Volume 7 - 2025 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2025.1373271 physical education has been associated with human sciences in Brazil with an emphasis on the dynamics of culture This renewing movement challenged the hegemony of sport and health as predominant themes in the school physical education curriculum as well as pointing out dilemmas to the positivist scientific paradigm advances in theoretical-methodological propositions in Brazilian physical education are intertwined with scientific understandings in the area from a complex epistemological perspective a curricular systematization—proposed by an autonomous community of teachers-researchers—brought these understandings closer together valuing the convergence between the dynamics of culture our objective is to analyze how this systematization can contribute to the pedagogical practice of physical education teachers in the public high school network in the city of Quixadá located in the interior of the state of Ceará Our qualitative itinerary has action research as a method of intervention Data has been analyzed through thematic analysis characterizing a collaborative network between participants We identified that curricular documents direct subject content towards the predominance of cultural elements can make it difficult to develop intersubjective knowledge related to the body when dialoguing with the systematization and reflecting on the curriculum the thematic subject content blocks make it possible to visualize (inter)personal aspects movements and environmental demands as complex knowledge specific to physical education This problem was limited to physical education in the first half of the 20th century and culminated in the hegemonic shift from gymnastics to sport as the predominant subject content in its second half There are different modes of intervention carried out by physical education teachers making it difficult to assign criteria to assess their coherence The realities of Brazilian teachers face adversities and work overloads, influencing their absence, in addition to the lack of incentive for their continued education (20) The complexity of systematization is anchored in ongoing (self)educative and collaborative processes as presuppositions for the work of physical education teachers through criticism of continuing education policies as a privilege for few teachers The question that guides us is: How can curricular systematization—based on the convergence of knowledge—contribute to the pedagogical practice of physical education teachers in Quixadá our general objective was to analyze how the systematization of thematic content blocks can contribute to the pedagogical practice of high school physical education teachers from the public basic education network in the municipality of Quixadá The specific objectives were to (1) verify the complexity thinking in the pedagogical practice of high school teachers; (2) identify both curricular documents and knowledge that guide the teachers' pedagogical practice; and (3) present the proposal for systematizing thematic content blocks with a view to understanding how the theoretical perspective can be constituted in the teachers' classes we address how complexity thinking is conceptualized and what its relationship is with the systematization of thematic content blocks for school physical education According to Ovens and Butler (12), complexity thinking has been the predominant line of theorization in physical education, assuming reality as chaotic and unpredictable. Sanches Neto et al. (7 3) rely on “four concepts of complexity thinking” to explain how teacher-researchers collaborate autonomously within a knowledge community which allow sensitivity to the dynamics of social collectives and their changes as they move through space and time (2) The interaction of teacher-researchers due to a common connection of interests such as beliefs and practices that underlie decision-making and drive affective forces (3) The influence of participation in a social collective which provides opportunities for new actions in the sociocultural environment (4) Proactivity as a relational quality aimed at the ability to act in the system that the teacher-researcher is part of complexity thinking fosters a humanized pedagogical practice that is concerned with how teaching is entangled with teachers' learning There are questions that permeate the teacher's reflective process—What to teach? What should the students learn? How to select subject content? etc.—and are related to the curriculum. Souza et al. (25) reflect that the curriculum once had a concept that is now considered outdated as a catalog of subjects that organizes knowledge in a logical sequence before we think about what knowledge should be taught we must think about whom it will be taught to The curriculum can be defined, according to Sacristán (26) as what we know completely and can be taught or learned The curriculum we wish to teach requires an organized selection of subject content that we seek for students to learn and which regulate teaching practice in various methodological spheres The curriculum converges with other educational demands such as the organization of classes and the choice of methods The curriculum is not static or immutable but it is flexible constructed historically and also in the pedagogical practice of teachers It is through this perspective that the curriculum in school physical education has undergone theoretical-methodological transformations taking as a starting point a school teacher entitled as teacher-researcher Action research is a consistent approach to address complex issues in physical education teaching such as democratic decision making towards social justice (32). Despite that — a decade ago — Rufino and Darido (33) found a low number of publications based on action research on physical education in schools which also highlights the novelty of research in the area a justification for the lack of studies is that there is no tradition in research carried out by teachers who are not researchers of their own pedagogical practice For Venâncio et al. (34) it is noteworthy that nor all physical education related-research which is claimed as action research corresponds in fact to its methodological scope. However, as an attempt to demonstrate the categorization of areas that have used action research in school physical education, Rufino and Darido (33) point to the following themes: pedagogical intervention and teaching strategies (27% each) physical education teacher education (PETE) (17%) rupture with conservative perspectives and epistemology (7% each) and physical education in early childhood education (6%) Pedagogical action research—according to Venâncio et al. (34)—seeks an emancipatory and collaborative transformation between the teachers who participate in the research and the researcher in the light of ethical methods. Action research values temporality and evaluation in the continuity of the (self)formative processes of the participants involved. According to Franco (41 there are methodological principles in action research which involve “planning; action; reflection; search; resignification; replanning actions increasingly adjusted to collective needs We organized a collaborative network with physical education teachers who wanted to study their own pedagogical practice assuming themselves as teacher-researchers by crossing their recommendations from other teachers The study was carried out with two physical education teachers from the public high school network in the municipality of Quixadá The main researcher—first author Rener—observed four classes taught by each teacher-researcher and led two group meetings with them via Google Meet™ platform the research team planned new observations as a form of evaluation during a month and a final group meeting aimed at debating methodological processes the research had four stages: (1) class observations (2) collaborative meetings between teachers themes can be identified through induction or deduction We used deduction to describe overarching themes highlighting in detail specific data from the analysis convergence of knowledge and complexity through networks of interactions The collaborative network was designed in a similar way to that proposed by Oliveira et al. (31) The researchers identified the concept of teacher-researcher in the literature and invited teachers who would fit this conceptual profile the chosen participants nominated other teachers with similar characteristics we guaranteed the anonymity of the teachers Initially, after approval by the ethics committee, the ground zero of the research was the first invitation addressed to teacher D, who already knew the first author, being entitled as teacher-researcher. This concept is based on Freire's (18) reflections on the teachers' need for permanent education to dialogue with questions about praxis aiming for perception and assuming themselves as researchers he received the first invitation to participate in the research and all other invitations started from that beginning Teacher D started his degree in 2007 and completed it in 2009 He has been a physical education teacher in the state public school system for over 15 years and has a Master's degree He currently works at a school full-time but has worked at other schools in the city and neighboring municipalities we contacted teacher H who started her degree in 2014 and completed it in 2018 She has been a physical education teacher since 2017 in a public high school and also agreed to