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Federal court orders Grand Theft Auto V cheat creator to pay $150,000
February 8, 2019 | By Emma Kidwell
More: Console/PC, Business/Marketing
Rockstar Games' parent company Take-Two Interactive has won its copyright infringement lawsuit against Jhonny Perez, the developer behind the Grand Theft Auto V cheat "Elusive".
This isn't the first time Take-Two has enacted legal action against creators of modding tools that give players an unfair advantage or allowed access to restricted features in the online mode of Grand Theft Auto V.
As reported by TorrentFreak, a federal court ordered Perez to pay Take-Two $150,000 in damages, and forbade him from creating or distributing any cheats based on or modifying Take-Two’s games.
The company filed a case against Perez last August, accusing him of copyright infringement by creating and distributing Elusive (which could give players infinite in-game money, break NPC AI, etc.). The cheat was previously sold online at prices ranging from $10 to $30, depending on the package.
Take-Two reportedly argued that these damages were warranted because the cheating activity resulted in severe losses estimated by the company to be around $500,000.
For those interested, a copy of the order granting Take-Two’s default judgment against Perez can be accessed here.
336300 newswire /view/news/336300/Federal_court_orders_Grand_Theft_Auto_V_cheat_creator_to_pay_150000.php Loading Comments
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HomeBandEX-MEMBERSDANIEL ZIMMERMANN
Band - Daniel Zimmermann
Written by Harald on 31 January 1997 .
"I started playing drums at the age of twelve, before that I had played a bit of flute, but that wasn't the real thing, I had always wanted to learn how to play drums. I played for many years then all over the area around Nürnburg (where I was born in 1967) and Würzburg. Later, I went on to study at the Frankfurt music college (for jazz music), that was from 1988 to 1990, and around the same time I also played in a cover band. From 1991 to 1992 I studied at the 'American Institute if Music' in Vienna. That was really a great time, I really learnt a lot about playing drums. After that I went on to tour with the Comedy Rock band Heinz for about a year. After that, Lanzer was following who I was with from 1993 until only recently. I met Kai and Dirk in November of 1993 while we were staying here in Hamburg for the recordings of the Lanzer CD. During that I was working with Dirk, and Kai played a solo on one song. That was a very good colaboration with Dirk, and we got on well with each other right from the beginning and so I also learnt a lot about drumsounds. We also stayed in touch afterwards and in January of this year the Lanzer guitarist told me that GammaRay were looking for a new drummer and as I had told Lanzer that I was leaving anyway because I wanted to move on and leave that cover thing behind because I just wasn't enjoying it anymore I applied for the job with GammaRay then. I did so many cover things over the years, hardly anything of my own, because around the Nurnberg/Wurzburg it's really hard to get gigs whith your own music. Actually, the only way to become a good musician is to play live on stage as much as possible. There are also advantages about playing cover versions: you can make an easy living and you can play live a lot. However, I have reached a certain point now at which I feel I have to push on and go a step further and I'm sure with Gamma Ray that will work well."
(written right after he joined Gamma Ray in 1997)
Photo © 2009: Alex Jusseit
Daniel Hans Erwin Zimmermann
Birthdate & -place:
October, 30th 1966 in Nürnberg
In Gamma Ray since 1997
Dan's personal Website
Gamma Ray in 2015 (f. l. t .r.):
Henjo Richter, Dirk Schlächter, Frank Beck, Kai Hansen, Michael Ehré
Michael Ehré, Kai Hansen, Dirk Schlächter, Henjo Richter
Daniel Zimmermann, Dirk Schlächter, Kai Hansen, Henjo Richter
Gamma Ray 2007 (f. l. t .r.):
Daniel Zimmermann,
Henjo Richter, Kai Hansen,
Gamma Ray 2005 (f. l. t. r.):
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HomeNewsGAMMA RAY ANNOUNCE 25th ANNIVERSARY 2CD REISSUE OF "HEADING FOR THE EAST"
GAMMA RAY ANNOUNCE 25th ANNIVERSARY 2CD REISSUE OF "HEADING FOR THE EAST"
Written by earMusic on 21 August 2015 .
"Heading For The East" (Anniversary Edition) will be released on September 25th, 2015 on earMUSIC.
25 years of Gamma Ray – 25 years of heavy metal from Hamburg: what started out in spring 1990 with the release of their debut album Heading For Tomorrow has achieved international fame a quarter of a century later. Tours around the globe with sold-out shows in the US, Canada, South America, Asia and the whole of Europe plus appearances at the most renowned festivals worldwide – vocalist/guitarist Kai Hansen’s band has long taken the world by storm. Their success is based on more than two dozen recordings, among them eleven studio albums, a number of live releases, DVDs, EPs and singles, which have earned Gamma Ray high chart positions on a regular basis. So it comes as no surprise that the group’s ever-growing fan base turns out in hordes wherever they play. And of course the top 15 position of their current release "Empire Of The Undead" and an album-of-the-month nomination in Metal Hammer and Rock Hard magazines prove unmistakably: Gamma Ray continue to be on the top rung!
In view of this impressive stocktaking on the occasion of their anniversary, there’s a special reason to rejoice for their international fan community: the band’s full back catalogue will be rereleased over the course of a year. All albums will be available as premium-quality digipaks including newly designed cover artwork. To cut a long story short: Gamma Ray are celebrating their anniversary in style, and all their fans are invited!
Following a thoroughly promising career start, their debut Heading For Tomorrow having caused an international stir and netted phenomenal sales figures in February 1990, Gamma Ray embarked on a major tour only a few months after the album release.
As Heading For Tomorrow turned into a commercial success particularly in Asia, Gamma Ray were still on their European tour when they received invitations to Japan: a total of four shows in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka. This offer inspired their record company to have producer Steve Payne accompany the band members and their crew to the Land of the Rising Sun to record the two shows in Tokyo for a live DVD (back then, sound and image storage media were still called VHS cassettes).
Japan welcomed the new act with open arms.
During the four shows in Japan, the new Gamma Ray line-up proved to be a homogenous unit and dynamic live act. They played two nights in a row in Tokyo in front of more than 3,000 fans each and delivered the hoped-for first-rate material for their live DVD Heading For The East, which arrived at the stores in December 1990. The show’s set list consisted mainly of tracks from the debut album Heading For Tomorrow as well as the Helloween tracks 'I Want Out', 'Ride The Sky', 'Save Us' and 'Freetime', a composition which vocalist Ralf Scheepers had brought with him from his former band Tyran’ Pace.
Thanks to the 2015 anniversary re-release Heading For The East, the legendary Tokyo concert from 1990 is now available on CD for the first time, perfectly remastered by producer/sound engineer Eike Freese (Dark Age, Deep Purple).
Over 80 Minutes of music. For the first time as audio!
CD1 - Live
2. Lust For Life
3. Heaven Can Wait
4. Space Eater
5. Free Time
6. Who Do You Think You Are?
1. The Silence
2. Save Us
3. I Want Out
4. Ride The Sky / Hold Your Ground
6. Heading For Tomorrow
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$8 billion secretly taken out of Ethiopia – UN report
Over 8.3 billion dollars left Ethiopia in 18 years after 1990, an amount comprising an average 3.6pc of its GDP, a damning and first of its kind study, conducted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), revealed.
This is part of the one trillion dollars that is believed to have left LDCs over the years covered by the study, an amount estimated to be 10 times larger than what these countries receive from rich countries in the form of official development assistance (ODA).
Ethiopia’s loss of over eight billion dollars in the past nearly two decades represents an average of 3.6pc of the amount it has received from its development partners during the same period, the study revealed.
Ethiopia: Brutal Crackdown on Protests – Human Rights Watch report
Security Forces Fire On, Beat Students Protesting Plan to Expand Capital Boundaries
Ethiopian security forces should cease using excessive force against students peacefully protesting plans to extend the boundaries of the capital, Addis Ababa. The authorities should immediately release students and others arbitrarily arrested during the protests and investigate and hold accountable security officials who are responsible for abuses.
On May 6, 2014, the government will appear before the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva for the country’s Universal Periodic Review of its human rights record.
“Students have concerns about the fate of farmers and others on land the government wants to move inside Addis Ababa,” said Leslie Lefkow, deputy Africa director. “Rather than having its security forces attack peaceful protesters, the government should sit down and discuss the students’ grievances.”
Since April 25, students have demonstrated throughout Oromia Regional State to protest the government’s plan to substantially expand the municipal boundaries of Addis Ababa, which the students feel would threaten communities currently under regional jurisdiction. Security forces have responded by shooting at and beating peaceful protesters in Ambo, Nekemte, Jimma, and other towns with unconfirmed reports from witnesses of dozens of casualties.
Protests began at universities in Ambo and other large towns throughout Oromia, and spread to smaller communities throughout the region. Witnesses said security forces fired live ammunition at peaceful protesters in Ambo on April 30. Official government statements put the number of dead in Ambo at eight, but various credible local sources put the death toll much higher. Since the events in Ambo, the security forces have allegedly used excessive force against protesters throughout the region, resulting in further casualties. Ethiopian authorities have said there has been widespread looting and destruction of property during the protests.
The protests erupted over the release in April of the proposed Addis Ababa Integrated Development Master Plan, which outlines plans for Addis Ababa’s municipal expansion. Under the proposed plan, Addis Ababa’s municipal boundary would be expanded substantially to include more than 15 communities in Oromia. This land would fall under the jurisdiction of the Addis Ababa City Administration and would no longer be managed by Oromia Regional State. Demonstrators have expressed concern about the displacement of Oromo farmers and residents on the affected land.|
Ethiopia is experiencing an economic boom and the government has ambitious plans for further economic growth. This boom has resulted in a growing middle class in Addis Ababa and an increased demand for residential, commercial, and industrial properties. There has not been meaningful consultation with impacted communities during the early stages of this expansion into the surrounding countryside, raising concerns about the risk of inadequate compensation and due process protections to displaced farmers and residents.
Oromia is the largest of Ethiopia’s nine regions and is inhabited largely by ethnic Oromos. The Oromos are Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group and have historically felt marginalized and discriminated against by successive Ethiopian governments. The city of Addis Ababa is surrounded on all sides by the Oromia region.
Given very tight restrictions on independent media and human rights monitoring in Ethiopia, it is difficult to corroborate the government crackdown in Oromia. There is little independent media in Oromia to monitor these events, and foreign journalists who have attempted to reach demonstrations have been turned away or detained.
Ethiopia has one of the most repressive media environments in the world. Numerous journalists are in prison, independent media outlets are regularly closed down, and many journalists have fled the country. Underscoring the repressive situation, the government on April 25 and 26 arbitrarily arrested nine bloggers and journalists in Addis Ababa. They remain in detention without charge. In addition, the Charities and Societies Proclamation, enacted in 2009, has severely curtailed the ability of independent human rights organizations to investigate and report on human rights abuses like the recent events in Oromia.
“The government should not be able to escape accountability for abuses in Oromo because it has muzzled the media and human rights groups,” Lefkow said.
Since Ethiopia’s last Universal Periodic Review in 2009 its human rights record has taken a significant downturn, with the authorities showing increasing intolerance of any criticism of the government and further restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression and association. The recent crackdown in Oromia highlights the risks protesters face and the inability of the media and human rights groups to report on important events.
Ethiopian authorities should abide by the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, which provide that all security forces shall, as far as possible, apply nonviolent means before resorting to force. Whenever the lawful use of force is unavoidable, the authorities must use restraint and act in proportion to the seriousness of the offense. Law enforcement officials should not use firearms against people “except in self-defense or defense of others against the imminent threat of death or serious injury.”
“Ethiopia’s heavy handed reaction to the Oromo protests is the latest example of the government’s ruthless response to any criticism of its policies,” Lefkow said. “UN member countries should tell Ethiopia that responding with excessive force against protesters is unacceptable and needs to stop.”
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The Freewheeling Freelancer
Taking my life and work wherever my bicycle takes me.
The Saint Lawrence River
Posted on 11-Aug-2018 @ 14:00 by JT Hine
The ride from the Langlais cottage at 700 m of elevation to the Saint Lawrence River (elevation almost zero) was a blistering series of terrifying downhills and challenging climbs. Jack, Hilda and Emily were paying for the three weeks spent without their loaded panniers. Still, they stopped at particularly breathtaking overlooks to admire the view (and to slow down their heart rates).
“Mom had some news last night,” said Emily as they looked at the river from a cliff.
“Is everything OK?” asked Hilda.
“Fine. Greg Sprouse is being transferred, and guess who’s coming in to replace him.” Hilda and Jack shrugged. “Frank Daglio!”
“Now that really is a coincidence.”
“According to Mom, Frank asked for Charlottesville after meeting us. Something about being closer to an international airport without having to serve in Headquarters itself.”
“A man after my heart,” said Jack. “I hated Washington duty.”
“It sounds like he’s thinking of racking up frequent flyer miles to and from Amsterdam,” said Emily. “We’ll see how that shapes up.”
They mounted their bicycles and flew down the next ten-kilometre stretch. They stopped just beyond Sainte-Brigitte-de-Laval to eat the picnic lunch that Louise Langlais had packed. Then they rode down to the right bank of the Montmorency River. From there, it was a steady downhill along the Boulevards Raymond and Lloyd Welch to Courville, which was where the built-up suburbs downstream from Québec City ended.
They rode to Montmorency Falls by riding through Villeneuve and along the Route Verte by the Saint Lawrence River. They could see the bridge to the Île d’Orléans and a cable car ride. The island itself was a vast expanse of farmland. Mud flats made the shore unapproachable by boat.
“It’s beautiful,” said Emily, looking at the Falls from the bike path, “but I think I like the Laurentians better.”
“Me, too,” said Hilda. “That was so quiet and clean, wasn’t it?”
“Well, I, for one, am not complaining about a well-paved bike path along a big river,” said Jack. As expected, they rolled into Beaupré about 3 p.m., pausing to take pictures at the Church of the Blessed Virgin, a major pilgrimage site in Canada.
The directions from Jean-Paul Langlais were excellent, but the road was a surprise. They rode the highway north out of Beaupré exactly 900 metres, then stopped in a wide bend in the highway. Woods shaded both sides of the road. They could see a development beyond the woods to the left. The woods on the right were taller and denser.
“That must be it,” said Emily, pointing to the woods on the right.
“What?” said Jack.
“There’s a dirt track between those two trees.”
“So there is. Let’s check it out. There’s nothing else here.”
“Jean-Paul said it was a long, dirt driveway,” said Hilda.
They turned down the dirt track, which was only one vehicle wide. Occasionally they dodged branches that showed signs of having been beat up by passing cars or trucks. About 100 metres into the dark woods, the road became very steep with occasional ruts from rain. Suddenly, it levelled into a clearing right by the bank of the river. Jack caught himself just in time to keep from spilling over, but the two women stopped smoothly and dismounted normally.
“Welcome! I’m glad you made it.” A deep voice with a British public-school accent reached them from the back porch, and a trim man with short grey hair came smiling down the steps. “You must be Jean-Paul’s friends.” He approached them with his hand out. “Jerome Gordon-Smythe. Call me Jerry.”
They shook hands and introduced themselves.
“Jean-Paul’s directions were excellent,” said Jack, “but he didn’t explain the driveway very well.”
“Frightfully sorry about that,” said Jerry. “I hardly ever use it, so it has fallen into disrepair.”
“How do you get in and out?” asked Emily.
“On the river. We hardly ever need to drive anywhere. When we do, we rent a car in Villeneuve and leave the boat there.”
“Makes sense to me,” said Hilda. “None of us has a car.”
Jerry grinned. “Come, let’s get you settled. I want to hear all about your adventures. What little Jean-Paul told me has me as excited as a six-year-old at Christmas!” He led them to the upstairs, where he had three bedrooms, one of which was obviously his home office.
“I hope this will suit you, young lady.” He pointed to the twin bed across from the desk. “The washroom is big, but we have only the one.”
“That will be fine, sir,” said Emily.
“Jerry. You don’t work for me.”
Emily blushed. “Jerry.”
Jerry showed Hilda and Jack to the guest bedroom. Like the office, it had a view of the woods beyond the river.
“I’ll be out on the verandah keeping an eye out for her ladyship. You can take your showers now or later. No need to change clothes for us.”
They opted to clean up, so they took turns using the shower and changed into street clothes.
Jerry was sitting on a verandah looking downriver when Jack came into the living room. Jerry put his book cover down and turned around.
“Did I make that much noise?” Jack asked.
“Not at all. Just that sixth sense. You know.” Jack nodded. “What’ll you have?”
“A beer would be nice.”
“I forgot to chill it.”
“If it’s a good beer, that’s fine.”
Jerry smiled. “A civilized man.” He crossed to the bar and got out two bottles of Ind Coope Long Life. “Have to leave Québec to get this one, but it’s worth it.” They clinked glasses and sat down. “I hope the ladies aren’t powdering too much.”
“They’re not the powder type,” Jack grinned. “But their hair does take longer to dry.”
“Had enough powder on me before the shower.” Both men jumped up to find Hilda pausing at the entrance to the living room. She had her trekking clothes on, shirt and shorts.
“Now, that’s silent,” said Jerry with an admiring smile.
“Are those bottles of Long Life I see on the bar?”
Jerry was already crossing the room. As he poured a mug for Hilda, Emily walked in, also wearing a short trekking outfit.
“Beer for you, too?” Jerry asked.
“If you don’t mind, I’d like something cold, maybe an orange juice.”
“That we have.” Jerry reached into the refrigerator under the bar. Soon everyone was seated on the balcony. The river ran swiftly past the house.
“What’s that roar?” asked Emily.
“The rapids and the Saint Anne Canyon. The white-water rafting ends just around the bend upstream.” He pointed with his mug. “Ah – there’s milady herself.”
A Boston Whaler was coming upstream, the bow waves crashing into the trees and river bank on either side. At the wheel, an athletic-looking woman with a blond ponytail waved to Jerry. She did not slow down as she turned toward the house but went into full reverse to bring the boat to a gentle halt somewhere beneath them. They heard the engine stop. Moments later, she came into the living room from a door next to the stairs from the bedrooms. She was taller than Emily, fair, well-tanned, and the lines on her face spoke of much time on the water, in the wind and sun. Also of much laughter and smiling. Jerry gave her a kiss and turned to the guests.
“Margaret, may I present Major Hilda Paisley, Major Jack Rathburn and you-know-who?”
Emily laughed. Jack rolled his eyes. Margaret Gordon-Smythe reached out to Emily first.
“Emily, so pleased to meet you.” She shook hands with the others. “Please call me Maggie.” Jerry appeared with a glass of white wine. “Thank you, dear. Would you mind bringing up the shopping?”
Jack hastened to accompany Jerry to the boat. The others went to the verandah and sat down. The shadows were already long, and the temperature was dropping, a combination of the tall woods, the steep hills to the west of them and the water rushing by the house.
“This is quite the hideaway,” said Hilda. “I take it you two don’t care for big cities and crowds.”
“This suits us perfectly,” said Maggie. “We have friends everywhere, but we like to be able to reach out on our own terms.”
“We also like not being easy to find,” added Jerry, coming in with Jack from the kitchen. “It allows us to live in something resembling a real retirement.”
Jack and Hilda exchanged glances. “I could use a place like this right now,” she said.
“Me, too,” said Emily.
“You’re welcome to stay as long as you like. Jean-Paul only described the barest outlines of your adventures, and I don’t dare trust what I see on the telly. Tell us about it. ”
They spent the next hour recounting their stories, much to the delight of their hosts.
“But what about you?” asked Hilda.
“Some time in the Army and here we are,” said Jerry.
Emily was staring at them. “Jean-Paul said that you were SAS.” Jerry nodded. “That sounds like more than ‘some time in the Army’.”
“Well, most of the good stories haven’t been declassified yet, so I have to hold on a while longer.”
“Jean-Pierre is going into the Canadian Special Forces.”
“That’s partly my fault, you know. I love that boy, and we got along so well. Maryse may never forgive me.”
“Speaking of Maryse – and others I’ve seen,” Emily said, looking at Jack and Hilda, “how did you two meet?”
Maggie laughed. “That story is mostly declassified.”
“The embarrassing parts anyway,” said Jerry with a smile at his wife. “We were in the Falklands – miserable cold operation that. I was leading my first team on a raid on the other side of the hill from Port Howard. We put ashore and did what we came to do, then ran into an irate farmer on the way back to the boat. Our orders were not to engage civilians. We got away from him, but he put a load of buckshot in my derrière as we reached the beach.” He looked at Maggie.
“I had the honour of plucking the little beads out on the way back to their ship.” She winked. “Nice arse, so I decided to keep him.” Emily blushed and giggled.
After the laughter died down, Emily asked, “what were you doing there?”
“Well, it was my boat! The SAS didn’t have anything that could cross the rough water at the time.”
“Maggie already had a reputation throughout the Falklands. She was a one-woman SAR team with that boat. Our commander asked her to lend a hand.” Jerry smiled warmly at his wife.
“SAR?”
“Search and Rescue,” said Jerry. “There’s a memorial plaque in the sea rescue station with a list of all the people she brought ashore. And she’s not even dead yet!”
Jack looked at Maggie. “That explains the dramatic approach this afternoon.”
“I had to be careful today,” said Maggie. “Two dozen eggs in the load.”
The banter continued for another half-hour. Then they all moved to the kitchen to continue chatting while the Gordon-Smyths put supper together.
“The nice thing about living here is you can have good English food with the freshest ingredients. The fish and the produce are unbeatable here.” Jerry heated up the deep fryer. “You’ve probably been drowning in wonderful French cuisine, haven’t you?” They nodded. “Tonight, it’s fish and chips and more warm beer.”
The Americans learned that Maggie was born and raised in the Falklands. Jerry came back on leave six months after the war and proposed. They lived all over the world together, but when he had a long deployment, she would fly back to the Falklands until his unit came home.
“The Army was a good life, but you can understand why we like the water and a certain isolation,” she explained.
The yawning started at ten p.m. It had been a long day on the road. In their rooms, the three Americans fell deeply asleep with the background noise of the river.
The next morning over breakfast, Jerry showed them where they would be going.
“There’s no hurry,” said Jerry. “We can get to Rivière Ouelle in less than five hours—”
“Less than three,” Maggie gave them a wicked grin.
“I thought we would let them enjoy the view. Take pictures. That sort of thing.”
“You’re trying to save on fuel again.”
“Not a bad idea, love.”
After breakfast, Jack helped load the dishwasher while Emily scrubbed the pans. Jerry checked out the big boat. Emily, Hilda and Jack double-checked their rooms, then loaded their panniers below to the boat. The mooring area occupied the vast space among the stilts beneath the house, with two slips and a generous dock area around each boat. They carried their bikes down to the boat. Jerry lashed them together and to the life rails on the fantail with bungee cords.
Maggie climbed up to the bridge, fired up the engine and let it purr for a moment. Then she threw the boat into full reverse on the port engine and put a twist on the two screws, churning up the river. Emily and her friends grabbed the rail in surprise as the boat pulled out with its stern pointing neatly upstream. Maggie put the engines ahead slow and let the river carry them to the Saint Lawrence.
“Why not the dramatic show we saw yesterday?” Jack asked Jerry.
“It’s very shallow all the way past the mud flats on the North Shore of the Saint Lawrence. This boat draws more water than the Boston Whaler, so going fast could suck mud into the engines.”
Jack nodded and joined the others.
They came to the channel of the Saint Lawrence River. Maggie increased speed and turned downstream. Emily used her phone to take pictures of the farms on the Île d’Orléans and of Beaupré on the other side. The boat moved nimbly, passing the outbound freighters and keeping to the other side of the river from the inbound ships.
“Is there always this much traffic on the river?” Emily asked.
“There is unless the river or Lake Ontario freezes over,” said Jerry. “We’ve seen that a couple of times.”
They enjoyed a picnic lunch about noon, with Jerry taking a turn at the wheel while Maggie ate. By mid-afternoon, Maggie was bringing the boat alongside the one pier in Rivière Ouelle. It belonged to a friend of theirs, who was visiting relatives in Manitoba.
“Stay in touch,” said Jerry. “You’re welcome together or separately.”
“Anytime,” said Maggie. “It was wonderful to meet you and hear your stories.”
After hugs, the Americans mounted their bicycles and rode up to Highway 132, where the Route Verte led to the end of the Gaspé Peninsula. On the other side of the Ouelle River, they turned left back toward the Saint Lawrence and soon were checking into the Municipal Campground. They bought food for supper and set up their camp half-way back from the shore.
They ate an early supper. With the sun still well above the horizon, Hilda suggested a walk on the beach.
“The sunsets here are unique, and to die for,” she said.
“Swimming?” asked Emily.
“It’s allowed, but I don’t feel like sharing the water with all those ships.”
As the sun came closer to the horizon, campers and neighbours gathered on the beach. A group was singing around a guitar, and a half-dozen campfires were going as the sun slowly fell below the Saint Lawrence.
“That is truly spectacular,” said Jack. “Almost as beautiful as you are.”
Hilda smiled and gave him a hug. “I don’t light up the place.”
“Oh, yes, you do.”
Emily sat immobile on the sand, soaking in the beauty of the moment, enjoying the music nearby, and feeling intensely happy to be on the road with her friends.
Smooth roads and tailwinds,
This entry was posted in bicycling, Emily & Hilda, Fiction and tagged Emily, Hilda, Jack, Québec by JT Hine. Bookmark the permalink.
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Fresh Ground Stories
Posted by Paul Currington - Fresh Ground Stories in Uncategorized
Thank you to everyone who came out to the show last Thursday. I look forward to this night every month. No matter what the theme is or what stories are told I’m always grateful to see people willing to be so beautifully honest and vulnerable up there in front of everyone.
David, one of our regulars came up to me after the show and said, “Those newcomers. They were awesome!” And he was right. They were awesome. Two of them were shaking so hard while they told their story I thought I was going to have to go up there and give them a hug so they could get through it. But each of them made it just fine and they have a lot to be proud of. Big thanks to Roger, Lynx, Cindy and Bailey.
One of the most powerful moments in the show came during the second story. It was from one of the first-timers, Bailey. I won’t tell you what the story was about because I feel it was something for just those people who were there in that moment to share. But I will tell you one thing she said that I think we should all hear more often, “Don’t stop fighting for your happiness.” It’s been a long, hard road for her to find happiness and telling her story at our show was one more step on that journey. She said that night was the first time in 25 years she had been in front of a group of people. Thank you for choosing to be with us when you took that step Bailey. Thanks also to everyone in the audience who stayed with her during the long silences in her story where she was pulling herself together so she could say the next word. Don’t ever feel bad about not getting up and telling a story of your own. Being a kind and patience audience member is what makes this all possible.
Thanks to all the storytellers who told that night: Jake, Kris, David, Lynx, Cindy, Barb, Hannah, Gary, Kevin, Bailey, Roger, TC, and Keith.
The only thing I regret during the show is that I forgot to remind everyone that another one of our regulars, Jonathan, is offering a storytelling workshop this Wednesday. It’s $15 for a 3-hour class and that is a very good deal. It basically pays for the room and the materials. I’ve been to lots of storytelling workshops and I have always gotten something important out of them. It’s also a good way to meet other tellers and find cool people to work on stories with after the class ends.
Here’s the link to it:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/storytelling-101-workshop-learn-to-tell-the-personal-story-tickets-19029010282
Next month’s show is Dec 10th. The theme is “The Hardest Thing You’ve Ever Had To Say.” It doesn’t matter if it’s something you had to say to another person or just quietly to yourself. And since I know that maybe the #1 hardest thing you’ve ever said isn’t something you want to say in public we’ll accept the 2nd or 3rd hardest thing you’ve said. Or if you have a really good story about the 15th hardest thing you’ve ever had to say then definitely tell that one 🙂
I gotta say one more thing before I let you go. I’ve met some amazing people at this show and a few of them have gone on to become some of my favorite people. Nathan Vass is one of those people. I don’t get to see him nearly enough so whenever he shows up at Roy Street it’s a special treat for me. Two days ago I learned he was in Paris during the attacks. No one could get ahold of him. We wrote emails, checked his facebook page, called his parents, checked all the news coverage for his name. Nothing. Today was getting kind of scary. I just started getting to know this guy and now I’m regretting all the times I’d been in Seattle and didn’t call him to go get a cup of coffee.
A few minutes ago I got an email saying CNN had found Nathan safe and sound. As happy as I am for him and his family I’m also happy that I’ve been given a second chance to get to know him better.
Here are two links to learn about more about him.
http://www.quirksee.org/2013/09/19/seattle-king-county-metro-bus-driver-nathan-vass-358/
His story from the August FGS:
The recording from last week’s show came out fine so I can give each of the storytellers a copy of their performance if they want it. I only give them to the people who told a story and it’s only the audio of their own story. Most performers don’t want their personal stories online so that’s why I only give copies to the people who told them.
That’s all for now. Thanks again to everyone who came up and supported all the tellers that night. I hope to see you on the 10th!
