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“It will never see the light of day!” laughs Foster. “It will not be on the DVD." |
It was a fun week for those of us who like to follow the local political scene. The first tectonic shift erupted when Jason Micallef announced his resignation as general secretary of the Labour Party, news which seems to indicate that change is afoot at Mile End HQ. |
However, this development was totally eclipsed by the announcement that Marisa Micallef has accepted to take on the position of spokesperson for Joseph Muscat. Here we have someone who has been aligned with the Nationalists for many years, both as the politically appointed chairman of the Housing Authority and as a reg... |
As part of her new incarnation, Ms Micallef proceeded to treat us all to an Aesop-inspired fable in The Times, complete with princes, kings and unhappy subjects. The style of the letter left something to be desired, however the message was loud and clear. According to her, Lawrence Gonzi has lost touch with his social ... |
The general secretary of the PN decided to add some spice to the kawlata, by informing all who would listen that we should not read too much into the defection of Marisa Micallef to the Labour Party. According to him, it was not a sign that all is not well in PN-land. No, Marisa Micallef is now working for the Labour P... |
Oh dear. I suppose that it was not Mr Borg Olivier’s intention, but ultimately the main result of this unfortunate remark is a reinforcement of the perception that the PN is totally blind to the disgruntlement that is currently rife in the population. Much as PBO does not want to acknowledge it, this defection is not g... |
We can only assume that Mr Borg Olivier has opted to insert ear-plugs in order to remain blissfully unaware of the hullaballoo. That is the only way he can possibly believe that the current situation is not a problem for his party, and the only justification for a man in his position to inform everyone that according t... |
In the current economic and political climate, such a statement is simply extraordinary. |
This week, the Prime Minister visited University and reiterated his electoral pledge not to remove stipends. As a past student who received a stipend, I have to agree that getting a monthly allowance is an excellent benefit for students. It also reduces the pressure on parents, who no longer have to fork out money for ... |
However there is no way that we can ignore the fact that the way the stipends system is currently administered is not socially just. We presently have a government that is squeezing the people at the bottom of the social scale, while helping those who do not really require it. |
How does it make sense to reduce benefits for single mothers, while giving a monthly stipend to students who come from an upper-middle-class background? How can one justify the fact that over the last few years very little money has been made available to expand social work services for children and families that may b... |
What kind of social conscience can we claim to have when public spending is cut for the most vulnerable members of our society, while remaining unchanged for the ones who do not need help? |
It’s good to encourage our young people to continue their studies. It also makes a lot of sense to give financial assistance to those youngsters coming from disadvantaged backgrounds. However, the time has come to reassess the validity of this one-size-fits-all approach. The children of millionaires receive the same am... |
As a mother of three kids, who I hope will one day aspire to a tertiary education, I agree that investing in education is vital for the future. However it does not necessary follow that giving all students a stipend is the best investment possible. When one has limited resources, it is essential to administer them wise... |
Stories abound of departments at University whose budgets have been slashed, while at the same time having to cope with an ever-increasing influx of students. If things go on like this, the quality of local degrees is bound to suffer. |
This hardly qualifies as an investment in education, does it? |
Drug Companies Accept FDA Plan To Phase Out Some Animal Antibiotic Uses : The Salt The Food and Drug Administration Wednesday advised companies to change the labels on their drugs to make it illegal for livestock producers to use drugs for "growth promotion" or "feed efficiency." The announcement is the latest step in ... |
Young broilers nibble feed at a chicken farm in Luling, Texas. The Food and Drug Administration has issued new guidance on how drug companies label antibiotics for livestock. |
If drug companies follow guidance issued Wednesday by the Food and Drug Administration, within three years it will be illegal to use medically important antibiotics to make farm animals grow faster or use feed more efficiently. |
The FDA's announcement wasn't a big surprise; a draft version of the strategy was released more than a year ago. |
The bigger news is that the two biggest veterinary drug companies, Elanco and Zoetis, said Wednesday that they will, in fact, follow the FDA's advice and make it illegal for farmers to use their drugs for growth promotion. The Animal Health Institute, which represents most of the industry, likewise expressed enthusiast... |
Wednesday's announcement is the latest step in a long-running, sometimes convoluted effort by the FDA to reduce the use of antibiotics in agriculture. As we've reported in our series Pharmed Food, public health advocates are concerned that livestock producers' widespread use of antibiotics could lead to more drug-resis... |
In the newly official guidance, the FDA is hoping to reduce the "subtherapeutic" use by revising drug labels, which define the legal uses of each drug. The FDA is asking companies to remove "growth promotion" or "feed efficiency" as a legal use of any drug that is also used in human medicine. If those uses do not appea... |