participate in the research Teacher R has accepted the invitation as well due to his busy class schedules and the researcher's unavailability to accompany his professional activities thoroughly it was not possible to reconcile the schedules Teacher R was asked to nominate other teachers justifying that she was hired for a few hours of physical education classes and these classes were at night in a district far from the headquarters in Quixadá We contacted teacher A by phone and texting—via the WhatsApp™ application—but we did not receive any response we completed our collaborative network design with teachers D and H we organized available times to carry out the research with the two teacher-researchers who decided to study their own pedagogical practice The research was previously approved by the Ethics and Research Committee of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte — as per code 6-038-255 The participating teachers confirmed their acceptance after signing the Free and Informed Consent Form (FICF) and also the authorization form for voice and video recording It is also important to highlight that before starting the research we reflected on the number of participants and on the occasional fear of seeking more collaborators this is a qualitative study and we understand that we must analyze the phenomena and subjectivities that surround them The main objective of the observations was to analyze the complexity characteristics present in pedagogical practices and raise discussion topics, as well as the subject content explored and developed and its integration between the four thematic blocks. Table 1 presents a synthesis of the classes taught by teachers D and H The objectives analyzed in the teachers' classes at this stage served to understand characteristics of complexity with a dynamic look at the themes that the students wanted to explore how the dynamics of knowledge converge with each other and how complex interactions are intertwined in the pedagogical practice The systematization of thematic subject content blocks and the possibilities of linking them to the teachers' pedagogical interventions were discussed in group meetings. The objective through the action research is to bring the school closer while involving this theme, seeking a transformation of the teachers' reality (34) within the aspects that involve pedagogical practice and a critical emancipatory perspective When presenting the systematization proposal there was a direction for the next research stage which is to know whether the teachers identified and understood the characteristics of complexity in their classes whether there was a (self)critical reflection on their own pedagogical practice regarding DCRC and whether the systematization of thematic subject content blocks has been included in their practices even if intentionally proposed in the teaching plan or unintentionally topics such as the selection of subject content and dialogue with curricular documents were discussed Teachers argued about the legislative guidelines mandatory to the educational sphere and their attempts to dialogue about those processes The systematization of subject content blocks was presented and discussed about the various adversities of proposing themes in classes and planning The pertinent dialogue between theoretical frameworks and pedagogical practices was directed during the collaborative meetings to suggest significant changes in the teachers' realities valuing their education and life experiences The meetings between teachers—in which the systematization of thematic subject content blocks was discussed—demonstrated participatory and collaborative aspects such as the exchange of their ideas and experiences essential to promote changes in pedagogical practices At this stage we seek to understand how the systematization of thematic subject content blocks was included by teachers in their assessments. To do this, we observed their pedagogical practices in classes intended for assessment. Table 2 presents a synthesis of the assessments carried out by teachers D and H This stage aimed to analyze how teachers mobilize knowledge—about the systematization of thematic subject content blocks as discussed in meetings—in their respective classes we seek to understand whether there are convergences of themes in classes involving elements of culture and whether they were pedagogically stimulated or not we try to understand how complexity is embedded and entangled in their classes (2) Did the systematization of thematic subject content blocks contribute to your pedagogical practice the planning of his classes began to take a different look at other themes that involve the systematization of thematic subject content blocks a theme from a specific block had a greater privilege of discussion Another contribution cited by teacher D was the need to study and delve deeper into new theoretical perspectives in the field of physical education and research Teacher H agreed with the assignments and made similar reflections pointing out a greater difference in pedagogical activities of planning classes reflecting and valuing the knowledge that the students themselves bring to class The need for (self)reflection in the teaching practice was also highlighted being an enabler to encourage an assessment of their own pedagogical practices and seeking to understand the complexity that surrounds this field this research included constant reflection on pedagogical practices throughout all stages whether during class observation or discussions The educative processes were considered and respected seeking a reflective and complementary dialogue in each teacher's own pedagogical practice The discussions about the classes took place with the participants themselves seeking a transformation of their own reality The results were interpreted and explained to the participants especially in the last stage of the research These changes that the research provides also affect the life of the teacher-researcher responsible for the action research the contributions from this research have affected beyond the participants It is essential to point out that there was a monitoring of classes and systematic records, according to the characteristics of each stage. In addition — as explained by the action research criteria by Venâncio et al. (34) — regarding moments of reflection and action the research stages provided specific moments of reflection (stages 2 and 4) and action (stage 3) According to the theoretical basis of the methodology there was also concern with the records of the teaching and learning processes the need to value physical education based on complexity is a qualitative shift against the intellectual simplism that permeates discourses about the area and this debate fosters collaborative dialogues between teacher-researchers When we approach the systematization of thematic subject content blocks (5, 6) and analyze how the themes are related and complement each other instead of designating the most important we realize that there is the possibility of intervening in a complex way understanding the issues brought up by the interactions within social spaces in a macro and micro sphere From a theoretical and methodological point of view the systematization of thematic subject content blocks proposes the use of at least one theme from each block per class taking into account the minimum class time sometimes the blocks will converge in a pedagogical sequence of classes within this reasoning from complexity thinking sometimes in a class a theme from a specific block may stand out from the other blocks but this does not mean that it is more important but rather that a certain methodological approach requires a specific focus without disregarding any other knowledge presented as highlighting a specific theme can distort other interactions and one way to accomplish it is to make teaching more flexible and contextualize teaching linked to students' sociocultural issues Betti (35) points to action research as a means of bringing the teachers' pedagogical practices closer to the realities of students teaching focused on environmental demands meets the need for investigations based on action research while reflecting on real situations and acting towards them causes significant changes in pedagogical practice and leads to innovative concepts it is possible to rethink teaching themes from a complex perspective expanding the horizons of knowledge and their convergences For it is noteworthy that the curriculum is dynamic curriculum documents linked to neoliberal interests operate in the formulation of a more immediate minimum curriculum for the world of work The teacher-researchers' proposal to systematize thematic subject content blocks seeks to fill gaps both in physical education teacher education (PETE) and its curricular propositions dialoguing with such an open-ended systematization of thematic subject content blocks allows the manifestation of complex characteristics that are often made invisible by the documents that guide the teachers' pedagogical practices We analyzed complex entanglements in the classes of two physical education teachers through the dynamics of cultural elements understanding and highlighting their contributions to pedagogical practice we identified how the systematization of thematic subject content blocks can explain the limitations of curriculum documents that do not meet the complexity of classes it is understood that a critical view of the teacher-researcher on his/her own pedagogical practice can give new meaning to