Handforth’s Study Hall

Do the readings.

Oh my God, just do the readings. I promise, it gets easier once you get into the habit of it.

she said her kids DO actually read books all the way through, including classics like the Odyssey, and the reporter just cherry-picked her words to focus on the books the class reads as excerpts only

when i was in fifth grade, we read a book in school where a young girl in prehistory finds a dolphin skeleton. and i was so taken in by the description of the bones, how there were fingers in the fins, that i came home to my dad and told him "i think that when humans came out of the oceans, dolphins did, too, but they went back in."

my dad went upstairs and came back with an issue of analog magazine, the sci-fi digest he read religiously, and handed it to me.

it was never about being right or not. it was about my dad seeing that i was engaging with science literature and analyzing it and inviting me to read science fiction so he could share it with me.

also, when i say dad read the magazine religiously, i mean that when i was in 1st grade and it was his turn to come in and read to the class, he read a story from analog. i mean that when he went outside to smoke, it was always with that magazine in his hand.

Because people forget that Heimdall is the one that suggested Thor dress up as Freyja and not Loki. Loki just gladly joined in the dress up.

EDIT: This of course also works with Odin too. As both Loki and Odin are a bunch of shifty bastards.

The local Malagasy people are dealing with extreme poverty and food insecurity, with nearly half of children under five years old suffering from chronic malnutrition. The local people have always subsisted on hunting wildlife for food, and as Madagascar’s wildlife population declines, the people who rely on so-called bushmeat to survive are struggling more and more. People are literally starving.

Our conservation team thought about this a lot. They had initially intended to focus efforts on education but came to understand that this is not an issue arising from a lack of knowledge. For these people it is a question of survival. It doesn’t matter how many times a foreigner tells you not to eat an animal you’ve hunted your entire life, if your child is starving you are going to do everything in your power to keep your family alive.

So the vets changed course. Rather than focus efforts on simply teaching people about lemurs, they decided to try and use veterinary medicine to reduce the underlying issue of food insecurity. They supposed that if a reliable protein source could be introduced for the people who needed it, the dependence on meat from wildlife would greatly decrease. So they got to work establishing new flocks of chickens in the most at-risk communities, and also initiated an aggressive vaccination program for Newcastle disease (an infectious illness of poultry that is of particular concern in this area). They worked with over 600 households to ensure appropriate husbandry and vaccination for every flock, and soon found these communities were being transformed by the introduction of a steady protein source. Families with a healthy flock of chickens were far less likely to hunt wild animals like lemurs, and fewer kids went hungry. Thats what we call a win-win situation.

This chicken vaccine program became just one small part of an amazing conservation outreach initiative in Madagascar that puts local people at the center of everything they do. Helping these vulnerable communities of people helps similarly vulnerable wildlife, always. If we go into a country guns-blazing with that fire for conservation in our hearts and a plan to save native animals, we simply cannot ignore the humans who live around them. Doing so is counterintuitive to creating an effective plan because whether we recognize it or not, humans and animals are inextricably linked in many ways. A true conservation success story is one that doesn’t leave needy humans in its wake, and that is why I think this particular story has stuck with me for so long.

(Source 1)

(Source 2- cool video exploring this initiative from some folks involved)

But on top of that, you know who the most ardent conservationists are once security has been achieved? The people who had once been forced to poach or slash-and-burn to survive. You know who’s great at tracking down gorilla poachers? Ex-poachers. Who’s good at understanding and advocating for people forced to do these things to survive? Ex-poachers. Who can convince others to take a chance on finding a better way to survive? Same answer.

Reticulated Giraffe:

"In a historic “first-of-its-kind” agreement the government of British Colombia has acknowledged the aboriginal ownership of 200 islands off the west coast of Canada.

The owners are the Haida nation, and rather than the Canadian government giving something to a First Nation, the agreement admits that the “Xhaaidlagha Gwaayaai” or the “islands at the end of world,” always belonged to them, a subtle yet powerful difference in the wording of First Nations negotiating.

BC Premier David Eby called the treaty “long overdue” and once signed, will clear the way for half a million hectares (1.3 million acres) of land to be managed by the Haida.

Postal service, shipping lanes, school and community services, private property rights, and local government jurisdiction, will all be unaffected by the agreement, which will essentially outline that the Haida decide what to do with the 200 or so islands and islets.

“We could be facing each other in a courtroom, we could have been fighting each other for years and years, but we chose a different path,” said Minister of Indigenous Relations of BC, Murray Rankin at the signing ceremony, who added that it took creativity and courage to “create a better world for our children.”

Indeed, making the agreement outside the courts of the formal treaty process reflects a vastly different way of negotiating than has been the norm for Canada.

“This agreement won’t only raise all boats here on Haida Gwaii – increase opportunity and prosperity for the Haida people and for the whole community and for the whole province – but it will also be an example and another way for nations – not just in British Columbia, but right across Canada – to have their title recognized,” said Eby.

In other words, by deciding this outside court, Eby and the province of BC hope to set a new standard for how such land title agreements are struck."

Two really great things about this:

1- they didn't have to go to court. Cases like this usually take years or decades and are incredibly expensive for First Nations, even if they win.

Summary

ADHD affects focus by disrupting regulation within the brain's networks.

The Default Mode Network (DMN) activates during rest or daydreaming but is normally turned off when concentrating. 

The thalamus regulates and coordinates information between the brain’s network. 

In ADHD, regulation from the thalamus is weakened and the DMN remains active even during tasks, leading to distractions.

Medications like Ritalin may enhance the thalamus’ ability to regulate the DMN activity

Self-monitoring strategies, such as setting timers or using audio cues, help individuals refocus attention during tasks without trying to prevent DMN intrusions.

Introduction

This was an assignment I worked on for my Master's of Education that I thought other's might benefit from (and Tumblr specifically would be interested in). The goal was to create a handout that our students could use to understand behaviour, so I targeted this at my high school biology students.

Standard disclaimer that ADHD (which I don't have but have something close to it) is a complex system within the brain. We don't fully understand it. This is just a glimpse into one of many facets of the disorder.

Brain Networks

Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder is a complicated condition whose biology is not fully understood. In High School, we often describe brain functions as being based in the cerebral lobes, but this is not the full truth. In reality, the brain is made up of a series of networks that are in constant communication with each other. By sending signals back and forth along various networks, the brain creates the behaviours of all humans and many animals. It is currently believed that ADHD is partially the result of miscommunications within these networks (Fassbender et al 2009; Rubia, 2018). 

The Default Mode Network 

One network within the brain is the Default Mode Network (DMN), which takes control when the brain doesn’t have anything to focus on, such as when the body is at rest or the mind is wandering (Fassbender et al, 2009). The DMN is largely based in the medial regions of the frontal, parietal, and temporal lobes, where the left and right hemispheres face each other (Fassbender et al 2009; Cunningham et al, 2017; Rubia, 2018). While the workings of this network aren’t fully understood, it is believed to be involved in making connections between unrelated memories. This is the basis of reflection and self-awareness, allowing the brain to see patterns across past events, as well as predict what may happen in the future (Cunningham et al, 2017; Li et al, 2021; Schwabe et al, 2022). 

Image from Neuroscientifically Challenged, who also have a great article on the DMN