at GTCC.

Faison recalls asking Britt why he invited so many people from various organizations into the building.

"I remember saying to him, 'We have so many community people here, was that necessary, Robin?" Faison said. "He would say, Angelia, it's more than bringing them in and their sharing their talents. They are meeting people from public housing. They are learning unity. They are learning that people in public housing have strength."

Hunt, the longest-serving governor in the state's history, would later ask Britt to be secretary for what is now theN.C. Department of Health and Human Services, and later his policy adviser for children, families and nonprofits.

Britt joined Guilford Child Development in 1998 after leaving Raleigh.

Among ideas he put into place is the critically-lauded Guilford County Nurse-Family Partnership.

The program, which has been replicated in 20 states and has drawn national recognition, provides nurse home visitation to low-income, first-time mothers. The nurse educates the mother about the growth and development of her baby and helps her be more self-sufficient.

Early on, officials with the Duke Endowment, one of the nation's largest foundations, worked to expand the program in hopes of making a difference in the lives of more poor children in the Carolinas by garnering longer-term public and other private support.

Rhett Mabry, president of the endowment, recalls going to Raleigh with Britt, who taught him a lesson in patience.

"Robin knew the value of having conversations with policymakers and stakeholders and not expecting immediate change but planting the seed for the long term," Mabry said.

The nurse-family partnerships are now funded by the state and are in both North and South Carolina.

"I think it has enabled thousands of low-income children to get off to a great start so that they can reach their potential," Mabry said.

When the United Way of Greater Greensboro launched a unique 18-month pilot program that focuses on the root causes of poverty in the city, the group chose Britt's Guilford Child Development as lead agency.

Britt, named one of the Top 20 CEOs by The Triad Business Journal, gives a lot of credit to his staff, the teachers in the centers, and the parents for helping children succeed.

"He uses 'I' lightly," Faison said. "He would say 'we' made it happen or 'you' made it happen."

Britt says he feels good about turning over the agency he says remains valuable to the community to Maria Layne-Stevens, the agency's former chief operating officer, who was hired after a national search.

He calls his replacement an excellent manager with vision who is everything the agency needs.

"Some people have vision, but they don't how to make things happen," Britt said. "Some people can make things happen, but without the vision, can make the wrong thing happen. She knows how to make things happen."

He says he plans to follow advice retirees swear by, which is not to make too many commitments right away.

He does plan to spend more time with his six grandchildren.

"I'll still be around," he said.

Robin Britt announces his run for Congress in April 1982.

Robin Britt talks with 3-year-olds at Morningside's day care center in March 1983.

Britt, also a leader in the war on poverty, is shown in December 1983 serving cornbread at the Urban Ministry in Greensboro.

Robin Britt sits in the kindergarten/nursery room in December 1992 of Union Memorial United Methodist Church that was transformed into a new classroom for children in Project Uplift.

Then-U.S. Sen. Terry Sanford (left of center) listens to Uplift president Robin Britt at a meeting to discuss the problems of poor and troubled kids in April 1991.

Robin Britt with his wife, Susan, and three children (from right) David, Robin Jr. and Elizabeth in this undated photo.

David Britt gets some spending money from his dad, Robin Britt, in June 1983.

Robin Britt asks children what their favorite things are before saying goodbye at Guilford Child Development in Greensboro on Thursday.

Robin Britt asks children what their favorite things are before saying goodbye at Guilford Child Development in Greensboro, N.C., on Thursday, October 17, 2019.

Robin Britt asks children what their favorite things are before saying goodbye at Guilford Child Development in Greensboro, N.C., on Thursday, October 17, 2019.

Britt, 77, took time Thursday to visit children at Guilford Child Development in Greensboro to say goodbye as he retires after decades of working to help children.

U.S. Rep. Robin Britt (center) tours a farm in Guilford County in 1983. Britt was a first-time candidate when he won in 1982, recapturing the 6th Congressional District for Democrats.

Robin Britt, executive director of Guilford child Development, addresses educators during the nonprofits 50th anniversary celebration at the Koury Convention Center in Greensboro, N.C. on Oct. 18, 2017.

Executive Director of Guilford Child Development, Robin Britt talks about the pilot program in his office, Thursday, May 18, 2017, in Greensboro, N.C.

Then-U.S. Rep. Robin Britt speaks with Claudette Burroughs-White (left), the chairwoman of the Youth Conference, at Guilford College in October 1983.

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Greensboro's Robin Britt, the voice on early education, retires - Winston-Salem Journal

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Baird upgraded shares of agricultural seed and chemicals provider FMC to Buy from Hold on Wednesday, believing the companys new products will drive profit growth.