his/her teaching work linking students with a view of valuing their knowledge and experiences dialoguing and exploring these intervention possibilities it is necessary to understand teaching as a complex activity reflections and actions must be constantly revisited and reconstructed we believe that action research is a consistent tool for addressing the complexity of school physical education teaching and the complexity thinking entangled with it The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding authors Rener Victor Oliveira de Souza,cmVuZXJ2aWN0b3I3QGdtYWlsLmNvbQ== The studies involving humans were approved by UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO RIO GRANDE DO NORTE - 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University of New Hampshire I traveled to Northern Ireland this summer to understand American divisiveness by looking through the eyes of another divided country Here’s what I learned: The United States is a divided country that hasn’t accepted that we are a divided country Most of us are caught in a fight-or-flight mentality when it comes to the divisions in our country right now When we encounter someone who is on the “other side” of the political spectrum the tendency is either to disengage from that person or to convince them why they are wrong It can feel like those on the other side are so repugnant that they challenge our notion of what it means to be human and American But here’s the thing: America doesn’t have a premium on being divided Lots of countries have grappled with divides Despite our longing for American exceptionalism we are not dissimilar from these other countries We need to face the fact that the United States is a divided country Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter Northern Ireland’s ability to “name the problem” by admitting it is a divided country has enabled it to move toward greater peace This realization came at a high price – the deaths of 3,000 Northern Irish people and a history of hurt and grief that will forever be part of the consciousness of the country people realized that the consequences of divisiveness are much much worse than learning to accept that the country is divided and live with that reality peacefully Here's the risk to Americans if we don’t come to that same conclusion many Catholics and Protestants ceased to see each other as human We’re at that precipice now in the United States It feels like there is no common ground between liberals and conservatives and that people on different sides of issues cannot possibly coexist at best it spurns greater isolation and disconnection from anyone different from us and at worst it lays the ground for violence and civil war Northern Ireland was able to create programs and policies to address its dividedness The national police force changed policy to require equal amounts of Catholics and Protestants in office so as to decrease bias and promote collaboration across differences a nonprofit peace center that builds bridges between Protestants and Catholics Protestant and Catholic youth come to a retreat center to meet peers different from themselves and learn about the things they have in common this is the first time they have met someone from the other side If we were able to name the problem in the United States we could create policies and programs that allow people to recognize their shared humanity although we champion the value of conversations across differences and these conversations indeed make huge differences in society many of us have no desire to participate in such exchanges liberal female to get together and listen to each other many people would likely decline this invitation But these two people inevitably have things in common just by being human – they might both have young children in most contexts these people likely will not encounter each other at all and so they won’t ever have an opportunity to discover how they both share the experience of being human – of wanting to be loved and feel safe American democracy at the national level needs major reforms reforming national democracy is a daunting and unreachable task but one thing we can do is build relationships at the local level The notion of building relationships across differences can feel quixotic – tilting at windmills and an impossible dream But part of the beauty of being human is that we have the capacity for empathy and kindness and these feelings can grow even in the most painful circumstances I saw the magnificence of what it looks like to let go of divides a Protestant nurse who worked in the emergency room at the height of the Troubles Sometimes there were so many people injured in an act of political violence like a bombing that the hospital would have to put the perpetrators of incidents in beds next to the victims they had injured Seeing humans wounded on both sides of the conflict led Eleanor to realize that people share more than they differ The people I met in Northern Ireland were not apolitical or dispassionate They still had their own belief systems and values But they realized the price of divisiveness is not only too high In the words of the 1980s film “War Games,” the only way to win the game was not to play If we want to address divides in our local communities building relationships across differences is the place to start We need to be able to put a face to the other side I live in a politically purple neighborhood and the people who live across the street from me are on the other I was trying to single-handedly lug a grill up the stairs to my deck When my “other side” neighbor saw me struggling The appearance of my neighbor with her old black lab was a staple in my daily life I felt sadness for her in that moment as well as gratitude for her help in lifting the grill When I watch the news and feel anger rising in my throat for the politics of the other side It doesn’t change how I feel about my beliefs But it does help me to realize that behind the politics President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office at the White House on April 23 Roosevelt gave a radio address to 125 million Americans in which he coined the term “first 100 days.” Today the 100th day of a presidency is considered a benchmark to measure the early success or failure of a president Trump’s 100th day of office lands on April 30 when the world has witnessed his 137 executive orders Trump’s cabinet appointments and seemingly arbitrary and erratic actions have created turmoil in the stock market utter confusion among our international trade partners Interestingly, a recently published UMass/YouGov poll found that 26 percent of the people who voted for Trump have lost their confidence and appeal for our 47th president It appears The New York Times was the first media agency to report on just the 18th day of Trump’s 2.0 presidency that Trump was creating a constitutional crisis That claim has been reported in multiple major news agencies and observed in thousands of public protests with demonstrators from all political persuasions requesting Congress and the Supreme Court to stop our democracy from turning into an authoritarian dictatorship On March 25, I sent an e-mail to authoritarian scholar Barbara McQuade (who is a professor at the University Michigan Law School Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan and author of “Attack from within”) seeking her expert opinion on what citizens would most likely witness when a constitutional crisis has occurred and on recommended action citizens should take McQuade replied to my inquiry: “If a president were to deliberately violate a court order I think we could consider that a constitutional crisis,” and she added “Citizens can do many things to push back against abuse of power but I think the most effective thing a citizen can do is to talk to their friends and neighbors to explain their concerns and rally support.” “It seems as if we are moving at a rapid speed toward a genuine constitutional crisis and a genuine checks-and-balances crisis.” You can decide if any of the following actions and published repercussions put America in the precarious dilemma of being in a constitutional crisis: Polling by the revered and non-political Reuters/Ipsos found 83 percent of Americans feel “Trump must obey federal court rulings even if he doesn’t want to” (April 20) Wall Street Journal polling has shown that “voters want to keep constitutional guardrails in place that constrain a president’s power” (April 4) there have been 208 legal challenges to the Trump administration’s actions (Just Security – New York Univ a probable Trump-related contempt of court opinion was issued by U.S consider the advice offered by law professor McQuade: participate in peaceful rallies support political candidates committed to upholding constitutional democracy communicate with your two Senators and Representatives about your concerns and visit with friends about the trifecta crisis that is becoming more evident by political scientists Steve Corbin is a Professor Emeritus of Marketing, University of Northern Iowa Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Liz Truss speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort Hotel And Convention Center on February 20 The problem is that America doesn’t have a Liz Truss solution Let me take you back to the fall of 2022 when the United Kingdom experienced its own version of political whiplash no less than three Prime Ministers (and two monarchs incidentally) tried to steer the British governmental ship Boris Johnson was forced to resign over a