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FGS: Keep on Keeping… on Thank you!
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Emirates named Best Airline in the World by TripAdvisor
Emirates has been awarded as the Best Airline in the World in the inaugural TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice® Awards for Airlines. The carrier also gets four more awards including Best Major Airline - Middle East & Africa, Best Economy Class, Best First Class and World’s Best Airlines - Top 10.
This is the first year TripAdvisor has introduced a category for airlines in its signature Travelers’ Choice® Awards. The awards highlight the world’s top carriers based on the quantity and quality of reviews and ratings for airlines worldwide gathered over a 12-month period.
Sir Tim Clark, President, Emirates Airline said: “We are honored to be named the Best Airline in the World at the TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice Awards for Airlines 2017. The fact that the awards are a result of unbiased reviews and feedback speaks to our commitment to deliver a superior travel experience for our customers. We want travelers to continue making Emirates their first choice whenever they think to travel. That is why we continue to invest in products and services across all classes, and why our service teams work hard and put their hearts into providing the very best experience for our customers both on board and on the ground every day.”
“We are proud to announce the inaugural Travelers’ Choice® Awards for airlines, to help travelers make the most well-informed air travel decisions, based on the experiences of the TripAdvisor community,” said Bryan Saltzburg, General Manager for TripAdvisor Flights. “It’s a high honor for Emirates to be recognized as the top airline in the world by the TripAdvisor community and speaks to their continued focus on delivering fantastic customer experiences.”
Emirates is the world’s largest international airline, with an extensive network that has grown to offer its customers a choice of 155 destinations in 83 countries across six continents. It operates one of the world’s youngest modern wide-body fleets, and is the first and only airline in the world to operate a fleet of all Airbus A380 and Boeing 777 aircraft for its passenger flights.
The airline recently announced a multi-million dollar cabin interiors upgrade programme including an enhanced Onboard Lounge for its flagship Airbus A380 aircraft which will make its debut in July. Emirates also recently underwent a product overhaul with a host of exclusive products introduced to its First and Business Class cabins. New additions include the world’s first moisturizing lounge wear in First Class, luxury blankets, skincare from organic brand VOYA and a new range of amenity kits from Bulgari. In the last year, Emirates has also introduced several new products for customers travelling in Economy including the world’s first interactive amenity kits and sustainable blankets made from 100% recycled plastic bottles.
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Burai stands in the doorway of her wooden hut, carrying her year-old son on one hip. She calls out to her daughter, Olivia, and a few seconds later she scurries home, sweaty from an evening spent playing in the village.
Daylight is waning fast and soon it will be night. There’s a lot of things that Burai has to get done before darkness snatches away her precious time. She immediately sets to work helping her daughter pack her books for school and laying out the few dishes she had prepared earlier for dinner.
Her family of four gather in a small circle to have dinner, a flashlight placed in the centre serving as their only source of light. When their meal is over, there is nothing left to do but to go to bed.
Shedding Light on the Energy-Poor
Kampung Sion is a village of about 45 families, majority of which are Ibanese. Their village, although only a ten-minute drive to town, does not have access to piped water and electricity. In an age where electricity is a part of our daily lives—from powering lights, charging devices, providing entertainment, and making everything easier—it is mind-boggling to imagine the lengths they have to go to and the exorbitant price they have to pay just for a few hours of electricity.
The people of Sion mainly work as contract workers, labourers, and farmers. Some of the poorer families can only afford to use kerosene lamps, candles, and car batteries, while a few houses have their own electric generators that can provide power to refrigerators, televisions, washing machines, fluorescent lights, and more.
However, the cost of operating a generator far outweighs the benefits. For starters, the price of a generator varies from RM1,500 to RM3,000 depending on its horsepower. The fuel needed to keep it running for three hours a day amounts to RM5. On top of that, the motor oil costs RM15 per weekly refill.
A family using a generator can easily spend anywhere between RM150 to RM200 a month for electricity, and they are only using it for three hours a day. Compare that to the average electricity bill of urban folk and you can already see the disparity in the standard of living.
Aida with her broken-down generator. Her family has been using candles and oil lamps since.
Car battery used to power light bulbs.
Candles pose a fire hazard to their wooden homes.
A Brighter Future
The Solar for Sion project is part of our All-Lights Village initiative that aims to alleviate energy poverty in underserved communities with sustainable solar technology to enhance quality of life and improve livelihood. On March 28, 2019, we completed the installation of home solar systems for 39 houses in Kampung Sion.
Our technical partner, Joseph from SolarNRJ, explaining the solar components to one of the beneficiaries.
Burai can charge her phone easily now with the home solar system.
To date, we have impacted 834 people in 16 underserved villages across Malaysia with sustainable solar energy.
Solar is a form of clean, renewable energy that can relieve the financial burden faced by energy-poor households. Just switching to solar alone can help a family that used to rely on generators save up to RM200 a month.
The money saved can be used for more pressing needs like children’s education and daily expenses.
Talap and Agnes standing in front of their home with their new solar panel.
Talap and his wife, Agnes, are one of the families that benefited under the Solar for Sion project. “We spend more than RM100 a month on diesel to power our generator. We only turn it on for five nights a week, from 6.30pm to 11pm, for lighting and to watch TV. Sometimes, when it gets too hot during the day, we turn on the generator for a while to power the fan. But only for a short time as we have to save fuel.”
For Talap who is a dialysis patient, being able to save RM100 a month makes a big difference to him. He has been out of work since he was diagnosed with kidney failure and relies on welfare and SOCSO for his living and medical expenses. “Betul-betul senang hati saya sekarang (I feel very relieved).”
Aida is a mother of two boys. Her husband works as a labourer at a construction site and Aida takes on odd jobs like waitressing and cleaning to help out with the family’s expenses. Her two-year old generator broke down a few months ago and her family has been using oil lamps during the night. “It costs RM500 to fix the generator. I’d rather invest that money in the solar system instead.”
Aida values the importance of education and always takes the time to help her sons revise their studies. For the past few months, they have been doing so under the dim light of an oil lamp. “Sometimes I use my phone’s flashlight to shine on their books while they read. But then the battery runs out and I can’t even charge it without electricity. We end up going to sleep early. I think this solar would be good for us and will help us save money. One fluorescent tube is enough to light up this space and my boys can study comfortably. They can even watch TV later as a reward.”
Aida has managed to save RM100 so far in the two months that she switched to solar. She plans to buy a fan with the money so that her family will be more comfortable during the hot daytime hours.
This Solar for Sion project is made possible by our sponsor, YTL Power. Special thanks to our technical partner, SolarNRJ, for lending their expertise and on-site support.
Category: All-Lights May 15, 2019
[VIDEO] Life Without Electricity: Surayati’s Story
The Insanely High Price to Charge Phones in Orang Asli Villages
All-Lights Village: Where Light Becomes Life
Alllights Project – In conjunction with GPLE Sabah
Alllights Village
GPF Korea All Lights Village Project to Expand to East Malaysia
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Foundation Profile: The Van Andel Family Foundations
tags: David & Carol Van Andel, Hillsdale College, Steve and Cindy Van Andel, Van Andel Family Foundations
This foundation profile is part of an ongoing series looking at both foundations and non-profits in West Michigan. The project is called the Grand Rapids Non-Profit Industrial Complex Project.
Today we are featuring several foundations based in the Van Andel Family.
Like the other Amway family (DeVos), the Van Andel’s have several family foundations with a significant amount of money. Unlike the DeVos Family foundations, the Van Andel’s have’t contributed as much money in recent years to organizations that are as overtly political or part of the religious right.
We have combined the data from the three most recent years of 990s for the Steve & Cindy Van Andel Family Foundation, the David & Carol Van Andel Foundation and the Van Andel Fund Inc.
The Van Andel Fund Inc. only contributed to two different entities between 2009 and 2011, the Public Museum of Grand Rapids ($28,342,500) and the Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital Foundation ($2 million). These are sizeable amounts in both cases and it is worth noting that Carol Van Andel sits on the Board of Directors at the Public Museum of Grand Rapids.
The Steve & Cindy Van Andel Foundation has also kept most of its contributions from the foundation local. However, there are a few exceptions that are important to note since they are part of the religious right and ultra conservatism in America.
The Steve & Cindy Van Andel Foundation contributed $30,000 to the Heritage Foundation between 2009 and 2011, a small donation to the Acton Institute ($2,500) and $2,520,000 to Hillsdale College.
Hillsdale College is one of the most conservative colleges in the country, which actively recruits those who embrace and promote what is referred to as Theocratic Dominionism. Theocratic Dominionism is a brand of Christian Right Theology that believes that the US Constitution should be replaced by the Ten Commandments and other Judeo-Christian Laws.
Hillsdale College has also had numerous Presidents with close relations with the far right. For instance, former Hillsdale President George Roche III, was a member of the World Anti-Communist League, an organization that has historical links to Nazis and Latin American Death Squads.
The Steve & Cindy Van Andel Foundation also contributed $10,000 to the ultra-right publication, The American Spectator.
The David & Carol Van Andel Foundation have also kept their contributions close to home and have funded numerous charity and social service agencies in West Michigan. They have contributed some money to far right and religious right groups such as the Acton Institute ($30,000), Prison Fellowship Ministries ($25,000) and the Dove Foundation ($25,000).
The Dove Foundation is a Conservative Christian Media Advocacy group that grades media, mostly movies, through a far right Christian lens. Their founder and President, Dick Rolfe, is a big proponent of censorship, as is fellow Dove Foundation board member Dar Vander Ark. Vander Ark is the head of the Michigan Decency Action Council, which also tries to limit and censor material they consider to be immoral.
from → Grand Rapids Non-Profit Industrial Complex, Indy News
← Local Mother and Domestic Abuse Survivor Facing Immediate Deportation
On the Legacy of Hugo Chávez →
jay permalink
A few years back the Jay and Betty Van Andel Foundation closed up shop, which regularly gave money to lots of conservative groups. They dispersed the money to the rest of the family foundations.
Never forget though that for years a pet cause of that foundation was funding groups that promoted creationism. These groups aim to use science to “prove” the timetables laid out in the bible.
http://creation.com/creation-philanthropist-passes-away
Like a lot the stuff with the Van Andels and even the DeVoses things are changing between generations, but it’s still interesting.
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Friday music blogging: Alabama Shakes
By David Roberts on May 4, 2012
No band in the last five years has gotten as much early hype as the Alabama Shakes. In fact, the hype was so thick that I put off listening to them for quite a while, unsure that the world needed another soul-rock-revival novelty band.
But I finally got around to listening, and damn if they didn’t win me over. The music, while a little too genre-obedient for my taste, has a nice, punchy swing to it, good for dancing, but the main draw is the titanic, endlessly charismatic voice of lead singer Brittany Howard.
Who knows if they’ll hold up over the long run, but the debut album, Boys & Girls, is strikingly mature and well-developed. Especially for a band that looks like they’re playing in a high-school talent competition!
Here’s the first single and what is, to my mind, the album’s clear standout track: “Hold On.”
https://grist.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/01-hold-on.mp3
Bonus sad coda:
I’d feel remiss if I wrote a post on music and didn’t note the tragic death today of Adam Yauch, better know as the Beastie Boys’ MCA, from cancer at the age of 47.
The Beasties’ first album, Licensed to Ill, came out when I was 14 years old. With every album after that they reinvented themselves all over again. I remember when Check Your Head came out in 1992, with the classic “Whatcha Want” video, and it felt like another debut. They never repeated themselves, never stopped evolving, but never sounded like anyone else.
I can’t think of another band in the modern era — U2 maybe? — that has maintained its freshness, creativity, and spirit through such an incredibly long career. What’s more astonishing is that, even more than U2, more than the Rolling Stones, more than any band since the Beatles, the band has been universally hailed and beloved — by all ages, colors, and nationalities. Is there anyone who doesn’t like, or at the very least respect, the Beastie Boys?
And for a rap group full of white Jewish kids! It’s just a remarkable thing. I doubt we’ll see anything like it again in our lifetimes.
It’s impossible to pick one BB song, but I can pick one album: 1989’s Paul’s Boutique, the greatest album they ever did, possibly the best album of the ’80s, hell, possibly the best album of the 20th century. Marvel:
R.I.P., MCA.
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Music, Songs and Karaoke
Enviromental education
Home History and Geography Discovery of America
Discovery of America
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Discovery of America.
Hello friends, welcome to a new Happy Learning video. Today we are going to learn about the discovery of America
In the fifteenth century, when the Catholic queen Isabel and King Fernando reigned in Spain, Christopher Columbus, a courageous marine adventurer, whose roots are believed to be Italian, got economic help from Queen Isabel to undertake a trip by sea around the earth. At the time, everyone believed that the Earth was square and flat, except Columbus, who believed it was round, and with this trip he intended to prove it. For that, he wanted to cross the Atlantic Ocean and reach the Indies, making an almost complete loop around the world.
On August 3, 1492, he left with three ships and ninety men from the Port of Palos, in Spain, into the unknown. By the way, the three boats were called La Niña, La Pinta and la Santa Maria.
First they went to the Canary Islands, where they filled their ships with supplies, that is, food and water. And from there they continued on their adventure …
They spent days and days, weeks and weeks sailing without seeing land and after almost a month of sailing, with a desperate and tired crew that had already tried mutiny on more than one occasion, a sailor named Rodrigo de Triana shouted: Earth in sight !!!!! and from that moment, the world was changed.
They had arrived at Guanahaní Island, later name San Salvador which was inhabited by peaceful Indians. After returning to Spain, Christopher Columbus organized three more trips to America where he discovered other unknown lands such as Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Honduras, Panama … and where he led an exchange of products and animals. From America, he took unknown foods such as potato, tomato and chocolate to Europe and from Europe to America he took animals that did not exist there, like hens and horses …
In 1506, the admirable Christopher Columbus died convinced that he had found a new route to reach Asia and had shown that the Earth was round but he never knew nor imagined that he had discovered a new continent.
In homage to the great travels of Christopher Columbus, a country in South America was named after him! Do you know what it is? Well, of course … Colombia, but … I’m sure you’re wondering why the new continent was named America.
It was in honour of Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian navigator who was the first to realize that the lands discovered by Columbus belonged to a new continent.
The truth is that it is super entertaining learning about our past history, don’t you think?
Bye friends ah and don’t forget to subscribe to happy learning tv
Parts of the City in Spanish for Children
Pyramids and Mummies
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I added a video to a @YouTube playlist https://t.co/vpq4WxurZr LONGITUDE and The Unit of Length: The Meter | Educational Videos for
LONGITUDE and The Unit of Length: The Meter | Educational Videos for Kids: https://t.co/vpq4WxurZr via @YouTube
Learning to Draw… A Lion
Song: Away in a Manger – Christmas Carols
Puzzle: Countries of Europe
2 Times Multiplication Table
My First Words: Sports for Kids
Song: Numbers (Karaoke)
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Cover Story, News, Top 5 featured
BLAZER: Canali T-SHIRT: HANRO POCKET SQUARE: Eton JEANS: Prps
Photo Credit: Steven Kovich
Photography: Steven Kovich
Styling: Valerie Romas
Grooming: Toni Jo Peruzzi
Shot on location at the Tampa home of Jennifer and Randy Zales – via Haute Residence
It is January 2018, and Giancarlo Stanton is stylishly suited up and singing along with Alicia Keys, who’s performing “Empire State of Mind” at Clive Davis’ pre-Grammy party. “Now you’re in New York—these streets will make you feel brand-new, big lights will inspire you,” he mouths, his lips stretching into a Cheshire-like grin. It is just one month after the announcement that after eight years with the Miami Marlins, Stanton had been acquired by the New York Yankees… and he is definitely in an Empire State of mind.
But let’s flash-forward a year. As the 29-year-old MLB power hitter prepares to start his second season as a Yankee, have all of his dreams been made a reality in the concrete jungle? Is he, as his enigmatic Instagram page suggests, “Living a Lucid Dream”?
The answer, in short, is yes. “I’m very happy,” he tells us from spring training in Tampa. “The Yankees have been great so far; everything I could have imagined and more. It’s been a first-class experience in every way.”
He’s certainly scored some major milestones with his new team: He hit two home runs during his debut game on March 29, including his first at-bat, becoming the first Yankee since Joe Pepitone to have a multi-home run game on Opening Day since 1963. He made history once again on August 30 by hitting his 300th home run (his 33rd of the season), becoming the 147th player—and the ninth-youngest—in MLB history to do so, joining an elite roster that includes Alex Rodriguez, Ken Griffey Jr. and Mickey Mantle. Only four players in history (including Rodriguez) hit that milestone faster.
SWEATER: Neil Barrett PANTS: G-Star RAW SNEAKERS: Gucci SUNGLASSES: Ray-Ban
Such prowess on the diamond comes at a price, though: Stanton hasn’t had the time to enjoy or explore his new hometown, which means that The City That Never Sleeps is still a virtual mystery.
“It’s hard during the season―we pretty much don’t have any days off. I’m trying to learn the city, but I still have a lot to see. I wasn’t there at all during the off-season, so I’m starting from scratch,” he laments. “I’m definitely not [a New Yorker] yet.”
With only three or four days of complete freedom a month, often playing 10-20 games straight, the last thing he wants to do is stumble around the city playing tourist for five hours straight. He needs to save his energy for games, and taking the subway? Forget about it. But with a year in Manhattan under his belt, at least the city is no longer a completely foreign place.
“’This is my new home; this is pretty cool’—that’s how it was for me most of last year,” he says. “I now know where I’m at and what part of the city I need to be in. I feel like I have a better grasp on it this time around.”
For starters, he now knows that his Battery Park pad is at the complete opposite end of the city from Yankee Stadium, and as much as he loves the area—he would often walk around the park by himself at night after a game to clear his head—a move to the Bronx or thereabouts is not imminent. He’s also been storing up tips from his teammates, including hitting Chelsea Market to find the best, authentic Mexican food in the city (as a native Angeleno, he’s very particular).
JACKET: Zegna T-SHIRT: Sol Angeles POCKET SQUARE: Eton JEANS: Prps SUNGLASSES: Tom Ford SHOES: Gucci
If there’s one thing he’s really looking forward to, it’s New York Fashion Week. Fellow athletes like Cam Newton, Victor Cruz and his pal Odell Beckham Jr. all hit up the Fall/Winter 2019 shows, and chances are, Stanton—who favors brands like Louis Vuitton, Dior, Givenchy and Gucci—will be right there with them sitting front row come September. “I do enjoy that stuff, so I think you will [see me there], actually,” he laughs.
A few sartorially sensational shows will be a welcome balance to his mostly low-key in-season existence: He freely admits that most of his nights thus far have been spent on the couch, binge-watching Game of Thrones along with intermittent viewings of Animal Planet, Planet Earth and anything on the National Geographic channel (incidentally, he loves nature so much that if he wasn’t playing ball, he’d want to be a travel blogger with a focus on Mother Earth. He’s got other things to think about at the moment though, so seriously, don’t watch this space). But don’t think for a second that all work and no play have made Giancarlo a dull boy. He’s dipped a toe into the city’s epic culinary scene at restaurants like Mastro’s, Vandal and Catch, has had nights out with A-listers like Michael B. Jordan and Donald Glover, and has been hanging out with teammates CC Sabathia, Aaron Judge, Brett Gardner and Aaron Hicks on the reg. Though he’s too disciplined for wild nights (that we know of), he’s out there when he can, soaking up the unique energy that only New York truly has.
“People say, ‘Don’t you have fun here and there,’ but we really don’t have time to do that,” he notes. “We have day games sometimes, but usually it’s for one of the teams to leave to get to the next city. It’s not very often that you’re at home and have a free night. When you do, that’s when you try to find a good place to have dinner, and that’s about it.”
Because he’s so regimented and disciplined from March through October, during the off-season he is well and truly off, embarking on fabulous, globe-hopping adventures, including Jerusalem, the Dead Sea and—his personal favorite—Egypt. More often than not, however, he heads home to L.A.
JACKET: Robert Graham T-SHIRT: Vince JEANS: G-Star RAW SUNGLASSES: Tom Ford
He grew up as “Mike” (Cruz and Michael are his middle names—“Back in the day, no one could pronounce ‘Giancarlo’ so I said, ‘Just call me Mike,’ I’m sick of no one being able to say my name.”) in Tujunga, Calif., where he attended high school for two years before transferring to Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, Calif. There he was a three-sport athlete: He was his basketball team’s top scorer as well as an excellent football player, so much so that University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas offered him scholarships to play with pigskin.
But baseball was his passion, and so he went with his gut. “I’d say that when I first realized being a professional [baseball player] was a possibility was in 10th grade,” he recalls, adding, “Everything since then has been in the making to where I am now.”
As such, it’s only fitting that his high school should make him a hall of fame inductee, an honor he received this past January. Although he’s now known as “G” or “GC,” back in the day his friends referred to him as “Scantron” (after the Scantron test), a name that’s likely in use by his nearest and dearest today.
“In L.A., I have a very big high school friend group. We get together even now, 10-plus years later, and just hang out and enjoy talking about the high school times, as well as where we’re all at now,” he says. “When [I was inducted into my high school’s hall of fame], we got together and talked about old times.”
If his friend group was talking about the past, they might remember that he’s since grown two inches from his then-6’4” frame, added 50 pounds of muscle and turned down a full scholarship to the University of Southern California to play both baseball and football, opting to sign with the Florida Marlins instead when he was selected in the 2007 amateur draft.
His high school pals would also remember that he played for three minor league teams—the Gulf Coast League Marlins of the Rookie-Level Gulf Coast League, the Class A Short-Season New York-Penn League with the Jamestown Jammers and the Greensboro Grasshoppers of the Class A South Atlantic League—before hitting the big time with an invitation to the 2009 Miami Marlins Spring Training camp. He made his Major League Baseball debut with the Marlins in 2010, signing a then-record-breaking $325 million, 13-year contract with the team, before being traded to the Yankees in 2017.
So, as he approaches his 30th birthday in November, there’s no doubt that Giancarlo Stanton has made it… and that he has the kind of career legends are made of. The number of accolades and trophies to his name are amazing: He’s a four-time All-Star, a two-time Silver Slugger and Hank Aaron Award winner, a two-time NL Home Run Leader and an NL RBI leader. In 2017, he had a historic 59 home run season that resulted in being named the National League’s Most Valuable Player.
An award he doesn’t have is a World Series trophy, which is why his single-minded focus is acquiring one. It’s why he’s OK with having a mostly quiet life, and why he hasn’t taken advantage of the glittering, glitzy life that’s at his disposal in New York.
“I honestly haven’t been close to winning [a World Series], so that’s the main focus,” he confirms, noting that winning at that level would mean everything to him. “Being a champion means you’re on top of the world. Everything you’ve worked towards for your life, really. You can say it doesn’t consume you, but the majority of the time we’re awake—for more than two-thirds of the year—is dedicated to trying to be a champion.”
The virtual (and sometimes literal) blood, sweat and tears often go unseen, but are always present. Despite the carefully curated image he portrays on social media of a fun, fashionable and adventure-seeking athlete—which he is—there are also endless hours of hard work and commitment that go into being an athlete, which don’t show up on his ‘gram.
“Being here already isn’t easy, so being a champion is the next level above it all,” he notes. “I mean, being a professional athlete is not easy, or a lot more people would be doing it. People kind of forget that. They say, ‘You’ve been here for years, you should be accustomed to it.’ But some forget the work it takes to stay here, rather than just seeing us at game time.”
And this season, Stanton plans on working harder than ever. He’s got a “go big or stay home” mentality and thinks 2019 could be the year the Yankees win the World Series for a 28th time (the last win being a decade ago in 2009). “We’ve got all the pieces to the puzzle already; we had it last year, too,” he says. “We know what we have to do and the talent that we have. We’re putting it together out there and showing up when it’s time.”
He’s the master of understatement, and he knows it, but sometimes the player has to play it off, you know? And sometimes, he’s got to keep it real—like now. “I’m motivated by the situation that I’ve made for myself—or that I’ve been given, however you want to take it. I feel like where I am now is years and years in the making, and if I don’t stay focused or where I need to be, that can be all unraveled. I know it’s not going to be here forever. I understand there are other things I need to do eventually and other hobbies I need to pick up, but right now I’m in the best situation that I possibly can be, and I’ve worked very hard to get here. It’s a work in the making.”
It helps that his glass is half full; if it were half empty, he wouldn’t be where he is today. “I make light of tough situations, and I’m always trying to look for the positives of a situation,” he says. “You have bad days and great days, and either way there’s going to be another game the next night.”
No matter what, the show must go on. Giancarlo Stanton knows this, as surely as he knows how to take the biggest possible bite out of the Big Apple. “By winning, you’ve got to win,” he says. “I think if we bring a championship to the Big Apple, that’s a big enough bite.”
Met Gala 2019: Our Favorite Looks Of The Camp-Inspired Night
NYC Artist Jojo Anavim On His Upcoming "Still Life (In My Head)" Art
By Alejandra Tenorio
Todd Gurley Is Laid-Back, Relaxed & Loving That L.A.
Jermaine Dupri Reaches New Heights With His Induction
By Violet Camacho
Music Icon Rick Ross talks New Album and Growing Empire
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How Boards Should Evaluate Their Own Performance
David Larcker
Taylor Griffin
Brian Tayan
Stephen Miles
8.95 Buy Copies
The New York Stock Exchange requires that the boards of all publicly traded corporations conduct a self-evaluation at least annually to determine whether they are functioning effectively. The purpose of the exercise is to ensure that boards are staffed and led appropriately, that board members are effective in fulfilling their obligations, and that reliable processes are in place to satisfy important oversight requirements.
Our research suggests that many board evaluations are inadequate. In a study of 187 boards we undertook with The Miles Group, a consulting and advisory firm, we found that most board evaluations fail to identify and correct poor performance among individual members. Only around half (55%) of companies that conduct board evaluations evaluate individual directors, and only around one-third (36%) believe their company does a very good job of accurately assessing the performance of individual directors.
Directors in our study expressed fairly significant dissatisfaction with boardroom dynamics at their companies: Only around two-thirds (64%) strongly believe their board is open to new points of view, only half strongly believe their board leverages the skills of all board members, and less than half (46%) strongly believe their board tolerates dissent. Forty-six percent believe that a subset of directors has an outsize influence on board decisions (a dynamic referred to as “a board within a board”). The typical director believes that at least one fellow director should be removed from their board because the individual is not effective.
The problem is rooted in the evaluation process itself. Board evaluations typically start with a review of board structures and processes, and is often performed by the general counsel or outside legal counsel. It usually includes a checklist of items that public companies are required to review and the standards associated with them.
The more difficult but more value-producing part of the board evaluation process is to review the contribution of individual directors and the interpersonal and group dynamics among board members. As the data above indicates, this exercise often is not performed in a rigorous matter, and in many companies is omitted entirely.
How can boards better evaluate the performance of directors? Any thorough evaluation should assess the following:
How You Lead
This section should evaluate the effectiveness of board leadership, including the lead independent director (or independent chair) and committee chairs. It should examine how the leader was chosen, the skills and experiences the individual brings to bear, and their leadership style. The company should develop criteria for these roles and evaluate the available skill sets of its members to determine who is most suitable. Companies should avoid appointing a leader by default (e.g., the person who volunteers to do the job or the most senior member of the board) or looking solely to the required background (such as a qualified financial expert), because temperament is often key to effectiveness in the role.
The inadequacy of leadership evaluation among many boards was evident in our survey. Seventy-two percent of directors believe their leader is effective in inviting the participation of all directors, and 68% believe they are effective in inviting the participation of new members. Only 60% believe their lead director “asks the right questions.” Worse, only one-quarter (26%) believe they are very effective in giving direct, personal, and constructive feedback to fellow directors.
How You Manage
This section should evaluate the manner in which board meetings are conducted, including whether they are organized for maximum productivity and the honest exchange of ideas, and whether they encourage the full participation of all members. Particular attention should be paid to committee meetings and executive sessions. According to many directors, the “real work” of the board takes place in committees. The evaluation process should determine whether clear expectations are established for the work conducted by committee members and whether committee reports are effective in keeping the full board informed about issues facing the company.
The evaluations should also review whether executive sessions (which take place outside the presence of management and include only nonexecutive directors) are properly structured to ensure that the day’s meetings are productive and effective in framing and reviewing discussion topics. One red flag to look out for is whether board members feel uncomfortable expressing their honest opinions in front of management and instead wait for executive sessions, when management is not present, to speak freely. This dynamic is detrimental to decision making.
Survey evidence indicates that lack of trust in the boardroom can be a problem. Only two-thirds (68%) of board members say they have a very high level of trust in their fellow directors, and only 63% believe their board very effectively challenges management. Half (53%) believe that their fellow directors do not express their honest opinions in the presence of management.