In a sense, Baird thinks FMCs future isnt dependent on the economy or the weather. That is a useful observation for investors worried about a slowing global economy. FMCand peer Corteva may offer investors some protection from the macroeconomic factors vexing markets.

Analyst Ben Kallo increased his FMC (ticker: FMC) price target by $9, to $95 a share, 13% higher than recent levels. FMC shares were moving on the upgrade, rising 2.6% to $85.19 late morning Wednesday, better than the 0.1% decline of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Near-term growth profile for diamides portfolio favorable, in our view, enabled by a substantial patent estate, Kallo wrote in a Wednesday research report. That is a mouthful, but it means the company has new products that can drive sales and earnings growth despite what happens with the economy. (Diamides are a category of insecticides farmers use for pest control.)

It isnt just the economy that agriculture investors must wrestle with. The weather hasnt cooperated in 2019, either. Too much rain in the spring and early snow in autumn has hurt U.S. crops, causing volatility for farmers as well as agricultural traders.

Still, there are ways to win in agribusiness, despite the vagaries of climate. Agricultural chemical companies such as FMC, as well as peer Corteva (CTVA), invest heavily in research and developmentin much the same way drug companies doto produce patent-protected products that can drive higher growth and higher profit margins.

Patent protection is one reason agriculture-input stocks have traded for above-average valuation multiples. Dont forget, Monsanto was purchased by Bayer (BAYN.Germany) in 2018 for more than 16 times trailing earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda. And Syngenta was purchased by a Chinese company in 2016 for about 17 times Ebitda.

Barrons wants to know your thoughts on the market, the economy, and the political landscape. Results will be published at the end of October along with results of our fall 2019 Big Money Poll of institutional investors. Take the Barrons reader poll here.

FMC is trading for less than 12 times estimated next years Ebitda, in line with other industrial assets in the S&P 500. FMC peer Corteva trades for about 10 times estimated 2020 Ebitda.

Kallo isnt alone in searching out so-called self-help stocks.

We continue to prefer nitrogen-levered [ CF Industries (CF)] and [ Yara (YAR.Norway) as well as] self-help ag-chemsFMC and [Corteva], wrote BMO analyst Joel Jackson in an earnings preview report published in September. Focusing on such stocks is one way Jackson see to combat a lost year for agriculture. He rates FMC shares the equivalent of Buy and has a $100 price target.

Barrons recently wrote positively about FMC, believing that new products can boost profit in the future. Since that article was published, FMC is up about 18%, better than the 6% gain of the Dow over the same time.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com

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FMC and Corteva Are 2 Stocks to Help Counter Agricultures Lost Year - Barron's

Many a digital health intervention has been stymied by the same problem, one thats familiar to anyone whos ever tried to quit smoking or lose weight by changing their diet: the extreme difficulty of behavior change.

On the final morning of the Connected Health Conference in Boston today, two experts presented their science-based solutions to the problem of behavior change. These solutions orbit around two seemingly contradictory poles: mindfulness and mindlessness.

A fairly popular idea these days in self help and pop psychology, mindfulness is about defeating bad habits in our subconscious by exposing them to the scrutiny of the conscious mind.

Theres a part of our brain called the orbitofrontal cortex, and this part of the brain stores and compares reward value, Judson Brewer, director of research and innovation at the Mindfulness Center at Brown University, said.

This part of the brain stores information like chocolate is a better reward than broccoli,he explained. But when we fall into bad habits, he said, were not paying attention. Were not giving our orbitofrontal cortex updated and accurate information. So we asked this question:Is awareness enough to change behavior? So we developed these app-based mindfulness programs so we could teach people to pay attention to their habit behaviors.

Brewers company MindSciences offers app-based interventions forsmoking cessation, healthy eatingand anxiety, and the technology has been shown to create demonstrative improvements in RCTs with other apps as the control.

All three apps are built around using mindfulness to drop the reward value of bad habits, opening the door for better habits to take their place.

Thats where the other piece, mindlessness, comes in, according to Dr. Kyra Bobinet, CEO of EngagedIN, who also spoke at the event.

Mindlessness is the new mindfulness, she said. Now this is not a cap on mindfulness. I have been practicing mindfulness for 20 years. But, unless you make mindfulness itself mindless to do as a habit, it doesnt do anything.

Bobinet uses a very specific definition of a habit, namely that it has to be literally mindless, something we do automatically without using any significant mental load.

As an example, Bobinet discussed the failure of many corporate wellness programs to generate any clinically significant outcome measures. In one illustrative study, a company seemingly threw the kitchen sink at their employees but still came up short.

There was nothing in that kitchen sink that had anything to do with habit formation, and all the outcome measures were about habits, Bobinet said. You can throw the kitchen sink at this problem, but if none of it is specifically for habit formation, you will get the same result, or lack of results,every time.

