Latest news with #Rawls
Newsweek
16 hours ago
- General
- Newsweek
Woman Picks Up Shell—Only to Learn It's One of The Deadliest on Earth
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. After spotting a beautiful shell, Beckylee Rawls didn't think twice about picking it up to get a closer look. What she never could have imagined was that she was actually holding one of the world's most venomous creatures, which can paralyze and kill its prey. Rawls, 29, was tide pooling in Okinawa, Japan, in early June when she noticed a shell with a gorgeous marble pattern in the water. As someone with a collection of shells at home, she couldn't resist picking it up and getting a closer look. Indeed, she even captured a video showing the marble cone snail in her bare hand, telling Newsweek that she "had no idea it could be dangerous." Rawls said: "When I first saw the shell, I was just focused on how beautiful it was. I've picked up so many shells while at the beach before without hesitancy. I didn't even realize it was alive at first." Beckylee Rawls, 29, showing the cone snail shells she's collected, and the one she found in Japan. Beckylee Rawls, 29, showing the cone snail shells she's collected, and the one she found in Japan. @beckyleeinoki / TikTok Once she realized it was still alive, she assumed it was "just a harmless snail" and placed it back in the water. Thankfully so, in the end. It was only when she got home and did a reverse image search of the shell that Rawls came to realize that this was no ordinary shell. She was stunned to discover that it was in fact a cone snail—one of the deadliest creatures in the world. Cone snails, part of the Conidae family, are a type of predatory gastropod mollusk that live inside spiral shells. They range in size, reaching up to around 11 inches in length, but their power lies within their toxic venom. They capture their prey by using a harpoon-like hollow tooth known as a radula, which is jabbed into prey to inject the venom which can paralyze and kill. While they typically hunt worms or other mollusks, humans can be stung by inadvertently picking cone snails up in their hands. Research published by the National Center for Biotechnology Information suggests that the venom from one cone snail has the potential to kill up to 700 people. Indeed, most envenomation among humans occurs on the palms and fingers. Rawls had no idea what she was holding at the time, but after learning more about the danger of cone snails, she immediately felt "the fear set in." She continued: "I started thinking through everything I had done—holding and shaking it—and realizing how bad it could've been. I was so paranoid for days that I had been stung and just didn't realize it yet. "But I never felt anything, and eventually I accepted I was okay. The more I researched the cone snail, the scarier it got, especially when I found out there's no antivenom." Thankfully, Rawls wasn't stung, and she didn't experience any symptoms in the days that followed. Nonetheless, she was very shaken up by the terrifying close call. It seemed like such a harmless shell, but the reality was very different. Rawls shared footage of her encounter with the deadly snail which can cause "full paralysis in minutes" on TikTok (@beckyleeinoki). The video went viral with over 25.8 million views and more than 833,500 likes in a matter of days, as many people were desperate to know more. She's been overwhelmed by the response, as plenty of TikTok users thanked Rawls for sharing her story because they would have done the same as her without knowing. "It really showed me how little-known this danger is, which made me feel like sharing it was the right thing," Rawls told Newsweek. "I still love the ocean, and this won't scare me away, but I'm way more cautious now. I treat anything unfamiliar with respect and distance. I'm grateful for whatever reason the snail did not sting me and to have this second chance." Whenever she's exploring the coastline now, Rawls has a new rule that she will be sure to follow: if it's a cone, leave it alone. Social media users were left horrified by Rawls's near miss with the deadly cone snail, leading to more than 7,000 comments on her TikTok post. One comment reads: "so this is the day I stop picking up shells from the beach!" Another TikTok user wrote: "They need to teach this in schools because i also would have 100 percent picked that up." While another person added: "As a biologist, I learned to admire things from afar. Do not touch anything if it's new for you." Is there a health issue that's worrying you? Let us know via health@ We can ask experts for advice, and your story could be featured on Newsweek.
