Tag: Bodies

Categories
Politics

Biden Receives Our bodies of Troopers Killed in Kabul Bombing

Biden Receives Bodies of Soldiers Killed in Kabul Bombing

The transfers began in the late morning and stretched nearly 40 minutes, finishing after noon. Time and again, service members in varying shades of green fatigues carried flag-draped transfer cases down the ramp of the transport, which faced Air Force One on the runway. First came the Army, then the Marines, then the Navy. The carry teams, as they are called, worked in three-minute cycles, marching before a host of dignitaries including the president, the secretaries of state and defense, and several top military brass. They carried the remains from the transport and lifted them through the back cargo doors of four gray vans.

The president stood with his hand over his heart as they passed by. When sets of Marines returned to the belly of the C-17, hands empty, to retrieve the next set of remains, Mr. Biden widened his stance and clasped his hands by his belt or behind his back. Often he bowed his head with his eyes squeezed shut, as if in prayer.

Across from him sat rows of family members of the fallen, so many of them that the Dover base could not house them all in its rooms built specially for next of kin.

The fallen service members returning Sunday to Dover were Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Darin T. Hoover, 31, of Salt Lake City; Marine Corps Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo, 25, of Lawrence, Mass.; Marine Corps Sgt. Nicole L. Gee, 23, of Sacramento, Calif.; Marine Corps Cpl. Hunter Lopez, 22, of Indio, Calif.; Marine Corps Cpl. Daegan W. Page, 23, of Omaha; Marine Corps Cpl. Humberto A. Sanchez, 22, of Logansport, Ind.; Marine Corps Lance Cpl. David L. Espinoza, 20, of Rio Bravo, Texas; Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Jared M. Schmitz, 20, of St. Charles, Mo.; Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Rylee J. McCollum, 20, of Jackson, Wyo.; Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Dylan R. Merola, 20, of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.; Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui, 20, of Norco, Calif.; Navy Hospitalman Maxton W. Soviak, 22, of Berlin Heights, Ohio; and Army Staff Sgt. Ryan C. Knauss, 23, of Corryton, Tenn.

The president and the first lady, Jill Biden, met with the families of those service members midmorning on Sunday. They then participated in 13 transfers — 11 for families who chose to allow the news media to observe the remains of their loved ones returning home, and two for families who chose to keep their transfers private.

Categories
Politics

15 extra our bodies recovered, dying toll rises to 79

15 more bodies recovered, death toll rises to 79

Search and Rescue teams look for possible survivors and to recover remains in the collapsed 12-story Champlain Towers South condo building on July 07, 2021 in Surfside, Florida. Officials say the death toll climbed to 36 today, with 109 still unaccounted for.

Joe Raedle | Getty Images

Search teams have recovered 15 more bodies from the rubble of the collapsed condominium building in Surfside, Florida, bringing the death toll to at least 79 people as of Friday afternoon, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said during a press conference. 

Levine Cava said 61 people are still unaccounted for and detectives are working to verify that each individual listed as missing was actually in Champlain Towers South when it collapsed over two weeks ago.

“In the midst of this terrible tragedy, and we’re so grateful, very grateful to all of those across our community and the world who continue to keep us in your prayers, and in your hearts,” Levine Cava said.

The painstaking search shifted from a rescue effort to a recovery operation on Wednesday after authorities decided that there was little hope of finding people alive in the rubble. But authorities vowed to continue the search for victims until they have cleared all the debris at the site, according to Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett. 

Burkett commended search teams for their work, noting that the pile of debris that was initially four to five stories high is now near ground level.

The National Institute of Technology, or NIST, is making “very significant progress” with its investigation into the cause of the collapse, Levine Cava added. NIST teams have collected over 200 pieces of evidence, which have been sent to a physics measurement lab in Washington to assist with analysis. NIST is also using drones and lidar scanners, tools that measure the distance of an object on the Earth’s surface using light, in the probe. 

Levine Cava said Thursday that the public also has “a very important role to play in this investigation.” She urged the public to submit any photos or videos related to the collapse to NIST’s website. 

Champlain Towers North, the identical sister property of the collapsed condominium building, is also being evaluated, Burkett said. Engineers and authorities are using ground-penetrating radar and are taking samples of concrete to determine the structure’s salt content and strength. 

Meanwhile, alternative housing arrangements have been made for residents of the sister property who wanted to evacuate. 

Laura Solla weeps as she places flowers near the memorial site for victims of the collapsed 12-story Champlain Towers South condo building on July 08, 2021 in Surfside, Florida.

Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images

The exact cause of the collapse of Champlain Towers South remains unknown. 

Recent evidence points to structural flaws in the building far before the collapse, such as a 2018 report that reveals the 40-year-old building had waterproofing issues beneath the pool and cracking in the underground parking garage. 

Experts have also said that the repeal in 2010 of a Florida law that required condominium buildings to plan for repairs may have contributed to the collapse.

Several resources are being provided to families and individuals affected by the collapse. The Family Assistance Center continues to offer mental health counseling as well as financial and housing assistance, among other critical services. 

Authorities announced Thursday that nearly 200 families have been served by the center. 

Levine Cava also said Thursday that rescue teams are collecting and cataloguing personal items found in the rubble of the condominium building, such as photos, technology devices, documents and jewelry. Authorities are developing a process for families and survivors to reclaim missing belongings that have been found.

Categories
Entertainment

Utilizing the Knowledge of Dance to Discover Our Method Again to Our Our bodies

Using the Wisdom of Dance to Find Our Way Back to Our Bodies

Sometime in the middle of April I took up space in the world again, the bigger one outside of my apartment, outside of my neighborhood. Taking a seat is a bizarre feeling after a year inside. It’s sometimes exciting, sometimes terrifying. It’s always strange.

As we get out of the pandemic, not only do we walk around without masks, we learn how to re-enter our bodies. It’s wild out there – which means the happy, nerve-wracking combination of New York City and lifted restrictions – but it’s still time to hold on to whatever is slow.

The pandemic, devastating in many ways, was also an opportunity to explore the value of the body and the everyday, to refocus the eyes and to see, as dance critic Edwin Denby wrote, “Daily life is wonderfully full” of seeing things . Not only the movements of people, but also the objects around them, the shape of the rooms in which they live, the ornaments that architects make on windows and doors, the peculiar way how buildings end up in the air. “

In his 1954 essay “Dancing, Buildings and People in the Streets” (also the title of a later volume) Denby explores the art and the act of seeing both in performance and in the daily dance of life. During the pandemic, I put a lot of thought into Denby’s essay, a reminder not to stop looking at the details of everyday life. People slowed down. And you could study your body just as you could study the world.

With the increase in vaccinations, the world has changed, although it is not what it was and will not be. This spring there were again dances to be seen in person; In May, I wondered if it was time to buy an unlimited MetroCard. Some of it was great – like when members of the club world performed at the Guggenheim on Ephrat Asherie’s UnderScored, part of the Works & Process franchise. Some things were forgotten. But a lot seemed right at the moment: processions in nature, a participatory installation at MoMA, an intimate studio performance. In different ways, they all reflected the time we are in – a borderline in-between place that won’t last forever. (Hold on to it.)

Watching a performance is now not just about the dance itself, but about a glimpse into our position – maybe even a way to pause the world for a moment longer. What does it mean to watch dance like in life and to move through the room? How does your feeling affect your vision? What should be preserved from the pandemic and what could dance teach us about it?

Dance sprouts all around us; it’s purposeful, serious, healing, transgressive, inclusive and beautifully laid back. And while the theaters haven’t fully opened their doors yet, the choreography has spread to rooftops and parks, studios, cemeteries, and museums.

Processions, these performances with built-in cast, are also ubiquitous. Why now? They’re practical, of course – kept outdoors, they don’t require excessive choreographic construction. And they feel right for this time in between: They are not shows, but events that arise in the moment. And how they develop – that is, how they look and, more importantly, how they feel – depends on who shows up.

The last River to River Festival in 2021 in collaboration with Movement Research presented three processions led by Miguel Gutierrez, Okwui Okpokwasili and the Illustrious Blacks. What does it mean to inhabit our body – and the city – as individuals and as a group? “It was almost like opening doors of opportunity again as we come out of the pandemic and step into this new world,” said Lili Chopra, executive director of arts programs at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. “It is a participatory moment that you do together, but which you can take with you.”

A procession led by Gutierrez in Teardrop Park in Lower Manhattan was about thinking about the land we were walking on; it was also about slowing down and seeing. Before we started, we performed a movement at Gutierrez’s instruction in which our outstretched arms cupped and scooped the air forwards and backwards.

For him the action could do many things; it could be a conjuring gesture or it could contain the idea of ​​conjuring. It could be about moving or banishing energy. He spoke of waving as a gesture of awakening: “Healing”, he sang, “there is no space for oblivion”.