How You Contribute
Finally, board evaluations stand to improve by rigorously reviewing the manner in which board members interact, including which directors participate and how decisions are made. To this end, it is critical that each individual director be evaluated not only on the knowledge and expertise they bring but also on the manner in which they contribute.
In particular, the evaluation process should review the behaviors that directors adopt in interacting with others. Examples of positive behaviors include asking the right questions, building on others’ points of view, framing content in a constructive fashion, and staying engaged. Positive individual behavior earns the attention of fellow directors and management and demonstrates that the participant is trying to contribute rather than “win” an argument. Leadership and coaching can help individual directors develop a range to their style so they can more effectively contribute to group deliberations.
Research evidence demonstrates that many boards suffer from poor group dynamics. Three-quarters of directors in our study believe their fellow directors allow personal or past experience to dominate their perspective. A significant minority (44%) say that their fellow directors do not understand the boundary between oversight and actively trying to manage the company. Thirty-nine percent report that their fellow board members derail the conversation by introducing issues that are off topic.
All publicly traded companies are required to conduct an annual evaluation. The evaluation process can be greatly improved by treating the board as a high-performing group of individuals and evaluating its leadership, management, and group dynamics.
David Larcker is the James Irvin Miller Professor of Accounting and Senior Faculty at the Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University. He is a co-author of the books Corporate Governance Matters and A Real Look at Real World Corporate Governance.
Taylor Griffin is the chief operating officer of The Miles Group.
Brian Tayan is a researcher at the Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University. He is a co-author of the books Corporate Governance Matters and A Real Look at Real World Corporate Governance.
Stephen Miles is the founder and chief executive officer of The Miles Group.
This article is about BOARDS
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By Sean Palmerston Featured, Reviews - Audio June 18, 2009
UFO: The Visitor
By Albert Mansour
UFO have now been in business in one form or another for forty years and The Visitor is UFO’s 20th studio album. Unfortunately however, this album is nothing like the classic UFO albums Lights Out, Obsession or No Heavy Petting. On The Visitor, UFO circa 2009 is compromised of Phil moog (vocals), Paul Raymond (keyboard, guitars) and Andy Parker (Drums), plus American world-class guitarist Vinnie Moore trying to fill the shoes of Michael Schenker, which is admittedly a pretty damn hard thing to do. The vast majority of the ten-track CD is soaked with worn blues riffs and a ton of acoustic slide guitar on tracks like “Saving me” and “Rock Ready.” Mogg’s vocals are even more bluesy sounding than on previous albums, with songs like “On The Waterfront” finding him sounding more like Paul Rogers of Bad Company than himself. Pete Way is currently suffering from liver disease and was unfortunately not available for the studio production on this album; his absence from this album is definitely missed. With over a dozen UFO albums in my personal collection and having been a huge fan of the band fornearly30 years it pains me to say that this album is a very big disappointment. It’s really sad to say that The Visitor has hit “Rock Bottom” compared to the nineteen other albums of UFO’s career and serves as a stark reminder that great bands can make bad albums too.
(SPV)
hard rockSPVUFO
Black Label Society: Skullage
Ex Deo: Romulus
Opeth–Heritage
As it’s still unforeseen where Opeth are heading to next, Heritage stands out as an eccentric anomaly in their catalogue. But this doesn’t diminish the quality of the album one bit. Heritage is a fantastic album, although it’s not without its flaws. However, those flaws have nothing to do with Opeth’s decision to become preoccupied with prog. They are simply slight musical missteps, and who hasn’t stumbled when finding a new path?
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Three of Beyoncé’s Album Re-Enter Billboard 200 Following Coachella Performances
Tatyana Jenene
Kevin Mazur, Getty Images
Beyoncé's first weekend at Coachella turned out to be a profitable one for her and her fellow groupmates of Destiny's Child.
After streaming on YouTube with guest appearances by her husband JAY-Z, sister Solange, and bandmates Michelle Williams and Kelly Rowland, Billboard reports that her catalog and DC3's catalog combined saw an 83% increase in streams for the reporting week that ended on April 19.
Billboard reports that Queen Bey's sixth studio album Lemonade saw the biggest boost from the two catalogs re-entering the Billboard 200 at no. 91, while her 2013 self-titled album re-enters at no. 138, 2008's I am... Sash Fierce reemerges at no. 160. Lemonade also reappears on the Top Album Sales chart at no. 24.
As we earlier reported following another successful weekend at Coachella, Bey has announced four more $25k scholarships for HBCU students through her BeyGood organization. Texas Southern University, Fisk University, Grambling State University, and Morehouse College students are now eligible to apply for the scholarship. She's also added a few more pieces to her Coachella pop up shop that is open until the middle of May.
Beyonce Slays Coachella Weekend 2
Source: Three of Beyoncé’s Album Re-Enter Billboard 200 Following Coachella Performances
Filed Under: Beychella, beyonce, coachella, destiny's child
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House of Voltaire
Studio Voltaire
Bag (0)Menu
Ian Kiaer
Tooth house, quick city (pink), 2018
Digital print with hand applied silver leaf
This edition is sold in a custom plexiglass frame.
Edition No. 1 of 15 - Sold Out Edition No. 2 of 15 - Sold Out Edition No. 3 of 15 - Sold Out Edition No. 4 of 15 - Sold Out Edition No. 5 of 15 - Sold Out Edition No. 6 of 15 - Sold Out Edition No. 7 of 15 - Sold Out Edition No. 8 of 15 - Sold Out Edition No. 9 of 15 - Sold Out Edition No. 10 of 15 - Sold Out Edition No. 11 of 15 - £880.00 GBP Edition No. 12 of 15 - £880.00 GBP Edition No. 13 of 15 - £880.00 GBP Edition No. 14 of 15 - £880.00 GBP Edition No. 15 of 15 - £880.00 GBP
If you have a question about this piece of work, please get in touch.
Ian Kiaer (b. London, 1971) studied at the Slade School of Art (1995) and the Royal College of Art MA (2000); PhD (2008). Kiaer's institutional solo shows include Endnote, tooth, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France (2017), Neubauer Collegium, Chicago (2016); Lulu, Mexico City (2015); Henry Moore Institute, Leeds (2014); Focal Point Gallery, Southend-on-Sea (2014); Centre International d'art et du Paysage, Vassivière (2013); Aspen Art Museum (2012); Kunstverein, Munich (2010); Galleria d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Turin (2009); Bloomberg SPACE, London (2009) and British School at Rome (2005).
His work is in the collections of Tate, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Museum fur Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt; Pinakothek, Munich; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; and Galleria Civica di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (GAM), Turin.
COMME des F*** BREXIT T-Shirt White
Studio Voltaire Edition 2019, 2019
Sanya Kantarovsky
100% cashmere blanket
Lin May Saeed
Peri and Kimba in the fruit crates, 2018
John Booth
Limited Edition Sticker Sheet, 2018
Studio Voltaire has been supporting artists for over twenty years, through our renowned programme of exhibitions, performances, events and education projects as well as providing affordable studios.
We have gained a reputation for championing both emerging and underrepresented artistic practices, often at key stage in the artist’s career. These have included Marvin Gaye Chetwynd, Phyllida Barlow, Ruth Ewan, Elizabeth Price, Jo Spence, Joanne Tatham & Tom O’Sullivan, Richard Slee and Cathy Wilkes.
The gallery also provides an important UK platform for international artists, often providing them their first-ever presentation in the UK. These have included Nairy Baghramian, Thea Djordjadze, Nicole Eisenman, Judith Hopf, Paulina Olowska and Henrik Olesen.
1A Nelson's Row
London SW4 7JR
info@studiovoltaire.org
Exhibition opening times:
Wednesday – Sunday
12 – 6pm, or by appointment
Copyright Studio Voltaire
Registered Charity No: 1082221 | Registered Company No:3426509
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Oil report
March 13, 2019 / 9:29 AM / 4 months ago
UPDATE 1-Shell and Eneco team up in bid for Dutch offshore wind farms
(Adds background)
AMSTERDAM, March 13 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell has teamed up with energy company Eneco and builder Van Oord in a bid to build two wind farms in the Dutch part of the North Sea, the companies said on Wednesday.
The tender for the wind farms, with total capacity of 750 megawatts (MW), is open until March 14 for bids that require no subsidies on electricity prices.
The Dutch were among the first to offer a ‘zero subsidy’ tender for wind power in 2017, with Sweden’s Vattenfall winning the right to build a 700 MW wind farm without price support.
Vattenfall has said it would also bid in the latest tender, which is the fourth of five being held by the Dutch government in a push to create 3,500 MW of offshore wind power by 2023.
A Shell and Eneco consortium won the second of the tenders in 2016 for a subsidy of 0.0545 euros ($0.0615) per kilowatt hour, which was a very low price at the time.
The price to attract builders for offshore wind farms has continued to fall, as surging demand for wind energy, progress in technology and competition among turbine makers has reduced construction costs.
The Netherlands plans to add a further 7,000 MW in offshore wind capacity between 2024 and 2030, as it seeks to turn around a track record as one of the most polluting countries in Europe.
$1 = 0.8858 euros Reporting by Bart Meijer Editing by Louise Heavens and Edmund Blair
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The Nursing Team
Rowena Birnel, RPh
Infusion Solutions is owned and operated by Rowena Birnel, a 1988 graduate of University of Washington School of Pharmacy. Rowena’s pharmacy career includes seven years as an investigational drug coordinator and ambulatory care pharmacist at the Seattle VA Medical Center. She has 15 years experience working in the home infusion industry for two national home infusion providers.
Rowena is proud to be a part of a highly motivated and talented team of professionals whose focus is quality and personalized patient care. She is excited about the opportunity to provide the community a local and accommodating option for home infusion care.
Raised in Bellingham, Rowena enjoys an active northwest lifestyle with her husband and three sons. Her pastimes include spending time with her family, her pets, racquetball, playing and coaching soccer, hiking, boating, baking and reading.
Rowena is a board member of two non-profit organizations, the Meridian Youth Soccer Club and the Washington State Junior Racquetball Board. She has also recently joined the board for the National Home Infusion Association in 2018.
rowena@infusionsolutionsinc.com
Abby Ferreira, PharmD/RPh
Abby is a clinical pharmacist responsible for monitoring patient therapy, ensuring the quality and accuracy of medications, and collaborating with physicians and nurses to optimize patient care.
Abby has been working in the pharmacy field since 2002. She received her Doctorate in Pharmacy in 2008 from University of Iowa. Abby moved to Bellingham in 2008 to work at a locally owned community pharmacy as a retail and compounding pharmacist. After a few years in the retail setting, she decided to move on to a clinical position at Infusion Solutions, where she could provide more direct patient care. Abby has completed the Home Infusion Pharmacy Certificate program through the National Home Infusion Association. She spends her free time hiking, skiing, and kayaking with her husband, her two children, and their two dogs. She is thrilled to be a part of a locally owned and operated pharmacy, where patients can know and trust their healthcare providers.
abby@infusionsolutionsinc.com
Jeff Bunney, RPh
Jeff Bunney, RPh is a clinical pharmacist at Infusion Solutions. Jeff is a 1997 graduate of the University of Washington Pharmacy program. He has a great deal of both home infusion and retail pharmacy experience, which makes for a well-rounded and savvy pharmacist. He is excited to be back in the home infusion realm, working for a locally owned pharmacy that puts patient care first.
Jeff is an audiophile with a great selection of eclectic music, and has a buttery smooth golf swing. He is an avid Seahawks fan and dominates his Fantasy Football league(s).
jeff@infusionsolutionsinc.com
Michelle Lin, PharmD
Michelle is a Clinical Pharmacist at Infusion Solutions. Michelle grew up in Vancouver, BC and attended University of British Columbia for her undergraduate degree in Biology. She knew she wanted to be a pharmacist, and found her best options to continue her education stateside. She ended up at Midwestern University in Glendale, AZ, where she obtained her PharmD degree.
Upon graduation, Michelle stayed in the desert to begin her career. She worked for a large long term care pharmacy in Glendale for for seven years. While there, she honed her pharmacy skills and obtained a board certification in Geriatric Pharmacy.
She and her husband (also a pharmacist) began to look for work closer to family, and the Lin’s ended up in Bellingham. Michelle is excited to start a new chapter in her pharmacy development while also being at home part time with their young child.
When not at work, Michelle and her family like to listen to music and spend time outdoors, hiking, exploring, and walking their two dogs.
michelle@infusionsolutionsinc.com
Jennifer Harbick, PharmD
It takes a village to raise a pharmacist.
Fun fact: municipalities of less than 500 people have to be chartered as villages in Missouri, so our new pharmacist, Jennifer Harbick PharmD, did in fact spend her childhood in a village. She grew up in Josephville, MO (pop. 300-ish), just east of St. Louis. She and her 3 siblings spent their time outdoors, running barefoot, driving tractors, tending to the crops, and doing the necessary chores on their family homestead. As a result, Jennifer developed a strong work ethic that has served her well throughout her life.
To wit: at 16, she took the advice of her brother-in-law (who was in the drug wholesale business), marched into the local K-Mart Pharmacy, and basically demanded a job. This proved pivotal in her life path as she now set her sights on science and pharmacy. She graduated from high school and immediately enrolled in the St. Louis College of Pharmacy. She commuted 65 miles one-way (uphill, in the snow…) everyday, worked at the local Walgreens pharmacy, and eventually graduated in 2001 with her PharmD. Dedication!
While in pharmacy school, she had a rotation in Anchorage, which opened her eyes to the West. When a recruiter for St. Joseph hospital called, she jumped at the chance and ventured to Bellingham to work in the hospital. From there, she opened and managed a Walgreens in Bellingham, then moved into home infusion with Option Care, where she worked from 2006-2017. Jennifer is now here at Infusion Solutions, and feels blessed to have the opportunity to do the work she loves. She very much enjoys the collaborative clinical environment, and the ability to really get to know the specialty drugs that are the cornerstones of infusion therapy.
Jennifer is married with two kids, ages 9 and 6. They have an active family life that involves church, school, scouts, theater, camping, boating, and more. If time allows, Jennifer loves to read and spend time gardening and cultivating their 5 acre property, re-creating the village of her youth…
We love her precision, thoroughness, and expertise, and feel she is a great member of the team.
jennifer2@infusionsolutionsinc.com
Rebecca Smith, RD
Rebecca is a Registered Dietitian at Infusion Solutions.
rebecca@infusionsolutionsinc.com
Dana, RN/CRNI
Dana is the nurse manager at Infusion Solutions. She has a bachelors degree from Western Washington University in Elementary Education and an ASN from Whatcom Community College. Dana completed her Certified registered Nurse of Infusion credentials in early 2014. She loves educating her patients and helping advocate for them to receive the best care possible.
She enjoys spending time with her husband and their 3 children (ages 14, 11, and 4), reading, bike rides with her family, playing with her 2 dogs, and exploring the tide pools at Birch Bay. They recently adopted two children from Uganda, and are officially a mini-van family!
dana@infusionsolutionsinc.com
Lauri, RN
Lauri is a registered nurse at Infusion Solutions.
lauri@infusionsolutionsinc.com
Shyloh, RN
Originally from California, Shyloh spent some time in Florida before ultimately graduating from Anacortes High School. After that, she attended Skagit Valley Community College (Whidbey Campus) to begin her nursing studies, graduating with an LPN degree in 2007. She then spent an additional two years at Bellingham Technical College to obtain her RN degree.
Shyloh spent numerous years working in long-term care and rehab facilities before joining Infusion Solutions in 2013. She was thrilled to have an opportunity to pursue a position that combined her love of infusion nursing and her desire to help people stay at home to recover from illness.
When not at work, Shyloh enjoys spending time outdoors, walking with her husband and dog, and photography.
shyloh@infusionsolutionsinc.com
Marcedes, RN
Marcedes is a registered nurse at Infusion Solutions. marcedes@infusionsolutionsinc.com
Rachael, RN
Rachael is an registered nurse at Infusion Solutions.
rachael@infusionsolutionsinc.com
Lindsey, RN
Lindsey is a registered nurse at Infusion Solutions.
lindsey@infusionsolutionsinc.com
Lynn, RN
Lynn is a Registered Nurse and Clinical Liaison at Infusion Solutions.
lynn@infusionsolutionsinc.com
Jennifer, RN/CRNI
Jennifer has been a nurse for over 30 years. She spent the early part of her career at Swedish hospital in Seattle, where she developed a well rounded nursing skill set. She then moved up to the Bellingham area, and did a wide variety of nursing including stints at the hospital, a skilled nursing home, and home health. About 5 years ago, she discovered the home infusion niche, and was immediately drawn to it’s unique challenges and opportunities to grow. She has dedicated herself to this discipline, and even obtained her CRNI (Certified Registered Nurse of Infusion) credentials two years ago…on the first try no less! This is no small feat and demonstrates that Jennifer has a vast infusion knowledge base and great clinical skill.
Jennifer is a Bellingham native and a proud Sehome High gradute. Her two older sisters went into nursing, and so it seemed logical for her to follow down that path. She has made her way back to Bellingham to raise her two kids, aged 27 and 17, and to adopt as many animals from the Whatcom Humane Society as possible. That list includes 3 dogs and a bird at this point, but that is subject to change.
Outside of work, Jennifer enjoys walking all those dogs, sewing, hiking, and more.
jennifer@infusionsolutionsinc.com
Carrie, RN
Carrie comes to us via a variety of stops. Her father’s job moved the family quite frequently, with stops in Cedar Rapids, Fargo, and St. Louis, where she ultimately graduated from high school. She remained in Missouri to pursue a degree in Biology at the University of Missouri, but then switched lanes late in her college career to pursu…e nursing. She was awarded a BSN from St. Louis University, and thus her nursing career was born.
Her first RN work was hospital-based, spending seven years each in both the orthopedic wing and the special care nursery. Looking for change, she tried a stint with Express Scripts doing home infusion, and found that she really enjoyed it. It was at this time that her husband (also a nurse) took a travelling position that brought them to northwest for what was to be a one-year visit. But Bellingham worked it’s magic, and now the family is here to stay, to work and to play in the bounty that is Whatcom County. Carrie was looking to get back into home infusion, and we needed a high-quality, skilled RN with diverse experiences–so it made perfect sense to bring her on board! She values working for a small, independent organization such as Infusion Solutions.
When not at work, she and her husband (and their two dogs) spend their time hiking, kayaking, and generally exploring all there is to offer here. Reggae is her musical jam, but she also fancies a trip to Ireland soon. The weather is nicer in Jamaica, but either choice is great!
carrie@infusionsolutionsinc.com
Courtney, RN
Courtney is a Registered Nurse at Infusion Solutions
Courtney@infusionsolutionsinc.com
Caroline, RN
At morning report recently, I noticed a new nurse in the room. I was surprised at how at ease she was, contributing to conversations and cracking wise like she had been at Infusion Solutions for a long time. I liked her right away–she just fit in and understood how to integrate herself into the group seamlessly. After talking to her about her upbringing, I can understand why.
Check out Caroline’s whirlwind journey through childhood; born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, then on to Chicago, then Geneva, Switzerland, then Korea, then Japan, then back to Korea (where she graduated from high school), with multiple stops in Hawaii throughout. Though she “hated” all this moving at the time, Caroline does credit this unique upbringing for her ability to handle new situations well and to connect with people from all walks of life. This explains the ease with which she integrated into the Infusion Solutions family!
After high school, Caroline was dead set on saving the beautiful world she grew up in, so she attended the University of Michigan and obtained an Environmental Science degree. However, that path proved too fraught with politics, and she transitioned into nursing in order to empower people to get and be well. This meant another round of schooling, this time at Flinders University in Australia, where she obtained her BSN in 2005. Her nursing experience includes urgent care, nephrology, dermatology, and home infusion. She particularly enjoys home infusion because it is truly patient focused and allows patients to be take ownership of their healing, which is critical to their success. Her clinical abilities are excellent and her interpersonal skills are a great asset to her chosen profession. She is now saving the planet one patient at a time.
Caroline is married to a native Spaniard, a gentleman named Benjamin whom she met on a ski trip to Italy in 2015. They lived in Spain for a period of time before choosing to settle in Bellingham early in 2018. They love skiing/snowboarding, eating great food, jamming to music of all genres, and of course…travelling. New Zealand is next on the list.
And even though her first name adds to our Caroline Confusion (we now have three of them), we couldn’t be happier to have her on board! Welcome Caroline the Third!
caroline@infusionsolutionsinc.com
Steve, RN/BSN
Steve is an infusion nurse at Infusion Solutions.
steve@infusionsolutionsinc.com
Mandy, RN
Mandy is a true northwest girl. She grew up right here in Bellingham, graduated from Sehome High School, and attended both Whatcom Community College and Bellingham Technical College–twice. She lives in the county with goats, chickens, dogs, and a horse. She likes camping. She likes coffee. She drives a big black truck. See what I mean?
Upon graduation from Sehome, Mandy went to Whatcom on a basketball scholarship. This allowed her to get her higher education degree started and to still stroke threes (her basketball specialty) at the same time. She was successful on both the academic and athletic front, but moved on to Bellingham Technical College for her X-ray Tech degree. She did some of this work, started a family, and became very busy…so she found other work more conducive to a new mom’s schedule. Of note during this stretc was a five-year stint as a CNA at Peace Health hospital (where she learned a ton) and a gig at the Bellingham Airport with Allegiant Air.
Mandy was still trying to find the right fit for her, and so she enrolled at BTC again for her RN degree. Upon graduation in 2016, she spent some time at the Pacific Rim Surgery Center and at a national home infusion company. She recently started with us here at Infusion Solutions, and has hit the ground running! She reports that finally, she has found her calling, and it is infusion. She loves getting to know patients and spending quality one-on-one time with the patients she is caring for.
Outside of work, Mandy stays busy with her 5 acre hobby farm, all those animals, and raising her two kids. It seems the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree—both her kids are very active in sports and AAU basketball, so they are constantly on the go. She somehow also manages to find time to breed beautiful Golden Retrievers.
mandy@infusionsolutionsinc.com
Melissa, RN
Melissa is an infusion nurse at Infusion Solutions.
Melissa@infusionsolutionsinc.com
Kristin Jowett, Pharmacy Technician Supervisor
Kristin is the Pharmacy Technician Supervisor here at Infusion Solutions. She has an extensive history as a technician in hospital, retail, and home infusion environments. She grew up in the Bay Area, and began working at a local Walgreens retail store while in high school. They then sent her to school to get her technician license when she transferred up to WA state. She also worked for 8 years for St. Joseph Hospital in Bellingham.
She was looking for something different to do and was then hired on as a home infusion technician for Option Care in Bellingham. Home infusion quickly became her preferred environment to work, and she is glad to have an opportunity to transition her vast knowledge base and skill set to Infusion Solutions. She quickly demonstrated great leadership abilities, and thus was promoted to supervisor shortly after her arrival here.
When not at work, Kristin enjoys all things in the great outdoors, especially camping and scuba diving, and spending time with her 5 year old son!
kristin@infusionsolutionsinc.com
Mike Forgays, Pharmacy Technician
Mike is a Pharmacy Technician and Purchaser at Infusion Solutions.
mike@infusionsolutionsinc.com
Marc Ambers, Pharmacy Technician
Marc is a Pharmacy Technician here at Infusion Solutions.
marc@infusionsolutionsinc.com
Kristen Knudsen, Pharmacy Technician
Kristin Knudsen was born and raised in Grand Junction, CO. She loves the place and still considers it home, but life changes prompted her to make a change…a radical one. She uprooted and moved to Bellingham, WA, essentially sight-unseen. She certainly came at a good time, when it is sunny and warm!
She came to Infusion Solutions at a good time, too. We can really use her 25-plus years of pharmacy technician experience. She …started out thinking about becoming a Veterinarian, but after taking a job in high school at the local pharmacy, she ended up liking it so much she stayed. For 12 years!
She became a board certified pharmacy technician, and eventually ended up taking a job at Advanced Pharmacy Services. It was there that she got exposure to long term care and home infusion pharmacy work. She loved the precision of the work and stayed with APS for another 15 years.
And now, she is here with us at Infusion Solutions. She and her Great Mastiff Thumbelina (yes!) and Sonny the cat have settled in the great northwest, and they look forward to the hiking, kayaking, and camping available to them in our neck of the woods. She has never been to Canada, and is looking forward to crossing that one off the list. Shouldn’t be a problem…
We are happy to have Kristin and look forward to her valuable contributions to our patient care!
Lisa Schneider, Pharmacy Technician
Lisa is our newest Pharmacy Technician. She grew up on the east coast, working in the family pharmacy and riding her horse. She attended college in Salem, West Virginia, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree that did not include pharmacy studies.
Pharmacy reappeared on the horizon many years later when the business she was working for suddenly closed and moved to China. A federally funded program that helps people train for new careers became available with course studies that included Pharmacy Technician. After graduating from Skagit Valley College, she worked at a custom compounding pharmacy hoping to learn those skills. Now that she has transitioned to Infusion Solutions, she is looking forward to building her sterile compounding skills and learning the home infusion business. Lisa reports that she really likes it, if for no other reason than we are keeping her busy…and she likes being busy!
Outside of work, Lisa spends time with her husband, their herd of dogs and cats, and of course, her horse. She continues to actively ride and thoroughly enjoys time spent around all these majestic animals.
lisa@infusionsolutionsinc.com
Christine Lee, Pharmacy Technician
For Christine Lee, it feels good to be back in the hood.
Christine is the newest member of our pharmacy technician team. She was born in San Diego, but moved up to Lynden in her middle school years and graduated from high school there. She then went to Seattle Pacific University to pursue her RN credentials, but two years into that program she realized nursing was not a good fit for her. She decided to rejoin her family (now in San Diego) and pursue her Pharmacy Technician credentials. She graduated in two years from the Grossmont Health Occupations Center, and her pharmacy career then began in earnest.
She moved to Utah, where she spent two years working in a hospital setting. In the meantime her family relocated to Georgia so she followed them there, but the south was not the place for her. The pull of the Northwest brought her back to what feels like home—to Bellingham, and thus to Infusion Solutions. Here she can spend more time in the sterile clean room working on her custom compounding skills, and reconnect with her old friends. In Christine’s words, it feels good to be “back in the hood”…in more ways than one!
This fall she plans on attending Western Washington University, and now has her sights set on becoming a pharmacist. Awesome!
Outside of work, Christine enjoys travel (Japan and Europe on the list), volleyball, tennis, camping, paddleboarding, and baking, among other things. She will listen to almost any genre of music and find it likeable, and has been known to binge watch New Girl. She also has a sweet yellow lab named Honey, reportedly the only lab alive who does not like to swim.
Welcome Christine! We are happy to have you!
Christine@infusionsolutionsinc.com
Andrea Muehe, Pharmacy Technician
First name, Andrea. Last name, Muehe. It’s pronounced “moo-hee”, and means “trouble” in German. Andrea, bless her, does not live up to her name…
Andrea is no trouble at all; she is happy, positive, a quick study, and a great addition to our pharmacy team. She is our newest Pharmacy Technician, and is fitting right in here at Infusion Solutions.
Andrea is a northwest native, born in Coupeville and raised in the tranquil beauty of Whidbey Island. She graduated from Anacortes high school in 2006, and then moved south to Olympia to live with her older sister. She worked at Target and QFC while trying to figure out her next move, which ended up being a pharmacy technician degree. She enrolled at Everest in 2015 and obtained her certification in one year.
Upon graduation, Andrea worked for 2 years at Walgreen’s retail pharmacy in Burlington. Seeking a change, she applied for and got a job at NW Pharmaceutical Compounding in Mill Creek. Although she liked the work, the commute and hours proved too much, and that is when she decided to find something challenging and yet closer to home. Infusion Solutions checked both those boxes, and she was hired! So far, she loves all of the new skills she is learning, and enjoys the comradery of her fellow employees.
Outside of work, Andrea reports that she loves to cook, and has a particular affinity for Italian pastas and homemade sauces of all kinds. She bakes and makes candies to boot; with the holidays right around the corner, I look forward to her blessing the office with a few of her specialties. She loves music, listens mostly to rock, and would take Disneyland over Disneyworld every time.
Please welcome Andrea–we are thrilled to have you!
andrea@infusionsolutionsinc.com
Becky, Reimbursement Supervisor
Becky is the Reimbursement Manager at Infusion Solutions. becky@infusionsolutionsinc.com
Julie, Reimbursement Specialist
Julie is a Reimbursement Specialist and part-time hospital liaison at Infusion Solutions. Julie graduated in 2006 from Anthem College in Portland, OR, then worked locally in Bellingham for Hoagland’s pharmacy for 3.5 years before joining ISI in December of 2012. She is a great addition to the team, and brings a radiant smile and overall cool vibe to the office.
julie@infusionsolutionsinc.com
Lauralee, Reimbursement Specialist
Lauralee is a Reimbursement Specialist at Infusion Solutions. lauralee@infusionsolutionsinc.com
Teddi, Reimbursement Specialist
There are many amazing things about Teddi Cantrell, the newest member of the Infusion Solutions reimbursement team. Perhaps the most amazing is that in a lifetime of full-time work, she has held exactly four jobs. Her work history is as follows: the gastronomic giant Royal Fork (2 yrs), the iconic northwest fashion retailer Jay Jacobs (22 years), the national home infusion corporation Option Care/Walgreens/Option Care (19 years), and now, locally owned and operated Infusion Solutions!