Contrary to popular belief, Bobinet said, it takes not 21 days but a full year to retrain ourselves in a habit.

Both speakers pointed out that generally speaking, people believe they can triumph in an effort to change their behavior with sheer force of will. But science and experience show that thats a losing proposition nine times out of 10.

Instead, people should be mindful about the bad habits theyre trying to change, be iterative in their approach to changing it (trying new things when one approach isnt working), and be patient and persistent in replacing those habits with new, healthier habits.

As long as you dont run the story of judgement on yourself and dont think that youve failed, and you iterate on what youre doing, you will be unstoppable,Bobinet said.

Crucially, no amount or quality of technology will work if it doesnt apply these evidence-backed behavior change approaches.

We actually know a whole lot about how habits and everyday addictions form, and in fact we might be ignoring some of this critical information, Brewer said.

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'Mindlessness is the new mindfulness': Lessons from brain science on how to change behaviors - MobiHealthNews

Virginia Ginny NiCarthy helped establish the nations first rape-crisis center and wrote Getting Free, a seminal book thats helped hundreds of thousands of women across the globe leave abusive relationships.

A therapist, activist and adventurer, she mentored dozens of women working to end domestic violence, traveled to international hot spots to see conditions for herself, and ultimately chose to die on her own terms before dementia could steal her curious, creative mind.

She always impressed people with her fearlessness and courage, said Ms. NiCarthys daughter, Seattle artist Iskra Johnson. She was a pistol irreverent and witty and smart and hilarious She was a very complicated, intelligent woman. She had a very rich life.

An author of several books, Ms. NiCarthy learned Spanish in Guatemala, studied art in Mexico, and traveled to Iraq, Afghanistan and Colombia as a witness for peace.

For two months before her death on Sept. 23, Ms. NiCarthys family and friends traveled from all over the country to say their goodbyes before she decided to stop eating and drinking. She was 92.

Decades before Washingtons Death with Dignity Act was approved by voters in 2008, Ms. NiCarthy and a group of friends made a pact to help each other die with agency and dignity intact, Johnson said. But none of her friends were still alive to help her.

Ms. NiCarthy, who was physically healthy despite the slow onset of dementia over the past three years, wasnt eligible for medical intervention to end her life because the law allows aid only for terminally ill adults with at most six months to live.

It was a focus for her politically, said Johnson, who with her brother, Nathan Crow, supported their mothers decision and were with her in her final weeks.

Born in San Francisco on April 30, 1927, Ms. NiCarthy, the youngest of five children, grew up in Redwood City, California. Her father, Paul A. McCarthy, was a lawyer and served as Redwood Citys mayor, and her mother, Alice (Byrne) McCarthy, was a switchboard operator turned homemaker.

Raised a Catholic, Ms. NiCarthy lost faith in the church and turned to politics and social-justice activism as a way to help others and find meaning and purpose in her life, Johnson said.

She moved to Seattle in her 20s and in 1953, met her first husband, Robert S. Johnson, and gave birth to their daughter a year later. They were an intellectual, politically engaged couple who became part of Seattles bohemian scene centered around the Cirque and Repertory playhouses. During local hearings of the Committee on Un-American Activities, the couple who were never members of the Communist Party hid friends in their basement to help them avoid subpoenas compelling their testimony, their daughter said.

You didnt have to be a Communist to sympathize with people being persecuted by (Sen. Joseph) McCarthy, said Johnson, who came across her mothers handwritten notes documenting the hearings.

The couple divorced after 2 years of marriage. A couple of years later, Ms. NiCarthy wed William Crow and had two sons, Matthew and Nathan; that marriage ended in divorce 20 years later. In the mid-1960s, Ms. NiCarthy earned her teaching certificate and taught at schools in Seattles Central District, including Meany Middle School. She returned to college a second time, earning her masters in social work from the University of Washington in 1974. Her therapy practice included counseling battered women.

Sometime in the 1970s, she changed her surname from McCarthy which in Irish means son of Carthy to NiCarthy, which means daughter of Carthy. The change came when she realized how deep her feminist sentiment went, Johnson said.

In 1972, Ms. NiCarthy helped found Seattle Rape Relief, the first rape crisis-center in the U.S., where volunteers staffed a 24-hour hotline for victims of sexual assault (the agency closed in 1999). She was jailed for two months in 1976 after she was arrested while protesting the Trident Submarine Base on the Kitsap Peninsula. It wasnt the only time she was arrested for civil disobedience: In 2013, at age 86, she was arrested in Bellevue protesting the countrys immigration policies, according to a friend who was arrested with her.