At a time when it looks like a lot of people have pushed the past year and a half out of their heads, the gesture was grounding and reassuring. It also echoed: as we walked towards the park, two children were seen in a high-rise apartment with their arms curled in the same meditative slow motion; they stood behind a window, but their attention – they watched, they copied, they moved with us – made the procession important even before it really began.

Moving as a collective, especially after so much loneliness, has a hypnotic effect. This idea of ​​togetherness was the focus of the Global Water Dances 2021 in Locomotive Lawn in Riverside Park South in June, which drew attention to the cause of clean and safe water with movement. Martha Eddy, the dance teacher and one of the coordinators of the event, helped lead a dance in which participants, dancers and spectators alike made waves with their bodies.

“You’re starting to feel harmony,” Eddy said of the liberating power of moving with others. “And we build a kind of collective effervescence that both senses fear and releases joy in what humanity can create.”

But I’ve found that effervescence isn’t just about large groups; it’s not even about being outside. In a series of individual performances, dance artist Kay Ottinger played a solo by Melanie Maar as part of a larger project that she initiated with three mentors. Everyone passes on an exercise or a piece. For Maars Solo, Ottinger turned her body with a heavy wooden pearl necklace that was wrapped around her waist. As she circled her hips for 20 minutes, she rocked back and forth, transforming the room, a dingy studio in Judson Church, and the air in it.

There is something priceless about live performances: the energetic exchange between a dancing body and a quiet and attentive body. Mirror neurons – how a brain cell reacts to an action, either when it is performed or simply observed – are charged. I felt that with Ottinger and in “Embodied Sensations”, a participatory work by the Chicago-based artist Amanda Williams. Williams is trained as an architect and takes care of space; Her piece was one of my favorite experiences of bodies in space – and my body in space – of the past year.

Williams teamed up with Anna Martine Whitehead, a performance artist from Chicago, for “Embodied Sensations”, which is presented in the huge atrium of the Museum of Modern Art; The spectator’s job was to perform movement instructions amid a maze of piled furniture – benches and chairs that had been removed from parts of the museum due to social distancing protocols.

Each performance consisted of four prompts, which the audience performed twice over 30 minutes. One of me was, “Take three full minutes to do absolutely whatever you want in this room.” Another was more direct: “Imagine there is a black hole in the center of this room. Go to the edge of the black hole and practice resisting its pull. “

If the pandemic raised our awareness of our bodies, “Embodied Sensations” was a way to find out who has the freedom of movement and why. One instruction read in part: “Imagine you are a walking goal post or a moving target. Decide if you want to be caught. “

In an interview, Williams said, “I can imagine what my brother’s answer would be, what my 7-year-old’s answer would be, what my upper-middle-class white classmate would be from Cornell’s answer. Then it was incredible to see these people perform. “

But even when the instructions were less burdened, their execution had levels of meaning. During the first lap, I felt like I was carrying out the instructions; the second time I just did it and that had a relaxing effect. I was in space, wearing a mask, and could breathe. Deep.

Meanwhile, certain instructions were reminiscent of moments from the pandemic experience: “Choose any room,” one read. “Close your eyes, hear and smell intensely for about 2 minutes. Choose a new place and keep your eyes closed. Focus on how you are feeling for a minute. Repeat this even if you are bored or tired. “

In the past year and a half, haven’t we all been bored and tired? Alone with our feelings? Without the space to move much, we looked inward, at the body. And for those of us who normally see a lot of live performances, we had to pay attention to the bigger world – the angles in nature, the choreography of the everyday. Both were gifts. Now there is little shortage of dance events, and here are two: STooPS BedStuy, an annual arts event, takes place on July 24th; On August 7th, Dance Church, a guided improvisation class from Seattle, is making a tour stop in New York.

Or borrow a re-entry experiment from Williams. Close your eyes. Focus on how you feel. And then repeat. Think about how your body, not just buildings, ends up in the air. It’s about enjoying the in-between.

Categories
Health

It is OK Our Our bodies Have Modified Throughout the Pandemic

It's OK Our Bodies Have Changed During the Pandemic

If your own mind is spitting out negative thoughts on its own, try practicing “thought-stopping,” a technique often used in cognitive behavioral therapy, said Dr. Cox. When a negative thought about your body penetrates your brain, say “stop”. Then, mindfully replace that thought with a positive one. For example: when you stand in front of the mirror and focus on your belly fat, stop this thought and remind yourself that your body carried a baby, ran marathons, or you can haul mulch around your yard.