USA Today
2 days ago
- Health
- USA Today
Woman ‘holds death in her hand,' lives to tell about it
A woman in Japan unknowingly put her life at risk when she bent over and picked up a shell while exploring tide pools. Beckylee Rawls, 29, who lives with her husband in Okinawa, collects shells, and on this day she was videotaping the various creatures in the pools for a TikTok video when she came across a 'beautiful shell.' 'Honestly, the only thing going through my head was, 'That's a pretty shell, let me take a closer look,'' Rawls told People. She held it for about 30 seconds before noticing something inside: a live cone snail. Taken aback, Rawls replaced the shell in the water. She posted a few TikTok videos showing her misstep. As she was leaving, Rawls did an online search for that shell. 'That's when I learned I might have just made the biggest mistake of my life,' she told People. The cone snail is among the most venomous creatures on Earth. The shell isn't dangerous, it's what's inside the shell. Cone snail venom can cause paralysis, respiratory failure and cardiovascular collapse. A sting can be fatal. Also on FTW Outdoors: 'Ghost elephant' seen for first time in years; is it a lone survivor? FOX8 reported that Rawls 'went to the beach and held death in her hand.' Fortunately, she wasn't stung, but the thought that she might have been stung persisted and 'terrified' her. 'My brain kept convincing me that I had been stung and just didn't realize it,' she told People. 'By the fourth day of panic, my husband was sick of reassuring me I was indeed going to live. There is no anti-venom—that's the craziest part. It's a hope-and-pray situation.' It should be noted that humans have survived stings from cone snails, but prompt medical care is crucial. "It's even nicknamed the 'Cigarette Snail' because, according to urban legend, if it stings you, you won't live long enough to finish a final cigarette," Rawls told People. "That chilling reputation really put things into perspective." Photo courtesy of Beckylee Rawls.
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Plan to shift juvenile detention center to the sheriff's office draws opposition
Elected officials and police reform activists are pushing back on the proposal to transfer control of Knox County's troubled juvenile detention center to the sheriff's office. Richard Bean was forced out as the facility's superintendent last week after he fired a whistleblower. The chain of events laid bare the longstanding problems at the facility under Bean's 53 years of leadership. Some commissioners are quickly exploring alternative oversight models instead of the sheriff's office takeover favored by Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs. Their concerns are heightened by the death of an adult inmate earlier this year at the Knox County jail overseen by the sheriff's office: the man was beaten by jail staffers who did not recognize he was suffering from untreated meningitis. He died the next day. Commissioners will discuss and could vote June 23 on transferring oversight to the sheriff. Democrats on the board and criminal justice reform advocates are asking for another way to care for juveniles who are arrested or convicted. Knox County Commissioner Damon Rawls wants to see an audit of the Richard L. Bean Juvenile Detention Center to document any potential problems or solutions. That will help determine the best type of oversight, he said. "There needs to be an understanding of what issues truly exist there and a fix, a true fixing of those issues. I would prefer for an outside entity to take a look to say, maybe it's board oversight or maybe it's a restructuring of the organization," Rawls said. Rawls said he would not be opposed to a temporary, short-term shift of power to the sheriff's office while an evaluation took place. "I'd like for us to take some time to look at alternatives. Things are up in the air now. So, originally, I would say if we were saying we needed to move for the sake of time, and this move was temporary, then I would be OK with the move being temporary. I just think we need to take a look at the greater landscape and see what would be best for the Richard Bean Center," Rawls said. Overall, he wants it to best serve kids through a structure focused on rehabilitation instead of retribution. "I want to see that the kids are taken care of, treated in a humane manner, and helped to be rehabilitated," Rawls told Knox News. Knox County Commissioner Shane Jackson also wants a potential transfer to the sheriff's office to be temporary. "I agree that we must transition the management of the detention center ‒ either to the state, the sheriff's office or other option ‒ as soon as it is practicable, but on a temporary period," Jackson wrote in a message to other commissioners. He hopes the scrutiny goes beyond who's put in charge. "I think that this is an opportunity for the county commission to review the procedures and policies at the juvenile detention center and look at what the future holds and what is the best way to set up and provide oversight to the juvenile detention center in the future," Jackson told Knox News. Knox County Commissioner Courtney Durrett agrees more research and evaluations should be a first step. "So my thoughts are just mainly I want to know how other detention facilities operate in the state and how similar or unsimilar ours is, comparatively speaking and just go from there because honestly, we're all kind of just thrust into this. So I definitely want to find out more information about other detention facilities in the state and how they operate and who has oversight, etc.," Durrett told Knox News. Knox News asked Mike Donila, Jacobs' spokesperson, if alternatives were considered or if the move would be temporary until the community has time to explore what options it prefers. Donila sent Knox News a statement from Dwight Van de