This demonstrates incredible loyalty and dedication, which is an unusual trait in this day and age. The Bureau of Labor suggests that the average adult by age will have held 10-12 different jobs by the age of forty. Teddi’s preference is to find a job she loves, and participate fully until circumstances necessitate a change. This allows her to develop a deep understanding of her work and to become a true expert in her field, which is a huge asset to any team. We are delighted that circumstances have led her our way, and are thrilled to have her and her nearly 20 years of home infusion experience working on behalf of our patients!
Teddi was born and raised in the northwest. A lifetime of rain has led her to mandate annual trips to Hawaii, and now she has her sights set on a trip to Italy as well. When not at work, she also enjoys boating, golf, walking their behemoth Black Lab Cole (115 pounds!), and running. She runs consistently with a group that meets weekly, and sprinkles in several 10-15K events throughout the year to keep her in tip-top shape. But most of all, Teddi enjoys attending live music events. It is not an understatement to say that she will see 25-30 live shows throughout the year. She reports her favorite is officially The Eagles/Doobie Brothers concert she and her husband saw at Safeco Field when they threw down for 12th row seats–pretty sweet! Bruno Mars at the Gorge is a close second…
Teddi is married with two grown children. So far, nothing but grand-puppies, but she eagerly awaits the day for a grandchild to enter their lives. She is detail oriented and fashionably hip, and thinks that she might be able to access some retro Jay Jacobs outfits for our next company party. We are incredibly excited to have her, and hope that this is the last stop on her work voyage.
teddi@infusionsolutionsinc.com
Cortney, Reimbursement Specialist
Cortney’s childhood was full of motion and movement. She was born in New Orleans, but her father’s law enforcement work moved the family to Memphis, Vancouver BC, and finally…Blaine, WA. She graduated high school as a Borderite in 1997 and then took to the road, ending up in Kansas City working for a home health company. She liked the work, and proved quite adept, so when she came back to the Northwest after a few years, she landed a job with Option Care in their Bellingham location.
She continued to develop her skills within the industry, and was ultimately offered the reimbursement manager position in the Kennewick, WA office. She spent four years there, but decided to come back to Marysville to be closer to family. She remained at Option Care until early 2018, and has now begun her next career phase with us at Infusion Solutions. Yay! Over the past 20 years, Cortney has done just about all there is to do in infusion/home DME reimbursement, and we are excited to tap into her vast experience. She is a self-starter, an industrious worker, and a real pleasure to have in the office.
Outside of work, Cortney enjoys gardening, scrapbooking, music, and travel. She is married with two boys, ages 22 and 11. The older boy stands an impressive 6’7” tall, lives locally, and works for Coke. The younger boy is a sports fan and enjoys playing lacrosse the most. The family is rounded out by their two dogs, Cash and Willow.
Cortney’s favorite concert of all time is the Garth Brooks show she saw last year, but she is going to Pearl Jam in the very near future…so maybe her love of grunge will supplant her love of Garth.
cortney@infusionsolutionsinc.com
Talia, Reimbursement Specialist
A brief bio of Talia Rayne must include several references to her life’s true passion, opera. In Italian, opera literally means “work”; so at Infusion Solutions, Talia’s opera is that of a Reimbursement Specialist. Her fundamental tasks here are to accurately bill our commercial and military insurance partners. Her addition officially makes the Bellingham reimbursement team a quartet (literally, a “four-piece”).
Talia was born and raised in the Fresno, CA area. She describes the scena (“scene”) as hot and agricultural. If you have ever eaten vegetables or fruit in your life, chances are it was grown within a hundred miles of her childhood home. Talia is a solo (“one”) child, and was home schooled until high school. She ultimately graduated from a charter high school in 2012.
After high school, she enrolled at Fresno State and studied music for a year, but then decided to change course. Seeking rain, she relocated to Bellingham WA to begin her second act (“portion”), that of a opera diva (“star”. Though diva often has a negative connotation, that is not the intent here). Besides it’s propensity of moisture, Bellingham also happens to be situated between two fairly large opera markets in Seattle and Vancouver BC. She threw herself into the art, took voice lessons, served as understudies, and landed some actual paying opera gigs. This is the culmonare (“culmination”) of her life’s work thus far, a great achievement that began as the “angel on top of the tree” in her kindergarten Christmas Pageant.
As with many art forms, it is difficult to make a living singing opera, so Talia decided to go back to school to obtain a degree that could help pay the bills. She ultimately chose Bellingham Technical College, and in 2018 she graduated with her Medical Coder’s certificate in 2018. She then took the additional step to obtain the very rigorous AACP (American Association of Professional Coders) credentials. She is truly a talented and proficient asset to the team. Bravo! (“awesome!”)
Outside of work, Talia continues to hone her opera skills, and continues to audition and land roles in operas throughout the region. She loves to read (has read the fourth Harry Potter book 28 times), swim, ride bikes, make jewelry, and hang out by the belissima (“beautiful”) ocean. Ultimately, she would love to be able to work, travel, and sing, seeing the world through a series of beautiful operas and encores (“again”).
Welcome Talia, we are glad you are here. Infusion Solutions will always be your claque (“a group of people in the audience who applaud wildly”)!
talia@infusionsolutionsinc.com
Karen, Reimbursement Specialist
Karen is a Reimbursement Specialist at Infusion Solutions.
Karen@infusionsolutionsinc.com
John Takata, Fullfillment Specialist
John is a delivery driver and jack-of-all-trades at Infusion Solutions. john@infusionsolutionsinc.com
Josh Fitzner, Deliveries
Josh is a delivery driver and pharmacy assistant for Infusion Solutions.
josh@infusionsolutionsinc.com
Rose Montoya, Reception
You will hear a new voice when you call Infusion Solutions, and that voice you hear belongs to our new receptionist Rose Montoya. Her pleasant and polite tone is an excellent first impression; you see, Rose is one of those people that seems to smile when she talks, and that is conveyed even over the phone.
Rose has been doing this for quite some time, which explains her professionalism and proficiency. Most recently, she worked for a competing home infusion company here in town for 12 years. Because of this background, Rose can do much more than direct phone calls, and so we are keeping her busy with a plethora of office projects. Literally every department at Infusion Solutions is grateful for her contributions. Additional work experience includes reception work at a wide variety of retail operations, and being the friendly face that customers come to know and love.
Outside of work, Rose stays busy with her husband of 30 years tending to their 5 acre homestead and keeping up with her 14 grandchildren. She claims to be simple and boring, but anyone who has ever zip-lined, or braved the Grand Canyon Skywalk (1000 foot drop!) has to have at least a taste for adventure. Additionally, her “unchecked” bucket list includes a trip to Spain and a visit to the 911 memorial in NYC…all in all, I’d say Rose is anything but boring.
rose@infusionsolutionsinc.com
Chuck Loos, Account Manager
Chuck is the Account Manager at Infusion Solutions. He started his work life as a high school biology teacher, and also has a background in medical sales and marketing from his 7 years as a pharmaceutical representative with GlaxoSmithKline. He has enjoyed the transition into the home infusion realm, as he truly believes in the value of home infusion and the positive impact it has on patients’ lives. He is married with 2 children, ages 19 and 12. In his spare time he enjoys spending quality time with his family, the entire spectrum of outdoor recreation, and playing music in various bands.
chuck@infusionsolutionsinc.com
Don Birnel, Co-Owner
Don Birnel, co-owner.
don@infusionsolutionsinc.com
The Nursing Team Infusion Solutions Staff Rowena Birnel … Read more
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Galileo : A Play by Bertolt Brecht - Paperback USED Classics of Theater
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Considered by many to be one of Brecht's masterpieces, Galileo explores the question of a scientist's social and ethical responsibility, as the brilliant Galileo must choose between his life and his life's work when confronted with the demands of the Inquisition. Through the dramatic characterization of the famous physicist, Brecht examines the issues of scientific morality and the difficult relationship between the intellectual and authority. This version of the play is the famous one that was brought to completion by Brecht himself, working with Charles Laughton, who played Galileo in the first two American productions (Hollywood and New York, 1947). Since then the play has become a classic in the world repertoire.
"The play which most strongly stamped on my mind a sense of Brecht's great stature as an artist of the modern theatre was Galileo." - Harold Clurman;
"Thoughtful and profoundly sensitive." - Newsweek.
This is a used, mass market paperback book in very good condition. Interior text is free from writing, highlighting, underlining, or marks of any kind. Cover is in good shape and pages are clean, bright white. Grove Press, 18th printing of 1980. Softcover, 155 pages.
International News Books & Gifts
We Are Professional Bookdealers Located in Flint, Michigan
Find Us Online at: int-news.com
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Tag Archives: The Rolling Stones
Fashion, Fashion Scoops, Fashion Theory, Social Psychology of Clothing
Remembering L’Wren
L’Wren Scott, acclaimed costume designer and celebrity stylist has taken her own life, her body was found by her assistant the morning of March 17th. It has emerged that the A-list socialite was massively in debt, “Accounts for her business LS Fashion LTD show it had a deficit of $5,899,548 (4,237,164 Euros) and the designer owed creditors $7.641 million (euros 5,488,125)” (The Mirror).
The discourse surrounding L’Wren’s death has revolved around her connections with the celebrity elite (I.e. being Mick Jagger’s long-time girlfriend and being best friends with Nicole Kidman, Ellen Barkin, Daphne Guinness, and Rachel Feinstein), but Ms. Scott had many accomplishments besides being an A-list socialist.
L’Wren began her career in the fashion world as a model in the 1980s for Thierry Mugler. At a height of 6 feet 3 inches, Scott became known as the model with “The Longest Legs in Britain.”
Her modeling career was short-lived, as she moved to the business-side of the fashion industry with a knack for styling and an address book full of celebrity high society members like Madonna, Julia Roberts, and Angelina Jolie. In 2000, L’Wren was actually named the “official” stylist of the Oscars.
Expanding into costume design was the next logical step for the highly connected fashionista. Her costume design repertoire includes Ocean’s Thirteen, Eyes Wide Shut and Martin Scorsese’s documentary about The Rolling Stones. In 2006, L’Wren launched her own collection and became a favorite among the London Fashion Week scene, always showing at the end of the week in an intimate setting with a small but ultra-posh audience and the finest of catering (that always matched the collection).
It is sad to see such a talent succumb to the pressures that go along with being a high-profile fashion designer (which brings to mind the late Alexander McQueen, R.I.P.). Just goes to show that the glitz and glamour of the fashion scene is sometimes just smoke and mirrors and when the illusion dissipates, the harsh realities of maintaining a successful fashion business is sometimes too much for creative minds to cope with.
Tagged Alexander McQueen, Celebrity Stylist, Costume Design, Fashion, Fashion Designer, L'Wren Scott, Mick Jagger, The Rolling Stones
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Polypipe wins at National Apprentice Awards
A commitment to innovation and staff development has seen one of Polypipe Group plc’s intake of apprentices recognised at the AMRC Training Centre Apprentice of the Year Awards.
Ben Middleton, currently undertaking a four-year apprenticeship at Polypipe’s Broomhouse Lane site in Doncaster, was named Machine Apprentice of the Year at a ceremony at the University of Sheffield, on March 30 th 2017, in recognition of his work in improving manufacturing processes.
Headquartered in Doncaster, Polypipe is one of Europe’s largest manufacturers of piping systems, water management solutions and energy efficient ventilation systems for a variety of sectors, employing more than 3,000 staff across the globe. Polypipe invests heavily in its staff to develop their skills and ensure that the company maintains its sector leading position, with its apprentices playing a vital role within the organisation. Polypipe has already been awarded Silver Status from Investors in People – one of the few companies in the UK receive the honour.
As part of his four-year placement with Polypipe, Ben played a key role in the creation of a tooling innovation to further improve the extrusion process during manufacture, creating material and labour savings in the creation of Polypipe’s plastic piping systems.
Vince Fenson, Business Development Director at Polypipe, said: “This award is a fantastic recognition of Ben’s commitment to innovation and his drive for continuous improvement. Congratulations to Ben on this award and we look forward to seeing his career develop with Polypipe.”
For more information on Polypipe please visit www.polypipe.com.
About Polypipe
Polypipe is one of Europe’s largest manufacturers of piping systems, water management solutions and energy-efficient ventilation systems.
The Group has an established market position spanning the residential, commercial, civils and infrastructure, and public non-housing sectors in the UK and selected markets across the globe.
The Group operates from twenty facilities in total, offering more than 20,000 product lines.
Through constant innovation and focused research and development, Polypipe is uniquely positioned to offer solutions that help deal with the pressures placed on urban environments and natural resources.
For more information please visit www.polypipe.com.
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10 Nov 2017 AMLeave a Comment on Glance News – 31.10.2017
Glance News – 31.10.2017
TO READ PIB LINKS:
http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=173112 [No Indian should fall prey to the hideous design of vested interests and anti-India proponents: Vice President Delivers first Sardar Patel Memorial Lecture] – Paper 4
http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=173115 Delegation led by Minister of Interior of the Kingdom of Morocco meets Indian delegation led by MoS (Home) Shri Kiren Rijiju – Paper 2
Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat – Paper 1/ Essay
Background :(Source : http://www.ekbharat.gov.in/)
India is a unique nation, whose fabric has been woven by diverse linguistic, cultural and religious threads , held together into a composite national identity by a rich history of cultural evolution, coupled with a rousing freedom struggle that was built around the tenets of non-violence and justice. The spirit of mutual understanding amidst a shared history has enabled a special unity in diversity , which stands out as a tall flame of nationhood that needs to be nourished and cherished into the future.
Time and technology have narrowed down distances in terms of connect and communication. In an era that facilitates mobility and outreach, it is important to establish cultural exchanges between people of different regions, as a means to further human bonding and a common approach to nation-building. Mutual understanding and trust are the foundations of India’s strength and all citizens should feel culturally integrated in all corners of India. Students from the north-east, for example, should not feel like ‘strangers in a strange land’ when they arrive in Delhi.
The idea of a sustained and structured cultural connect between denizens of different regions was mooted by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi during the Rashtriya Ekta Divas held on 31st October, 2015, to commemorate the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Hon’ble Prime Minister propounded that cultural diversity is a joy that ought to be celebrated through mutual interaction & reciprocity between people of different States and UTs so that a common spirit of understanding resonates throughout the country. Every State and UT in the country would be paired with another State/UT for a year, during which they would carry out a structured engagement with one another in the spheres of language, literature, cuisine, festivals, cultural events, tourism etc. For example, Andhra Pradesh is paired with Punjab for the year 2017. During the year, Punjabis would attempt to learn key words in Telugu , a few Telugu books would be translated into Punjabi & vice-versa, Andhraites would hold food festivals offering Punjabi dishes, Punjabis would perform Andhra folk dances, while Andhraites would perform Bhangra at staged events etc. This pattern of cultural adoption of the partner State/UT would be followed by all States and UTs .
All the 36 States/UTs in India have been paired for an entire year. The paired States/UTs would sign MoUs with each other, delineating a set of activities that they would carry out through the year. An activity calendar for each pair would be prepared through mutual consultation , paving the way for a year long process of mutual engagement. Such interaction between different segments of the population of each pair of States /UTs at the cultural level, would generate the vibrance of understanding & appreciation amongst the people and forge mutual bonding, thus securing an enriched value system of unity in the nation.
Objectives of Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat
The broad objectives of the initiative are as follows
To CELEBRATE the Unity in Diversity of our Nation and to maintain and strengthen the fabric of traditionally existing emotional bonds between the people of our Country;
To PROMOTEthe spirit of national integration through a deep and structured engagement between all Indian States and Union Territories through a year-long planned engagement between States;
iii. To SHOWCASE the rich heritage and culture, customs and traditions of either State for enabling people to understand and appreciate the diversity that is India, thus fostering a sense of common identity
TO ESTABLISHlong-term engagements and,
TO CREATEan environment which promotes learning between States by sharing best practices and experiences.
Key Themes for Interaction:
To celebrate the idea of India as a nation wherein different cultural units across varied geographies coalesce and interact with each other, this glorious manifestation of diverse cuisine, music, dance, theatre, movies & films, handicrafts, sports, literature, festivals, painting, sculpture etc. will enable people to imbibe the innate chord of binding and brotherhood.
To make our people aware about the seamless integral hull of the Modern Indian State spread across a vast landmass on whose firm foundations, the geo-political strength of the country is ensured to benefit one and all.
To impress upon people at large about the increasing inter-connectedness between the constituents of various cultures and traditions, which is so vital for the spirit of nation building.
To induce a sense of responsibility & ownership for the nation as a whole through these close cross-cultural interactions as it intends to build up the inter-dependence matrix unequivocally.
Implementation Strategy/Methodology:
The EK Bharat Shreshtha Bharat Engagement Matrix between States and UTs for the First year would be as follows:
Jammu & Kashmir : Tamil Nadu
Punjab : Andhra Pradesh
Himachal Pradesh : Kerala
Uttarakhand : Karnataka
Haryana :Telangana
Rajasthan : West Bengal
Gujarat : Chhattisgarh
Maharashtra :Odisha
Goa : Jharkhand
Delhi : Sikkim & Assam
Madhya Pradesh : Manipur & Nagaland
Uttar Pradesh : Arunachal Pradesh & Meghalaya
Bihar : Tripura & Mizoram
Chandigarh : Dadra & Nagar Haveli
Puducherry : Daman & Diu
Lakshadweep : Andaman & Nicobar
Paper4: Values, Ethics, Moral Thinkers Contributions to India and World
Invaluable contribution of Sardar Patel in building a modern and unified India needs to be remembered by every Indian:Vice President
The Vice President of India, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu has said that the invaluable contribution of Sardar Patel in building a modern and unified India needs to be remembered by every Indian as the country marches ahead as one of the largest economies in the world.
The Vice President said that Sardar Patel was a selfless leader, who placed the country’s interests above everything else and shaped India’s destiny with single-minded devotion. He further said that in a truly masterful display of statesmanship, Sardar Patel ensured a smooth integration of the troubled domains by not allowing the situation to deteriorate into civil unrest.
Points to be taken as an Administrator:
There was neither bloodshed nor any kind of rebellion as he went about the task of building a strong India with a missionary zeal, he added.
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had said, ‘History will call him the builder and consolidator of new India’.
He further quoted Mahatma Gandhi as saying, ‘Many were prepared to follow me, but I could not make up my mind as to who should be my deputy commander.
Then I thought of Vallabhbhai’. Sardar Patel was not only an organizer par excellence but also turned out to be a people’s leader, he added.
Following is the text of Vice President’s address:
Sardar Patel, the architect and unifier of modern India, was not only a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi but also his ardent follower.
Patel was a selfless leader, who placed the country’s interests above everything else and shaped India’s destiny with single-minded devotion.
He fashioned the country’s political integration with the swiftness of a military commander and deftness of a visionary leader.
Displaying the vision of a statesman, tact, diplomacy and pragmatic approach, he prevented the balkanization of the country and ensured the merger of more than 560 princely States with the Union of India at a critical and most turbulent period in the history of the country.
What makes this stupendous integration most remarkable is that it was achieved without any bloodshed.
It indeed was a herculean task to bring the rulers of different princely States on board.
Adopting different approaches as warranted by the situation, he gave friendly advice in some cases, persuaded the rulers to see reason in others and even used force as in the case of Hyderabad.
What is most remarkable is the fact that Sardar Patel achieved a unified India when the rulers of the princely States were given the option of joining either India or Pakistan or remaining independent.
After securing the accession of Junagarh, he ensured the liberation and integration of Hyderabad State with rest of India in a deft and swift action codenamed ‘Operation Polo’. The police action ended in just four days on September 18, 1948. Every year, September 17 is being celebrated as ‘Hyderabad Liberation Day’ in Telangana and parts Maharashtra and Karnataka.
In a truly masterful display of statesmanship, Sardar Patel ensured a smooth integration of the troubled domains by not allowing the situation to deteriorate into civil unrest. There was neither bloodshed nor any kind of rebellion as he went about the task of building a strong India with a missionary zeal.
Undoubtedly, there is no parallel in modern history to what was achieved by him. Acknowledging the monumental contribution of Patel in nation building, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had this to say: ‘History will call him the builder and consolidator of new India’.
After he came under the influence of Mahatma Gandhi, he became his lieutenant and was chosen to lead Kheda satyagraha. He switched over to Indian attire and later embraced khadi. His biggest asset was his down-to-earth disposition.
‘Many were prepared to follow me, but I could not make up my mind as to who should be my deputy commander. Then I thought of Vallabhbhai’ said Gandhiji. Sardar Patel was not only an organizer par excellence but also turned out to be a people’s leader. He earned the title of ‘Sardar’ after he spearheaded peasant’s no-tax campaign at Bardoli in Gujarat.
He also led the relief and rehabilitation operations from the front when Gujarat was ravaged by floods and worked tirelessly during plague outbreak in Ahmedabad.
While he became immensely popular and had earned the title of Sardar after Bardoli campaign, Patel played a major role Salt Satyagraha and was imprisoned with other leaders. During Quit India Movement also, he went around the country giving stirring speeches and was again jailed.
Although, Sardar Patel differed with Gandhiji on certain issues, he always remained loyal to him. Following Gandhiji’s assassination, he said: “I claim to be nothing more than an obedient soldier of him like the millions who obeyed his call. There was a time when everyone used to call me his blind follower. But, both he and I knew that I followed him because our convictions tallied”.
His vision for a unified India also saw the creation of All India Administrative Services which he described as the ‘Steel Frame’. His exhortation to the probationers to maintain utmost impartiality and incorruptibility of administration is as relevant today as it was then.
“We have to shed mutual bickering, shed the difference of being high or low, develop a sense of equality and banish untouchability. We have to restore the conditions of Swaraj prevalent prior to British rule. We have to live like children of the same father, these words of Sardar Patel during the Quit India Movement continue to inspire us.
Following his death, ‘The Manchester Guardian’ wrote: “Patel was not only the organiser of the fight for freedom but also the architect of the new State when the fight was over. The same man is seldom successful as a rebel and a statesman. Sardar Patel was the exception”.
Paper 3 – India emerging as a leader among milk producing nations
Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister said India is emerging as a leader among milk producing nations at Pashu Arogya Mela in Semwapur, Motihari. India produces 163.7 million tonne milk in 2016-17 worth over Rs.4 lakh crore. There are 19 crore cattle in the country, which amounts to 14% of the total cattle population of the world.
Rashtriya Gokul Mission:
Rashtriya Gokul Mission, 2014 is a focussed project under National Programme for Bovine Breeding and Dairy Development.
It’s objective is to conserve and propagate indigenous breeds in an organized and scientific manner.
Paper 2 : IR – Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni visit to India
The period from 2012 to 2016 marked a difficult bilateral phase as the marines issue- fatal shootings of two Indian fishermen in 2012 by Italian marines became a national debate in Italy.
The case is now with the International Court of Justice is expected to be completed by 2018. India’s global push for the Nuclear Suppliers Group membership and bilateral trade are likely to be on the agenda
Italy’s support for India’s candidature at the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) in 2016
Italian support at the FATF (Financial Action Task Force) meeting that begins on Monday in Buenos Aires, where India has been pushing for stringent measures against Pakistan on terror funding issues.
Positive Implications:
Italian supportive role in the EU and NSG will help our cause with the EU-India FTA (Free Trade Agreement) and our bid for NSG membership
Paper 3 – S & Tech; Environment
Scientists have developed a novel vaccine candidate that may prevent HIV infection by stimulating an immune response against sugars that form a protective shield around the virus.The protein fragment of the vaccine candidate comes from gp120, a protein that covers HIV like a protective envelope. A sugar shield covers the gp120 envelope, bolstering HIV’s defences. The rare HIV-infected individuals who can keep the virus at bay without medication typically have antibodies that attack gp120.
Scientists have developed a novel smartphone-based portable ultrasound machine that can help detect cancer easily at home. The machine called Butterfly IQ is a pocket-sized ultrasound device, which is the size and shape of an electric razor. works by shooting sound waves into the body and capturing the echoes.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has announced that India will host next Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Species of Wild Animals (CMS) Conference of Parties 13 (CMS COP13) in year 2020. CMS COP is also known as a Global Wildlife Conference. The announcement was made during 12th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties 12 (COP12) to CMS held in Manila, Philippines in October 2017
Paper 3: PM hails India’s historic jump in ‘Ease of Doing Business’ rankings
The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has hailed India’s historic jump of 30 ranks in the World Bank’s Doing Business Report, 2018 released today. India’s rank has risen to 100 in the latest report compared to 130 in the Doing Business Report, 2017.
While terming the improvement in the rankings as historic, the Prime Minister in a series of tweets, said that the jump is the outcome of the all-round and multi-sectoral reform push of Team India.
“Historic jump in ‘Ease of Doing Business’ rankings is the outcome of the all-round & multi-sectoral reform push of Team India.
Published by AM
blueprint and theme to get a rank in IAS exam View all posts by AM
Categories Current Affairs, Glance News
Previous Glance Prelims MCQ’s – 10th Nov 2017
Next Glance News – 01.11.2017
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Catapult Colloquium Series
About Catapult Colloquium
Please contact us at (812) 855-0829 or idah@indiana.edu to obtain information contained in the documents below in an accessible format.
The Catapult Center for Digital Humanities & Computational Analysis was established by the IU College of Arts and Sciences in 2012 for the promotion of the digital humanities and the computational and material analysis of texts. The goal of the Center was to build a visible community of scholars and researchers from the humanities, social sciences, computer and information sciences, and material sciences who wish to collaborate in seeking innovative solutions to problems that arise in textual and para-textual research. The Center hosted Colloquia 2012-2015.
This year (2016-2017), IDAH has expanded Catapult’s mission to encompass Digital Critique. Faculty and students from across the University are invited to join us in a year-long exploration of Diversity and Digital Culture. Our aim is to explore the way digital practices and everyday technology address, remediate, and reconfigure difference.
Colloquia 2015
What Digital Humanities can Learn from Corpus Linguistics: Annotation as Interpretation
Heike Zinsmeister
University of Hamburg
Annotation is a basic hermeneutical method in text-based humanities and beyond, which comes in very different shapes ranging from free-style comments to automatic annotation with standardized tagsets. While it is well established in corpus linguistics to use closed tagsets and to publish the annotated corpus together with its tagging guidelines for reuse by the research community, this is not the case in many other disciplines in Digital Humanities. In this talk, I argue in favor of establishing a general culture of creating reusable, annotated resources in a sustainable way. This includes small-scale studies of manual annotation, as well as the support of digging into big data by means of automatic annotation. A core feature in this endeavor is the Annotation Cycle that supports the process of deriving objective categories from subjective interpretation, which has its origins in machine learning approaches of computational linguistics.
Heike Zinsmeister is a professor for German linguistics and corpus linguistics at the University of Hamburg, Germany. After studying linguistics and philosophy in Stuttgart, Germany, she had worked in computational linguistics research projects for many years with a focus on linguistic annotation and its use. She is currently collaborating with DH researchers from literature and cultural anthropology exploring the merits of annotation.
Growing Like “Top Seed”: Editing the Cultural Afterlives of Texts
Amanda Gailey
Digital archives and editions are some of the oldest and most useful digital humanities projects. The methods for creating these projects have been very successful, but they have also become “locked in”—that is, they have become so standard that it has become difficult to imagine alternatives, even alternatives that may speak directly to critical interests in texts. This talk will speculate about alternative digital presentations of literature by considering a case study, a New Historicist interest in the character Topsy from Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Amanda Gailey is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Nebraska, where she teaches classes on digital humanities and American literature. She edits The Tar Baby and the Tomahawk , a digital collection of materials relating to the depiction of race in American children's literature, and she co-edits Scholarly Editing: The Annual of the Association for Documentary Editing , which publishes peer-reviewed digital editions of interesting literary and historical texts. Her book, Proofs of Genius: Collected Editions from the American Revolution to the Digital Age , will be released by the University of Michigan Press in October, 2015.
Frankenstein's Skeleton
Wendell Piez
Piez Consulting Services
In 1816 Mary Shelley wrote a book that has become more than a classic, inscribing not only a text, but a troubling idea, indelibly into world consciousness.
Now we have computationally tractable forms of text, it is possible to examine this novel directly, not only searching and formatting it, but also subjecting it to more peculiar interrogations: laying out the body on the table and seeing what it is made of and how put together.
A great number and variety of interesting questions come up when we do this, relating not only to this text but to the modeling, description and representation of literary texts in general, and how current text encoding technologies serve to do this (or can be made to do so better). How is a dead text brought to life? What makes a text alive or dead in the first place?