Diet culture is everywhere. For example the terms “Quarantine 15” or “Covid 19”. These weight gain conditions fueled the idea on social media and pop culture websites that an aspect worthy of your emotional energy stayed thin enough to fit your jeans in the face of mass sickness, unemployment, and other pandemic issues.

Even if no one has ever found a flaw in your body, you most likely have internalized ideas about what bodies should look like. Probably these ideas are separate from our actual health. These ideas are tied to capitalism’s relentless need to sell diet products, said Connie Sobczak, co-founder and executive director of Body Positive, a nonprofit that leads body positivity training. Creating a hierarchy of good, better, and best bodies creates market opportunities for selling what we need to sustain those bodies.

Take a close look at your media and social media consumption. Consider unfollowing or muting friends, influencers, and celebrities who advocate thinness. One more step? Examples of fat phobia in TV shows, movies, and more – if only for yourself. When you start deliberately jotting down diet culture whenever you watch it, you’ll be amazed at how it has permeated our daily discourse.

People who live in larger bodies often don’t feel welcome in certain rooms – like the gym, said Dr. Cox. But practicing body acceptance can change that.

“Research shows that shame doesn’t work,” said Dr. Cox. “Shame does not actually lead to changes in behavior, but acceptance encourages behavior changes and encourages us to be active in spaces where we are traditionally not welcome.” She referred to a 2011 study in the journal Qualitative Health Research. Participants were invited to join the Fatosphere, an online community where the word “fat” was neutral and treated like any other descriptor: that is, having brown hair or being short or tall. Negative discussions about weight were not allowed and participants were encouraged to share their experiences in a safe, body-positive room. After a year of participating in the Fatosphere, participants reported positive changes in their general wellbeing. They also felt safer entering rooms that they would traditionally have avoided. When people begin to see their bodies as the wonder they are, not the things they are not, “people actually find the freedom to do things that society tells them they don’t can, “said Dr. Cox.

Taking that first step into a seemingly hostile room can be daunting – especially after a year at home. Dr. Cox recommends starting with positive statements.

Categories
Entertainment

Assessment: Kyle Abraham’s Calm Management of Our bodies and House

Review: Kyle Abraham’s Calm Control of Bodies and Space

Not only does snow fall, but snow falls on a calm sea. In its first moments, When We Fell, Kyle Abraham’s new dance film for the New York City Ballet, sets its tone: muted, tuned to melting subtleties.

In interviews, Abraham said that for this film – which will be available on the company’s website and YouTube channel until April 22 – he was aware of the more flamboyant aspects of The Runaway, his 2018 hit for City Ballet , has avoided. He has said that he was instead influenced by the environment in which the new work was done: during a February “bubble” residence in the Hudson Valley, where the silence of the quarantine was heightened by snow.

All of this is evident in the 16-minute work, which includes piano pieces by Morton Feldman and Nico Muhly as replacements for Jason Moran. But because this dance had to be a movie, Abraham’s most important decision may have been to choose a co-director, cinematographer Ryan Marie Helfant. “When We Fell”, shot in 16 mm black and white, is one of the most beautiful dance films of the pandemic.

After the snow and the sea, it positions the dancers in the lobby of the home theater of the City Ballet in Lincoln Center, making use of the clarity and elegance of the place, the geometric floor designs and the balcony work. Unlike many recent dance films, this body establishes and maintains in relation to the space around it. When it comes to a different point of view, the processing is calm, musical and coherent. Even shifts as ostentatious and potentially disoriented as switching between side and top views are absorbed into the calm rhythm of the film.

The most noticeable moment is a transition, a quick assembly of architectural details. This is significant as Abraham’s choreography is also focused on details. As in “The Runaway”, Abraham skillfully combines ballet with other influences, from Merce Cunningham to club dance. But the mixing here is more relaxed, less proving something. Elements that could be rich in contrast, arabesques or body scrolls, are all delivered on the same plane without emphasis – each snowflake registers itself before it merges with the water.

This also applies to the diversity of the eight-person cast: a racial mixture that still cannot be accepted in this or any other ballet company is obvious, but is not emphasized, as is the lack of ballet hierarchies. The main dancers Lauren Lovette and Taylor Stanley (Abraham’s city ballet muse, star of “The Runaway” and the short film “Ces noms que nous portons”) get the final pas de deux, in which some ballet gender conventions are neglected with beautiful certainty . But the soloist Claire Kretzschmar and the corps members India Bradley and Christopher Grant shine equally.

