If you’re cold, take one
Kindness doesn’t always speak but sure can warm things up. Every winter as temperatures drop and snow begins to fall, ordinary people begin to do something extraordinary. They tie coats, scarves, gloves and hats to trees, fences and park benches. No signs, no cameras, no questions asked. Just a simple message—if you’re cold, take one. In Winnipeg and Regina, community groups put hundreds of brightly coloured handmade scarves into public spaces. No collection bins. No paperwork. No requirements.
Source: Sustainable Human
Therapist using ChatGPT?
Risking their client’s trust and privacy, some therapists are using artificial intelligence to get advice for their clients in live sessions. With unexpected ramifications for the field of psychotherapy, experts suggest that while tantalizing for its efficiency, AI adoption compromises sensitive data and can undermine trusting relationships. While disclosure is essential according to professional standards it’s been found to rapidly sour goodwill between client and therapist.
Source: MIT Technology Review
Exploiting body parts
A recent investigation found 100 body parts of 45 people were found dismembered in a body-broker’s warehouse. Victims of a donation program that promised hospice families the opportunity to donate to science after death, the private company in question covered cremation costs of unused parts and promised to return the ashes. For critics this debacle highlights a modern form of grave-robbing. Others reflect a shortage of cadavers for education and research arguing that executed in a more dignified way, the private sector is simply filling a need.
Source: BBC
A different vending machine
Instead of snacks and soda, the machines at this YMCA dispense free pregnancy tests and Narcan. The ‘Health To Go’ vending machine can also dispense drug testing kits, wound supplies, hygiene kits, socks, soap, toothpaste and toothbrushes all without charge. It also lists resources for mental health care, food banks, housing assistance and substance abuse disorder treatment contact info on the screen. Discreet and free—not in Canada yet but should be.
Source: The Good
Code ‘Black and Blue’ ads
Citing the need for effective mandated action to protect nurses and healthcare professionals from workplace violence, the Ontario Nurses Association (ONA) has launched a comprehensive new ad campaign. With the social media and print ads, the ONA hopes to draw back the curtain on the shocking reality that nurses face on the job. The campaign uses real nurses sharing stories of physical and verbal abuse from their jobs.
Source: ona.org
It’s true if it’s peer reviewed?
Reader beware! Often mistaken for proof of accuracy, bad actors using AI have taken advantage of the “peer- reviewed status.” Science reporter Kit Yates wrote that more than 10,000 papers were recently retracted where cases of fake reviewer accounts, citation cartels that traded references and ghostwritten studies that passed off as legitimate research. For the record, peer review actually means that the work has been deemed ready to be circulated, by a couple of experts, for community discussion.
Source: The Medium Newsletter
Photos: Shutterstock. Alice Zhang/Penn State College of Medicine. Sustainable Human. Nurses Talk Truth.