It may be that (among other things) a living text shows an organic whole, an integrity of purpose in its various dimensions, layers and component parts. This is certainly the case with Shelley's Frankenstein , which proves under close examination to have a structure that is not fully understood or appreciated, even by many editors and publishers.
The audience is invited to bring printed or electronic copies of Mary Shelley's novel, in any edition. Our first question will be: where is the end of Chapter 24?
Wendell Piez is an independent consultant specializing in electronic publishing technologies, including XML and XSLT, whose PhD in English (Rutgers 1991) focused on Romantic and Victorian literature. His ongoing projects include LMNL (the Layered Markup and Annotation Language), a form of markup (not XML!) that is useful for representing overlapping phenomena in text. Wendell is also the General Editor for Digital Humanities Quarterly, published by the Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations.
http://www.wendellpiez.com
http://github.com/wendellpiez
Nineteenth-Century Digital Humanities
Roger Whitson
Scholars tend to consider the digital humanities as a methodological field. But the changes occurring to culture due to digital technology also have the potential to impact the content of humanistic study. I'll examine steampunk as a subculture whose combination of experiments with alternate history, nineteenth-century writing, and the engineering of anachronistic devices all contribute to a bold vision of a historically-inflected digital humanities practice.
In addition to showing how steampunk authors respond to the use of nineteenth-century technological design in countries like India and China and the looming reality of climate change transforming our technological infrastructure, I will detail my own experiments with anachronistic computing as a response to Kari Kraus's call for more conjectural inquiry in the digital humanities. Steampunk is unique in its ability to appropriate nineteenth century history in order to find alternatives to the futurism that runs rampant in our neoliberal technology industry. This talk will show how a similar futurism can be found in some parts of the digital humanities, while detailing how nineteenth-century digital humanities can inspire alternatives to the future.
The VAT: Video Analysis at Scale
Virginia Kuhn
School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California
Cultural analytics, a newer branch of the digital humanities, is an approach that deploys computer technologies to analyze the formal features of art and culture, making them available to interpretive methods. Moving image media is particularly ripe for computational analysis given its increasing ubiquity in contemporary culture. Indeed, digital video—whether recorded digitally or digitized from film—is a rapidly expanding form of contemporary cultural production, one made possible by the proliferation of personal recording technologies and hosting platforms like YouTube, Vimeo and the Internet Archive. In short, video is one of the most compelling “big data,” issues of the current cultural moment; its formats are diverse, rapidly transmitted, and boundlessly large in number.
Yet despite its scale and importance, video remains a daunting object for sustained research, for obstacles that are technological, institutional and conceptual in nature. In this talk, Virginia Kuhn will describe her large-scale video analytics project which is supported by the NSF’s XSEDE program (extreme science and engineering discovery environment) and her project team’s efforts at establishing a software workbench for video analysis, annotation, and visualization, using both current and experimental discovery methods.
Computer Science and Literary History, in Conversation about Poetry
Ted Underwood
To the extent that humanists discuss computer science at all, we tend to imagine it instrumentally, as a source of useful "tools." But the conversation between computer scientists and humanists needn't be purely instrumental. Computer science is an epistemologically flexible discourse that seeks to model learning and belief; humanists may have more in common with it than we imagine.
To make these abstract reflections more concrete I'll describe a research project that tries to understand the history of poetic diction from 1700 to 1920. In this project, I've found computers useful for practical reasons: confronted with hundreds of thousands of digitized books, we need a way to identify the particular volumes and pages that contain "poetry," and a way to identify historically significant trends in hundreds of thousands of works. But beyond those practical problems, I've found the conceptual resources of computer science helpful as I grapple with the necessary ambiguities surrounding critical terms like "genre" and "diction." Methods discussed will include multi-label classification, semi-supervised learning, and probabilistic graphical models as well as versification and close reading.
Exploring, Analyzing, Remixing: Teaching History with Digital Media
Mills Kelly
Digital media have profoundly changed the ways that our students find, make sense of, and work with historical information. In this talk, Professor Kelly will discuss his research on teaching and learning history with digital means, with a particular focus on how students are using digital tools to work with massive data sets and how they are using new media to stretch the boundaries of traditional forms of learning.
The Syntactic Reference Corpus of Medieval French (SRCMF): A Dependency Treebank for Old French
Thomas Rainsford
Building on two large existing corpora of Old French (the Base de Français Médiéval (BFM) and the Nouveau Corpus d'Amsterdam (NCA)), the SRCMF project has created the first dependency treebank for Old French. This talk will consider the preparation of the corpus, and will go on to highlight some of the work that the corpus has made possible in the two years since the end of the project. The manual annotation of the corpus according to an innovative grammar model was made possible by the NotaBene annotation tool (Mazziotta 2010), and the quality of the annotation was ensured by a process of double blind annotation and subsequent comparison. The annotated texts are available (i) in Tiger-XML format, most helpful for conventional linguistic queries, and (ii) in CoNLL format for use in training the mate tools parser (Bohnet 2010). I will present ongoing work on constructing a web interface for the completed corpus using the TXM platform (Heiden 2010) which is used to host the (BFM), and will demonstrate the export of query results in the form of "Key Node in Context" concordances.
(slides)(video)
The Virtual World Heritage Laboratory: How We Apply 3D Technologies to Teaching and Research at IU
Bernard Frischer
In August, 2013 the Virtual World Heritage Laboratory moved to IU from the University of Virginia. In this talk lab director Bernard Frischer will discuss recent projects of the lab including the Virtual Meridian of Augustus, the Digital Hadrian's Villa Project, and the Digital Sculpture Project. Frischer will also present the new online, peer-reviewed journal he founded, *Digital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, *the first scholarly outlet focusing on 3D modeling of cultural heritage artifacts, monuments, and settlements.
3D Technologies and the Democratization of Archaeology and Natural History: A Model for Humanities and Sciences
Herbert Maschner
3D technologies are revolutionizing the research experience by bringing critical, rare, fragile, or inaccessible collections to a world-wide audience. Coupled with on-screen analytical tools, the virtualization of entire repositories is democratizing the research enterprise by creating opportunities for students, indigenous peoples, politicians, and a global research community to conduct analyses from anywhere on the planet. The Idaho Museum of Natural History is at the forefront of virtualizing collections with over 15,000 archaeological and paleontological specimens on line, with key visualization and analytical tools built into the user experience. This presentation will provide a complete demonstration of this new model for the creation of global heritage repositories.
The Economic Future of Women
Blaise Agüera y Arcas
Monday, February 10, 2014 & Monday, February 10, 2014
With rare exceptions, women have been an economic underclass relative to men for thousands of years— perhaps since the dawn of agriculture. While we have made strides in recent history toward equal rights for the genders, it is still the case that the great majority of world capital remains in the hands of men; that a 50 year old American woman with full-time employment in 1970 made on average only 55% of a man’s wage; that today’s business executives and tech industry are overwhelmingly male-dominated. However, in this talk it will be argued that over the next few years we will see a reversal of this very longstanding status quo: women will become economically dominant. The case for this is argued using labor and wealth statistics, both American and international. The second half of the talk is more speculative, and delves into some theories as to why we are seeing this reversal now.
Reinventing Gutenberg
Johann Gutenberg is widely understood to have been the inventor of the most important information technology of the second millennium: printing. Before Gutenberg, literacy in Europe was for the rich and noble, and books were individually hand-copied treasures. After his invention and its rapid spread throughout the continent, books and letters became widely accessible, leading to the rise of an educated middle class, a profound acceleration in technological innovation, the Protestant Reformation, and much else that shaped world history from 1500 on.
But how much do we know about what Gutenberg's invention actually was? Prior to the fruitful collaboration ten years ago between Blaise Agüera y Arcas, an applied math grad student at Princeton at the time, and Paul Needham, a world authority on Gutenberg and the curator of the Scheide Library at Princeton, much of what was known about Gutenberg's life and work came from secondary sources, legal records, and guesswork-- and much of it was in error. Needham and Agüera y Arcas worked together to apply modern analytic methods to Gutenberg's surviving output, using high resolution imaging and shape clustering to prove that while he was indeed a great inventor, he did not invent the technologies that have been ascribed to him, and that the early evolution of printing technology was much more complex than had been thought.
This talk will be of interest to humanists and scientists alike.
Operationalizing Networks in the Humanities
Elijah Meeks
The use of the network as an object for representing and measuring systems has grown in the humanities and continues to increase in popularity but as it does there are more and more signs of the use of networks in simulation and modeling to explore humanities subjects. Building on Moretti's concept of operationalization, this talk will focus on the use of networks and network models not merely to describe systems but to hypothesize their formation, reproduction, maintenance and decline. This will include an exploration of the general principles of network analysis and representation as well as the use of networks in establishing system-based and agent-based models. These objects are dynamic, and as such interactive methods of publication are necessary to allow readers to interrogate, cite, critique or extend them. Some examples of these publication methods will be explored in depth, utilizing models from the work being done in the English and Classics departments at Stanford.
The Emergence of the Digital Humanities
Steven E. Jones
The past decade has seen a profound shift in our collective understanding of the digital network. What was once understood to be a transcendent virtual reality is now experienced as a ubiquitous grid of data that we move through every day. As William Gibson says, cyberspace has everted, turned inside out and spilled out into the world. At the same time, the digital humanities has emerged as a new interdisciplinary field. This is no coincidence, as Jones argues in his new book, The Emergence of the Digital Humanities (Routledge, 2013). The eversion of cyberspace--as manifested in 3D printing, ubiquitous computing, data mining and analysis, the geospatial turn, and experiments with digital publishing platforms--provides an essential context for understanding the emergence and influence of the digital humanities in the new millennium.
More info can be found on the Emergence of Digital Humanities site.
Networks and Neighbourhoods in Early Modern London
Janelle Jenstad
Janelle Jenstad will take you on a tour of early modern London via the four interoperable projects that make up The Map of Early Modern London. Taking the Agas map of 1560s London as its landscape, MoEML connects an encyclopedia of its people and places with an anthology of London's literature and a versioned edition of John Stow's Survey of London. The MoEML team works with an network of contributors in Digital Humanities and early modernists in various disciplines to map out relationships of proximity and visualize social and material relationships in the early modern city.
Bio: Janelle Jenstad is Associate Professor of English at the University of Victoria. She is the founder and current Director of The Map of Early Modern London, as well as the Assistant Coordinating Editor of the Internet Shakespeare Editions.
Digital Humanities: Chances and Challenges
Caroline Sporleder
Saarland University
The field of "Digital Humanities" has expanded considerably in the past few years and continues to grow. Dedicated programmes and funding schemes led to both an increase in the availability of data through large-scale digitisation projects (e.g. historical newspapers, archaeological field books, mediaeval manuscripts) and a boost in basic research in this area. Several universities have set up research centers dedicated to digital humanities research. Furthermore the growing demand for researchers who combine deep knowledge of the humanities with IT-skills led to the establishment of many new degree programmes in digital humanities and related areas. However, the Digital Humanities are a very heterogeneous field, with different sub-communities which have very different views of what "Digital Humanities" should entail. Moreover, there continues to be a certain amount of skepticism towards the use of digital techniques in the Humanities themselves.
In this talk, I will present my view of the field and of its chances and challenges. I will present several case studies, ranging from digitally assisted curation in cultural heritage institutes, over digital research tools for humanities researchers (virtual research environments, digital editions, search interfaces) to methods for visualising and mining data and for extracting and quantifying information. It is this last area that has the biggest potential for changing humanities research by enabling researchers to discover facts that could not be discovered by traditional, purely manual means. However, this last area is also the most controversial and poses the biggest challenge, often requiring the development of novel, quantitative research methodologies in the Humanities. Clearly, these new methods should complement rather than substitute traditional methods.
Global Seduction and Disasters at 1:40,000,000 - Challenges in Social Geography
Ingo Günther
The Hands-On Imperative
William J. Turkel
The idea that "making is thinking," as Richard Sennett puts it, has always had some place in the humanities. Until recently, however, it was costly and difficult to produce physical objects. Now online maker communities, powerful design software, cloud-based services, desktop fabrication and physical computing make it almost as easy for people to make and share artifacts as information or software. I describe how to set up a makerspace and fab lab for humanists, and why you might want to. http://williamjturkel.net/2013/02/02/the-history-department-with-a-fab-lab/
The Research Program at the Distributed Digital Music Archives and Libraries Laboratory
Ichiro Fujinaga
The main goal of this research program is to develop and evaluate practices, frameworks, and tools for the design and construction of worldwide distributed digital music archives and libraries. Over the last few millennia, humans have amassed an enormous amount of information and cultural material that is scattered around the world. It is becoming abundantly clear that the optimal path for acquisition is to distribute the task of digitizing the wealth of historical and cultural heritage material that exists in analogue formats, which may include books, manuscripts, music scores, maps, photographs, videos, analogue tapes, and phonograph records. In order to achieve this goal, libraries, museums, and archives throughout the world, large or small, need well-researched policies, proper guidance, and efficient tools to digitize their collections and to make them available economically. The research conducted within the program will address unique and imminent challenges posed by the digitization and dissemination of music media. In this talk various projects currently conducted at our laboratory will be presented; including optical music recognition, workflow management for automatic metadata extraction of LP recordings, creation of ground truth for music structural and chord analysis, and evaluation of digitization methods for analogue recordings.
A Computational Research System for the History of Science and its Connections to Bioinformatics
Manfred Laubichler, Julia Damerow, & Erick Peirson
Computational methods and perspectives can transform the history of science by enabling the pursuit of novel types of questions, expanding dramatically the scale of analysis (geographically and temporally) and offering novel forms of publication that greatly enhance access and transparency. In this talk we present a brief summary of a computational research system for the history of science, introduce some of the tools and use cases, discuss its implications for research, education and publication practices and its connections to the open access movement and similar transformations in the natural and social sciences emphasizing big data. One of the connections of this approach is with genomics and we will explore the isomorphic structure between different types of historically evolving information systems, such as genomes and science. We also argue that computational approaches help to reconnect the history of science to individual scientific disciplines.
Correlating Theme, Geography, and Sentiment in the 19th Century Literary Imagination
Matthew Jockers
How do literary expressions of and attitudes toward slavery in the 19th century change according to fictional setting? Do novels set in Ireland present a perspective toward landlords and tenants that is similar or different from what we find in novels set in America or England? How do the answers to these and similar questions fluctuate over time or according to author gender or author nationality?
This study uses tools and techniques from text mining, natural language processing, machine learning, and statistics to address questions such as these and to identify and study how specific places, themes, and sentiments find synchronous or asynchronous expression within the 19th century literary imagination. Using data mined from a large corpus, ~3500 works of British, Irish and American fiction, this macroanalysis seeks to expose persistent links between geographic setting, theme, and sentiment and to then chart the ways in which places (such as Ireland) are constructed, or “invented,” within the literary imagination of the century.
Challenges for a Humanities Macroscope
Timothy R. Tangherlini
With the advent of the very large digital repositories of literary and other culturally expressive works, canonical approaches to Humanities research are confronted with a crisis of sustainability. If we have access to all the literature produced in the 19th century, should we not take it into account in some way in our research? Similarly, if we have access to several hundred thousand stories in our folklore archives, should we not devise methods that allow for all of that information to inform our research? Several fundamental challenges exist for Humanities scholars as we move toward considering these larger and larger corpora, not least of which is how one “reads” fifteen thousand novels, or a quarter of a million stories? In this presentation, I explore the theoretically tantalizing prospect of a research environment that Katy Börner has labeled the “macroscope.” For Börner, “Macroscopes provide a ‘vision of the whole,’ helping us ‘synthesize’ the related elements and detect patterns, trends, and outliers while granting access to myriad details. Rather than make things larger or smaller, macroscopes let us observe what is at once too great, slow, or complex for the human eye and mind to notice and comprehend” (Börner 2011, 60). The macroscope holds the promise of wedding “close reading” approaches, which have been a fundamental analytical approach in folkloristics since the beginning of the field, to what Franco Moretti has called “Distant Reading” where “Distance… is a condition of knowledge: it allows you to focus on units that are much smaller or much larger than the text: devices, themes, tropes—or genres and systems” (Moretti 2000, 57). In this presentation, I make use of work on a large corpus of Danish folklore, the Google Books corpus, and other preliminary explorations on internet data, from blogs, to twitter, to Facebook and YouTube. I present some possible algorithmic approaches to specific research problems, including network methods and topic modeling.
Digital Scholarship and the Mental Worlds of Isaac Newton
Rob Iliffe
Since Newton's non-scientific papers were sold at auction in 1936, there has been a progressive revelation of information about the little known private mental life of Isaac Newton. Although his writings on alchemical and religious topics were effectively available on microfilm by the mid-1980s, the online publication of all of his writings dramatically improves our ability to investigate this unknown world. In this talk I examine how the digital medium -- coupled with hard scholarly work -- has facilitated the acquisition of new insights into the development of Newton's beliefs and research practices. I conclude by considering some of the wider implications for humanities research that arise from creating and engaging with the online Newton.
Challenges for the Humanities: Scholarly Work and Publishing in the Digital Age
Urs Schoepflin
Since the foundation of the Max Planck Institute of the History of Science in 1994, it is our primary concern to make source materials available in digital form together with developing cutting edge tools and instruments to adequately support the scholarly work. ECHO - Cultural Heritage Online as an open access repository and research environment is the most prominent outcome of this endeavor. Based on our experience, basic issues of motivation, collection building strategies, specific tool development, Open Access as primary prerequisite (Berlin Declaration), research collaboration and trans-disciplinarity will be raised. Reflecting on changing notions of "the document" and on information economy, novel ways of disseminating research results will be presented (e.g. by way of Virtual Spaces; with Edition Open Access). Finally, problems of organizing quality control, of long-term sustainability, and of gaining recognition in evaluation procedures will be discussed.
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Golrokh Iraee Faces Additional Prison Term After Being Released Recently
Home//News//News Articles//Golrokh Iraee Faces Additional Prison Term After Being Released Recently
Published by Tirdad on April 18, 2019
Civil activist prisoner Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee was freed on bail from Evin Prison, on 8 April, 2019 but she may have to serve more time behind bars depending on the outcome of another case against her.
Ebrahimi Iraee was arrested on 6 September, 2014 by the IRGC for writing against stoning to death. She had been serving a six-year prison sentence since October 2016 primarily for the piece that was never published.
She was released from Evin Prison in Tehran on 8 April, 2019, after posting bail set at 60 million tomans.
She was threatened to execution several times during her interrogation, and was deprived of medical treatment, battered and treated inhumanely.
It is not clear why she was released at this time but she could be imprisoned again if found guilty in a new case against her and other human rights defender prisoner Atena Daemi by the director of Evin Prison, Ali Chaharmahali.
Golrokh Iraee went on a 81-day hunger strike on 3 Febbuary, 2018 along with her cell-mate, political prisoner Atena Daemi, after their violent transfer to the notorious Qarchak Prison in Varamin on 24 January, 2018. This was a breach of the separation of the prisoners’ categories.
Iraee’s husband, civil rights activist Arash Sadeghi, has been serving a 15-year prison sentence for his peaceful civil activities since 2016.
He underwent a biopsy in June 2018 and was diagnosed with Chondrosarcoma, a rare form of cancer that causes bone tumours.
Referring to the injustice prevailed at Iran’s judicial system, Amnesty International said: “As a prisoner of conscience, Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee should never have been forced to spend a single minute behind bars – let alone nearly 30 months. She is the victim of Iran’s deeply unfair judicial system which criminalizes the courageous work of human rights defenders.”
Amnesty International called on Iranian authorities to provide her reparations for the suffering they have inflicted upon her and other human rights advocate prisoners.
Borazjan people demonstration Amnesty International: Nasrin Sotoudeh a prominent Iranian human rights lawyer was arrested The Intelligence Agents Attacked Nasrin Sotoudeh’s Home
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Pilgrimage to the Virgin of Guadalupe
061203_guadalupe_053.jpg
Sunday December 3rd, 2006, Mexico City, Mexico.. As December 12th approaches, hundreds of thousands of devotees flock to the Cathedral of the Virgin of Guadalupe on the hill of Tepeyac near Mexico City, to commemorate her first appearance in the 16th century. People come from all over Mexico to pay their respects to the Virgin, the most popular religious icon of Mexico, walking, riding bicycles and driving for days to reach the cathedral. . Thousands of bikers from San Nicolas, in the state...
Sunday December 3rd, 2006, Mexico City, Mexico.. As December 12th approaches, hundreds of thousands of devotees flock to the Cathedral of the Virgin of Guadalupe on the hill of Tepeyac near Mexico City, to commemorate her first appearance in the 16th century. People come from all over Mexico to pay their respects to the Virgin, the most popular religious icon of Mexico, walking, riding bicycles and driving for days to reach the cathedral. . Thousands of bikers from San Nicolas, in the state of Hidalgo, rode 5 hours to reach the cathedral, adorning their bicycles with images of the Virgin.
Copyright: c.2006 Jeremy M. Lange
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Tag: Paul McGann
Doctor Who: The Master in the 1990s – “I’m glad one of us is amused”
By Jokermatt on May 27, 2016 • ( 2 Comments )
One MaRCHster long-read to unite them all…
As the Doctor Who: The Movie reaches 20 years old, this is it – a special bonus MArchSTER looking at 1996’s peculiar and divisive incarnation of the Master. An irresistible glance, as oddly, the cycle of the Doctor’s Time Lord rival almost came full circle…
“Humans, always seeing patterns in things that aren’t there”
OVER A DECADE AFTER DOCTOR WHO’S SUCCESSFUL RETURN TO BRITISH TELEVISION, THE WEIGHT OF HINDSIGHT HANGING OVER THE DOCTOR’S SHORT FORAY ACROSS THE ATLANTIC COULDN’T BE GREATER. Perhaps it’s no surprise that a film that struggled to accommodate the wealth of the show’s history, while refusing to fully reboot from the roots of its original run, ended up dipping into the past so much. And through the trials and tribulations that marked its emergence, despite its resolutely fin de siècle setting, how fitting that the American TV Movie paid tribute to the Master in the decade of his first appearance…
The Television Movie (1996)
A history of villainy
“You want me to kill you?”
The path Doctor Who took to America was long and tortuous. Even when it reached production, the sheer number of stakeholders on both sides of the Atlantic made tough going. There’s no doubt that between the stand-offish/love the property found at the BBC of the time and evangelistic/waning interest among American production companies, casting demands, excessive script notes and strengthening Canadian dollars that impacted its Vancouver production, what reached the screen wasn’t quite what anyone expected.
Philip Segal was the producer who saw the opportunity and pushed to bring the property, left fallow by the BBC. Having fond memories of watching the show while growing up in the UK, before he emigrated to the US and ultimately joined Steven Spielberg’s Amblin, His single-minded passion lies behind its very existence.
When pre-production finally swung into gear after years of protracted placing of jigsaw pieces, creating the Bible for the potential American series fell to writer John Leekley. A writer who grew an obsession with Pertwee era-Who during development, but was set to become one of the franchise’s lost figures. His outline was canon-defying, pitching previous Doctor Who mentor, ally and enemy Cardinal Borusa as the Doctor’s grandfather, aiding his grandson on a quest to find the Doctor’s his missing father Ulysses. The plot of what would become the series’ back-door pilot, drafted in 1994, fell to the Doctor’s escape from Gallifrey, a trip to London and a meeting with Churchill during World War II. Segal blamed this on his Third Doctor and UNIT obsession and a “bad case of Dad’s Army”. Leekley’s ensuing Indiana Jones-styled script pushed Steven Spielberg out of the frame, coincided with the arrival of Trevor Walton, Fox’s head of TV movies, and ultimately forced the writer’s removal. Robert de Laurentiis entered, steering the script away from Borusa, introduced a comic companion but retaining Leekley’s concept of the Master as the scripts main antagonist.
When the script fell to writer Matthew Jacobs in 1995, a wonderfully unruffled interviewee on the subject, whose father incidentally had a guest appearance in the 1966 serial The Gunfighters, he was aided by the BBC’s Jo Wright in an executive producing (and key holding) role during the sharp run-up to production. As Jacobs has said, ““My script was basically Doctor Who am I?” World War II was out, Gallifrey too, and continuity returned with the inclusion of Sylvester McCoy’s Seventh Doctor. With minimal dialogue, he was set to regenerate into Paul McGann who had seen off a number of rivals including his brother Mark to land the main role. With the canon reinstated, the Master was confirmed, continuing the antagonism that led back to his first appearance in 1971’s Terror of the Autons.
But in a production that aside from its great BBC investment, enjoyed a British director, star, two executive producers and writer, at least, the villain was what Segal called a “line in the sand”. Fox and Universal insisted on a named American actor from a prescribed list, which Segal circumspectly added was a triumph of “commercialisation over creative rationale”. And so the Master took an unexpected new form… Continue reading “Doctor Who: The Master in the 1990s – “I’m glad one of us is amused””
Doctor Who: The 17 Year Itch – “In the fight for survival, there are no rules” (Whovember #8)
By Jokermatt on December 7, 2013 • ( 12 Comments )
A sad but pivotal turn in the classic Whovember viewings as it reaches the alpha, omega and nothing else in-between… Of one of the best loved Time Lords, that difficult Eighth…
#8: Doctor Who: The Movie, a 17 year break then, The Night of the Doctor.
AH, WHAT IS THERE TO SAY ABOUT THE EIGHTH DOCTOR? Sadly, he’s only there because no one really wanted him. Had a series ensued from his American reboot pilot, we’d no doubt be raging about the canonicity. Not only would there be strong reservations about the Eighth Doctor’s role, despite his canon regeneration, but it would certainly have changed or destroyed that 2005 revival.
In a way, Paul McGann’s barely seen but popular Doctor was a sacrificial lamb.
As it happened, we won a vibrant new series that’s more popular than ever because his stab at TARDIS control failed. Now he’s firmly lodged in the BBC DVD range, long forgotten as a potential American property and somehow formed one of the best bits of the 50th anniversary. Who would have thought that 17 years after first regenerating, the Eighth Doctor would improve… Well, we should have had more faith.
The Movie (1996)
The Movie, for all its faults is still a very good looking production. It’s probably my most watched opening, with the TARDIS vortex cut-aways that still look stunning. The old joke about the classic seasons’ fragile sets may be unfair, but the US budget gave us scenes not come near since the opening few seconds of The Trial of a Time Lord.
The hindsight that comes with the show’s successful revival is the real problem here – incorporating regeneration into the first third. Regeneration is an extraordinary and bizarre concept. It’s absolute genius, but it’s also intangible. I’ve now idea when I became aware of the concept or saw multiple Doctors and realised that they were the same person. Somehow it just happened – and I certainly had no Ben and Polly style companions to ease the transition in the late 1980s.
But here, it’s the voice over of Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor that welcomes us to the story as we see a strangely un-garrulous Seventh Doctor potter around. The script and settings are riddled with menace. About the Doctor’s mission, “It was a request they should never have granted?” we’re told. Really? Why, because the Master ended up falling into the Eye of Harmony? Because Earth temporarily went a little off-molecule and nobody noticed?
Still, director Geoffrey Sax ramps up the atmosphere in the opening scenes. The scenes of the x-rays, mixed with the strobe-laced pan of the ambulance, backed by the static of radio is effective, as is the rather lovely slow-motion opera escaping Grace. Slightly clichéd, but done well.
There are strange Who aberrations littered around, including the marvellous new stellar-cartography console room – so TARDIS and yet not quite. The Seventh Doctor uses a classic sonic screwdriver before he even speaks, for the first time. Like the console room, he’s a bit of a composite himself. A huge, sentimental composite. This jazz loving Doctor is happy knocking back jelly babies, reading Well’s The Time Machine while he nips back, ridiculously or fortuitously to Rassilon-era Gallifrey. When there’s an emergency, something that strangely disconcerts him he doesn’t even check the scanner before leaving his ship….
That prolonged set-up sets things up, rather clinically. The TARDIS is a normal-sized police box, it is invincible, the Doctor really can be two different people.
And then, the savage cut to a dead fish eye sums up the rather uncomfortable mash of styles – uncomfortable in Who terms that is. We’re not in child-focussed historical adventure here – we’re in action adventure. The shoot-out that the Doctor steps into barely felt realistic at the time but it certainly felt violent. And with one ba-ding, the Seventh was over. Well, after a particularly long and sadistic theatre scene. We obviously absolutely have to believe that the Seventh Doctor is dead.
Strange that there’s so many historical nods and yet very little explanation. It’s baffling to new viewers and mildly offensive to Doctor Who fans.
The emphasis is on “mildly”, but of course, there are many parts of The Movie that can get a Whovian frothing at the mouth. The Dalek voices, the Dalek concept of trial (well, they do have a legislative arm…), the Doctor’s roots, the peculiar suggestion that the TARDIS is unique, the Eye of Harmony laying at the heart of the Autumnal Cloister room… The Master.