Even one apprentice, KJ Takahashi, stands out in a number of twists that are typical of this work: there is bravado without breaking the contemplative surface, and the tension holds the dullness in check. This is when the dancers have moved onto the stage of the theater and the music – Moran’s “All Hammers and Chains” – is at its wildest. Glissandi chains bubble over low hammer blows. Even so, the dance remains calm.

“When we fell”

Until April 22nd, nycballet.com.

Categories
World News

Our bodies once more pile up in Bolivia as Latin America endures an extended, lethal coronavirus wave.

Bodies again pile up in Bolivia as Latin America endures a long, deadly coronavirus wave.

In Bolivia, bodies are piling up at home and on the streets, reflecting the terrifying images of last summer when a deadly spike in coronavirus infections overwhelmed the country’s fragile medical system. Bolivian police say they recovered 170 bodies of people believed to have died from Covid-19 in January and health officials say the intensive care units are full.

“If 10 or 20 patients die, their beds will be full again in a matter of hours,” said Carlos Hurtado, a public health epidemiologist in Santa Cruz, Bolivia’s largest city.

The virus resurgence in Bolivia is part of a larger second wave across Latin America where some of the toughest quarantine in the world is giving way to pandemic fatigue and economic worries.

The International Monetary Fund announced on Monday that it was revising its 2021 growth forecast for Latin America and the Caribbean from 3.6 percent to 4.1 percent. The fund warned that in some cases the surge could jeopardize an economic recovery that is likely to take longer than other parts of the world, and forecast regional production will not return to pre-pandemic levels until 2023.

As the number of new cases falls, deaths remain at record highs in many parts of the region, just as some governments are starting vaccination efforts.

In Brazil and Mexico, an average of more than 1,000 people have died from Covid-19 every day for weeks. Its total pandemic death toll is second only to that of the United States. Deaths in Brazil have reached their summer peak, while in Mexico they are far higher than any previous high, although they have started to fall in the past few days.

In Bolivia last summer, the New York Times revised mortality figures suggested the country’s actual death toll was nearly five times the official figure, suggesting that Bolivia had suffered one of the worst epidemics in the world. According to a Times analysis, about 20,000 more people died from June to August than in previous years – a large number in a country of about 11 million people.

Bolivia currently reports an average of 60 coronavirus deaths per day, approaching last summer’s numbers. Experts believe the higher mortality rate is caused by the contagious virus variants that originate from neighboring Brazil and elsewhere, but they lack the tools to analyze the viruses’ genetic code.

Despite the rising death rate, the Bolivian authorities failed to implement quarantine measures to contain the first wave of the virus a year ago. Officials in Bolivia and other Latin American countries are hailing their emerging vaccination programs as a reason to avoid lockdowns, although few countries in the region outside of Brazil have sourced significant numbers of doses.

Only 20,000 doses of vaccine have arrived in Bolivia, although the government plans to vaccinate eight million people by September.

Categories
Entertainment

‘Slowing Right down to Really feel’: Transferring Our Minds Round Our Our bodies

‘Slowing Down to Feel’: Moving Our Minds Around Our Bodies

In a class where I focused on the feet and legs, Davis repeatedly told us to stay within a 5 percent zone of reach and effort. It turned out that this was impossible. It’s like my muscles are laughing at me. Trying to do less is a harsh, humiliating act.

“When I say, ‘Now slowly tilt your legs to the right,’ what comes out of people is definitely not my idea of ​​slow,” Davis later said. “We have to re-calibrate the stimulation and timing because this is the kind of work we are interested in the sensory details. If you slow down and take other care of yourself, it can really change things.”

Davis, who teaches at Movement Research (her next classes are in February) and has an online program, walks you through the physical instructions that in turn develop a skill: you listen to both a voice and your body. As she makes small, detailed movements, she invites you to release the eyes, jaw, and forehead – places of parasitic exertion where parts of the body don’t have to work. It’s a way to calm ourselves down so that the sensory details of our experience become clearer. It’s like relearning yourself from within, and the breakthroughs are beyond.

“When your weight doesn’t fall on your spine, on your skeleton – when you don’t fall on yourself, when you figure out how to use your feet to get your weight up and through, it feels so good,” Davis said . “You are lighter. Moving it takes less work. “

But it also takes work to keep quiet. At the start of the pandemic, I found Yin Yoga, a practice that focuses on passive poses, and Kassandra Reinhardt, who has been teaching on YouTube since 2014. It can ease the memory of any miserable day, as can yin, which is not about stretching muscles but relaxing to release ligaments, joints, bones and fasciae. The poses are held for at least two minutes and usually longer.