Vate, chief operating officer for Jacobs. "We remain in ongoing conversations with state and local officials about how best to move forward. We are appreciative of the spirit of cooperation everyone continues to show, and we are confident of a good long-term outcome for the facility and the youth it serves," Van de Vate said in his written response. Republican Knox County Commissioner Gina Oster told Knox News that "it's definitely up to each commissioner" to decide what approach they support, and she expects a robust discussion when the issue comes up in front of the commission for debate on June 16 and a vote on June 23. State Rep. Sam McKenzie does not have a vote on the matter, but is using his influence to urge commissioners to make the best decision for teens at the facility. "You can't let one person have so much control over something so valuable, or how we deal with children, and our way with children speaks to as we are as a culture," McKenzie said. He said the problems stemmed from giving one person with limited oversight control over the kids. That shouldn't happen again, he said. "I think we need to hit the pause button. Let's figure out what's wrong, bring in some outside experts. We don't have the only juvenile detention center in the country. Let's figure out how other organizations, other entities in the state, have run and how we can do this better. Because this isn't working," he said. Shifting oversight to the sheriff's office is the easy solution, he said, instead of doing hard research and collective soul-searching. "What (Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs) wants to do is to sweep it under the rug. He wants to say, just transfer it to the sheriff. And I just don't think that's the answer without a clear understanding of what's going on in the current situation," McKenzie said. Police reform activist Nzinga Amani told Knox News they are extremely concerned about what a juvenile detention center would look like under the Knox County Sheriff's Office. "There's no trust for the Knox County sheriffs. There's no accountability for that institution," Amani told Knox News. Detention centers can focus on rehabilitating young people instead of punishing them. Amani wants the oversight board restructured. "If you look at this board, the board needs to be transformed to actually represent the communities and people who are impacted by that system. So a larger board, more directly affected people on the board, more transparency, public records," Amani told Knox News. Imani Mfalme-Shu'la, executive director of the Community Defense of East Tennessee social justice organization, said the facility's documented track record of isolating kids shows a complete overhaul is needed. "They were in solitary confinement under the current administration. Not getting the education they need. I know this personally because I had a family member there. And the stuff that children are being put in solitary for is absolutely ridiculous," Mfalme-Shu'la told Knox News. The juvenile detention center was built in 1930 and is guided by an independent board of trustees. In 1972, Bean began his tenure as superintendent of the facility, named the Richard L. Bean Juvenile Detention Center in his honor, with minimal oversight. Bean is well-known for his old-fashioned way of operating the facility. That was manifested in outdated recordkeeping practices and the disciplinary methods he uses on the kids confined to the facility, who are ages 12 to 17. Myron Thompson covers public safety for Knox News. Email: This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Plan to shift juvenile detention center to the sheriff's office draws opposition
Forbes
28-04-2025
- Politics
- Forbes
You Must Build Workplace AI Behind A Veil Of Ignorance
In the era of artificial intelligence, leaders are making high-stakes decisions faster than ever—decisions like who gets hired, promoted, or flagged for performance issues. But as we embrace AI to optimize operations, the question of fairness is receiving insufficient attention: How do we guaranty the tools we increasingly trust to inform our actions have been built with proper attention to fairness? In his groundbreaking 1971 book A Theory of Justice, John Rawls introduced a thought experiment that we should make central to decisions about the design and use of AI today: the veil of ignorance. This idea offers a simple tool for understanding fairness and a blueprint for how leaders might leverage that understanding to fairly design and implement AI. Imagine you are creating rules for a new society. But there's a catch: you don't know in advance who you will be in that society. You might end up rich or poor, healthy or disabled, part of the majority or a marginalized minority. Operating behind this "veil of ignorance" would prevent rule makers from crafting decisions that would provide them personal benefit. Instead, people would be motivated to create fair rules that protect fundamental rights, ensure opportunities are open to all, and provide extra support to the disadvantaged. Rawls proposed that just systems are those people would agree to without knowing how they offered them advantages or disadvantages. The idea is that fairness is about building structures that everyone - the powerful and the powerless - would deem acceptable. Expecting people with personal benefits at stake to sublimate that self-interest is unreasonable. Hence, there is a need for a veil of ignorance. In traditional policymaking, Rawls' thought experiment has provided an important perspective in debates on issues such as healthcare design. Now, as AI begins to influence hiring, promotions, and countless other workplace personnel decisions, the veil of ignorance offers a critical guide: build AI systems as if you don't know whether you will be the one judged by them. Despite all its promise, AI does not naturally operate under