After being rejected by 50 publishers, Ms. NiCarthy took her manuscript for Getting Free: A Handbook for Women in Abusive Relationships to Seal Press, a small, women-owned Seattle publishing house. The book, published in 1982, was reviewed by The New York Times and quickly recognized as groundbreaking. It has been translated into several languages and was updated and reissued in 2004.

We called her book The Bible, and it was used by every domestic-violence program across the country. It was definitely the first self-help book written for survivors of domestic violence, said Merril Cousin, who was working at a shelter in Maine when the book came out and later became executive director of the Coalition Ending Gender-Based Violence, a King County agency that gives out an annual advocacy award named for Ms. NiCarthy.

After moving to Seattle in 1989, Cousin joined a collective that started a support group for abused lesbians, and Ms. NiCarthy was asked to advise the group, now known as the NW Network of Bi, Trans, Lesbian and Gay Survivors of Abuse.

Ill admit to being a little star-struck at the time, Cousin recalled. She was always educating me on social-justice issues and to her, it was all part of the same struggle.

Ms. NiCarthy was a feminist and civil-rights activist who protested against the War on Drugs and the Iraq War, advocated for criminal-justice and immigration reform, and volunteered on committees and boards across the city, Cousin said.

One of them was Chaya, now API Chaya, which supports Southeast Asian survivors of domestic violence.

The thing with Ginny was she understood human nature, so she understood it to be imperfect, amazing, destructive and joyful, said Aaliyah Gupta, a former executive director of Chaya who was introduced to Ms. NiCarthy in 2001 by Pramila Jayapal, now Democratic congresswoman from Seattle. She didnt sit in a box and she saw all the nuances. Any kind of injustice would get her riled up.

Ms. NiCarthys family is thinking about planning a memorial service for her in February, her daughter said. In addition to her children, Ms. NiCarthy is survived by a granddaughter.

She was far more focused on people and saying goodbye while she was still alive, Johnson said. My guess is she would say, In lieu of flowers, donate to a good cause.'

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Ginny NiCarthy: Therapist, activist and author of groundbreaking book for survivors of domestic violence, dies on her own terms - The Seattle Times

But he cautions that the side effects could have been because of an interaction with other medications the children were taking to control the seizures. So far, there hasnt been a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial (the gold standard) on sleep disorders and CBD.

[Stressed-out parents are giving it a shot.]

A recent chart review of 72 psychiatric patients treated with CBD found that anxiety improved, but not sleep. Over all, we did not find that it panned out as a useful treatment for sleep, said Dr. Scott Shannon, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Colorado, Denver and the lead author of the review in The Permanente Journal.

Sleep can be disrupted for many reasons, including depression. Rodents seemed to adapt better to stressful conditions and exhibited less depressive-like behavior after taking CBD, according to a review in Journal of Chemical Neuroanatomy. Surprisingly, CBD seems to act faster than conventional antidepressants, wrote one of the authors of a new review, Smia Joca, a fellow at the Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies in Denmark and an associate professor at the University of So Paulo in Brazil, in an email interview. Of course, its difficult to detect depression in animals, but the studies that Ms. Joca and her colleagues reviewed suggested that in models of chronic stress exposure, the mice and rats treated with CBD were more resilient.

But without clinical trials in humans, psychologists say CBDs effect on depression is still a hypothesis, and not an evidence-based treatment.

If you take pure CBD, its pretty safe, said Marcel Bonn-Miller, an adjunct assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvanias Perelman School of Medicine. Side effects in the Epidiolex trial included diarrhea, sleepiness, fatigue, weakness, rash, decreased appetite and elevated liver enzymes. Also, the safe amount to consume in a day, or at all during pregnancy, is still not known.

Excerpt from:
What Are the Benefits of CBD? - The New York Times

In The Doors of Perception, Aldous Huxley points out that the Lords Prayer has 50 words, and six of them are dedicated to imploring God not to lead us into temptation. When I was a child sitting in Sunday school in west Texas, I often wondered why God would engineer these temptations into our environment in the first place much less lead us into them if he was only going to enjoin us to avoid them later.

Today I feel the same way about the creators of our technological environments. We are bombarded at every turn with persuasive design that exploits our psychological weaknesses and often leads us into temptation, habituation and distraction. At the same time, we are expected to take up arms against these distractions, to muster superhuman levels of self-regulation, just to adapt to this all-out war others are waging for our attention.

So far, the closest thing to a bible for designers who have been enlisted in that war for our attention those tasked with hacking human psychology to increase engagement with their products has been Nir Eyals bestselling 2014 book Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products. Eyal advanced a four-part model for exploiting triggers, rewards and other elements of habit formation to systematically manipulate user behaviour; he described the model as a new superpower for designers.