seemingly endless series of scandals when she too was pushed out the black door of 10 Downing Street What most people remember of the Truss premiership is the Daily Star wager that a head of lettuce would last longer than Truss But Truss’ stint as Prime Minister—the shortest ever I should note—holds some lessons for America today Truss suffered from a self-inflicted political wound She tried to push through an aggressive tax cut at a time when the financial markets were edgy and inflation was high She also pledged to increase government spending to counter those stinging inflated prices hers was a foolish fiscal plan—tax reductions and public spending increases don’t exactly go hand-in-hand—and it failed spectacularly Her plan was to uproot the existing fiscal conventions to dislocate the British financial landscape through radically bold and risky economic policy President Trump is trying to kindle a similar revolutionary spark and he’s going to use giant tariffs—or at least the threat of giant tariffs—to realize his ambition he is wagering the future of his country’s financial footing on an experimental and radical strategy he is leveraging a plan that is almost impossible to simulate he is staking the country’s very reputation Americans can only hope that Trump’s tariff train hasn’t gone completely off the rails Because here’s the thing: The Brits’ system of government enjoys at least one massive guardrail that the U.S system cannot duplicate: Their head of government Liz Truss could float a genuinely radical and potentially calamitous idea and Pursue an idea that causes domestic and international panic and the shelf life of any British chancellor is short His shelf life is fixed by the Constitution: Four years far longer than the five days it took to replace Truss with Rishi Sunak In my four decades as a faithful student of the U.S I never imagined that I would question the wisdom of the Framers’ decision to separate the branches I never imagined a president who held such disdain for the very conventions and traditions—and the rule of law—that made the office of the president so dignified and reverential Our system of separation of powers—unlike the parliamentary system in Great Britain—allows the U.S Congress to shrug at the incoherence of the White House There is little at stake for the individual members of Congress when the President is issuing controversial executive orders and playing fast and loose with America’s standing in the world Aside from impeachment and conviction—a toothless process more political now than anything else—Congress has no ability to fire a rogue president The Prime Minister is a member of Parliament so if she is incoherent or too radical or too risky she can simply be replaced by another member of parliament from the majority coalition party Hence the lightspeed transition from Truss to Sunak and it triggers a spate of hand-wringing in London and elsewhere But it is relatively painless and frequently invoked A governing charter written for a virtuous and noble George Washington has a hard time standing up to an egoistic and mercenary Donald Trump A number of proposals have surfaced that get us a bit closer to the British model without sacrificing the principle of separate powers How about a constitutional amendment that allows for a Congressional vote of no confidence in the President Or one that offers a national recall election The bar for each of these possibilities would have to be extraordinarily high so that neither is used as casual political fodder We’re experiencing too much partisan grandstanding these days Or maybe we should rethink the 25th Amendment Article IV permits the Vice President and a majority of the principal officers of the executive departments to replace the President if he is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” That is surely unlikely in this environment where those principal officers are hand-selected by the very leader they’re appraising Constitutional reform is always a bit out there But before we completely dismiss the notion that Congress might invoke Article IV of the 25th amendment maybe we should ask ourselves if the proposal is any more bizarre than a process whereby a majority of legislators from the lower house can impeach a president but he isn’t convicted and removed from office except by a vote of two-thirds of the upper house Beau Breslin is the Joseph C. Palamountain Jr. Chair of Political Science at Skidmore College and author of “A Constitution for the Living: Imagining How Five Generations of Americans Would Rewrite the Nation’s Fundamental Law.” as it tracks strategies adopted by countries such as Hungary which have eroded democratic norms and have adopted authoritarian approaches to governing Project 2025’s stated intent to move quickly to “dismantle” the federal government will strip the public of important protections against excessive presidential power and provide enormous and unchecked opportunities for big corporations to profit by preying on America's households From Public Service to Presidential Loyalty President Trump has moved swiftly and steadily to dismantle the federal government his stream of executive orders and related actions will result in the destruction of government as we know it replacing it with a new operational system where conflicts of interest abound and government workers are chosen based on loyalty to the President instead of the duty to serve the public Fact-based decisions made by professionals will become a thing of the past Project 2025 – The Destruction of Government Agencies Executive Orders 14171 and 14201 come straight from the Project 2025 chapter entitled Central Personnel Agencies: Managing the Bureaucracy The intent of this chapter is to essentially replace the federal workforce with a decentralized and privatized system Executive Order 14201 complements that directive through mandated and widespread reductions in the federal workforce without any requirement that such firings be based on performance These Executive Orders empower the administration to fill positions that were once occupied by nonpolitical employees with unqualified loyalists. Although some high-level government workers are typically replaced following a change in federal administration This stability enables the government to perform vital services without interruption Civil service protections were created more than a century ago in response to the corruption of the “spoils system” in which government jobs were rewarded for political loyalty They were designed to protect government workers from political interference allowing them to serve the public while shielded from political pressure The executive orders ignore this history and will have direct impacts on the public by reducing the quality of government services and jeopardizing public health and safety The executive orders will result in cuts to essential government services and increased costs for taxpayers The executive orders will open the door to patronage systems and corruption and will eliminate vital expertise They also threaten the independence and integrity of agency officials This creation of a practice of governance that rewards supporters and loyalists and that reduces the size of federal agencies without regard to the services they provide will reduce needed services and threaten our health and safety It should raise alarms for all those who believe that federal employees must be free to provide crucial services without political interference Lawyers Defending American Democracy is dedicated to galvanizing lawyers “to defend the rule of law in the face of an unprecedented threat to American Democracy.” Its work is not political or partisan Few would argue with the claim that President Trump’s tariff policy is chaotic Trump announced sweeping tariffs on all U.S including a 10% blanket tariff and higher rates for specific countries like China (145%) and Canada (25%) citing the need for "flexibility" Trump announced major changes—this time targeting the tech industry and semiconductors were suddenly exempted from the 125% tariffs he had imposed on Chinese imports just a week earlier hinting at future tariffs that target semiconductors and other electronics “There’s no strategy here... zero,” said Michael Cohen a longtime Trump confidante-turned-critic who testified against him in his Manhattan hush money trial Cohen is not alone. Michael Strain, an economist with the American Enterprise Institute, believes that Trump has no coherent policy “People are trying to figure out what game of five-dimensional chess the president is playing and I don’t think there is one I don’t think he knows what he’s doing and he’s making mistakes and making this up as he goes along.” But while many worry about the chaos and suggest Trump has no idea what he is doing could this actually be part of Trump’s “Art of the Deal” For years, many have described Trump’s negotiating style as chaotic and unpredictable and have suggested this is an intentional strategy to gain leverage in the tariff negotiations. This approach aligns with a negotiating approach known as "chaos negotiating," where unpredictability is used as a tool to unsettle adversaries as a way to push for favorable outcomes Green's approach challenges conventional wisdom; “I’ve learned to make chaos my friend in negotiations,” says Green He played a pivotal role in negotiating the $350 billion settlement of lawsuits against major U.S tobacco companies and used this approach as the team leveraged the unpredictability of the situation to outmaneuver the opposition