McGann’s mention of the regenerative limit isn’t enough to overcome the peculiar fate of the Master. His default xenomorph setting can be explained away of course. I mean, for over a decade he’d just sat in a humanoid body that he’d borrowed, taking a fair battering along the way.
There was initial speculation that the Master’s eyes (and black skin?) were a reference to his fate at the end of Survival. They are however, clearly intended to be snake-like – suggesting that his slimy form is indeed, yep, a snake. Yes, he is evil. Biblical as ever, even when he turns into Captain Black. His plot may be hokey and confusing; especially when he pops out to get changed into fine Gallifreyan finery. But some lines like “I’ve wasted all my lives because of you, Doctor…” is quite a compelling.
Many parts of this characterisation are a bit off, but that’s about as irrelevant as research was to Eric Roberts. Overall, this Master is quite valid. Robert’s master chews scenery while channelling Khan. Anthony Ainley had a similar approach. During the ‘Bruce you’re sick’ – ‘Thank you’ exchange, this Master looks far less ridiculous after seeing what John Simm did with the character. This Master’s refusal to accept the Doctor’s help was something else later picked up in the New Series.
There are some nice touches in there, such as his adopting the Doctor’s ‘English’ accent. Also, his pathetic response to a fire extinguisher, odd literalism and Time Lord correction of Grace’s grammar and Freud knowledge is fantastic. But then… He spits poison gunk. Well, presumably so. It burns Grace, but then later both stupefies (kills) and allows the Master a route to possession.
Perhaps most significant is the master’s ability to just appear in the TARDIS. Twice. Surely an editing issue, that could have been or perhaps was overcome in the original script.
The Master’s hypnotic control is as great as the Delgado version. And then with the unnecessary “I’ve always hated this planet” he proves he really is a right bastard by sacrificing both Grace and Change Lee dead. He may have stepped up his homicidal tendencies, but it’s easy to see why.
In the end, the Master doesn’t help himself, but it looks a lot like the TARDIS rejects him. And not just because he lacks, ahem, some human DNA. After that, rather strangely, it eats him. The Eye of the Harmony is now not just a route to the original black hole, it’s an engine and the TARDIS’ mouth!
In the slightly Superman: The Movie type way, the healing of Grace and Lee again looks far better in the regenerative-energy soaked years of Davies and Moffat. “What a sentimental old thing this TARDIS is” the Doctor says. He should wait until he meets her…
On the flipside of that eternal struggle of good and evil, the producers clearly needed to match the class of their production with a Doctor of class. With Paul McGann they lucked out.
Unlike the generic, pointless garble that McCoy has to contend with McGann really gets to wrap his new tongue around a lot. It’s not a promising start. Despite the Frankenstein juxtaposition, he undergoes a rather unspectacular regeneration (so much more quickening than New Series impressive after 17 years) and wakes with amnesia.
It’s funny how strange it is that this Doctor regenerated in America as opposed to, well, Androzani or even Hertfordshire. And those first words are not classics… But still, it may be an obvious analogy, but that juxtaposition with the 1931 Frankenstein makes the regeneration make sense. What else is Frankenstein but a regeneration story, but still it doesn’t quite capture the idea of a hero… Like much of the film, the idea of the hero and villain is strangely garbled.
But when de-shackled of amnesia, McGann’s is an immediately attractive Doctor. Bewildered, hopeful, high pitched, squeaky, insightful – he’s a bundle of vitality and energy. He relishes life, but isn’t a Doctor who’s afraid of making noise to get his point across. Before reminiscing about Puccini in a heartfelt way – “It was so sad…” – the Doctor finds his costume in the hospital just like Spearhead from Space and The Eleventh Hour, but this time aided by New Year’s Eve… And in doing so, he’s hoisted straight back to the Edwardian era. Amid some Gallifreyan reminiscences, moments like the shoe scene are brilliant. He has the same the mercurial and transient interest, ignoring the big things but over-interested in the seemingly banal. It’s the same as it’s ever been – stretching right back to the First Doctor.
And all the time he says, putting himself at the polar extreme of the Master “I love humans. Always seeing patterns in things that aren’t there.” Perhaps the biggest change is his belief in coincidence – far removed from his fourth incarnation – although he shows the same predilection to being knocked unconscious.
This Doctor also seems supernaturally aware of space and time. Not exactly the Time Lord walking in eternity, but it pre-figures aspects of the New Series. Perhaps however, judging by the Master’s abilities, he’s using his telepathy. Many of these strands would have no doubt become clear if a series had been commissioned.
Perhaps of most interest is the balance brought by the Movie’s companions. Both Time Lords gain an assistant by half way through, but these are not typical human accessories. The Master’s need for Chang Lee is highly debatable – unfortunately both he and Grace hinge around that daft human eye plot necessity…
Of the two, it is unsurprisngly Grace Holloway that’s of most interest. It is Amazing Grace, the surgeon, who effectively killed the Doctor on their first meeting during the extended ‘he’s an alien’ section. It could have been fatal – as he says, it’s the anaesthetic that almost destroyed the regeneration. The process is taken to the height of life and death, so it’s fitting, as well as comedic, that his companion is a Doctor in her own right. Of course, that would be returned to in Series 3 of the New Series, though in an arguably less compelling way.
And then… Then she turns him down. A rare, and thanks to the lack of commission, brilliant way to leave it.
Let’s just gloss over the kiss that looks so innocuous these days. He remembers and in doing so he remembers that he loves life.
The big problem of the TV Movie is of course not a problem at all. The Doctor isn’t half human, no matter how many times it’s said here. The Doctor lies and that is it. In no way canon.
The film brings Americanisms to the Doctor Who universerse, many of them unavoidable in an advanced-science-fiction conscious network – tellingly the description of the Chameleon circuit as a cloaking device – while the higher budget brings other inevitabilities like the motorbike chase and the Batman Forever style atomic clock. But some things shine through, like the glass-bending (though, think of what was happening to other parts of the world, to champagne glasses – it’s early morning in the UK by then after all) – the “Yeah, they say that on my planet too” lines and the way that the Doctor threatens himself with a policeman’s gun.
And so The Movie ends with a vibrant new Doctor but no new companion. Grace would have no doubt returned, but there seems to be one slip in the strange, slightly corny ending. The new, vibrant, refreshed Doctor keeps the Console Room desktop, listens to the same song and resumes the same reading as his predecessor. “Oh no, not again..” – that’s something that we’re not used to a new Doctor doing…
But certainly, there were many things right with The Movie. It may have been judged a failure in the United States, but the ratings in the UK – equivalent to the best of the New Series – meant that the BBC couldn’t ignore it… it’s really where modern Who started,…
But when it came to the new series, the Eighth Doctor was nowhere to be seen…
The Night of the Doctor (50th Anniversary Special, 2013)
When that title was passed along to the BBFC, I thought it could only be one thing. that didn’t stop me being delightfully surprised when ‘that’ reveal happened. Eight years into that new series, when show runner Steven Moffat was faced with the daunting task of managing the 50th anniversary, he wanted to make the show’s absence mean something. How twisted that he used the one rogue, budgeted moment of hope in those 17 years to push it home.
For a list of surprises (delights), basically a mini-review whoop – to be found in the mini-episode I rustled up when it was surreptitiously released read here.
What a great surprise, and so much more than a fan-pandering one. They may have clamoured for the Eighth Doctor’s regeneration for years, but when it came, it still left the same number of regenerations unresolved… There was an extra Doctor who would take the story on, but this was a fitting send off for the most missed Doctor.
It was clear that time had moved on, with the Eighth Doctor wandering the universe for some years.
McGann works perfectly with Moffat’s dialogue. The enthusiasm is modified, the wit sharper, the confidence a little more suave than bouncing spaniel. Still able to shout with exactly the same tone as when he came in, but this Doctor is more universe-weary. Quite some time of his life spent resisting against the Time War and helping where he can…
His costume isn’t as dramatically different as it first appears. The waistcoat and cravat are there. It’s more faithful than the revised Big Finish (and BBC sanctioned) costume – though it’s difficult to tell if his sonic screwdriver is the new Weta-designed one…
But of course what’s most important is the crucial context that he adds to his incarnation in a few short minutes. Astonishingly he enhances the character while making canon much of his off-screen life. By name-checking companions, he pushes his Big Finish adventures into the Whoniverse, all the way up to the rather good Dark Eye. The long years of Radio times and Doctor Who magazine comic strips remain ambiguous, as do the far more canon-opposing range of BBC (and a couple of Virgin) books. It’s not surprising that there have been calls for more live action adventures of this Time Lord. But with the insertion of the Big Finish audios into the canon, it means that there will be new Eighth Doctor stories for years to come and no need to disrupt the incoming Twelfth…
It started with a companion killing and then rejecting him, it ended pretty much the same way. “Physician heal thyself” are fine last words for this Doctor, far better than his opening… But it does sum up that this is all far less than this rather brilliant Doctor deserved. Barely over an hour of screen time.
He’s not the only Doctor who could have done with more time. Most, if not all of them actually. There are those who should have stayed longer – Troughton, Davison and now Smith. Then there are those who didn’t have the chance. It’s a shame for McCoy and Colin Baker but with McGann, it’s a tragedy.
Still, all the 50th Anniversary needed – as New Series focussed as it had to be – was a bridge to the classic series. The Eighth Doctor – far from the Lazenby of the Time Lords – was that bridge. And it worked wonderfully. Physician, consider thyself healed.
TIMEY-WIMEY: Go back to read about the First Doctor’s legacy in Whovember #1!
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Phone (617) 333-8477 E-mail jpsaxquartet@gmail.com
Jamaica Plain Saxophone Quartet
A locally sourced and organic saxophone quartet
Media and Music
The Jamaica Plain Saxophone Quartet
Formed in 2017, the JPSQ regularly performs for private events and in community and outreach concerts with a variety of programs that include classical music, pop and rock tunes, jazz standards, South American music, and contemporary classical.
Recognized in 2016 as the 3rd place Finalist for the American Prize in Instrumental Performance, Sean Mix has previously been named a semifinalist in the Londeix International Saxophone Competition (Bangkok, 2014) and the Dilson Florencio International Competition (Brasilia, 2015). Other recent highlights include a recital at the 17th World Saxophone Congress in Strasbourg, France, and regular appearances throughout the United States.
Equally in demand as a chamber musician and ensemble player, Sean appears frequently with groups throughout the Northeast including Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Monadnock Music, Atlantic Symphony, Glens Falls Symphony, Matti Kovler Ensemble, New Thread Saxophone Quartet, Area 9 Quartet, and Chagall Performance Art Collaborative. An enthusiastic interpreter of new music, Sean has collaborated with composers including Thomas Oboe Lee, David Amram, Ken Ueno, Alex Mincek, Gunther Schuller, Christian Lauba, and many more. These partnerships have resulted in several commissions and numerous premieres of new works.
Sean studied at Boston University, the New England Conservatory of Music, and the University of Southern California. He is a member of the music faculty at the Wellesley Public Schools, where he enjoys working with young saxophone and clarinet students.
Sean is an Endorsing Artist for Conn-Selmer, Inc. and Selmer Paris saxophones.
Andy Wilds is a saxophonist and music educator based in Boston, Massachusetts. He has performed with such acclaimed groups as the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra, the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra, the Austin Symphony Orchestra, the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, the Round Top Festival Orchestra, and the University of Texas Wind Ensemble. Wilds can be heard on several recordings, including the most recent TexSax album, Over the Rainbow and Bach Again, the debut album from the Austin Saxophone Ensemble, Plunge, as well as the 2016 release from the University of Texas Wind Ensemble, Wine-Dark Sea.
Andy earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Music Performance from the University of Texas at Austin in 2012, where he studied with Professor Harvey Pittel, serving as Teaching Assistant for the saxophone studio. In 2019, he earned a Doctorate of Musical Arts at the New England Conservatory, where he studied saxophone with Ken Radnofsky.
Scott Chamberlin is an advocate for the saxophone in all music, new and old. He performs often in the Boston area with local orchestras, small ensembles and as a chamber and solo musician. In addition to traditional performance, educational outreach is very important to Scott. He has performed throughout New England and Europe. Scott recently completed a Masters of Music degree at the New England Conservatory, where he won the 2016 and 2018 concerto competitions. He is currently enrolled at NEC as a candidate for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree. In addition to a busy schedule as a performer and student, Scott teaches both saxophone and music theory.
David Stevens is a Boston-based saxophonist and woodwind doubler, performing in classical, improvisational, jazz, and musical theatre. He is a educator with over 14 years of experience teaching saxophone, flute, clarinet, music theory and beginning piano. He is an arts administrator, with experience managing ensembles, producing and programming concerts, and working for composers. He is a writer, concert reviewer, theorist, arranger, archivist, and promoter of contemporary music.
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If you are looking for flights to United States that will be comfortable and enjoyable but that will also fit in with your tight budget, then we are sure that this airline will have plenty to offer you. Throughout the year, you will see that plenty of cut price offers will crop up on JetBlue tickets, too, so make sure to snap them up while you can.
In October 2005, JetBlue's quarterly profit had plunged from US$8.1 million to $2.7 million largely due to rising fuel costs. Operational issues, fuel prices, and low fares, JetBlue's hallmark, were bringing its financial performance down. In addition, with higher costs related to the airline's numerous amenities, JetBlue was becoming less competitive.[citation needed]
Whether you are celebrating your birthday, anniversary, national holiday or just planning a relaxing mini vacation, there are many exceptional romantic getaways to choose from: castles, cabins, rooms with jacuzzis, luxury suites and themed villas. Check into a secluded inn, five star hotel, scenic resort or a romantic cabin and unplug for a few days in a new setting.
The city has cemented its reputation as a must-visit destination with its most recent honor: it’s been named 2018 World Design Capital, the first ever in the Americas. It’s no wonder: despite challenges like the recent earthquake, young Mexican creatives are no longer searching for opportunities abroad but staying to build something meaningful at home. Their success is evident in arts initiatives like Zonamaco and the Material Art Fair in February, Design Week Mexico in October, and the Condo Fair, which will debut in Mexico’s capital in April. Aesthetes have plenty of design-forward places to stay and eat, too. Bed down at Downtown Mexico, the newest hotel by Grupo Habita, which plans to open another property, Catedral M X, nearby in 2018. Or book a room at the Four Seasons Hotel Mexico City, which unveiled an ambitious redesign by Gilles & Boissier in 2016. Dine at Enrique Olvera’s world-famous Pujol, which relocated last year to a mid-century house and has a fresh, pared-down look. The new space is outfitted in natural materials — a fitting design for a restaurant that celebrates wood-fired cooking. —Laura Itzkowitz
Tel Aviv has attracted a lot of attention for its nightlife and creative culinary scene in recent years. These days its center of gravity has shifted south, to the site of the ancient port town of Jaffa (technically part of the city itself). This month, the Setai opens in a former Ottoman prison; a new W Hotel housed in a 19th-century former convent and pilgrims’ hospice is scheduled to open in March. It’s just the latest in a growing list of upscale hotels, restaurants, and boutiques to arrive among the winding streets of this former fishing village. Jaffa’s once-shabby flea market is now populated by a number of high-end antique dealerships, which sit alongside trendy cafés and bars — many offering live music into the night. Don’t miss Maskit, an iconic Israeli fashion house known for its embroidery that has been recently reincarnated after closing in the 1990s. Numerous interesting chefs have also set up shop among Jaffa’s churches, mosques, and archaeological sites. Try Beit Kandinof, a restaurant housed in a 17th-century building, where creative dishes like artichoke-and-pesto bruschetta are served alongside local art exhibits. —Sara Toth Stub
On October 22, 2008, jetBlue opened its new primary hub at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), Terminal 5, or simply T5. The mostly new terminal, costing approximately $800 million,[41] partially encircles the historic TWA Flight Center, the former Trans World Airlines terminal designed by Eero Saarinen, which remains closed. According to the plan, passengers will eventually be able to check in for flights in the landmark building, then transfer to the new structure via the original passenger departing-arrival tubes from Saarinen's original terminal and its 1969 addition by Roche-Dinkeloo.[42]
Though decades of civil war made parts of the island unsafe, tourism is on the rise in Sri Lanka, where international visitors exceeded 2 million for the first time in 2016. The momentum is particularly strong along the south coast, which has the highest concentration of hotels and resorts after Colombo. The 172-room Amari resort recently opened on the beachfront in Galle (known for its UNESCO-protected Dutch fortress) with ocean views from every balcony. Water also plays a central role at Alila Koggala, a new luxury eco-resort with 36 suites and private villas, opening 20 minutes outside of Galle in June. The property sits on the serene shores of Lake Koggala and will feature an ayurvedic spa where treatments can be taken on a platform floating on the lake. Further along the south coast, Mirissa Beach is attracting travelers in need of a full mind-body reset. The laid-back surfer town — think Venice Beach minus the tech crowd — comes alive at night with bars and barbecue restaurants overlooking the turquoise bay; when you’re ready to turn in, there are earthy, low-key lodges peppered throughout the jungle, such as Surf & Yoga, which offers daily on-site yoga and private surf lessons. —Alex Schechter
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Woman killed after being hit by train in Samba
By Press Trust of India on July 19, 2018 Comments Off on Woman killed after being hit by train in Samba
Jammu, July 19: A 35-year-old woman was killed after being hit by a train in Samba district of Jammu and Kashmir, a railway police official said today.
The woman was crossing railway tracks near Raya Morh when she was hit by train last evening, the official said, adding she died on the spot.
Efforts are on to establish her identity.
Woman killed after being hit by train in Samba added by Press Trust of India on July 19, 2018
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TURKSOY Secretary General: I love Azerbaijan
Date: 07 January 2019, 14:01, READ: 698
According to Secretary General of TURKSOY, Dusen Kaseinov, Azerbaijan is one of the most active members of the organization
By the initiative of TURKSOY (International Cultural Organization of Turkic-speaking countries) every year one of the cities of the Turkic-speaking states or regions is chosen as the cultural capital of the Turkic world. Various cultural events are held throughout the year in these cities. As a result of this tradition that lasts for already 8 years, second largest city in Kyrgyzstan, Osh, has been declared the "Cultural Capital of the Turkic World for 2019”.Thus, the title of cultural capital passed from Turkey’s Kastamonu to Osh. It was decided to hold the 37th meeting of the Permanent Council of Culture Ministers of TURKSOY in 2019 in Osh. It should be noted that the decision to annually declare one of the TURKSOY member cities the cultural capital of the Turkic world was adopted at the X Summit of the Turkic-Speaking Countries Heads of State in 2010. Kazakhstan’s Astana was chosen the first cultural capital of the Turkic world by the TURKSOY Council in 2012. Later, the cities of Eskisehir, Kazan, Mari, Shaki and Turkestan were also elected as cultural capitals. TURKSOY Secretary General Dusen Kaseinov talked about the current and future activities of the organization in the exclusive interview to Kaspi.
- What achievements has TURKSOY, which celebrates its 25th anniversary, made?How much has the organization succeeded to expand its geography?
- You had the opportunity to watch the geography of TURKSOY at the concert. It is possible to see how many Turkic-speaking peoples live in Europe and Asia from dances. At the same time, not only Turkic peoples live in Turkic-speaking countries. Dozens of people live in these historical areas. For example, if we invite a collective from Dagestan, we know that there are Kumyks, Nogais and other peoples. From this point of view, there may be representatives of other nations among these collectives. And the same is true in Azerbaijan. You have probably witnessed how much the nations are integrating into the culture of other nations during dance performances. They have been participating in our project for many years taking part in each other's dance performances. Turkmen, Uzbek, Bashkir, and Kyrgyz are performing dances of each other and, as a result, cultures intertwine. From geographical point of view, we celebrated our 25th anniversary this year all over from Argentina, Azerbaijan to Japan, i.e. from A to Z. We also celebrated our 25th anniversary in European countries - France, Austria, Slovakia, of course, in all Turkish cities, as well as in all Turkish-speaking countries. The artistic part included a chamber orchestra from 5-6 countries, ensemble of folk musical instruments of Turkic nations, including Mongolia, choral collectives of students and young people. This is our geography.
- Osh city of Kyrgyzstan has been declared the cultural capital of the Turkic world for 2019. What are the main conditions for the selection of cultural capitals?
- If we have a look at the list of our all cultural capitals so far, we will see that Astana was chosen the cultural capital in 2012, Eskisehir in 2013, Kazan in 2014, Mari in 2015, Shaki in 2016, Turkestan in 2017, and Kastamonu in 2018. Osh is now the 8th capital city. Again, look at the geography, which turns like clockwork - from West to East, from East to West. Of course, from year to year, our experience is growing even more. More artists want to participate in these events. If for the first year it was hard for us to pick up some collectives for us, now we have gained experience. Look, the Turkish orchestra plays Gagauz and Turkmen music. The soloists of the collectives sing in those languages. This is the cultural integration of peoples into one another. All of this requires a great deal of preparation.
- Does TURKSOY select any city as a cultural capital itself?
- We make an offer to the country the city of which we want to choose the capital. First of all, the history and culture of the city we choose should be rich. For example, the city of Kastamonu is a cultural and historical city. The city of Osh, which we have selected this year, is 3018 years old. We celebrated the 3000th anniversary of this city in 2000. It is one of the historical cities of Central Asia. This ancient city connects Central Asia to Europe. By the 15th century, Oshwas an important route on the ancient trade routes for China and India.
- You have expressed your views on Uzbekistan's participation in TURKSOY. What steps are currently being taken about this cooperation?
- Our delegation will leave for Tashkent for talks soon. It is expected to meet with Minister of Culture of Uzbekistan Bakhtiyor Sayfullaev. Then we plan to visit Uzbekistan’s Khiva city as we want to select it the cultural capital of the Turkic world in 2020. We will meet with the mayor of the city and hold talks. We also plan to get acquainted with the sights and historical places of the city. Khiva is one of the oldest cities in Central Asia, and we believe that it can draw great attention to the Turkic world. As for relations, Uzbekistan once started cooperation with TURKSOY, however, unfortunately, withdrew later. Now, we are on the threshold of new close relationships with Uzbekistan in the cultural sphere.
- How was a year of "Kastamonu: Cultural Capital of the Turkic World” remembered?
- You can learn it from the residents of Kastamonu. This city is not so popular in Turkey. We must be grateful that we declared this city the capital and introduced it to all Turkic world. The film dedicated to "Kastamonu-2018" shows how many events have been held in the city during this year. Prominent figures, representatives of art have visited the city, as well as book presentations, concerts, meetings, literary events, conferences, festivals, and competitions have been held in Kastamonu. On the proposals of Azerbaijan and Turkey, TURKSOY Permanent Council of Culture Ministers proclaimed 2019 as the year of the great Azerbaijani poet and thinker, Imadeddin Nasimi, as well as the great Turkish poet, Asık Veysel on the occasion of the 650th anniversary of Imadeddin Nasimi and the 125th birthday of Asık Veysel. We will celebrate these anniversaries in Osh, as well as in other Turkic-speaking countries, including Azerbaijan. For the celebration of the anniversaries of these outstanding personalities, we are also grateful to the TURKSOY partner countries! We are negotiating with various countries on this issue. For example, TURKSOY celebrated the year of Chingiz Aitmatov even in Japan.
- When will the opening ceremony of the announcement of Osh the "Cultural Capital of the Turkic World for 2019” be held?
- You know that for the Turkic people the New Year starts on March 21, not on January 1. Therefore, according to tradition, we will announce the opening of the capital on March 21. We will celebrate Novruz holiday and announce the opening of the capital.
- Are you satisfied with the partnership of TURKSOY and Azerbaijan?
- Everything in our organization should be in accordance with legislation. Six independent countries are our members. Azerbaijan annually proposes to hold the anniversary of any outstanding personality and we confirm. We have proclaimed the years of Molla Panah Vagif, Mirza Fatali Akhundov, and the famous composer Gara Garayev. We are announcing the year of the outstanding personalities in Azerbaijan for the third year. I’m often asked why TURKSOY has such a close relationship with Azerbaijan. My answer is because this country has many prominent personalities, because Azerbaijan is one of the most active members of TURKSOY, because there are many friends of mine, because I love Azerbaijan. So it is good to hear the words "They love you in Azerbaijan". This mutual love is a dialogue of any success. I guess I have answered to your question.
Tarana Maharramova
Kastamonu-Baku
"Life is worth living"
Plenipotentiary ambassador of art
Working group investigating media reports about discovery of remains of poet Mikayil Mushfig holds first meeting
Leyla Aliyeva attends youth exhibition 'Through the eyes of students: Environmental problems of ways of addressing them'
National Music Day is celebrated in Azerbaijan
9th Gabala International Music Festival officially opens
European premiere of “Ali and Nino” held in Brussels
With 318 nominations, 2017 Nobel Peace Prize sees second-highest tally
Lavash enters UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage
Baku to host VII European Film Festival
‘Ali and Nino’ film opens Asian World Film Festival in Los Angeles
First Lady visits opening ceremony of "Azerbaijani town" in Paris - PHOTOS
Azerbaijani Prof Lotfi Zadeh honored with Nizami Ganjavi Gold Medal at UC Berkeley
Cultural aspects of summer tourism
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Kronos’ Fifty for the Future at UCLA
We’re headed to Los Angeles this week for a residency at the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA, a Legacy Partner of Kronos’ Fifty for the Future! We are deeply honored to join SITI Company Anne Bogart, Robert Wilson and Laurie Anderson as a CAP UCLA Artist Fellow, a program “dedicated to celebrating masters of their craft.”
If you’re in LA, we’ll be performing at UCLA Royce Hall on Friday at 8PM, the same day we release materials for the next five Fifty for the Future compositions. The first half of the concert will feature new works commissioned from Scottish violist Garth Knox, Trio Da Kali’s balafon player Fodé Lassana Diabaté, Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq, Azerbaijani contemporary composer Franghiz Ali-Zadeh, Canada’s “brilliant musical scientist” Nicole Lizée, and Indian violin virtuoso Kala Ramnath for Kronos’ Fifty for the Future education initiative.
The second half features “Beyond Zero,” a multimedia spectacle with score by Aleksandra Vrebalov and film by Bill Morrison.
We’re thrilled to also be playing a benefit in support of the free K-12 arts-education program Design for Sharing at CAP UCLA, as well as a concert through that program for LA-area 4th, 5th and 6th graders. It’s going to be a busy week, but a cosmic one!
One final note of gratitude: We thank the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA for being a Legacy Partner of Fifty for the Future: The Kronos Learning Repertoire.
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Capitalizing On Fear
Hilary Goodfriend
El Salvador’s far right is using Trump’s war on migrants for political gain.
Undocumented immigrants from El Salvador wait to be deported on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportation flight bound for San Salvador on December 8, 2010 in Mesa, Arizona. John Moore / Getty
When Donald Trump took control of the US mass deportation machine, with its private detention networks, racist policing, and militarized borders, he found it well oiled. Obama, the “Deporter In Chief,” managed to forcefully expel more than 3 million people from US territory, more than all his predecessors combined. When the influx of unaccompanied Central American minors drew national attention at the US-Mexico border, Obama outsourced the problem to Mexico, which now deports more Central Americans than the United States.
Trump, however, has managed to do plenty of damage of his own, striking down the meager protections that Obama had conceded, and making the demonization of immigrants a cornerstone of his administration’s discourse. His disparagement of Latinos has earned him the status of both laughingstock and cartoon supervillain in households across the hemisphere. Trump’s overt racism has even provoked tensions with Mexico, otherwise a staunch collaborator in the US-led militarization of the region and criminalization of migrants.
Salvadorans have been the target of particularly repugnant attacks, with the administration using dehumanizing depictions of scowling, tattooed MS-13 gang members to stigmatize immigrants and justify escalating enforcement. Indeed, for a country the size of Maryland with a population of less than 7 million, El Salvador has borne a disproportionate share of Trump’s anti-immigrant offensive.
But not all Salvadorans are suffering for Trump’s attacks. With elections on the horizon, the tiny Central American nation’s notoriously recalcitrant far right is leveraging the crisis for political gain.
Support in Washington
The Salvadoran right is virulently reactionary, defending the interests of an oligarchy that for a century used the state as an instrument of indiscriminate slaughter and vast personal enrichment. In 2009, the Right was ousted from power for the first time in history by the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), the party of the former leftist guerilla insurgency, forcing Salvadoran elites into the far less lucrative role of opposition.
Throughout its decades in power, the ultraconservative Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) party enjoyed steadfast US support (despite Washington’s full knowledge of its brazen corruption, as leaked embassy cables reveal). ARENA, the principal political instrument of the capitalist class, was a willing servant of US political, military, and economic interests, offering the country as a laboratory for radical neoliberal experiments and unscrupulously repressing dissent.