Now, five years later, as individuals and societies have begun to discern the extent to which distraction is a feature, not a bug, of the industrialisation of persuasive design, Eyal has returned with a self-help book. Here, as in Hooked, Eyal advances a four-part model and even describes it as a superpower again only this time its for users: it sets out how to be indistractable in a world thats angling for our attention.

It would be too uncharitable to dismiss Indistractable as merely an attempt to backtrack. It would also be a mistake to place it among the crop of repentant-tech-insider confessionals so fashionable lately those tragic narratives of grovelling and apology that the media gleefully stenograph for readers who instinctively click on them. In fact, a notable absence in Indistractable is any trace of regret or re-examination whatsoever, and for this Eyal deserves some credit.

This is a book with two souls. One is concerned with prescription, the other with persuasion. The prescriptive part offers techniques for resisting distraction. These include: scheduling your life so assiduously that you eliminate all white space in your calendar, beginning with prioritising and timeboxing You time; hacking back or changing the external triggers that distract you (for instance, disabling device notifications, or having a signal at work that tells your colleagues youre in a focus mode); and using precommitment devices such as pacts to motivate you to follow through on your goals (which in Eyals case consisted of agreeing to pay his friend $10,000 if he didnt finish Indistractable on time). There is some value in compiling these techniques in one place; readers might find some of them useful.

However, it is the persuasive soul of Indistractable that merits greater attention. At the books beating heart is a sales pitch for the blamelessness of technology vis--vis distraction. This argument is important in part because it carries significance for wider conversations about the ethics of persuasive design, and in part because it is so profoundly, yet so subtly, wrong.

Eyals argument is roughly as follows. Distraction is any action we take thats misaligned with our broader intentions. We often blame technology for distraction. However, because all human behaviour is motivated by the desire to minimise discomfort, the root cause of distraction therefore lies within us. Technology, by contrast, is merely a proximate cause. If we dont deal with the root causes, well continue to find ways to distract ourselves and will remain helpless victims in a tragedy of our own creation. On the other hand, if we do acknowledge that distraction originates inside ourselves, we can take steps to become indistractable and ultimately live the lives we want.

There are many curious contortions here. Eyals conception of distraction remains mercurial. His foundational claim that avoiding discomfort or dissatisfaction is our motivation for everything we do in life is simply asserted; no evidence is adduced. (Its a claim that, in any event, seems unfalsifiable cant any desire for change be framed as dissatisfaction with some status quo?) Yet the essential rhetorical move, for which Eyal gives no justification, is his separation of inner motivations from external factors and his conception of them as root causes. This root/proximate cause distinction comes from a diagnostic process in engineering and management sciences called root cause analysis. Why is this method appropriate for diagnosing human behaviour? No reason is given. Why cant a behaviour be the result of multiple root causes? The question goes unasked. Cant technologies, like many other external influences, increase our degree of inner discomfort and dissatisfaction? The issue is not even raised. What even counts as a root cause? Eyal leaves it undefined.

In fact, throughout the book he is inconsistent about what he treats as a root cause versus a proximate cause. At various points he is happy to construe all manner of environmental factors relational, organisational, psychological, and cultural as root causes of distraction, while treating as a ridiculous moral panic any suggestion that technologies that have literally been designed to distract many by designers he has influenced are themselves part of any structural problem. He seems to allow for any root cause of distraction, as long as it is not technology.

This is a fundamentally unserious way of approaching the question. Imagine weve just discovered that a facial recognition algorithm is amplifying some racial inequality. In response, we might ask: how could the algorithm be designed so that it promotes equality instead? Can it in principle be designed to do so? Should an algorithm even be used in this situation? And so on. However, it would not occur to us to say unless we were mired in anxious defensiveness about the fact that criticism is occurring at all that even though the algorithm amplifies inequality, it poses no problem worthy of immediate corrective action because it is not the root cause of that inequality. To say so would be a digital version of the odious Guns dont kill people, people kill people deflection. (Of course, neither side of that false dichotomy is correct; it is clearly the gun-person interface which is at issue.) Technology doesnt distract people; people distract people. This, in a phrase, is Indistractables persuasive soul.

I recently read that the pope wanted to alter a line of the Lords Prayer, from lead us not into temptation to do not let us fall into temptation. Indistractable is Eyals attempt at a pope-like pivot. Thankfully, he cant pivot by fiat. However, as the book Merchants of Doubt by Erik M Conway and Naomi Oreskes brilliantly chronicled in the domains of climate science and tobacco research, a smokescreen of doubt can be thrown up, which provides a cover for interests averse to systemic change, whether regulatory or otherwise. And Eyal can make people who get distracted by adversarial design less inclined to demand more from their technologies, and more inclined to demand superpowers of themselves that their all-too-human limitations render them unable to meet.

