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The election of Donald Trump and the accompanying alt-right fervor of fake news and alternative facts has brought into focus the so-called post-truth era. This paper argues that the term 'post-truth' amounts to little more than the mainstream articulation of the postmodern condition, or what Frederic Jameson calls 'the cultural logic of late capitalism.' Accordingly, I contend that the post-truth era does not reflect an absence of truth, but rather its inverse; it involves a proliferation of truths. The thoroughly postmodern 'marketplace of ideas' has seen truth reduced to a 'thing' that can be packaged and sold in order to meet individual preferences. Though this is often veiled as a 'democratization of truth', the tendency of markets to manufacture demand has resulted in the production of competing, surplus truths, which are then sold at the lowest, most efficient price possible. I contend that this oversimplification of reality has paved the way for an individual like Trump to assert himself politically. Importantly, such a simplified approach to truth can only occur when we assume that truth is a static 'thing' or 'object'. What this attitude betrays is an underlying ontological commitment to being. In light of this, it is argued that missing from post-truth politics are attempts at understanding. Unlike truth, understanding is taken as a dialectical movement that assumes an ontology of becoming. Through appeals to Whitehead and Merleau-Ponty, it is argued that understanding is much more than an intellectual process by which we come to know things; it is also the mode through which nature produces itself. This becoming of nature can be explained in terms of com-prehension and co-naissance-as literally a 'co-grasping', 'co-birth' or 'co-knowing'. In light of this, understanding will be presented as an empathetic alternative to truth and the mode through which we can overcome the stasis afflicting cultural and political life.

The threat to livelihoods posed by the increased mechanization of labour has led to the question of whether new technologies will eventually render human beings obsolete. However, this immediately raises another more fundamental question: 'what is the function, or utility, of human beings in modern society?' Mainstream economics and the concept of homo economicus tells us that human beings are little more than rationally calculating, profit maximizing machines devoted to the accumulation of capital. This paper will argue that the intellectual origins of homo economicus can be traced to the mechanical philosophies of Descartes, Hobbes, Locke and Newton, and that these philosophies find their expression in the political economy of Adam Smith. It will be shown that the mechanization of labour (along with the subsequent obsolescence of human beings) is a central tenet of classic liberalism, the ends of which is the unceasing increase of capital through the division of labour. In light of this, Ancient Greek conceptions of wealth and economic activity-which prioritize human self-creation and the notion of the good life-will be considered as alternatives to the norms presented in classic liberalism. Ultimately it is argued that in order to avoid being eclipsed by new technologies we must reconsider what it means to be human and in doing so rediscover properly human ends.

Optimal care of the injured patient requires the delivery of appropriate, definitive care shortly after injury. Over the last 30 to 40 years, civilian trauma systems and trauma centres have been developed in the United States based on experience gained in military conflicts, particularly in Korea and Vietnam. A similar process is evolving in Canada. National trauma committees in the US and Canada have defined optimal resources to meet the goal of rapid, appropriate care in trauma centres. They have introduced programs (verification or accreditation) to externally audit trauma centre performance based on these guidelines. It is generally accepted that implementing trauma systems results in decreased preventable death and improved survival after trauma. What is less clear is the degree to which each facet of trauma system development contributes to this improvement. The relative importance of national performance guidelines and trauma centre audit as integral steps toward improved outcomes following injury are reviewed. Current Trauma Association of Canada guidelines for trauma centres are presented and the process of trauma centre accreditation is discussed.

LAY SUMMARYTraumatic injury is the most common cause of death among young people. Most victims of trauma die alone before medical response is possible. Typical causes of death are not overly complex to fix if access to standard hospital interventions is feasible. Dying victims are often connected to smartphone-supporting informatic communication technologies, which make available a worldwide network of experts who can potentially reassure and remotely diagnose victims and provide life-saving advice. TeleMentored Ultrasound Supported Medical Interventions (TMUSMI) researchers have focused on empowering point-of-care providers to perform outside their scope and deliver life-saving interventions. With the recognition that COVID-19 has profoundly isolated many people, solutions to respect COVID-19 isolation policies have stimulated the TMUSMI group to appreciate the potential for informatic technologies' effect on the ability to care for oneself in cases of catastrophic injury.

Ethnic settlement patterns and other forms of everyday interethnic social contact have the potential to influence voter preferences for ethnic tribune parties who position themselves as the most strident protectors of, and flagbearers for, their respective ethnic groups. Previous studies on this topic have come to rival conclusions, with some finding that increased intergroup contact and residential mixing produce a corresponding increase in support for tribune parties and others finding the opposite. This study uses a combination of data from elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly from 1998 to 2017 and survey data from 2016 to evaluate these rival arguments and assess the extent to which the broader institutional and demographic context in which political competition takes place condition responses to intergroup contact. Our findings indicate that voters in both declining and ascending demographic groups respond similarly to intergroup contact, expressing less support for tribune parties in contexts where residential patterns and social networks provide more opportunities for intergroup contact. These results highlight the conditional nature of the effectiveness of consensus-based institutions in divided societies: they can create incentives for moderation, but those incentives are most likely to be realized in contexts where rival groups experience a high level of integration.

How do varying levels of inter-group contact affect voter preferences in connection with ethnically radical political candidates and parties? Two competing hypotheses have emerged in the last 60 years: the first, known as the group threat hypothesis, argues that voters from an ethnic or religious group in more ethnically or racially heterogeneous districts will exhibit stronger preferences for ethnically radical political candidates. The contact hypothesis argues that groups living in mixed localities are actually less likely to support ethnic radicals. Both perspectives have found empirical support, but no previous study has offered a theoretical explanation for two seemingly contradictory conclusions. We specify just such a theory, arguing that the effect of district level integration is conditioned by the direction of a group's share of the national population. We test this theory quantitatively using electoral data from Northern Ireland between 1983 and 2010.