Of course, no one can really know what Trump is thinking and perhaps that is his goal. David Bahnsen, the founder, managing partner, and chief investment officer of The Bahnsen Group suggested this saying: “There is a certain chaotic dimension to this that lends itself to uncertainty.” Part of it is that President Trump likes that style I do not think he has liked the last 4 or 5 days and I think that's where this announcement is coming from But investors that are trying to trade around this should be extremely careful unless they think they're inside the President's mind I'd be very careful thinking you know what President Trump's going to do next when I can assure you that he doesn't know what he's going to do next.” what will become of this latest round of tariffs—and the complex web of negotiations they’re fueling Will Trump’s unpredictability give him leverage or will it weaken the United States' credibility and negotiating power The long-term implications for trust in U.S trade policy and the stability of strategic partnerships remain uncertain a famous baseball player known for his witty and paradoxical sayings might have summed it all up best for what the future holds for the U.S “It is very difficult to make predictions—especially about the future.” When it comes to Trump’s tariff policy that certainly rings true David Nevins is co-publisher of The Fulcrum and co-founder and board chairman of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund “The writer in me struggles to describe the sensation of being under those monster cloud streets high above the Ceara flatlands.” It’s back to the breach for James Johnston as he continues his epic tale of man versus Quixada – and his quest to fly further than any Kiwi has flown before In 2006, an interdisciplinary group of faculty and senior leaders from across the University of Maine System laid the foundation for the creation of the Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions at the University of Maine Their vision was to connect knowledge with action to create a brighter environmental the Mitchell Center builds partnerships among interdisciplinary research teams and diverse stakeholders the center has supported more than 200 faculty and nearly 1,000 students from over 30 schools and departments at UMaine as well as every university in the University of Maine System The Mitchell Center seeks to solve societal challenges that require balancing human well-being with protecting the environment the Mitchell Center develops a portfolio of partnerships focused on a range of sustainability challenges “We often begin by trying to learn about the challenges that communities face and exploring opportunities for collaborative problem-solving,” explained David Hart a professor in UMaine’s School of Biology and Ecology who leads the center “It can be as simple as talking with people in local communities etc.” These initial conversations often lead to projects that join teams of faculty and students with community partners in efforts to build a better economic Developing productive partnerships that can address the multifaceted nature of sustainability challenges requires identifying the expertise needed to understand and develop strategies to address communities’ needs The Mitchell Center creates teams that combine the expertise of natural scientists our solid waste management team includes researchers with expertise in anthropology The Mitchell Center’s efforts to foster stakeholder-engaged interdisciplinary research contributed to UMaine’s reputation as a national and global leader in this approach UMaine is one of the few universities nationwide with four active National Research Traineeship (NRT) awards from the National Science Foundation which are usually awarded to fewer than 10% of applicants place a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary research and the development of solutions to benefit society Mitchell Center faculty play important leadership roles in all four NRT awards including the newest award which focuses on both climate change and equity challenges in the Gulf of Maine the Mitchell Center’s work with community partners has emphasized issues of diversity it helped launch collaborations in which indigenous faculty and students worked with Wabanaki communities on strategies for protecting brown ash trees which are threatened by an invasive forest insect the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future (GOPIF) asked the Mitchell Center to develop a road map for strengthening the equity outcomes of Maine’s Climate Action Plan.  GOPIF recently asked the Mitchell Center to assume a larger role in the next State Climate Action Plan through the Equity Engagement Project The Mitchell Center-led effort will ensure that the populations in Maine most impacted by climate change are aware of The project will engage with tribal communities people without reliable access to transportation recipients of energy assistance benefits and other low-income and disadvantaged groups.  The Equity Engagement Project is led by an interdisciplinary team that includes Sharon Klein associate professor of economics; Caroline Noblet associate professor of economics; Mitchell Center Senior Fellow Linda Silka; Mitchell Center Faculty Fellow Quixada Moore-Vissing; and Hart.  “Our team is deeply committed to expanding equity in the climate planning process by actively recruiting and incentivizing people from disadvantaged communities to engage in a way that is meaningful to both them and the Maine Climate Council,” Noblet said which has nearly a century of combined experience with community engagement will also collaborate with community-based organizations that have long-standing relationships with these populations They will also provide climate and equity training and guidance for the Maine Climate Council and its six working groups to ensure they understand the importance of strengthening equity commitments.  The project complements others led by Mitchell Center faculty. Klein and Noblet were recently awarded a $1.13 million grant from the U.S Environmental Protection Agency in which their team will collaborate with Wabanaki and rural low-income communities to implement renewable energy and energy efficiency projects.  The Mitchell Center’s enduring commitment to align its work with the concerns and goals of its partners will continue to foster university–community collaborations based on mutual understanding “If we hope to develop sustainable solutions that meet the needs of these communities it is critical that we learn from them and work with them,” Klein said Contact: erin.miller@maine.edu as the World Meteorological Organisation publishes analysis of recent heat highs and ice lows The record-breaking heat that made 2016 the hottest year ever recorded has continued into 2017, pushing the world into “truly uncharted territory”, according to the World Meteorological Organisation The WMO’s assessment of the climate in 2016 reports unprecedented heat across the globe exceptionally low ice at both poles and surging sea-level rise Global warming is largely being driven by emissions from human activities, but a strong El Niño – a natural climate cycle – added to the heat in 2016. The El Niño is now waning, but the extremes continue to be seen, with temperature records tumbling in the US in February and polar heatwaves pushing ice cover to new lows. Read more“Even without a strong El Niño in 2017 we are seeing other remarkable changes across the planet that are challenging the limits of our understanding of the climate system We are now in truly uncharted territory,” said David Carlson director of the WMO’s world climate research programme “Earth is a planet in upheaval due to human-caused changes in the atmosphere,” said Jeffrey Kargel a glaciologist at the University of Arizona in the US drastically changing conditions do not help civilisation an emissions expert at the University of Edinburgh: “The need for concerted action on climate change has never been so stark nor the stakes so high.” The new WMO assessment also prompted some scientists to criticise Donald Trump “While the data show an ever increasing impact of human activities on the climate system the Trump administration and senior Republicans in Congress continue to bury their heads in the sand,” said Prof Sir Robert Watson a distinguished climate scientist at the UK’s University of East Anglia and a former head of the UN’s climate science panel “Our children and grandchildren will look back on the climate deniers and ask how they could have sacrificed the planet for the sake of cheap fossil fuel energy when the cost of inaction exceeds the cost of a transition to a low-carbon economy,” Watson said Trump is aiming to cut climate change research. But the WMO’s secretary-general Petteri Taalas said: “Continued investment in climate research and observations is vital if our scientific knowledge is to keep pace with the rapid rate of climate change.” “Arctic ice conditions have been tracking at record low conditions since October something not seen before in the [four-decade] satellite data record,” said Prof Julienne Stroeve the sea ice also broke new record lows in the seasonal maximum and minimum extents leading to the least amount of global sea ice ever recorded.” Eel grass grows in sediment at Lowell’s Cove Sea-level rise has ruined this once rocky location Photograph: Robert F Bukaty/APEmily Shuckburgh but changes that occur there directly affect us The melting of the Greenland ice sheet is already contributing significantly to