Technology exists to help us transcend our limitations. This book could have been a welcome recognition by a leading voice in the field that we cant fight distractions on our own that we shouldnt have to and that technology, properly designed and incentivised, is necessary for helping us do so. That is the book I wish I could have read.

In Hooked, Eyal wrote: It will be years, perhaps generations, before society develops the mental antibodies to control new habits. However, in Indistractable he writes: We have the unique ability to adapt to such threats. We can take steps right now to retrain and regain our brains. To be blunt, what other choice do we have? We dont have time to wait for regulators to do something and if you hold your breath waiting for corporations to make their products less distracting, well, youre going to pass out.

Its one thing to tell this to knowledge workers who ride electric scooters to work and stream productivity podcasts into their AirBuds. But tell it to the single working mother who can barely carve out enough me time to take a shower. Better yet, tell the tech designers its not their fault, that its ultimately their users responsibility to manage distractions, and that even if their products do distract, the root cause of it lies in users themselves.

To throw everything back on the individual and to ignore the structural causes of distraction is not only unscientific in its approach to human nature, it is unjust in its implications for society, and unimaginative in its capitulation to design. Such a position would be understandable, though still not acceptable, from someone who didnt know better. But to spend years building up those structural causes of distraction, and then to take such a position? That would be a spectacle of sophistry from which no amount of self-help pabulum could distract.

James Williamss Stand Out of Our Light: Freedom and Restriction in the Attention Economy is published by Cambridge. Indistractable is published by Bloomsbury (20). To order a copy go to guardianbookshop.com or call 020-3176 3837. Free UK p&p over 15, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of 1.99.

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Indistractable by Nir Eyal review letting tech off the hook - The Guardian

Nationals fans celebrate on The Midlands's patio. Photo courtesy of The Midlands.

Its time for the Nationals to #finishthefight. The World Series starts Tuesday, October 22, and as youd expect, there are plenty of creative food and drink specials and watch parties that will help you root for the home team. You can munch on a Max Scherzer-themed hot dog, dive into a Howie Kendrick-inspired pizza, or drink a commemorative World Series IPA.A Nationals spokesperson says that Nationals Park may host watch parties for away games, but details havent been finalized.

Bardo Brewing25 Potomac Ave., SEWant to get your pup in on the #Natitude action? Head to this dog-friendly waterfront beer garden. Its set to host pregame parties on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with $7 pints until midnight. Bonus: wear a Nats costume to Saturdays Halloween party (6 to 11 PM) and you might win a prize.

Bluejacket 300 Tingey St., SEThe Navy Yard brewery will tap its 86 Years IPA just in time for Tuesdays game (the name refers to how long its been since a Washington team made it into the World Series). The double IPA includes hints of passionfruit, peach, and orange, and it may be bottled soon with a commemorative label.

The Brig 1007 Eighth St., SEThe popular pregame hangout is projecting every game throughout its German-style outdoor beer garden (after dusk, the game will be shown on a 25-foot projection screen). Brats, pretzels, and $28 buckets of tall-boys are on the menu. Choose from Natty Boh, Narragansett, PBR, Bud Light, and more.

Mission Navy Yard 1221 Van St., SERight across from the center field entrance, this Mexican spot plans to host hundreds of fans at its two-level bar. The bar will open two hours before each game, and will serve $25 buckets of beer and $5 margaritas and shots until 2 am. Plus, there are appetizers like chorizo sliders or quesadillas.

Nicoletta Pizzeria 301 Water St., SEOne of the top spots for pre-game pizza will celebrate with a limited time pie: Howies Grand Slam, with spinach, banana peppers, crispy porchetta, and a creamy white sauce ($20). Plus, theres cornhole.

Shilling Canning Company360 Water St., SEThe Mid-Atlantic-inspired restaurant will shell out (heh) $2 oysters, and host a special happy hour from 5 to 6:30 PM on Tuesday through Friday with wine, Oriole Park lager, and more. To wish Howie Kendrick good luck on his homers, order a special $9 cocktail with vodka, ginger, nutmeg, and bitters.

Walters Sports Bar 10 N St., SEThis fan favorite sports bar across from Nats Park offers 24 self-service beer taps and a 220-inch TV. The bar will serve up buckets of wings, Bud Light, and Truly seltzer for under $20 until 2 AM (or 3 AM on Saturday).

