With the arrival of American Sign Language, HSL has all but disappeared. Its last remaining users are fighting to preserve it
"Linda Yuen Lambrecht stands in front of a webcam, with her head to her hips -- her signing space -- perfectly centered in the frame; a white plumeria fastened above her left ear. On screen, three women look back at her.
"No American Sign Language [ASL]," Lambrecht reminds them with her hands, as the virtual class begins. "This is Hawaii Sign Language [HSL]."
More than 100 students have received the same reminder from Lambrecht. Since 2018, she's offered HSL classes to the public; first in-person and, since the Covid-19 pandemic began, on Zoom.
Lambrecht isn't just teaching. She's fighting erasure, globalization and the cruelty of time to keep an endangered sign language -- and with it, generations of history, heritage and wisdom -- alive.
But experts estimate that fluent HSL users number in the single digits. Time is running out."
Exclusive: The discovery shows the particles can travel around the body and may lodge in organs
March 24, 2022. Not particularly surprising, but…
Link to the journal article in Environment International.
From the Guardian piece:
Microplastic pollution has been detected in human blood for the first time, with scientists finding the tiny particles in almost 80% of the people tested.
The discovery shows the particles can travel around the body and may lodge in organs. The impact on health is as yet unknown. But researchers are concerned as microplastics cause damage to human cells in the laboratory and air pollution particles are already known to enter the body and cause millions of early deaths a year.
Huge amounts of plastic waste are dumped in the environment and microplastics now contaminate the entire planet, from the summit of Mount Everest to the deepest oceans. People were already known to consume the tiny particles via food and water as well as breathing them in, and they have been found in the faeces of babies and adults.
The scientists analysed blood samples from 22 anonymous donors, all healthy adults and found plastic particles in 17. Half the samples contained PET plastic, which is commonly used in drinks bottles, while a third contained polystyrene, used for packaging food and other products. A quarter of the blood samples contained polyethylene, from which plastic carrier bags are made.
“Our study is the first indication that we have polymer particles in our blood – it’s a breakthrough result,” said Prof Dick Vethaak, an ecotoxicologist at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands. “But we have to extend the research and increase the sample sizes, the number of polymers assessed, etc.” Further studies by a number of groups are already under way, he said.
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