sea level rise and new research is highlighting that the melting of Arctic sea ice can alter weather conditions across Europe Global sea level rise surged between November 2014 and February 2016 with the El Niño event helping the oceans rise by 15mm That jump would have take five years under the steady rise seen in recent decades as ice caps melt and oceans get warmer and expand in volume Final data for 2016 sea level rise have yet to be published “With levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere consistently breaking new records the influence of human activities on the climate system has become more and more evident,” said Taalas and while the sun was getting lower and lower often helped by my friends the vultures.” air-junkie Koen Vancampenhoudt headed to Quixadá Brazil to break personal bests and fly more than 300km See what’s in the rest of Issue 175 Here's the risk to Americans if we don’t come to that same conclusion at best it spurs greater isolation and disconnection from anyone different from us Northern Ireland was able to create programs and policies to address its divide But these two people inevitably have things in common just by being human But one thing we can do is build relationships at the local level Sometimes there were so many people injured in an act of political violence such as a bombing that the hospital would have to put the perpetrators of incidents in beds next to the victims they had injured − Quixada Moore-Vissing leads Public Engagement Partners and is a fellow at the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire − The Fulcrum covers what's making democracy dysfunctional and efforts to fix our governing systems. Sign up for our newsletter at thefulcrum.us. The Fulcrum is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news platform covering efforts to fix our governing systems. It is a project of, but editorially independent from, Issue One. Raimundo Wilton Bitu Moreno / Getty Images  Volume 13 - 2022 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.800727 This article is part of the Research TopicMeditative Movement for Mental and Physical HealthView all 7 articles Theories of embodied cognition hypothesize interdependencies between psychological well-being and physical posture The purpose of this study was to assess the feasibility of objectively measuring posture and to explore the relationship between posture and affect and other patient centered outcomes in breast cancer survivors (BCS) with persistent postsurgical pain (PPSP) over a 12-week course of therapeutic Qigong mind-body training Twenty-one BCS with PPSP attended group Qigong training Posture outcomes were vertical spine and vertical head angles in the sagittal plane measured with a 3D motion capture system in three conditions: eyes open (EO) eyes open relaxed (EOR) and eyes closed (EC) Assessments were made before and after the Qigong training The association between categorical variables (angle and mood) was measured by Cramer’s V most participants who improved in fatigue and anxiety scales also had better vertical head values a moderate correlation was observed between changes in vertical head angle and changes in fatigue scale most of the participants who improved in measures of fatigue also improved vertical head angle pain severity decreased while vertical spine angle improved These preliminary findings support that emotion and other patient centered outcomes should be considered within an embodied framework and that Qigong may be a promising intervention for addressing biopsychosocially complex interventions such as PPSP in BCSs the aims of the present study investigate if Qigong-induced changes in body posture and affect are interdependent such that changes in one might modulate the other our specific goals were aimed to assess the feasibility of objectively measuring posture to preliminarily evaluate whether a relationship between posture and mood exists and to explore design features for future research evaluating the impact of Qigong training on the relationship between posture and mood Outcome measures were collected in person at baseline and post-intervention at the Motion Analysis Laboratory at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital Posture was measured during quiet standing using a 3D motion capture system (Vicon The study was approved by the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) Institutional Review Board A total of 21 women with a history of stage 0—III breast cancer who had undergone surgical treatment and reported experiencing PPSP at least 3 months after completing surgery and/or radiation were enrolled in the study Individuals were considered ineligible if they had any unstable chronic medical condition were currently enrolled in physical therapy The intervention practiced by study participants was based on the Eight Strands of the Brocades Qigong, which focuses on a sequence of eight movements that all engage the upper and lower extremities as well as the trunk (Kam-Chuen, 1991) The practice also incorporates elements such as focused attention Courses were taught by experienced instructors Participants were asked to attend one 1.25-h class per week for 12 weeks and to practice at home using a provided instructional video for 2–3 h per week which measures confidence in one’s ability to exercise in the face of barriers A set of 10 reflective markers was positioned on the following anatomical landmarks: both ear lobes right and left posterior superior iliac spine (PSIS) Posture was measured during a 40-s trial of quiet standing for each of three conditions: (1) eyes open (EO) (2) eyes open and relaxed (EOR)—the participants were asked to look forward and stay as relaxed as possible—(3) eyes closed (EC) Participants were instructed to stand as still as possible they were asked to “stand up straight,” while in the EOR condition they were informed that they could “relax and stand naturally”; participants were asked to remain in the same position as EOR but to close their eyes for the EC condition The EOR and EC conditions were intended to decrease the focus of the participants on their postures and thereby encourage the most natural posture possible Videos were recorded using a 10-camera marker-based motion capture system (Vicon After computing the angles’ time series the mean and standard deviation (SD) were derived for each angle Higher values for the vertical spine (VertSpi) angle were interpreted as better posture lower values of the vertical head (VertHead) angle were interpreted as better posture indicating a lower degree of head anteriorization Since the time series of the VertSpi and VertHead angles were available it was possible to measure the variability in the angular displacement measures and set a threshold to determine if the longitudinal changes were significant the variable outcomes were discretely and categorically defined into “better” and “worse” posture when there was improvement or worsening beyond the intra-individual standard deviation of the baseline fluctuation and no change when the follow-up mean was within the baseline fluctuations The range of the threshold values for each condition and angle for all participants were: EO—VerHead: 1.76° VerSpi: 0.8°; EOR—VerHead: 0.66° VerSpi: 0.29°; EC—VerHead: 1.93° BPI) were also categorized as “better” or “worse” by comparing subjects’ scores at follow-up with their scores at baseline If the subject had an improvement in the fatigue scale it was categorized as “better mood.” These values filled the heat maps which illustrate the association between mood and posture variables The colors ranged in a gradient from white (weakest correlation) to red (strongest correlation) The level of statistical significance considered in this study is 5% and no multiple comparisons adjustment was made For subsequent analyses we had a total of 16 patients for EO and EC conditions and 12 subjects for the EOR condition Flow chart of number of participants in each angle analysis p = 0.004) and moderate (Cramer’s V = 0.55 p = 0.04) association between vertical head angle and fatigue and anxiety Heat Map of the correlation between mood and posture angles for the EO condition Cramer’s V and p-values for the correlations between mood and posture angles for the Eyes Open (EO) condition We also observed an association between VertHead angle and fatigue scores in the EOR testing condition (Cramer’s V = 0.62, p = 0.04) (Figure 3 and Table 3) Out of the thirteen subjects that reported improved fatigue scores For the three participants that reported worse fatigue one did not change the VertHead posture and two exhibited poorer posture Heat Map of the correlation between mood and posture angles for the EOR condition Cramer’s V and p-values for the correlations between mood and posture angles for the Eyes Open Relaxed (EOR) condition As in both EO and EOR conditions, most of the participants in the EC testing condition that reported improved fatigue scores also improved their VertHead angle (Figure 4 and Table 4) 10 improved the VertHead posture and 3 had worse posture All three participants that had reported worse fatigue also exhibited worse VertHead posture There was a significant but moderate association between the variables (Cramer’s V = 0.62 Also noteworthy under the EC condition was a strong correlation (Cramer’s V = 0.74 p = 0.01) between pain severity and VertSpine angle Of the 14 subjects who reported improvement in pain severity (i.e. 10 exhibited improved VertSpine posture while four exhibited worse posture Of the two subjects that reported