Bar Deco and Fish Market717 Sixth St., NW; 105 King St., AlexandriaSnag free popcorn at both spots, then dig into foot-long hot dogs with toppings inspired by players. Go for Maxs classic mustard-onion-pickle combo, Howies barbecue dog, Ryans spicy bacon-jalapeno frank, and Treas Tex-Mex version with avocado and chipotle aioli. There are drink specials at both spots, too.

The Blaguard 2003 18th St., NWThis two-story sports bar in Adams Morgan is serving up game day grub like chili-cheese hot dogs, along with $3 Bud Light and Natty Boh until last call at 1:30 AM (or 2:30 AM if its the weekend).

Duffys Irish Pub1016 H St., NEDuffys has some of the best wings in DC, and you can grab them for half price on Wednesday, October 23. There will be a $9 Budweiser tall-boy-and-shot special on each game day. The pub closes at midnight on weekdays, but it stays open until 2 AM on Friday and Saturday.

The Greene Turtle7879 Heneska Loop, AlexandriaHead over to the Green Turtles Hilltop Village Center location for a game 3 watch party on Friday from 8 PM to 1:30 AM. Watch the Nats on all the big screens, then sing your heart out at karaoke hosted by M.C. Big Swig until close. Wear your best Halloween costume for a chance to win over $300 in prizes.

MatchboxMultiple locations in DC, Maryland, and VirginiaAll locations of this pizza/miniburger chain are celebrating by offering happy-hour-priced food and drinks to anyone wearing Nats gear (hopefully you werent waiting to buy a Scherzer jersey).

The Midlands 3333 Georgia Ave., NWPark yourself at one of this Park View beer gardens fire pits and watch the game on the patio. Itll serve hot mulled cider with spiced rum, and all the games will be shown until closing time: midnight on weekdays, and 3 AM on the weekend.

The Occidental1475 Pennsylvania Ave., NWMore than 80 years ago, the Washington Senators celebrated their World Series win at this downtown dining room. Now, you can sip $10 bourbon cocktails named after the former team and watch the games on the patio while supporting a good cause: the Youth Baseball Academy Initiative.

Quincys South 11401 Woodglen Dr., BethesdaHonor Gerardo Parra with baby shark sliders, covered in provolone and blackberry habanero sauce, and dig into Howie Kendrick-inspired nachos, an MVP bacon hot dog, and classic wings. The neighborhood hangout will offer bottle buckets and pitchers during the games, too.

Rock and Roll Hotel 1353 H St., NEThe concert venue is hosting a watch party Tuesday, October 22, with multiple TVs playing the game in its rooftop bar and second floor. Theres no cover charge, and drink specials include $7 Devils Backbone Earned Run Ale and $1 off rail drinks. Doors open at 6 PM.

This post will be updated as new details become available.

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Editorial Fellow

Emily Martin is an editorial fellow for Washingtonian. She previously participated in the POLITICO Journalism Institute and covered Capitol Hill for The Durango Herald.

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Where to Watch the Nationals in the World Series Around DC - Washingtonian

Alex T. Paschal/apaschal@saukvalley.com

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There was plenty of pink at Self Help Enterprises in Sterling on Thursday: pink clothes, pink hair, pink firefighters there was even a pink mohawk, and there were a lot of folks tickled pink to see a brightly colored ambulance stop by for a visit. The Pink Heals Sauk Valley Chapters rolling reminder that what the world needs now is more love and less cancer stopped by Self Help to bring some smiles, raise awareness and let people battling cancer, survivors and those who have lost loved ones to the disease sign the Pink Heals truck. The truck is part of a national fleet of pink fire trucks that are on a mobile mission to deliver a smile and lend support to those whose lives have been touched by cancer. Trucks are manned by volunteers decked out in pink turnout gear, and the truck itself is a canvas for people who want to sign their names or offer words of support. Go to pinkfiretrucks.org for more information, or find Pink Heals Sauk Valley, IL Chapter for more on the local chapter.

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A big roll in the fight against cancer - SaukValley.com

The short list for the prestigious International James Dyson Award has finally been announced, and a critical safety tool for managing seizures has risen into the top 20: Cocoon, a self-deploying, portable safe space for people affected by epilepsy.

The Dyson award invites entries that solve a specific problemand this particular innovator is intimately aware of the need for this solution because she has the condition herself.

Seizures are a part of life for the 50 million people worldwide that are epileptic, and they have a risk of death 3-6 times greater than the average population.

Many can sense the seizuress onset, giving them time to find a safe place to lie down. Doctors can only hope they are with a friend or caregiver who can time the seizure, call for an ambulance if it lasts longer than five minutes, and be there to reorient them as the condition subsides.

Uma Smith, the mastermind behind Cocoon says, I was diagnosed with epilepsy at the age of 11. Since then, Ive been hospitalized four timesthree of them while I was away from a safe space and caretakers.