The label changes are supposed to happen within three years. Companies have 90 days to say whether they intend to do this or not. |
The FDA's announcement inspired diverse reactions. The Animal Health Institute, which has downplayed the risks of farm antibiotic use, promised to support the FDA's initiative — in part for public relations reasons. The AHI's Richard Carnevale told reporters in a conference call that it could help to dispel the common,... |
It's impossible to know how many of the antibiotics that farmers use are for growth promotion. The government doesn't collect that information. |
Some critics of antibiotic use on the farm condemned the FDA strategy for not going far enough. The Natural Resources Defense Council called it "a free pass to industry" because it relies on voluntary cooperation, rather than binding regulations. The Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future predicted that the relabeli... |
Other public health advocates were cautiously optimistic. Laura Rogers, who directs the Pew Charitable Trusts' human health and industrial farming campaign, called it a promising start. |
Veterinarians will play a key role in enforcing the new labels and making sure that antibiotics aren't used to promote growth under the guise of disease prevention. They also may be required to sign off on all uses of medically important drugs, if another draft regulation released Wednesday is adopted. |
Currently, many of these drugs, such as tetracycline, are available over the counter for farm animals. If the FDA caught a veterinarian prescribing these drugs for growth promotion purposes, that veterinarian could lose his or her license. |
The time between the holidays is rather slow in the field of taxation and planning. Especially this year, as Congress has not passed any new legislation. Yet. All the year-end tax planning advice that could be offered has already been discussed for almost a month. Even though it appears that it is quiet and no one was ... |
I recently received a call from someone who received a notice regarding their personal tax return for 2009. There are different types of letters that are forwarded and this one was from the Underreported Income section. The form stated that there was a record that stock sales were made and not reported on that years ta... |
In discussion with the taxpayer, he stated that he never owned any stock to sell and the IRS was in error. It could have been one of two things that happened. A clerical error may have made when the stock sales were being entered into the system by the IRS personnel; or someone was using his Social Security number and ... |
My wish to you all: May your best time of 2011, be the worst time for you in 2012. |
On February 12 or 13, a truly mammoth iceberg broke free from the Mertz Glacier Tongue. The 985 square-mile block of ice is roughly the size of Luxembourg and, at 1300 feet thick, would fill Sydney Harbor more than 100 times. The block was dislodged by another large iceberg—known as B9B—which cleaved in 1987. |
Now drifting together in the Southern Ocean, the icebergs are threatening—researchers report—to cap an important region responsible for driving the world's ocean currents. |
A polynya is an area of unfrozen water surrounded at least in part by sea ice. These areas generate very cold, dense, water with a high salt content. This water eventually sinks—a process that fuels the circulation of global ocean currents. |
When floating sea ice, like giant icebergs, covers the surface water of the polynya this process stops, resulting in an overall slowdown of ocean currents. These currents, of course, play a huge role in regulating global weather patterns, and are also responsible for distributing oxygen throughout the oceans. |
Of course, the icebergs will eventually melt, but if they remain in the Southern Ocean, which is expected, it could take decades for this to happen. In the meantime, they would block this important circulation process. |
Researchers pointed out that polynyas are relatively uncommon and that the Metz Glacier Polynya is particularly strong—providing 20 percent of the world's "bottom water." |
There may be regions of the world's oceans that lose oxygen, and then of course most of the life there will die. |
Researchers said that it was difficult to attribute this event directly to melting from climate change, but Glaciologist Benoit Legresy pointed out that, "obviously when there is warmer water, these ice tongues will become more fragile." |
WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump ended his weekend stay at his Bedminster golf course Sunday afternoon, departing Morristown Airport with a one-time rival aboard Air Force One. |
U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., had made an unannounced trip to New Jersey during the weekend and was spotted boarding the plane by the reporters who travel with the president. |
"The president played a quick round of golf with Senator Rand Paul who the president really likes and enjoys spending time with," the White House said in a statement. "He also spent the weekend working on economic growth and making calls on the economy and national security." |
Trump arrived at the airport from his Bedminster golf club at around 4:06 p.m., accompanied by first lady Melania Trump and their son, Barron. |
President Donald Trump arrived at his Bedminster golf club Friday afternoon from a Hamptons fundraiser. |
The president has been a frequent guest all summer in New Jersey, including a 12-day stay earlier this month while renovations were underway at the White House. |
Paul was one of the Republicans that Trump vanquished en route to the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, and he did not speak well of the senator during the campaign. |