Rawlsian principles. Instead, most AI systems today amplify historical inequalities rather than correct them. Why? Because AI learns from historical data — that data reflects the biases, blind spots, and injustices of the past. An AI trained on decades of corporate hiring decisions, for example, might 'learn' to favor resumes with elite university credentials, Western-sounding names, or traditional career paths — not because those qualities should be preferred today, but because historically they were favored. It doesn't help that most AI tools function as black boxes: their decision-making processes are opaque, and their biases are hard to detect until harm has already been done. Leaders must acknowledge that AI will not operate behind a veil of ignorance unless deliberately designed otherwise. It will reflect and reinforce existing social inequalities, not imagine a world where fairness matters. The good news is that businesses can design AI systems that approximate Rawls' fairness principles. However, this requires conscious choices at every stage: data curation, algorithm design, decision auditing, and human oversight. As mentioned, hiring is a common area where companies are eagerly looking to apply AI. It can be a mind-numbing task to plod through applications; fatigue or boredom can make errors likely, and many process elements are routine. It is easy to see how the potential of resume screening tools, video interview analyzers, and skill assessment algorithms to make hiring faster and smarter is so attractive. Yet, without considering the metaphor of the veil of ignorance, they can easily produce less fair outcomes. Consider a traditional AI hiring system. A company trains its model on historical hiring data, feeding it thousands of resumes and outcomes. If that data reflects a bias toward hiring white men from a few elite universities, the AI will "learn" those patterns — and perpetuate them. It will favor applicants who match the historical profile and penalize those who don't, regardless of their skills or potential. This is precisely the kind of unfairness Rawls would warn against – and it is easy to see who might and might not be troubled by this design. Embracing Rawlsian principles in AI is not just a matter of ethics — over the long run, it will undoubtedly become a matter of competitive advantage. Companies that design fair AI systems will tap into wider talent pools, build more interesting and innovative teams, strengthen their reputations in a world increasingly skeptical of corporate bias, and reduce legal and regulatory risks should governments scrutinize AI discrimination. John Rawls challenged us to imagine building societies from behind a veil of ignorance — crafting rules we could live with no matter our fate. As leaders deploy AI across critical areas of human life, the same challenge stands before them. AI cannot naturally embody fairness. It must be taught and trained to do so. Only when those entrusted with the power to build AI systems controlling the destinies of so many embrace Rawls' insights do we have the chance to avoid the past's mistakes and create a more just, dynamic, and prosperous future. The veil of ignorance is not just philosophy. It is an essential perspective for building and deploying AI worthy of human trust.
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
REDCAT and ICA LA Present Will Rawls' New Dance Performance, ‘[siccer]'
REDCAT and ICA LA present Will Rawls' '[siccer],' debuts its exclusive retail experience, Monos launches its new Aluminum Travel Collection with Adrien Brody and Clarins celebrates 'Beauty Icons' at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. The Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater (REDCAT) and Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA) will present multidisciplinary artist Will Rawls' most recent project, '[siccer],' from April 10–12 at at ICA LA in conjunction with the exhibition 'Will Rawls: [siccer]' from April 5–24. Adopting techniques and technologies used in film and theater, '[siccer]' challenges divisions between the living, the rehearsed and the performed. Produced with stop-motion animation, the artwork features an all-Black cast of performers, including Holland Andrews, Keyon Gaskin, Jess Pretty, Katrina Reid and Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste. In '[siccer],' Rawls considers the ways in which Black bodies are relentlessly documented, distorted and circulated in the media. This dance performance, presented together with the artist's exhibition, experiments with stop-motion, a filmmaking technique in which still photographs are strung together to produce a moving image. The project's title is inspired by the Latin adverb sic, often used within brackets to indicate incorrect spelling within a citation. Through this titular reference, '[siccer]' illuminates the ways in which Black subjectivity resists standard Western forms of 'correction,' suggesting instead a way of being that is both iterative and endlessly becoming. Exploring the limits and possibilities of gesture and language, Rawls — together with the performers — speculates on collective strategies of narrating the world, uncorrected. Will Rawls is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice encompasses choreography, video, sculpture, works on paper and installation. His work probes the boundaries between dance, language and other media to investigate the poetics of abstraction, Blackness and the materiality of time. His work has been presented at the MCA Chicago; The Momentary in Bentonville, Arkansas; On the Boards in Seattle; Portland Institute for Contemporary Art in Oregon; the 35a Bienal de São Paulo in Brazil and Counterpublic 2023 in St. Louis, Missouri, among others. Rawls has been awarded numerous residencies and fellowships, including a 2017 Guggenheim Fellowship, and he received