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Seizure-sensors and protective headgear do exist, but nothing so far has combined all the safety elements into a single device. This new product has all of those requirements, plus more. It integrates soft protection that stays on the head and helps the seizing person stay on their side, plus clear instructions that automatically unfurl for strangers who may want to help, including the persons name and emergency contact phone numbers.

But what if the person is alone? In this circumstance, Cocoon features GPS to help caregivers find the person, seizure sensors, a timer, automated messaging to alert an emergency contact, and after 3 minutes of seizing, a 911 call for an ambulance. If the seizure ends early, the sensors will detect it and call off the emergency measures automatically.

WATCH: Thanks to Students Hunch, Seniors With Dementia Are Coming Alive Again With the Magic of Virtual Reality

The Cocoon rolls up and becomes a portable pillow and is compact enough to slide into a tote bag, giving those with epilepsy a new sense of freedom to explore and be out on their own.

The Brooklyn-based industrial designer who invented the device, is also a sculptor and photographer and has designed other innovations combining form and function. Information about her works, including the Cocoon, can be found on her website.

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This Ingenious Solution was Designed Specifically to Help People During Their Epileptic Seizures - Good News Network

Enforcement measures

Outline the basic repossession procedures following lease termination. How may the lessee lawfully impede the owners rights to exercise default remedies?

Turkey recognises the right of the lessor to use self-help for repossession on lease termination as provided for in the Cape Town Convention. This has been applied in a small number of cases where the former lessee did not try to physically prevent or legally challenge the repossession process. Use of self-help is not recommended where the former lessee tries to prevent or legally challenges the repossession. For this reason, it is advisable to seek a court order for repossession. It is also possible for the former lessee to obtain a precautionary injunction by claiming that the lease has not been terminated. However, these are theoretical conjectures, as Turkish courts currently have no experience of the Cape Town Convention, nor is there any precedent.

Outline the basic measures to enforce a security interest. How may the owner lawfully impede the mortgagees right to enforce?

Turkey recognises the right of the mortgagee to use self-help for repossession on default, as provided for in the Cape Town Convention. Use of self-help is not recommended where the owner tries to prevent or legally challenges the repossession. For this reason, it is advisable to seek a court order for repossession. It is also possible for the owner to obtain a precautionary injunction by claiming that there is no default. However, these are theoretical conjectures, as Turkish courts currently have no experience of the Cape Town Convention, nor is there any precedent.

It is also possible to start a mortgage enforcement action, which will lead to the sale of the aircraft by public auction. The debtor has a right to raise objections to this action. Depending on the mortgage agreement and documentation of the default, the objection may be set aside by summary judgment.

Which liens and rights will have priority over aircraft ownership or an aircraft security interest? If an aircraft can be taken, seized or detained, is any form of compensation available to an owner or mortgagee?

Aircraft manufacturers and repairers have the right to demand the registration of a statutory mortgage on the aircraft for their receivables. This mortgage will take priority over all other consensual mortgages. The demand must be made within three months of completion of the construction or repairs, otherwise it becomes extinct.

The government has priority only for the motor vehicle tax that is payable for the aircraft. This is usually negligible, as the amount will not exceed a few thousand US dollars.

Aircraft can be requisitioned only for general mobilisation in a state of war, in which case the owner will be compensated.

No other liens or rights will have priority over registered consensual mortgages.

How are judgments of foreign courts enforced? Is your jurisdiction party to the 1958 New York Convention?

The enforcement of foreign court judgments requires a recognition and enforcement decision by a Turkish court. The purpose of a recognition and enforcement action is not to retry the merits of the case, but only to determine whether the foreign court decision fulfils the requirements for enforcement in Turkey.

One of the important requirements for recognition and enforcement is the existence of a de facto or contractual reciprocity between Turkey and the country that issued the decision in regard to recognising and enforcing each others court decisions. Reciprocity exists between the United Kingdom and Turkey. It is unclear whether reciprocity exists between the state of New York and Turkey. As such, there are instances of New York court judgments being denied recognition and enforcement.

Turkey is a party to the 1958 New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards. A foreign arbitral award will also require a recognition and enforcement decision from a Turkish court. An arbitral award issued in a country that is a party to the 1958 New York Convention will be enforceable in Turkey, provided that other conditions for enforcement are met.

Another important requirement for the recognition and enforcement of both court decisions and arbitral awards is that the claim has been duly and properly served on the defendant, and the defendant has been given adequate opportunity to defend itself against the claim. It is not necessary to prove that defendants have defended themselves. The decision may be given in absentia if they have been invited.

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Aircraft repossession and enforcement of security in Turkey - Lexology