The president on Sunday also continued to rail against the investigation into whether his campaign colluded with Russia. |
Special counsel Robert Mueller already has secured indictments or guilty pleas from 32 people, including four former Trump advisers, and three companies, according to Vox. |
Earlier Sunday, the president's lawyer, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, went on NBC's "Meet the Press" and proclaimed, "Truth isn't truth." |
It was reminiscent of Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway going on the same program after the January 2017 presidential inauguration and explaining that White House press secretary Sean Spicer was delivering "alternative facts" when he falsely said that Trump drew a bigger crowd than President Barack Obama did eight year ... |
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In the 1930s, John Fulton was a neurologist at a primate research facility, studying how damage to the brains of chimpanzees influenced the chimps’ behavior. The neurologist had established that cortical lesions lead to both paralysis and involuntary, jerky muscle movements. He also established that a “bilateral fronta... |
Both chimps became notably less anxious after the ablation. Becky, Fulton noted in particular, seemed elated and peaceful, as if she had just joined a “cult.” When she failed a test before the operation, she would get agitated. After the operation, she seemed as happy to fail as she was to succeed. Lucy was another sto... |
The fact that such procedures could alter not just ability but behavior was a breakthrough, even though we now know the first procedures inspired by this breakthrough were nightmarish. Fulton presented his findings at a symposium on the frontal lobe where Portuguese neurologist Antonio Egas Moniz was in attendance, and... |
Top image: Alain Houle, BMC Ecology Image Competition. |
With the memogate scandal turning into something of a damp squib with the passage of time, Mansoor Ijaz has tried to give a new twist to the case. Of late, he is alleged to be planning to ask the memo commission to summon President Asif Ali Zardari for cross-examination after a contradiction by the ISPR and the Preside... |
The proceedings would resume on March 15. According to reports, the President’s summons can be made once former Ambassador to the US Hussain Haqqani makes his statement before the Commission. And as the proceedings have shown, it is becoming clear that the memogate scandal is not only limited to the alleged writing of ... |
The fact that Mansoor Ijaz, the main man behind the memo scandal has himself turned the case into a riddle by his contradictory statements, the real purpose of the proceedings which is reaching at the truth has been apparently lost. While it is highly important that truth should be found out, the main focus should be o... |
My holiday shopping was a nightmare. Some of the stuff I ordered online didn’t get there, and the service at most of the stores stunk. Why can’t businesses do a better job catering to the customer? |
On Tuesday afternoon, I proved all the Bitcoin fanatics, who filled my inbox with something decidedly less than holiday greetings after last week’s column, right by going into Wal-Mart. That’s right, I was a blithering idiot to go into the world’s largest retailer on Christmas Eve. |
However, I needed a couple of pounds of bacon, a bottle of wine, batteries, baseball cards, a specific video game, and other assorted last minute stocking stuffers. Sure, I could have gone to several different stores to knock my list out, but that would have taken even more time. |
It wasn’t a pleasant experience. The lines were long; the parking lot was filthy and a hassle; the employees were mostly indifferent, and fellow customers almost rammed me several times with their carts. Still, I found what I needed, and paid less for the lot than I probably would have had I not gone to Wal-Mart. |
Basically, I got what I paid for, and I know that isn’t good English, but it made me think. |
My face reddened as I got his point. Yes, he was paying for a hamburger and French fries; however, he was also paying for the ambiance, the service, and whatever cache there is of telling co-workers he ate at the Oak Room. Sure, he could have gone out on the street and paid $1 for a burger somewhere, but a burger in a ... |
To him, it was money well spent. |
Now, if the only thing that matters to us is low prices, why should we be upset with long lines; indifferent employees, and filthy parking lots? Why should we care if big box retailers force the local mom & pop establishments out of business? Why should we complain when we have to buy a box of penny nails, when all we ... |
By all means, we should shop online and at multinational, big box retailers. We should exchange all of our dollars for Bitcoin, Litecoin, Peercoin, Namecoin, or Ripple to avoid paying those pesky bank transaction fees. We should do everything we can in our power to ensure the other side of our transactions makes as lit... |
Frankly, money talks. If you want a clean parking lot; short lines; attentive and helpful employees, and fellow shoppers who aren’t trying to run you over, well, be willing to pay up for it. |
John Norris is a managing director and the head of wealth management at Oakworth Capital Bank in Birmingham. He can be reached at john.norris@ oakworthcapital.com. |
When Guyanese-born NEIL GOUVEIA immigrated to New York at age 7, his mother made a devastating decision to leave one child behind to expedite the family exodus. Six years later, they became US citizens. Now 39, gay and newly conservative, Gouveia takes a tough, unpopular stance against those who cross the border illega... |
In Guyana back in 1986, an immigration officer broke the terrible news. After a three-year wait, my mother, Bassodai Gouveia, arrived at the US embassy in Georgetown to pick up visas for our family of nine to go live in America. |