more pain in the follow up evaluation one did not exhibit a change in VertSpine posture and the other exhibited worse posture Heat Map of the correlation between mood and posture angles for the EC condition Cramer’s V and p-values for the correlations between mood and posture angles for the Eyes Closed (EC) condition these findings support the importance of more in-depth research elucidating the effects of multimodal mind-body practices on the interdependence of posture and psychological well-being in clinical conditions walking speed and lateral swaying movements of the upper body were normalized and a trend toward normalization of vertical head movements was also observed no average pre-post changes in neck angle were observed but there was a small and statistically non-significant correlation between changes in depression and both posture and mindfulness measured with the Mindfulness Attention and Awareness Scale (MAAS) (Pearson correlations r 0.26 and 0.27 The authors concluded that MBCT has a normalizing effect on gait patterns our study also observed a positive association between improved VertHead angles and self-reported depression scores in both eyes-open conditions these trends were not statistically significant These finding further support the value of studying links between whole body postural control and psychoneuroimmunological processes underlying embodied behavior Two primary emergent qualitative themes identified included: (1) Qigong enabled participants to reconnect mind and body and lessened their pain; and (2) QMBE enabled BCS to make peace with their bodies fostering acceptance and renewed confidence in their bodies These are reflected in the following representative quotes: “How you feel about your body is a challenge after you’ve had breast cancer … [But] mind and body have to be interconnected All of it together [in Qigong] relaxes you and helps you stretch out a little bit help you think about your body in a different way and trust your body to get inside yourself in a different way It doesn’t mean you’re not going to get cancer again but it could mean that you’re more at peace with your own body.” “I feel that if I can get the body and the mind on the same track together I’m breast cancer four generations and I’m stage 1A and I’m TNBC,” and all these labels these quantitative markers that says nothing about…all the other ways I’d like to define myself improving the constellation of different symptoms.” Future studies might consider conditions that provoke emotional states include posing in emotionally provocative postures The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Institutional Review Board The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study AQ and PW created the first draft of the manuscript and GV-D contributed critically important intellectual content and AQ oversaw measurement and analysis of posture data All authors contributed to manuscript revision This study received funding from National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health/National Institutes of Health (K24AT009282) and the Peabody Foundation including sub-awards on NIH and NSF SBIR grants from Barrett Technology (Newton PB also received grant support from Emerge Diagnostics (Carlsbad The funders were not involved in the study design the writing of this article or the decision to submit it for publication PW was the founder and sole owner of the Tree of Life Tai Chi Center PW’s interests were reviewed and managed by the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Partner’s HealthCare in accordance with their conflict of interest policies The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest Jane Moss for teaching the Qigong sessions and all the participants for volunteering for this study New insights on emotional contributions to human postural control Association of upper quarter posture with depression and level of physical activity in sixth grade elementary school 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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) *Correspondence: Ana Paula Quixadá, YXBxLmZpc2lvQGdtYWlsLmNvbQ== Quixada in north east Brazil is experiencing a record-breaking paragliding season with many pilots breaking the 400km mark in the past three weeks Alex Coltman is one of the latest pilots to grab a big flight in Quixada with a 369km XC flight on Tuesday 19 November The distance is the longest flown by a British pilot anywhere in the world After taking off at 7.15am he soared the hill for an hour before the hill started to work “The first 50km were a struggle with low broken climbs but there were a few other gliders around to help,” he said “After that conditions improved.” “At the mountain range at 120km it was very windy and a bit broken An Aspen 4 showed me a great climb out after the mountains From there I moved fast under a street to the 200km mark This is marked by a plateau and it was blue and slow here for about 40km “Then the sky opened up again with the most amazing cumuli I slowed down here to make sure of the 300km I finally landed at 369km at nearly 5pm.” Coltman joins a slew of European and Brazilian pilots who have been taking advantage of the good season in Brazil to set new personal bests and records Czech pilots Tomas Soudek and Karel Vejchodsky flew 434.14km and 432.47km respectively adding two more 400km flight to this year’s Quixada tally Earlier in the month one “extraordinary day” saw three records fall Cross Country contributing photographer Felix Wolk was there on 7 November when Nicole Fedele set a new women’s world record and two other pilots flew records for German pilots “Quixada 2013 has seen a lot of changeable weather,” Felix said “Two days of pouring rain between the usual dusty heat of November gave the flatlands a green haze overnight Perhaps one reason for the extraordinary day.” Italy’s Nicole Fedele flew 376.5km to a new women’s world record She beat Seiko Fukuoka’s record by 40km which Seiko had set in Quixada in November 2012 “Conditions did not look so good early in the morning so I spent some time on the takeoff hanging around Then at around 8am I took off and left the hill after a few minutes together with other five or six pilots The first part that is usually very tricky was easier than expected and I started to think that probably it was not such a bad day.” She landed at 5.15pm after a nine hour flight On the same day Germany’s Verena Siegl flew 334km on an Aspen 4 and Burkhard Martens flew just shy of 400km on his Skywalk Chili 3 Burkhard Martens is the author of Thermal Flying and Cross Country Flying His flight is almost certainly the longest flight ever flown on an EN B glider Several French pilots are also in Quixada chasing records and have logged multiple flights of 400km+ “The French pilots fly like they are being chased by wasps,” reported Felix Leader of the pack so far is Honorin Hamard a young XC wasp who has publicly declared his aim is to break the 500km mark and grab the overall world record in Quixada this year He has flown four flights of 300km+ and two of 400km+ Switzerland’s Philipp Steinger got his biggest flight in early with a 413.42km XC on 22 October The ten-hour flight means he has the record for the longest paraglider flight by a Swiss pilot Other pilots who have broken the 400km mark in Quixada this season include Martin Buhler (Lithuania) with a 403km flight and Stephane Drouin (France) with a 422km XC Brazil’s Luis Tavares is another pilot who has also done the double this season clocking up two 400km flights early in the season: 419.75km on 15 October and 404.45km on 21 October It hasn’t all been plain sailing for all pilots The tricky conditions in Quixada mean many pilots bomb out leading to frustrating lows between the highs of a good day The strong conditions and long days have also seen one serious accident A Swiss pilot was caught by a gust front from a raining cumulonimbus cloud and crashed while landing He broke his back but is expected to make a full recovery and is now back home With good conditions and lots of pilots the action is only going to get hotter in Quixada The 18th edition of the legendary XCeara will see 15 paraglider pilots and 15 hang glider pilots converge on Quixada for one week of fully supported XC open distance from 23-30 November Quixada shot to prominence six years ago when three pilots flew 468km together to set a new paragliding world record Frank Brown and Rafael Salladini flew the mega flight on 15 November 2007 well before the revolution in glider performance of recent years Brazilian pilot Frank Brown is one of several pilots who pioneered XC flying in Quixada The site is unusual in that thermic activity starts very early – pilots can take off at 7.30am and stay up pilots have a maximum of ten/10.5 hours flying time To break the world record they must average 50km/h In the weak conditions of early morning this is difficult Pilots must hang on for the first part of the flight as the day develops before flying fast and efficiently during the best part of the day in the afternoon The current paragliding world record is held by South Africa’s Nevil Hulett He flew 507km in December 2008 in South Africa in a super-fast time of seven-and-a-half hours He was helped by extremely strong winds after a tow launch The current issue of Cross Country magazine features an in-depth site guide to how to fly Quixada by Felix Wolk. Discover more here • Got news? Send it to us at news@xccontent.local Buy and sell gear on Skyads.aero Honorin Hamard and passenger Karine Gras are celebrating a successful 