Today, the party hopes to ride the tide of reaction sweeping the hemisphere and retake the presidency in 2019, gaining ground along the way in the upcoming 2018 midterms. And ARENA is looking to the GOP for help. After all, both parties share an affinity for anticommunist bloodlust, free-market fundamentalism, and chauvinistic religious zeal. Republicans have historically proven ARENA’s best campaigners, routinely threatening the collapse of US-El Salvador relations in the event of an FMLN victory.
But Trump’s anti-immigrant attacks have not played well in El Salvador, a country with nearly a quarter of its population in the United States, and where remittances from abroad comprise some 16 percent of the GDP.
So ARENA switched gears. As the elections approach, the Salvadoran right is now blaming the FMLN for Trump’s war on immigrants, claiming that the US is punishing El Salvador for the FMLN’s support for the embattled Chavista government in Venezuela.
The Trump Threat
Through decades of advocacy and organizing, Salvadoran immigrants won access to a series of protections now suspended or in danger under Trump.
On August 16, the administration terminated the Central American Minors (CAM) Parole program, which allowed children from the Northern Triangle nations of El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala with a parent in the US to apply to resettle in the US as refugees or with temporary parole without first making the perilous journey north. The program, initiated by Obama in the fall of 2014 in response to the so-called child migrant crisis at the US-Mexico border, was widely criticized for its limited scope and staggering inefficiencies. After one year in operation, only eleven children had been approved for refugee resettlement.
By the CAM program’s close this summer, some 1,500 children had been approved to enter the US as refugees, with another 2,700 conditionally granted parole. Of those beneficiaries, the vast majority, 2,500, were Salvadoran. Another 2,634 Salvadoran applicants were left stranded before their paperwork was finalized.
The Department of Homeland Security cited Trump’s January Executive Order on Border Security and Immigration Enforcement. But the Salvadoran right had a different explanation.
“It’s a warning; the consequences of supporting Maduro’s regime are disastrous for El Salvador,” ARENA legislator Margarita Escobar told the press after the announcement. “As long as the FMLN keeps supporting the dictator Maduro and not immigration processes that benefit Salvadorans in the United States, things could get worse.”
Things did get worse. On September 5, Trump announced the suspension of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) program, which at the time provided temporary protections to some 700,000 immigrants who came to the US as minors and could demonstrate their deservedness through stringent respectability requirements. Almost 80 percent of active DACA recipients, 548,000, were born in Mexico; 25,900 were born in El Salvador, 17,700 in Guatemala, and 16,100 in Honduras.
The day after the DACA decision, leading national newspaper El Diario de Hoy published an op-ed demanding the FMLN apologize to the Trump administration:
It is necessary that US officials perceive an “act of contrition” by Salvadoran authorities regarding their position on the deplorable reality suffered in Venezuela. … The decision to exclude our countrymen from various immigration programs could be accelerated should President Sánchez Cerén continue to support the violation of democratic principles and human rights by his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolás Maduro.
That same day, ARENA party president Mauricio Interiano warned that the government is “putting possible solutions at risk” by maintaining support for Venezuela.
But the CAM and DACA programs are small fish compared to the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) that currently shields some 200,000 Salvadorans in the US from deportation.
As early as June, the Trump administration was threatening to discontinue the program. In addition to Salvadorans, TPS also protects some 60,000 Hondurans, 50,000 Haitians, and thousands of people from Nepal, Nicaragua, Syria, and Yemen, among other countries, for periods of 18 months at a time. The Department of Homeland Security already dealt a blow to Haitians, extending their TPS for only six more months. TPS for Salvadorans expires on March 9, and the Department of Homeland Security must announce its decision 60 days prior.
“I think that the Salvadoran government’s actions are seriously endangering relations with the United States and the Temporary Protected Status of over 190,000 Salvadorans,” declared aspiring ARENA presidential candidate Luis Parada in the pages of El Diario de Hoy on July 1. The remarks came shortly after El Salvador voted against a US-backed resolution to condemn Maduro in the Organization of American States (OAS). “I think that relations not only are not good, but that they will keep getting worse if the Salvadoran government keeps taking antagonistic positions,” said Parada.
Another ARENA presidential hopeful, Javier Siman, has also dutifully taken up the party line, agreeing that FMLN support for Venezuela “can have serious repercussions; we see the government putting Salvadorans in the United States at risk, with TPS, endangering $5.1 billion that come to the country in remittances, and also risking the relationship with our principal trading partner, the United States.”
As she prepared to embark on a recent official delegation to Washington to lobby for TPS extension, Margarita Escobar told the press that, “the FMLN has no friends left in Washington. It would be best for them not to go.” “We already have several examples of the United States’ displeasure with the FMLN,” she went on, citing the suspension of the CAM program, “and they’ve already announced that TPS could be affected.”
A Losing Battle
ARENA’s claims are, of course, absurd. The FMLN has gone to enormous lengths for Salvadorans in the United States. Since taking power in 2009, the FMLN administrations have extended the vote to Salvadorans abroad, established the National Council for the Protection of Migrants and their Families, and expanded consular services in the United States, including opening new consulates in McAllen, Texas and Aurora, Colorado.
It is true that ARENA has more friends than the FMLN in Washington. ARENA eagerly submitted the country to imperial power and transnational capital, dollarizing the economy, signing a NAFTA-style free trade agreement with the United States, and opening a US-led police training academy.
The FMLN, in turn, has been less willing to cede sovereignty, despite unremitting US pressure. US officials have regularly sought to ransom development aid over Salvadoran support for Venezuela (and any other policy they find distasteful).
When President Sánchez Cerén spoke out against Obama’s 2015 designation of Venezuela as a “national security threat,” the US ambassador to El Salvador insinuated that such a position could endanger funding. The Salvadoran government’s repeated defense of Venezuela in the OAS has provoked more open threats from the likes of Florida Senator Marco Rubio.
But Mexico is by far the nation most impacted by Trump’s anti-immigrant crackdown, and the Peña Nieto administration has been a leading voice against Venezuela in the OAS. Honduras, another country with hundreds of thousands of vulnerable citizens in the US, is a repressive neoliberal dystopia whose postcoup regime could hardly be accused of socialist sympathies.
Nevertheless, in the corporate echo chamber of Salvadoran mass media, ARENA’s shameless distortions are rendered fact. The charges are baseless, but they play on the very real fears of the families of hundreds of thousands of immigrants caught in the crosshairs. And fear is the Right’s most powerful tool at the ballot box.
The stakes are high. A decision to discontinue TPS would be a devastating blow to 200,000 Salvadorans, uprooting longtime residents, tearing families apart, and overwhelming the fragile fabric of Salvadoran society. And it could well tip the scales of the upcoming elections, sweeping ARENA back into power and further consolidating the Right’s hold in the region.
The Salvadorans looking down the barrel of Trump’s gun are the refugees of decades of US collusion with the same voracious local elites who today claim to defend them. ARENA’s only interest is to recoup state power and resume lining its pockets with public resources. As in the US, the ruling class is playing political games with the lives of the most vulnerable.
Hilary Goodfriend is a doctoral student in Latin American Studies at the Universidad Nacional Autónomo de México (UNAM) in Mexico City.
When Donald Trump took control of the US mass deportation machine, with its private detention networks, racist policing, and militarized borders, he found it well oiled. Obama, the “Deporter In Chief,” managed to forcefully expel more than 3 million people from US territory, more than all his predecessors combined. When the influx of unaccompanied Central […]
Justice Deferred
César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández
Exporting Deportation
El Salvador’s New Battlefield
Banking on Deportation
Jeremy Mohler
ICE’s War on Refugees
Nick Tabor
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Category: Essays
SOCIOPATHS UNITE!
Published on August 16, 2016 August 16, 2016 by Jacque KochakLeave a comment
Here’s another one by Phil Watts about my not-so-favorite candidate, Donald Trump. Keep them coming, Phil, because I’m enjoying your take on this election!
By Phil Watts, guest columnist
Fellow sociopaths, we’re finally close to achieving the recognition we deserve. Although we make up at least 4 percent of the population, we’ve never had a U.S. President. Forty three men have served in this capacity, which means if we had been fairly represented, 1.7 of them should have been one of us. Some Presidents have matched some of our criteria, but realistically we can’t claim any one to be an unmitigated sociopath. This year can be different; we have someone running under the dual Republican/Sociopath banner who’s the real McCoy.
The race looks to be tight. We need every single vote to be sure we don’t miss this once-in-a-227-year opportunity. Let your voice be heard; make sure every sociopath you know has a yard sign and a bumper sticker proudly proclaiming “Sociopaths for Trump.”
I want you to be prepared in the event some aren’t convinced he meets our standards. Wikipedia, as you know, defines us as “having a personality disorder characterized by persistent antisocial behavior, impaired empathy, and bold, disinhibited egotistical traits.” The vast majority of voters will immediately recognize that Wikipedia must have had our gifted candidate in mind when they wrote this definition.
For the few remaining doubters, refer them to any of his remarks quoted in the media. If they insist on specifics, tell them about his put-down of America’s best-known war hero, or show them a video of him mocking a reporter with a disability, or mention the numerous demeaning remarks he has made about women, Mexicans, and Muslims. Just about any serious Sociopath should recognize that only a person who is truly one of our kind could be capable of the impaired empathy and antisocial behavior exhibited by these examples.
As for the bold, disinhibited egotistical traits, they could listen to five minutes of any of his speeches and count the number of times he says “I” or “Donald Trump” or uses self-aggrandizing descriptions of himself. That should convince anyone he’s 100 percent Sociopath.
In the event you encounter a purist who might still doubt his authenticity, I have the clincher for you. Just a few days ago our man dealt the coup de grace that will quell any lingering questions. This Muslim couple lost a son, a U.S. Marine captain who had been killed in Iraq, and they had the audacity to question whether Mr. Trump had ever sacrificed anything. He replied that he certainly had; that he had successfully invested a lot of money in his life.
Putting these know-nothings in their place like that would have been gratifying enough for most Sociopaths. But our man Donald is not just any run-of-the-mill Sociopath; he then really showed his stuff and put the hammer down on their arrogance. Who could be more vulnerable than a mother grieving over the loss of her son? He brilliantly recognized the opportunity and scrubbed her wound with a little salt. (Insert a Kapow emoji!)
You have to be awed at his quick thinking. In just a few words he insulted all Gold Star families, every veteran who has ever served and sacrificed for our country, every patriotic American, and all women everywhere. Beautiful! I get goosebumps as I write about it.
Even a hard core Sociopath would have to admit the above is a perfect example of impaired (nonexistent) empathy and extreme antisocial behavior. He knew the exchange would damage him with the vast majority of voters who can experience empathy for others; but our man Donald chose to show his creds as a true blue Sociopath no matter the cost to himself.
Fellow Americans, there’s no reason every proud Sociopath shouldn’t cast his vote for our man in November. This is our chance; let’s not blow it. Voters want change; we can give them real change; electing a Sociopath as leader of the free world is change you can believe in.
Sociopaths Installing Crazies Committee (SICCO)
Categories Essays, Uncategorized•Tags 2016 election, disinhibited, Donald Trump, egotistical, impaired empathy, personality disorder, sociopath
ARE YOU OFFENDED YET?
Published on June 30, 2016 July 20, 2016 by Jacque KochakLeave a comment
Please don’t call me a hussy or I will be very angry. Don’t call me a courtesan, either.
By Jacque White Kochak
I’ve been thinking about pejoration lately.
I’m glad I haven’t used the word “Oriental” in years, because when I wasn’t looking this innocent word morphed into an offensive term for Asians. I was unaware of this inexorable shift, as I tend to think of Oriental as meaning Eastern. Occidental has not undergone such a shift, so I was taken by surprise. Fortunately, my consciousness was raised one afternoon as I listened to NPR and an earnest young woman talked about her father’s Chinese restaurant. She made a good case, so I’ll be on my best behavior.
‘But see, here’s the thing. Illegal alien and undocumented immigrant mean exactly the same thing.’
Thank heavens, I have long been aware that “wetback” is a totally unacceptable name for Mexicans who crossed the Rio Grande without benefit of papers, although in the 1950s, when I was a very young girl, President Dwight David Eisenhower made the inexcusable mistake of including this insulting term in the name of a quasi-military search-and-seizure operation aimed at illegal immigrants (remember “Operation Wetback”?). Umm, make that undocumented aliens. No wait, I forgot, “aliens” is not nice. Undocumented immigrants, that’s it—for now, at least. Apparently Ike missed the memo.
I have to keep up with these things, because as a journalist I’m supposed to know AP style. For the uninitiated, that’s the style preferred by the Associated Press. Knowing AP style is a way to ensure consistency, so the reader isn’t subjected to the annoyance of things like the period that ends a sentence being isolated outside the closing quotation marks. I’m enough of a true believer that I cringe at such an abomination, and AP style says undocumented immigrant is acceptable.
Back to the subject at hand: Missing the memo these days, in the time of Twitter and Facebook, can be a very serious thing. One slip of the tongue, and yours can be a household name in every 50 states. Your mother may be exposed for failing to raise you correctly, and you may lose your reputation, your job, and I suppose even your family.
But see, here’s the thing. Illegal alien and undocumented immigrant mean exactly the same thing. The difference, as you’ll remember from English class, is that “illegal alien” has a negative connotation, or the “idea or feeling that a word evokes,” quite beyond the literal meaning.
The problem is that the connotations of some categories of words tend to pejorate. Pejoration is a linguistics term describing the way some words take on negative or disparaging connotations over time. This isn’t really a random process; certain categories of words tend to pejorate more than others, which to me raises some interesting questions.
‘You can insist that sexism exists only in the perfervid imaginings of a bunch of old feminists, but our language tells a different story.’
For example, words having to do with women often pejorate. Hussy started life as the perfectly respectable “huswif,” or housewife—but please don’t call me a hussy or I will be very angry. Don’t call me a courtesan, either, although a courtesan once meant nothing more insulting than a lady of the court. You know, like a courtier—but words having to do with men do not have the dismaying habit of slumming around with the riffraff.
A few centuries ago, a wench was a female baby or a young unmarried woman. I don’t think I need to explain “mistress” and “madame,” but you might not realize that a spinster was once a woman who spins. And a tart, in the sense of a prostitute? Tart was probably just a contraction of the innocuous “sweetheart.”
Are you angry yet? Our attitudes are indelibly imprinted upon our language. You can insist that sexism exists only in the perfervid imaginings of a bunch of old feminists, but our language tells a different story.
Words having to do with smells also tend to pejorate, as do words having to do with the bathroom. So that brings me to what I really want to talk about, which is words having to do with ethnic groups and words referring to people with disabilities.
This is perilous territory, and I risk a misstep that will send me into Twitter purgatory. I did my homework, however, and I believe—unless the terminology has already changed—that black and African American are still acceptable. “Negro” not so much, apparently—the Army actually apologized in 2014 for saying the term was tolerable.
I guess Martin Luther King didn’t get the memo when he used the word “Negro” in his moving “I Have a Dream” speech: “But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free,” he wrote. “One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.”
Let’s not even talk about the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NACCP). What were they thinking?
Most people are aware of the care needed in referring to different ethnicities, but they’re shaky on words referring to people with disabilities. A “disabled person” or “the disabled” are definite no-nos. You should probably stay away from “mentally ill” (“person with mental-health issues” is better).
‘Why keep changing words when the problem is really societal attitudes? I realize I’m on treacherous ground here, but can’t the word police ease up just a little on us old fogies who grew up using terms that are now totally unacceptable?’
I’ve kept up well enough to know that “retarded” is no longer acceptable, never mind the fact that The Arc, an organization for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, started out in 1953 as the National Association for Retarded Children. The association’s history of name changes allows us to date with some precision the period when “retarded” pejorated to the point of becoming completely verboten. That would have been the early 1990s, when the Association for Retarded Citizens of the United States euphemized into The Arc.
And don’t forget, “handicapped” is really bad.
I could go on with examples all night, but I bet you get my point. In fact, my point is, “What’s the point?” Why keep changing words when the problem is really societal attitudes? I realize I’m on treacherous ground here, but can’t the word police ease up just a little on us old fogies who grew up using terms that are now totally unacceptable? It’s just hard to keep up, you know.
Does changing a word to something less “offensive” really solve anything? Doesn’t it make more sense to work on the entrenched attitudes themselves? If I ever end up in a wheelchair, please—just call me a cripple. I promise I won’t get angry (but stay away from hussy or courtesan).
Even worse, aren’t the sensitive, empathetic, socially conscious ones among us—the people who point out that “Oriental” is really not nice—the ones who are perpetuating this pejoration?
I realize I’m an outlier, but my philosophy has always been that I won’t take offense unless offense is meant. In this era of political correctness and “microaggression,” can’t we all all just lighten up a little bit?
Categories Essays, Just being silly, Uncategorized•Tags courtesan, disabled, handicapped, hussy, microaggression, Negro, offensive language, Oriental, Pejoration, tart, wench
A mountain of names—mine included
Published on May 31, 2016 June 2, 2016 by Jacque KochakLeave a comment
I’m cleaning house and ran across some old essays. I’ll post them on here just for fun (and for my kids).
This essay was first published in The Auburn Villager
It’s happened again. I’ve been referred to as “Mr. Kochak.”
I don’t have anything against men. Really I don’t—but I am definitely of the female persuasion. Let me explain. But where to begin? At the beginning, I guess.
My given name at birth was Jacqueline Lee White. I was named after my father, Jackie Lee White. He was named after his father, Jack White.
You may note that we’re not very creative with names in my family. In fact, I’ve definitely traced my ancestry back to about 1760. Patrick White begot James White, who begot Patrick White, who begot James White, who begot Patrick White. The photo above is one of those Patrick Whites (my great grandfather) and his wife, Minnie Boyd White.
Then, for some reason, Jack makes an appearance, followed by Jackie and Jacqueline. I couldn’t possibly be known as “Jackie Lee,” now could I? I would have been confused with my father. Therefore, somebody got creative and spelled my name “Jacque.” That’s where the trouble started. Add an “s” to Jacque and you’ve got Jacques, a perfectly respectable name for a French male—which I am not.
I’ve been known as Jacque—Jack-ee—all my life. I don’t like to be called Jacqueline, because it sounds pompous.
When I started writing, however, I soon found that if I used Jacque as my byline, I got letters addressed to “Mr. Kochak.” I quickly adopted the byline “Jacqueline Kochak,” so people would know a woman penned the brilliant tracts I regularly produced. A little feminist feeling there, I guess.
When I wrote for a national publication it didn’t matter much, because I didn’t run into my readers on the street. When I started writing locally, however, I cringed every time someone addressed me with that cumbersome, haughty first name. “Just Jack-ee,” I usually replied.
When I started writing for The Villager, I cast caution to the wind. I know everyone anyway, don’t I? Guess not.
I find names fascinating. When I started studying genealogy, I found names are almost like DNA markers, passed down from generation to generation. In the past, they have taken on almost mystical importance, honoring those who have passed.
In Scots, Irish and English tradition, the eldest son was usually named for the father’s father, and the next eldest son for the mother’s father. The third son was named for the father, and on down the line until all the father’s brothers were included. Female names followed the same pattern.
In recent times, of course, we’ve abandoned that pattern in favor of the nom du jour. My parents were no different. As the oldest daughter I really should have been named Melva, you know.
That brings me back to all those Patricks. There are still Patricks in the White family, my cousin and nephew included. When my cousin was born, my grandmother told my uncle (Joe Pat, by the way), “You have to name him Patrick, because there has always been a Patrick in the White family.”
Turns out she was right. The first Patrick White appears in Virginia records in 1653, and his name is commemorated through generation after generation, some far removed from me. I discovered a long-lost cousin in Texas named Patrick White, and his line branched off in the 1850s.
The point? I don’t have one, really. Just call me “Jack-ee,” please!
Categories Essays, My old articles
Is depression a disease?
‘No son of mine is going to take charity’
Celebrity mothers, this is important
How women got the vote (with my uncle’s help)
Remembering the World Trade Center
theDarknight on Is depression a disease?
Kay Wood on ‘No son of mine is going…
Sherri on ‘No son of mine is going…
Marquita on Celebrity mothers, this is…
Bruce White on ‘No son of mine is going…
Alabama history
Just being silly
My old articles
About Jacque Kochak
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Kammerling goes the distance in charity cycling challenge
Published: 25 September, 2013
Carl Kammerling International is sponsoring employee Clynton Williams and other cyclists for a charity cycle ride in memory of their late friend Laura Jones.
The team of 15 will ride from Pwllheli to Bristol from 26 to 28 September, and the funds raised will be split between Cancer Research UK and St. Peter’s Hospice, where Ms Jones was treated for liver cancer for three and a half years.
The cyclists will set off from Pwllheli, tackling a hilly 85 miles to Llanidloes, and continuing 55 miles down to Crickhowell, drawing them closer to the English border, followed by a final 55 mile push to Bristol.
The team will make a daily stop on their journey to collect further donations from the public in a bid to reach their £5,000 goal.
Helen Haplin, chairman of Carl Kammerling International, said: “CKI is fully behind the team and the work they are doing to help such important charities. Providing support for the research and care of cancer patients is crucial and we want to help in any way possible. CKI is delighted to offer its support and sponsorship to Clynton and his fellow cyclists, and we wish them luck on their three-day ride.”
Sponsors are being raised individually by each member of the team and include Kasp Security, Microsoft, Harlech Food Services, Hafan Security and Bridge Joinery. Microsoft has kindly agreed to double the total amount raised by the team.
Companies wishing to get involved and sponsor the team will have their company’s logo on the team’s cycling shirts for a fixed amount, or they can support them in their efforts by visiting: http://www.justgiving.com/teams/cyclinginmemoryofLaura
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Tropicana – Film and Media
– 2011/05/23Posted in: Film and Media, Tropicana
A scene from Folies Bergere is featured in the 1964 Elvis Presley film Viva Las Vegas.
In the 7th James Bond film, Diamonds Are Forever, 007 stays at the hotel Tropicana, claiming it looks “quite comfortable”.
It is also mentioned briefly in The Godfather Part II.
[singlepic id=415 w=250 h=180 float=none] [singlepic id=371 w=250 h=180 float=none] [singlepic id=639 w=250 h=180 float=none]
It was featured on the TV Show Angel in the episode “The House Always Wins” as the casino where the character Lorne had his show.
A show was taped here for Malcolm in the Middle in 2003.
A two part episode of Designing Women, Season 7, is set here. Anthony meets and marries a showgirl from the Folies Begere.
The game shows Dealer’s Choice & Las Vegas Gambit were taped here.
The first half of the first season of the revival of the game show Let’s Make a Deal was being taped here. Hosted by Wayne Brady, it began airing on CBS October 5, 2009. The show moved to Los Angeles during a reconstruction period.
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Caribbean, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Today in Latin America
In the Dominican Republic, Many of Haitian Descent Left Effectively Stateless
Top Story — Thousands in the Dominican Republic could be made effectively stateless by the expiration at midnight on Monday of a deadline for those born to undocumented foreigners to apply for legal status, Amnesty International warned.
As many as 200,000 people, mostly descended from Haitian immigrants, could now face deportation even though they were born in the Dominican Republic, Reuters reported.
On Friday, two days before the deadline facing those born to documented immigrants after 1929, just short of 7,000 had filed the necessary paperwork to obtain their birth certificates, an official told the EFE news service, adding that the deadline would not be extended. In recent weeks, long lines have reportedly formed in the capital Santo Domingo as thousands hurried to register.
The registration process was the result of a May 2014 law passed under pressure from the United Nations and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Human rights groups criticized the Dominican government for the inadequate publicity of the law as well as delays in the construction of immigration offices.
Without birth certificates, those affected will be unable to obtain work permits, register for schools, vote or apply for citizenship. One 22-year-old woman told The Associated Press on Friday as she waited in line to register that she had been denied her high school diploma despite finishing her studies.
The Dominican government in late January deployed an extra 600 troops to its border with Haiti, with which it shares the island of Hispaniola. The soldiers were sent to bolster a force of more than 22,000 due to concerns that instability in Haiti could lead to an exodus of migrants. The Dominican Republic’s military said that in January alone it had captured at least 22,600 people trying to cross the border from Haiti.
In addition to Haiti’s political instability — its parliament was dissolved earlier in January and doubts persist about the government’s ability to hold elections delayed since 2011 — many Haitian refugees remain in the Dominican Republic after an estimated 500,000 fled a devastating earthquake in 2010. That year, the Dominican constitution was amended to deny citizenship to the children of undocumented immigrants, although the change was not applied retroactively.
Despite the official announcement that the Feb. 1 deadline would be the final opportunity to register for legal residency, the SIN news service noted that it remains unclear whether the deadline will be further extended.
As global oil prices continue to decline, Mexico has announced $8.3 billion in budget cuts that will largely affect state oil company Pemex, in addition to canceling a controversial train project that was forefront in a corruption scandal involving President Enrique Peña Nieto.
President Barack Obama’s selection to be U.S. ambassador to Mexico — a child of Mexican immigrants and potentially the first woman to hold the position — has withdrawn her nomination after waiting more than four months for her confirmation hearing.
A federal grand jury in Puerto Rico indicted nine people for the murder of Osvaldo Albarati-Casañas, a correctional officer stationed in a federal prison outside of the capital San Juan who allegedly confiscated contraband from the accused.
The Honduran government signed a concession to a Colombian-Honduran consortium for a $260 million road infrastructure project to build a toll road for tourists in the country’s north.
Panama expelled former Colombian intelligence chief María del Pilar Hurtado on Saturday, transferring her to Colombia where she will face charges of helping monitor the phone calls of journalists and politicians opposed to former President Álvaro Uribe.
To the chagrin of human rights groups and opposition politicians, the Venezuelan government has authorized the use of firearms by riot police attempting to control protests.
Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa has created a Twitter profile and website to answer potential online criticism, a move that some of the president’s critics see as broadly consistent with his previous efforts to silence the voices of prominent critics.
Testing conducted on the gun that killed Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman found only Nisman’s DNA on it, according to a statement released by lead investigator Viviana Fein.
Chile’s President Michelle Bachelet on Saturday proposed a law to Congress that would allow women to obtain abortions in cases of rape, fetus malformation and life-threatening pregnancies, a move that will certainly be met with great opposition in a country where abortion is currently illegal under any circumstances.
Eduardo Cunha, a conservative and critic of Brazilian President Rousseff, has defeated the ruling Workers’ Party candidate to become chamber of deputies speaker.
Image: Richie Diesterheft, CC BY 2.0
April 22, 2015 > Staff
U.S. Anti-Drug Chief to Retire After Colombia ‘Sex Party’ Allegations
Arizona’s Immigration Law Hits Roadblock After Judge Orders Injunction
Ciudad Juárez Human Trafficking Raid: Mexican Police Detain Over 1,000
August 19, 2010 > Staff
U.S.-Colombian Base Deal Suspended By Constitutional Court
Great Reads Round-Up: Jan. 26-Feb. 1
U.S. Expands Visa Restrictions for Venezuelan Officials
Many of Haitian Descent in DR Left Effectively Stateless – LAND | Rapadoo Observateur says:
[…] On Friday, two days before the deadline facing those born to documented immigrants after 1929, just short of 7,000 had filed the necessary paperwork to obtain their birth certificates, an official told the EFE news service, adding that the deadline would not be extended. In recent weeks, long lines have reportedly formed in the capital Santo Domingo as thousands hurried to register. via: Latin America News Dispatch […]
avfnx says:
How are they “Stateless” when by Haitian Constitution they are citizen of Haiti. Right or wrong every free country has the right to say how they citizenship is acquire.
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NAACP, ROLC Secure Agreement to Increase 2020 Census Transparency
The Counter-Intuitive Solution to Getting People to Care about Climate Change The Conversation
Securing 5G: Challenges and Recommendations — A Commentary by Robert Williams Council on Foreign Relations
Absurd, Shocking, Embarrassingly Bad The New York Times
Trump Halts Bid to Add Citizenship Question to 2020 Census U.S. New & World Report
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) along with the NAACP Connecticut State Conference and the NAACP Boston Branch have reached an agreement in a partial settlement of federal litigation against the U.S. Department of Commerce, in which the government will disclose records shedding light on preparations for the 2020 Census.
The plaintiffs in the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit are represented by the Yale Law School Rule of Law Clinic.
The agreement, submitted to Senior U.S. District Judge Warren Eginton, resolves the core issues in a FOIA lawsuit filed by the NAACP. This settlement will allow the plaintiffs — and the public — to access previously withheld documents related to planning and budgeting at the Census Bureau, a component of the Commerce Department.
“The civil rights community deserves to know about the Census Bureau’s plans, or lack of plans, to count people of color accurately,” said Bradford M. Berry ’88, General Counsel of the NAACP. “The NAACP should not have had to go to federal court for these records, but we’re pleased to have reached a deal that will bring us closer to full transparency around the 2020 Census.”