the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts in 2021. His writing has been published by the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles; The Museum of Modern Art in New York; Museu de Arte de São Paulo and the journal Dancing While Black. He is currently an associate professor of choreography in the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance at the University of California, Los Angeles. the curated marketplace for design, fashion and art, debuted its exclusive retail experience, at the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles on Saturday. Blending the accessibility of a department store with the curation of an art and design fair, showcases archival and contemporary works from leading artists, designers, galleries and brands in an immersive indoor-outdoor setting, featuring everything from large-scale installations to collectible design objects. Notable highlights include exclusive works by Jean Prouvé, Ettore Sottsass and David Kelley, Max Lamb, Pierre Paulin, Sabine Marcelis, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Willo Perron, Keiko Moriuchi and Stickymonger. Founded by Jesse Lee in 2018 as a seller-focused social commerce platform, acquired collectible design fair Design Miami in 2023, marking a move into collectible design. Coinciding with launch, is transitioning from a publicly available marketplace to a membership-based platform. From May onwards, members will receive a wide range of exclusive benefits and personalized services, including preview access to coveted drops, VIP entry to all global Design Miami events and activations, private art buying and selling opportunities and more. North American-based travel and lifestyle brand Monos has launched its first-ever Aluminum Collection. Tailored for the globetrotter who demands both durability and elegance, the new aluminum hard shell luggage assortment offers a perfect balance of style, practicality and prestige for the refined traveler. To celebrate the launch of the Aluminum Collection, Monos embarked to the vibrant city of Tangier, Morocco, to capture its first celebrity campaign starring Academy award-winning actor Adrien Brody. In the campaign, Brody roams the Moroccan landscape with Monos' Aluminum Collection by his side. Captured by Mexico City-based filmmaker and photographer Alexis Gomez, the narrative explores themes of solitude and connection, revealing how the unknown unfolds when we surrender to the journey itself. The Aluminum Collection celebrates Monos' unwavering commitment to exceptional craftsmanship and attention to detail. Each piece is crafted from premium aluminum, available in four styles including Carry-On Plus ($665), Check-In Medium ($725), Check-In Large ($755) and a Trunk ($775), all featured in three elevated colorways: Caviar Black, Champagne Gold and Aspen Silver. Durable and resilient, the anodized aluminum shell boasts a brushed finish, and each luggage piece is reinforced with riveted aluminum corner guards, TSA-accepted combination latch locks, a telescopic trolley handle, soft release side handle, ergonomic bottom grab handle and whisper-quiet 360-degree spinning wheels. The interior features a quilted taffeta lining in solid black, embossed with the brand's iconic dot pattern and a compression layer to keep everything secure and in its place. The new Aluminum Collection is available now exclusively on Jasmin Larian Hekmat, founder and creative director of the lifestyle brand Cult Gaia, hosted an intimate dinner earlier this month at her home in Beverly Hills to celebrate Nowruz 2025: the Persian New Year. The glamorous Wednesday night guest list, dressed in the brand's spring collection, included Jhené Aiko, Rachel Zoe, Liv Perez, Nicolas and Roxy Bijan, Chelsea Neman Nassib, Nasim Pedrad, Tania Fares, Elaine Welteroth and Morgan Stewart McGraw. Inspired by her Persian heritage, the evening centered around the timeless traditions of the Haft-Sin table symbolizing prosperity and fresh beginnings. The multi-course feast included caviar in custom Cult Gaia tins, Ghormeh Sabzi, saffron rice and kebabs followed by pastries and mint tea. The March 19 event took place inside a Japanese-style tea house set on a carp-filled, lake-size lagoon on the compound which was reportedly once owned by Elvis Presley. Founded in Los Angeles by Hekmat in 2012, Cult Gaia collaborated with Gap last year on a 35-piece holiday collection and expanded into beauty with its first fragrance launch. French beauty brand Clarins celebrated earlier this month 'Beauty Icons' on the Dolby Family Terrace at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, which was lit up in the brand's signature red hue. The glamor-packed guest list included Chet Hanks, Maude Apatow, Alessandra Ambrosio, Justin Long, Kate Bosworth, Dylan Efron, Lukas Gage, Nara and Lucky Blue Smith, Jodie Turner-Smith, Elsa Hosk, Brooks Nader, Jesse Metcalfe, Patrick Ta, Karrueche Tran, Paris and Dylan Brosnan, Shanina Shaik and Stassi Schroeder, among others. The March 21 event was a celebration of Clarins' 'Beauty Icons,' a collection of the brand's most iconic (and bestselling) products, including its Double Serum, Lip Comfort Oils and Total Eye Lift Cream. The Friday night fête featured bites from Jean-Georges, music by DJ Tay James and a surprise performance by Gwen Stefani. Celebrating 70 years, Clarins was founded by Jacques Courtin-Clarins in 1954 in a Parisian beauty institute. Family-owned and distributed in over 150 countries, Clarins offers skincare innovations for face, body, men and makeup. With expertise in phytochemistry, Clarins Laboratories are pioneers in plant science and technology, grounded in respect for nature and consumers. Have a news story for our readers? Please email Interested in partnership opportunities? Please email The post REDCAT and ICA LA Present Will Rawls' New Dance Performance, '[siccer]' appeared first on TheWrap.