335.4km flight from Quixadá to a declared goal on 1 November 2015 it takes the World ‘distance to a declared goal’ tandem paragliding record beating André Fleury’s 308.3km record that was set in Brazil in 2006 This is the second tandem paragliding world record claimed by French pilots in Quixadá in a week, following Julien Irilli’s 363km ‘free distance using up to three turnpoints’ record After passing their declared goal at 335.4km hoping to beat the tandem straight distance record of 356km but they landed three kilometres short at Tanque Honorin said that on  a normal day in Brazil there should have been a good hour of flying still to be had but the sky had become covered and the day ended early Honorin wrote on his Facebook page that Karine had suffered some airsickness thanks to his “sporty” piloting but she held on for the nine-and-a-half hour flight Send it to us at news@xccontent.local Subscribe to the world’s favourite hang gliding and paragliding magazine home Seiko Fukuoka has set a new women’s world record in Brazil beating the previous world record by more than 20km According to her tracklog she took off in Quixada in the north east of Brazil and flew for a little over 10 hours The previous world record was held by Kamira Pereira who flew 324.7km on 14 November 2009 The season in Quixada has been a good one so far with several pilots flying more than 400km A team of Sol Pilots has been chasing the world record of 502km The best flying was in late October, when half a dozen pilots from the Sol Team flew together for 460km. On the same day the longest flight of the season was flown by Olympio Faissol – he flew 470.39km on 22 October 2012 Quixada in north eastern Brazil attracts pilots from across the world in October and November when strong Because of its position on the equator pilots can take off very early in the morning – 7am in some cases – and fly distance until sunset at around 5.30pm Seiko’s Tracklog FAI World Records • Got news? Send it to us at news@xccontent.local Subscribe The open distance paragliding world record has been smashed in Brazil with three pilots flying a record 564km from Araruna Rafael Saladini and Donizete Lemos flew the record flight together flying as a gaggle and helping each other all the way The flight is more than 50km longer than the previous world record which was set this time last year from the same site Donizete Lemos and Marcelo Prieto flew 513km on 9 October 2015 They launched from Araruna at 6.20am and spent the next 11 hours in the air On that day in 2015 Rafael Saladini also launched but bombed out after 15km – which will no doubt have made his record flight this year all the sweeter This year the pilots also took off from Araruna and it was their first record attempt of the season Araruna is also known as Tacima – both are towns close by to the launch site but the town of Araruna is helping to develop the site so local pilots have asked we call it Araruna It was raining in the morning on the day before and the wind was really strong,” explained Saladini “The region is facing a crazy influence from Mathew Hurricane and the La Niña effect… combined with a very dry terrain as a result of two years of El Niño so we were not so confident because of the risk of getting low with very strong wind especially close to the plateau (100 km from take off) where the wind picks up it actually looked good and we took off.” Frank Brown and Marcelo Prieto took off with the rest of the team at around 6am to avoid the strong wind but they only left the ridge at around 7h15 Marcelo Prieto bombed out right at the beginning of the flight and the same happened to Frank Brown not long after Flying at the same time and from the same site hang glider pilots Glauco Pinto and Andre Wolf took off a little bit later than the paraglider pilots and flew further than 600km – they set a new world record for declared goal at 607km and a new South American open distance record at 612km The hang gliding world record stands at 761km Posting on Facebook Andre Wolf said: “Yesterday was a special day in my life Taking off from Tacima with my friend Glauco Pinto we launched at 7.15am and landed at 5.35pm We flew practically the whole flight together He added: “Today was a historic day for free flight Rafa and Samuel broke the paragliding world record at 564km I thank them for their friendship and their huge knowledge.” energy and adrenaline from being part of this special day.” If you want to fly a really long way in Brazil Araruna in October is now the most reliable place to do it All the 500km world record flights in Brazil have been flown from Araruna a relatively low site in the north east of the country The discovery of Araruna is the result of 20 years of exploration by a core group of big-distance pilots in Brazil Rafael Saladini explained the discovery of Tacima in Cross Country magazine last year: “The flying has been migrating,” he said the first pilots to fly in the north-east here started in Sobral “But any world record flown from there would reach the pre-Amazon forest When they discovered Quixada everybody started to fly from there.” Frank and Rafael flew together to set a new paragliding world record at 461.6km The site is now firmly established on the international XC map somewhere big distance hunters go if they want to set a personal best: fly 300km “After we broke the record together in 2007 we started to explore further east,” continued Rafael To fly 500km you need an average speed of 50km/h “Taking off from Araruna it means the whole 500km is inside the drylands,” said Rafael “You don’t have to face the pre-Amazon forest where the wind becomes much slower “The reason to come east to Araruna is to optimise the 11 hours of our flying day Now we have 11 complete hours of flying inside the drylands of Brazil.” More on this amazing day in the next issue of Cross Country magazine Brazil: A cow's skull lies baking in the sun and nearby another dead cow rots symbols of the desolation gripping northeastern Brazil during its worst drought in a century walks through the dust and cactuses in dismay There are in all about 30 skeletons of cattle donkeys and other farm animals in a sort of open-air cemetery set aside in his settlement of Nova Canaa "Most are animals that died of thirst or hunger So many animals have died in these five years of drought," Pereira told AFP is used to rain shortages but no one can remember a drought like this There has been almost no rain since 2012 and the leafless desiccated landscape has the appearance of having been in a vast fire Rivers and reservoirs that used to serve rural populations are not coping The authorities estimate that reserves are at six percent capacity Experts say that a cocktail of factors has produced the disaster: a strong El Nino in the Pacific heating of the north Atlantic and climate change that has seen temperatures in Ceara rise by 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.4 degrees Fahrenheit) in 50 years Pereira said he had to sell his other three cows and 10 sheep fetching poor prices because they were "skeletal." home to 70 families near the town of Quixeramobim he could no longer afford to feed the animals as well his two small daughters The region has 25 million inhabitants and of them three million have insufficient water according to state government figures -- a ratio that shoots up for those living in the countryside Rural communities depend on government water trucks Even so there is only enough for about 20 liters (5.3 gallons) a day per person far off the World Health Organization's recommended 50 to 100 liters a day villages get together to pay for hard-to-afford private deliveries or they go with donkeys to public wells where they stand in line for hours Some dig their own wells but the water is so salty that even animals refuse to drink Most families get little more than about $130 a month in social security and emergency drought aide -- barely enough especially when extra deliveries by truck cost about $50 "We were able to get through one year of drought easily because the reservoirs still had plenty of water saved but now we are having to conserve more every day," said Clara Carneiro She saves shower water and reuses washing-up water to give to her dozen cows with views of the Cedro Reservoir in Quixada is still open but there are few customers now that the lake which has a capacity of more than the equivalent of 50,000 Olympic swimming pools Hundreds of carcasses of turtles and the bones of fish litter the bed of the reservoir mollusks and many birds who fed on the fish," said Wagnar Docarm taking part in a Quixada State University study on the dead animals said the turtles would usually be migrating "but they couldn't find a way to get across the reservoir." Local people who depended on fishing in the reservoir say the drought has devastated them He said that by selling fish he had been able to double his approximately $300 a month pension It's anchored in the middle of dry land while a much-awaited but controversial project to divert the major San Francisco River was held up after the main contractor was caught up in a nationwide corruption scandal "There's no doubt that the political crisis have made the water situation worse," said Ceara state's top water official Weather forecasts for 2017 give little hope of the Sertao getting a break The small communities around Quixeramobim say only God can help them "We have to pray because the only one who can help is above The politicians forget about us once elections are over," said farmer Sebastiao Batista