When immigrants apply to come to America, they have to go through a complete physical. My sister, Vera, 9, had cerebral palsy. She couldn’t walk or talk and was mostly bed-bound. But she smiled and laughed. When I got a spanking for misbehaving, I would hug Vera, who was 17 months older than me, for comfort. |
It tore my mother apart, but she had to make a decision to leave Vera behind — or start the application process all over again. She had to sacrifice Vera to save the American dream for the rest of us — me and five kids from her previous marriage along with my father. |
When we came to America, we lived in a basement apartment in the South Bronx. Mom and Dad had to hustle and get jobs. There was no time to relax. Dad, a customs official in Guyana, became a janitor. Mom, who had left school when her father died at age 9 to sell fruit, cleaned houses. |
Neil Gouveia came to America in 1986 with parents Augustine and Bassodai Gouveia, who were forced to leave his ailing baby sister, Vera (pictured), behind. |
One day, a woman whose house she was cleaning saw her crying and asked what was wrong. My mom explained that she had to leave her daughter in Guyana. It so happened that the woman was the principal of a special-needs school. “I’m going to help you.” she promised. |
The principal and my mother pleaded with local politicians to petition on her behalf. About six months later, she had a letter granting permission for Vera to enter the US. My mom went back to South America and brought her to New York. |
About a month later, Vera came down with pneumonia and died. We were heartbroken, but my mom still felt vindicated. One of her greatest satisfactions in life is knowing that she never gave up on her daughter. |
I learned a lot about American culture and traditions from watching sit-coms: “Three’s Company,” “Diff’rent Strokes,” “All in the Family,” “The Jeffersons.” I went to some of the worst elementary and middle schools in the South Bronx but won a scholarship to Monsignor Scanlan High School and escaped a cycle of subpar e... |
Those experiences shaped my “conservative” views on immigration. It took five years after we arrived in the US before we could apply for citizenship. While I was exempt because of my age, 13, mom and dad had to prepare for a naturalization test on American history and government. Mom was the nervous one — she did not h... |
On test day, an immigration officer asked 10 questions, and my parents had to answer at least six correctly. Dad passed easily, but mom barely made it. At the official ceremony, I stood with my parents, bursting with pride, as they took the citizenship oath and pledged allegiance to the US flag. At that moment, I, too,... |
Today, if someone hops the US border and gives birth to a child, that child gets the exact same benefit that took my parents eight years to achieve. They waited their turn, but babies born to illegal immigrants in the US automatically become citizens. That’s a huge flaw in our immigration system. |
What President Trump is pitching is already practiced in Australia and Canada. They’re very selective about who they admit. I also think it’s legitimate to separate children, initially, to verify whom they really belong to. If these people don’t have documents to prove the children belong to them, border agents have to... |
Before the 2016 presidential campaign, I didn’t fully understand how the left and right operated. I was always fed the narrative that since I was a person of color — my mother of Indian descent, my father Portuguese — an immigrant and gay that I had to follow a script: Support the Democratic Party and liberal values; c... |
After Trump won the election, my friends instantly wanted him to fail as a leader. I would explain that if he failed, we failed. This point of view was met with heavy backlash and a barrage of insults. Anyone who showed any type of support toward Trump was deemed the enemy. |
People accused me of turning my back on minorities and their struggle. I remained defiant because my parents’ journey here was not easy, and I could not betray the country that has done so much for me. |
But speaking my mind became isolating. People with whom I had shared many amazing years of friendship allowed politics to divide us. Dozens of my liberal friends stopped talking to me or un-friended me on social media. I tried to suppress my political views when meeting new people. I was passive and bit my tongue on ma... |
Amid the backlash, however, I did meet people who looked past politics and not only accepted me but admired that I dared to be different in liberal-dominated NYC. One of those people is my partner, Dan. Although he does not agree with many of my views, he respects them. |
I’m fortunate to be a US citizen because I’m able to live a quality life and enjoy the benefits this country has to offer. I find it disheartening when people gripe about being oppressed in America, especially other immigrants. I firmly believe that living in America is a privilege. This country is truly the land of op... |
A hapless tourist almost had his arm bitten off by a lioness after sticking it through the bars of her cage and trying to give her a stroke. |
Pieter Nortje, 55, was being given a guided tour of the lions at a game lodge in South Africa to celebrate his 10th wedding anniversary when he almost lost his arm. |
The shocking incident was caught on camera by his wife Ilze in Virginia, Free State Province, before being circulated online. |
The lioness then digs her teeth into his right forearm, penetrating to the bone, and drags him towards the fence. |
The lioness keeps hold of his arm for a full five seconds, slashing at it with the claws of her left paw, before finally releasing him. |
Panicked screams of those watching distracted the lioness for long enough for Pieter to pull his bloodied arm back on the other side of the wire. |
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