The records that will be released under the settlement include materials from meetings between the Census Bureau and Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, documentation that shows how the Bureau estimated the cost of the 2020 Census. It will also include data about the Bureau’s planned advertising campaign to encourage census participation by people of color and other historically undercounted populations. The NAACP plans to make documents produced by the Commerce Department available to the public as soon as feasible.
The settlement comes amid widespread concern about the federal government’s inadequate preparations to conduct the 2020 Census.
The NAACP filed a FOIA request with the Commerce Department in June 2017, seeking internal documents about plans for the 2020 Census. In October 2017, the NAACP filed a FOIA lawsuit, NAACP v. U.S. Department of Commerce, because the Commerce Department failed to provide an adequate response to the request, according to the clinic.
“This is no time for secrecy about the census,” said Scot X. Esdaile, President of the NAACP Connecticut State Conference. “We need to know the full scope of the problems facing the census and the government’s plans for addressing them, before it’s too late to act to prevent a severe undercount of communities of color.”
“Absent a robust plan from the federal government to mitigate an undercount, there is cause for alarm,” said Tanisha M. Sullivan, President of the NAACP Boston Branch. “At a time when there is decreasing faith and trust in government it is imperative that we keep a watchful eye on the actions of the federal government leading up to and through 2020 to ensure that our constitutional rights are protected.”
A transparent census planning process is essential because civil rights hinge on the quality of census data. The Constitution requires the federal government to conduct an “actual enumeration” every 10 years. The resulting data are used to determine how much federal funding communities receive, how many members of Congress represent each state, and where legislative districts are drawn.
Despite the clear constitutional requirement to count everyone, the census has historically undercounted African Americans and other people of color, diluting their political power and depriving them of economic resources, according to the lawsuit.
As the 2020 Census nears, many signs indicate that the undercount of African Americans will be even worse than in previous decades, according to the clinic. The Census Bureau plans to cut back on measures that have helped to reduce the undercount in the past, such as the hiring of a large and diverse field staff. Meanwhile, the Bureau is diverting resources into untested methods that will likely worsen the disproportionate undercount of people of color. The Bureau has also struggled with chronic underfunding throughout the decade, causing it to cancel critical tests and fall behind on hiring, according to the clinic.
“The documents about to be released will offer badly needed insights into how the Census Bureau plans to respond to the serious problems facing the 2020 Census,” said Jeff Zalesin ’19, a law student intern in the Yale Law School Rule of Law Clinic.
In March 2018, the NAACP and several allies filed a lawsuit alleging that the federal government’s failure to prepare adequately for the 2020 Census violates the Constitution. In that lawsuit — which is separate from the FOIA litigation and not affected by the settlement —the plaintiffs recently won a major ruling last week allowing them to proceed to discovery and potentially trial.
The Rule of Law Clinic was founded at Yale Law School in the fall of 2016 to protect the rule of law against contemporary challenges. The clinic focuses on maintaining U.S. rule of law and human rights commitments in four areas: national security, antidiscrimination, climate change, and democracy promotion.
Defense Department Ordered to Turn Over Documents on Military Sexual Assault
Panelists at a SELA event at the University of Buenos Aires: Alejandro Madrazo LL.M.’03, J.S.D ’06; Paul Kahn, Robert W. Winner Professor of Law and the Humanities and Director of the Schell Center for International Human Rights; Martín Böhmer LL.M. ’90, J.S.D ’12; and Celeste Braga Beatove.
Seminar Returns to Argentina with Gender and Equality Focus
Abbe Gluck to Congress: Key Doctrine Upholding ACA is “Settled Law”
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Troubadour Concert Series presents: Los Lonely Boys
Date: Wednesday, March 20, 2019
3/20/2019 4:30:00 PM3/20/2019 4:30:00 PMAmerica/Los_AngelesTroubadour Concert Series presents: Los Lonely Boys At Lyric Theatre & CAC300 East Third Street, Lexington, KY 40508Website: https://lexingtonlyric.tix.com/Event.aspx?EventCode=1100165FalseMM/DD/YYYY
Email: boxoffice@lexingtonlyric.com
Website: http://www.lexingtonlyric.com
Hailing from San Angelo, Texas, Los Lonely Boys are a sibling trio whose music draws equally from rock, blues, Tex-Mex, conjunto, and tejano. Such a combination is shaped by the band’s three brothers: guitarist Henry Garza, bassist JoJo Garza, and drummer Ringo Garza, Jr.
The boys recorded their debut album, at Willie Nelson‘s Pedernales studio in Austin with Nelson sitting in. Epic Records picked the album up for major-label distribution, resulting in a high chart placement for the album’s lead single, “Heaven,” as well as a Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance the following year.
WATCH A YOUTUBE CLIP of “Heaven”: CLICK HERE
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Rubenstein Library Duke Sports Film Search Results
Sport (Category) Opponent Date Venue Title
Duke Men's Basketball vs. Wake Forest (January 14, 1981)
Final Score: 73-76 Game Outcome: L
Duke Men's Basketball vs. Clemson (January 24, 1981)
Final Score: 75-57 Game Outcome: W
Duke Men's Basketball vs. Maryland (February 7, 1981)
Duke Men's Basketball vs. NC State (February 19, 1981)
Duke Men's Basketball vs. Georgia Tech (February 21, 1981)
Duke Men's Basketball vs. George Mason (January 19, 1981)
Duke Men's Basketball vs. North Carolina (February 28, 1981)
Duke Men's Basketball vs. Vanderbilt (November 28, 1981)
Duke Men's Basketball vs. La Salle (December 2, 1981)
Duke Men's Basketball vs. Appalachian State (December 5, 1981)
Duke Men's Basketball vs. East Carolina (December 22, 1981)
Duke Men's Basketball vs. NC A & T (March 12, 1981)
NIT Tournament, Durham, NC
Duke Men's Basketball vs. Alabama (March 16, 1981)
Duke Men's Basketball vs. Davidson (December 29, 1981)
Iron Duke Classic, Durham, NC
Duke Men's Basketball vs. Auburn (December 30, 1981)
Duke Sports Film
Descriptions of Duke Football (1935-1994) and Men's Basketball (1947-1996) film and video.
uarchives@duke.edu
Venue: Durham, N.C
category: basketball
Duke Opponent
Appalachian State (1)
Clemson (1)
East Carolina (1)
George Mason (1)
Georgia Tech (1)
La Salle (1)
NC A & T (1)
NC State (1)
Vanderbilt (1)
Wake Forest (1)
Durham, N.C. (11)
Iron Duke Classic, Durham, N. C. (2)
NIT Tournament, Durham, N. C. (2)
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A Quick Look at the Presidential Candidates' Tax Proposals
Home/On Our Minds, Uncategorized/A Quick Look at the Presidential Candidates' Tax Proposals
Though tax policies haven’t received top billing in this year’s presidential election dialogue, they’re still part of the conversation. Here’s a quick review of each candidate’s tax proposals based on information released by their campaigns. Keep in mind that regardless of who wins in November, any changes to tax policy would require congressional action.
On August 8, 2016, Donald Trump announced a revised tax plan. Full details of the new plan were not immediately available on the campaign’s website. The following summary is based on the original plan announced by the Trump campaign and what we currently know about the revised plan.
Tax brackets
Plans released by the Trump campaign initially proposed reducing the current seven tax brackets to four, with the top rate dropping from 39.6% to 25%, and no tax due for individuals with incomes under $25,000 ($50,000 for married couples filing jointly).1 Trump has recently announced changes to his tax proposal, including a consolidation to three tax brackets: 12%, 25%, and 33%.2 This change moves the Trump campaign’s plan closer to the tax reform plan announced by House Republicans in June of this year.3 The Clinton campaign’s tax plans do not reflect changes to existing tax brackets, but do support a new 4% “fair share surcharge” on taxpayers with an adjusted gross income (AGI) exceeding $5 million.4
Long-term capital gains and qualified dividends
Currently, lower tax rates generally apply to qualified dividends and to capital gains resulting from the sale of assets held longer than one year. Plans released by the Clinton campaign recommend adjusting the holding period schedule for long-term capital gains, increasing the minimum holding period from one to two years and adding medium-term holding periods that gradually reduce the top long-term rate down to 20% for assets held for more than six years.5 Plans initially released by the Trump campaign indicated that the top rate of 20% would continue to apply, with no change to current holding requirements.6
Alternative minimum tax (AMT)
The AMT is a separate, parallel federal income tax with its own rates (26% or 28%, depending on income) and rules. It is intended to ensure that taxpayers who use certain strategies to reduce their tax liability pay a minimum amount of tax. The Trump campaign has called for elimination of the AMT.7 The Clinton tax plan would presumably add a new tax layer, imposing a minimum tax due of 30% on those with incomes exceeding $1 million.8
Deductions, exemptions, and exclusions
Proposals released by both candidates would limit itemized deductions for higher-income filers. The Clinton team’s plan would limit the benefit of itemized deductions and certain items that are excluded from income (e.g., tax-exempt interest) to 28%, which means that the benefit of these items would be reduced for individuals in higher tax brackets; charitable deductions would be excluded from this limitation.9The Trump team’s plan would accelerate the limitation of itemized deductions and the phaseout of personal exemptions for higher-income filers, though the treatment of deductions for charitable giving and mortgage interest would remain unchanged. The original Trump campaign tax plan also indicated that the ability to exclude earnings in life insurance contracts from income would be phased out for high-income individuals.10
The two campaigns have very different views of the existing federal estate tax. The Clinton campaign proposes increasing the top estate tax rate from 40% to 45%, and decreasing the estate tax exclusion from $5.45 million to $3.5 million.11 The Trump campaign proposes eliminating the federal estate tax.12
1, 6, 7, 10) “Tax Reform That Will Make America Great Again,” donaldjtrump.com/positions (July 2016)
2, 12) “Outline of Donald J. Trump’s Economic Vision: Winning The Global Competition,” donaldjtrump.com/positions (August 12, 2016)
3) Kyle Pomerleau, “Details and Analysis of the 2016 House Republican Tax Reform Plan,” Tax Foundation, July 5, 2016
4, 9, 11) “Investing in America by Restoring Basic Fairness to Our Tax Code,” hillaryclinton.com/briefing (July 2016)
5) Kyle Pomerleau and Michael Schuyler, “Details and Analysis of Hillary Clinton’s Tax Proposals,” Tax Foundation, January 26, 2016 (The 20% rate would be increased by the 3.8% net investment income tax, as well as the 4% surtax, if applicable.)
8) Richard Auxier, Len Burman, Jim Nunns, and Jeff Reheel, “An Analysis of Hillary Clinton’s Tax Proposals,” Tax Policy Center, March 3, 2016
Content provided by: Forefield Advisors
By Mackey Advisors|2017-05-09T22:13:56+00:00August 24th, 2016|Categories: On Our Minds, Uncategorized|Tags: 2016 campaign, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, tax proposals|0 Comments
About the Author: Mackey Advisors
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2018 VOTE Democratic November 6th!
GOTV Madera County Democrats Days of Action 2018
MCDCC
Madera County DCC Officers & Members
MCDCC Bylaws
Chartered Clubs
CDP ADEM AD 5
The California Law establishes County Central Committees as representative bodies for the Democratic Party to be elected during a presidential primary election from Supervisorial Districts within each county.
Presently the Madera County Democratic Central Committee aka the Madera County Democratic Party (2017-2020) is allowed 23 seats to be filled from Madera County’s five supervisorial districts; those seats are based on the percentage of the Democratic votes that were cast within each supervisorial district for Governor in the 2014 general election. The 23 seats allowed per District are: District #1 – 4 Members, District #2 – 4 Members, District #3 – 5 Members, District #4 – 3 Members and District #5 – 7 Members.
To be elected, candidates must be residents and registered Democratic voters of the County Supervisorial District during the 2014 Gubernatorial Election they wish to represent and must take out and return nomination papers from the County Election Office to be signed by at least 20 residents who are registered as Democrats in their Supervisorial District. No filing fee is required. When the number of candidates is equal to or less than the number of seats in a district, those candidates are “automatically” elected. When the number of candidates exceeds the number of seats in a district, the candidates appear on the primary ballot for that district, to be elected by the Democrats in that district. Whenever vacancies exist the seats may be filled by appointment of this committee and qualified for the vacancy by this committee’s Chair. Appointee qualifications are: 1) A continuous resident and an uninterrupted registered Democratic voter of the county supervisor district they wish to represent and who would have qualified for the ballot at same time as the current elected members, 2) Must attend two consecutive regular committee meetings and, 3) Must be nominated and accepted by a vote of this committee’s Members. All members, elected and/or appointed by law are to take an oath or affirmation of their official seat and may be sworn in by the Madera County Clerk, the Assistant Madera County Clerk for Elections or before this committee’s Chairperson, the immediate predecessor of this committee’s Chairperson or a designee of this committee’s Chairperson or his or her immediate predecessor. Members may also designate an Alternate who meets the same eligibility requirements to represent them in their absence. Officers and this committee’s DSCC representatives are elected for a term of four years at this committee’s reorganizational meeting -only elected members are eligible to vote during this internal election; adhoc committee members are appointed by the Chair.
County Democratic Central Committees do not receive any public funding nor do the Members receive publicly funded salaries. All Members and Officers of this committee are grassroots volunteers, they attend meetings, events and activities of this committee, the Democratic National Committee(DNC), the Democratic State Central Committee(DSCC) or the California Democratic Council(CDC) at their own expense. Yearly dues for this committee are $24.00 and $12.00 Seniors (60+ years) to be paid at the first meeting of the year in January.
This committee has no employees.
Campaign and operational expenses for this committee are paid for by individual contributions from our supporters and membership dues. This committee receives no monetary contributions or monetary funding from the Democratic National Committee, any Democratic State Central Committee, any other County Central Committee or any Candidate’s committee.
The purpose of a County Democratic Central Committee is to:
1. Direct Democratic Party election campaign efforts in Madera County.
2. Develop operating strategies.
3. Participate in the State Party’s platform development, conventions, meetings, trainings, elections, pre-endorsements & caucuses.
4. Increase Democratic voter registration.
5. Perform duties and services for the benefit of the Democratic Party which may include fundraising, tabling, assisting chartered Democratic clubs and organizations and party endorsed campaigns.
6. Endorse, recruit and encourage potential Democratic Candidates to run for office.
CDP Bylaws and 2016 Platform
DNC Bylaws and 2016 Platform
CDC Bylaws and Platform
Roberts Rules of Order
The Madera County Democratic Central Committee is an affiliate member of the California Democratic Council. The Chair of the Madera County Democratic Central Committee shall be a member of the CA Federation of Democratic County Central Committee Chairs and Members.
The Madera County Democratic Central Committee has 4 chartered clubs: The Democratic Club of Coarsegold, The Madera (City) Democratic Club, The North Fork Democratic Club and The Oakhurst Democratic Club.
Democratic Club of Coarsegold
Chartered since August 10, 2003
Madera (City) Democratic Club
Chartered since March 25, 2004
North Fork Democratic Club
Chartered since May 12, 2005
Oakhurst Democratic Club
Chartered since September 12, 2002
Website maintained by Grassroots Volunteers ©2005-2018
© 2019 Madera County Democratic Central Committee FPPC# 991608 • Powered by GeneratePress
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Wither the majority?
Tags: #metoo, politics - corruption, psychology - narcissism / narcissists
Well, I may have been to parties filled with artisans, but that does not make me a partisan. I am not a democrat or republican, or anything or label, and I don't argue for either party, and I don't base my views on any party line, interest or echo chamber. I didn't support Bernie because he was Dem or Dem-Socialist. I listen to both side, to the extent of my abilities, which change according to my illness and my computer.
Right now, I don't feel like writing much, due to a small headache. But, I will let you know that I will be posting about Kavenaugh, etc., sometimes in his defense, sometimes not. Please do not mistake this for being partisanship.
For now, just remember this. The Republicans rule in name only. The Dems basically rule alongside them, but in the same name game. It's a sham. A con game. By both sides. Each is a puppet on either hand of the same Big Brother Elite Monster, pretending to fight each other, pretending to cooperate - almost always to the same purposes determined by said monster.
The Republicans are not the majority. The Democrats are not the majority. There is at least another third of registered voters who are INDEPENDENTS, and other parties. But what about the people who DON'T vote? What about those eligable people who aren't even registered? Now we are talking about the real majority in this country: The poor, the elderly, the children, teens and young adults, the marginalised, the rural, the non-corporate farmers - the ANIMALS, the PLANTS, the LAND - the PLANET.
There are about 330 million people in this country, and the country is usually run by one (voting) party composed of a few tens of millions of people - what's that, somewhere around 10%? Then, this party is forever dancing back and forth with the OTHER party in this single duopoly, so it is always at about 15%. Who are these people? Connected people but not to me. People with enough money to run. Scurillous lawyers and politicians. Fundamentalist, naive, controllaholic people who create stark straw men and are on a mission to save the world - ultimately for corporations.
So, all this news we keep getting? All these slanted views and opinions and expert opinions? It is basically a waste of perfectly good airtime. I would like to think that my single, brief existence could be populated by something better than this endless, decrepit scandal, perpetrated by people who are in power because they cravenly crave power. Power of the material world. The temporal. Mammon. All that stuff religion rightly warned us about. Because, it is all the stuff of backwards evolution. And imperial decline. Who let these lowlifes in?
Something also to remember is this: Politicians are in it not for the people, but to appear popular, by looking 'right', and aping truth, and faking authoritativeness. They are in it for the perceived POWER. So, let me give you one relevant example. The #metoo movement is filled with a lot of geniune people, and legitimately injured women. But it is also a power movement, and elected to head it, generally, AS IN ALL POWER MOVEMENTS, are politicians who are less interested in the people than in their own career. (What a horrid thing to make a career out of politics, btw). So, the goals of this movement can tend to be perverted into ends-before-means campaigns, where innocent people become harmed, just as occurs in all large power movements.
So, it is not impossible that politicians did not arrange the attackers against Kavenaugh, right or wrong. But this is a complicated subject for later discussion. Just keep it in mind. It's like this: People like Hillary Clinton may appear good and wonderful, because they appear to support the right causes, like pro-woman, ant-lifers, pro=labor, etc. In reality, though, they may be working things so that the game-playing for said issues actually trump the hopes or values of supporters, and ultimately defeat the cause by inflicting injustice along the way - to the power-benefit of those single politicians.
Everyone needs to keep an eye out for these people who sell out those who put them in power, for nothing but more personal gain. I think these types of people compose pretty much the majority of those who run both parties.
One day, I may document what I have observed in my own family, regarding how professionals from either party tend twoards corruption and collusion as they gain more money and power. They become self/deceived into assuming that they know and own the truth, and that they are destined to control and resolve all issues, based on their obvious enlightenment. In fact, they are involved in a conspiracy where they all simply fall together into a limbic infantilisation of their egos - and this brings them a tragic blindspot which, though it may not bring them down, it eventually brings down the structure and people who have supported them. For those who so blindly elected them, they are divine agents of their own Thanatos.
Narcissism, for god and country.
Some say the Trump Dynasty is like a Greek or Shakespearean Tragedy. Indeed it is. And it is not simply because Trump is tragically flawed. It is because he has been set in a larger stage, where all actors proceed with gravity only to fall themselves into the grave they dig. It's a complicated story. My brain is migraining now...
Just remember: When they so fervently offer you a free lunch, based on their supposed authority, they are trying to maintain the lie of their own power.
YOU are the majority.
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Finding Your Roots' Henry Louis Gates Jr. to Keynote RootsTech 2018
RootsTech is pleased to announce Henry Louis Gates Jr. will be a keynote speaker at RootsTech 2018 on Saturday, March 3, 2018, at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Dr. Gates is perhaps best known in genealogy circles for his current role as the host of Finding Your Roots, his groundbreaking genealogy series on PBS, now in its 4th season. The series combines traditional genealogical paper research with genetic Y-chromosome DNA, mitochondrial DNA, and autosomal DNA to discover the family history of well-known Americans.
Gates has been engaged in genealogical and anthropological studies for most of his career. Prior to Finding Your Roots, he hosted and co-produced African American Lives 1 and 2, using genealogy and DNA to document the lineage of more than a dozen African Americans and hosted Faces of America, a four-part series examining the genealogy of 12 North Americans of diverse ancestry—also for PBS.
As an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, he has created 18 documentary films. His six-part PBS documentary series, The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross (2013), which he wrote, executive produced, and hosted, earned the Emmy Award for Outstanding Historical Program—Long Form, as well as the Peabody Award, Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award, and NAACP Image Award.
Gates is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University (first titled the W.E.B Institute for African and African American research)—a position he has held since he arrived at Harvard in 1991. During his first 15 years on campus, he chaired the Department of Afro-American Studies as it expanded into the Department of African and African American Studies with a full-fledged doctoral program.
He has authored or co-authored 22 books and is also hailed as a literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic, and institution builder. Professor Gates serves as chairman of TheRoot.com, a daily online magazine and chair of the Creative Board of FUSION TV. He also oversees the Oxford African American Studies Center, the first comprehensive scholarly online resource on the topic and, through a funding grant, has developed a Finding Your Roots curriculum to teach science through genetics and genealogy.
Gates received his B.A. in English language and literature summa cum laude, from Yale University, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Cambridge in 1979. Since then he has received 55 honorary degrees and numerous prizes. In 1981 Dr. Gates was a member of the first class awarded “genius grants” by the MacArthur Foundation. In 1998, he became the first African American scholar awarded the National Humanities medal. He was named to Time’s 25 Most Influential Americans list in 1997, Ebony’s Power 150 list in 2009, and the magazine’s Power 100 list in 2010 and 2012.
He is currently a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and serves on a wide array of boards, including the New York Public Library, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Aspen Institute, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Whitney Museum of American Art, Library of America, and the Brookings Institution. In 2017, the Organization of American States named Gates a Goodwill Ambassador for the Rights of People of African Descent in the Americas.
For more information, or to register, go to RootsTech.org.
About RootsTech
RootsTech, hosted by FamilySearch, is a global conference celebrating families across generations, where people of all ages are inspired to discover and share their memories and connections. This annual event has become the largest of its kind in the world, attracting tens of thousands of participants worldwide.
Comments 1 - 12 (12)
Theresa Sorrentino
I am 73 years old and want to know my family history I will get a loan to pay I don't care how much it cost its the only wish on my bucket list please if you can help. your my only hope. thanks please please reply.
Leila Andico
I would love you to do a gemology reading for me. I am very curious as to where I have come from and who is related to me.
I would love you to do my family reading.
Rose Keaton
My family surname is Rideout we are from Africa, Louisiana, and New England according to ancestry DNA I get potentials of family members with and green leaf my own research takes me to England my ggrandfather is Robert Rideout abt 1832 or 1831 can you help confirm this.
Dianne Couey
Ive been having trouble finding info on John Mattley b. 1776 in England. Married to Elizabeth Key b. 1786 in England. Cannot find when they came to America. Or when they got married. I heard John might have stowed away on a ship. He might have been a sail weaver and a non conformist. Some of their kuds were Aaron, Harriet, and my 5th g.grandma, Hannah Mattley Conklin. John made it to Minisink, Orange, New York at one time and Hannah married James Conklin in Bergen ,New Jersey. I hope you can help. Thank yoy
It is difficult for people to find their ancestry when web-site hold the information hostage for money.
A few years ago Henry Louis Gates, Jr. did a documentary on "The Mayles" on PBS. How do I get a copy of that?
Jack Worthen
My wife ancestors are hard to find can you help?
I am hosting a Family Reunion in 2019 and I would like to research my Family History.
Sue Miller
While it's interesting to see celebrities find out information about their families, there are those of us common folk who have no idea how to find ancestors that are difficult if not impossible to locate. I wish Dr. Gates would dedicate a series to help us.
Donna Morelli
You are way too late. I received this on March see 5
Cynthia ellis
I just wa t to know about my father family the watsons. Please tell me
How and what I have to do if I can afford such a search of the Watson family.
Bedankt voor uw stem!
Tyler Stahle
RootsTech Marketing Manager
tyler@rootstech.org
Popular PBS TV Finding Your Roots' host, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., will be a keynote speaker at RootsTech 2018. Attend in person or watch live online.
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How Titles of Films are Selected?
By Author January 6, 2019 63 views
There are different elements in a film and its title alone could bring us a huge overall impact. It is true that we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover and we can’t judge a movie based on its title and poster. However, an amazing title for a film is very important. To be honest, we may subconsciously judge movies by the title. It is clearly not a good thing if the name of the film is too long, too common or because the film maker wants to make it too look unique, it becomes too weird. So, how do film making professionals choose the perfect title for their works. When naming a film, they consider many factors. First of all, the title should be appealing to the target audience and it needs to set itself from other films. Love, Actually is a somewhat unique title for a film, although it is still based on among the oldest topics in the film industry: Love. The use of the comma and the word “Actually” makes the title of the film somewhat intriguing. Another iconic film title is Apocalypse Now. The first word tells us that the movie will have chaotic scenes and storyline with plenty of actions. By adding the word “Now”, the film maker added a sense of urgency to the situation.
However, film makers should avoid using titles that are too unusual for the genre. Cinderella Man isn’t a romantic comedy chick flick, it’s about boxing. Due to the unusual title, the film fared poorly at the box office. The title of the film should be able to establish the genre and it needs to follow the right key rules. If the title of the film is too long and seems to be meaningless, the potential audience will yawn before they have the chance to watch it. If it takes more than a few seconds for average audience to comprehend the title, then it’s certainly not a winner. As an example, Anhedonia is a confusing name for a film, but it is a good thing that title is eventually replaced with Annie Hall, providing a familiar charm. Ideally, there are a number of candidate titles of the film determined before the film production starts. Once the filming and editing processes are concluded, there should be another session to determine whether the name is still relevant. At this stage, the director and producer should already have a better grasp about the film, so they need to be flexible enough if the name of the film needs to be altered. However, this is not always a good idea, especially there’s already a significant marketing buzz about the film when it’s still in the production stage.
The title is the first thing that people hear about the film, so the selection process can be quite complicated. But, the selection of the name can be quite straightforward, especially if it’s based on existing works, like Lord of the Rings, The Hunger Games and Harry Potter. If not, then film makers need to choose the best possible title.
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Brain scans spot possible clues to chronic fatigue syndrome
by Alan Mozes, Healthday Reporter
(HealthDay)—Seeking better insight into chronic fatigue syndrome, a new brain scan investigation has pinpointed what could be the first evidence of a connection between nerve cell inflammation and the onset of this debilitating and somewhat mysterious illness, researchers say.
The finding stems from a small PET scan study, led by Yasuhito Nakatomi of the RIKEN Center for Life Science Technologies in Hyogo, Japan. The study involved just nine patients with chronic fatigue syndrome and 10 healthy participants.
However, the investigators believe that their initial results are the first to show that neuro-inflammation is a distinct feature of chronic fatigue syndrome. This inflammation affects specific areas of the brain that are commonly linked with the kind of fatigue, pain, depression, and thought-process difficulties long associated with the syndrome, the researchers noted.
"While the results will need to be confirmed in larger studies, it is a very exciting finding," said Suzanne Vernon, scientific director of the CFIDS (Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome) Association of America. She was not involved with the new study.
"This is the first time images of this type of brain inflammation have been seen in chronic fatigue syndrome," she added, "and provides the evidence of the seriousness and debilitating nature of this disease."
The findings appeared online recently in advance of print publication in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.
The root cause of chronic fatigue syndrome is the subject of much debate. While some health experts believe it is bacteria driven, others think it's most probably brought on by a virus.
The syndrome—which can take hold without warning—is typically characterized by extreme exhaustion, muscle and joint pain, sleep difficulties and thinking problems. The result is often an inability to perform even simple everyday tasks.
In the new study, all the participants first filled out questionnaires that asked them to indicate to what degree they were experiencing any telltale signs of chronic fatigue syndrome.
Brain imaging was then conducted in key areas of the brain, including the cingulate cortex, hippocampus, amygdala, thalamus, midbrain, and pons regions.
All signs of neuro-inflammation were then stacked up against chronic fatigue syndrome symptoms.
The result? While nerve cell inflammation was found to be "widespread" throughout the brains of chronic fatigue syndrome patients, no such inflammation was observed among the healthy study participants.
Vernon said the study also found a graded relationship between levels of inflammation and the severity of disease.
"The higher the inflammation, the more severe the patients' symptoms," she noted.
The study authors further found that neuro-inflammation spiked in patterns that directly correlated with chronic fatigue syndrome symptoms, ratcheting up in brain regions that are central to thought-processes typically impaired by the condition.
That said, Nakatomi's team did not establish a direct cause-and-effect relationship between brain changes and chronic fatigue syndrome. And the finding does not make clear whether such brain inflammation actually precedes the onset of the condition or occurs as a result.
However, the authors suggested that their work should be viewed as a "proof of concept" that brain scanning could be a useful way to screen for chronic fatigue syndrome, to both diagnose the disease and assess disease severity on a case-by-case basis.
Dr. Jim Pagel, an associate clinical professor at the University of Colorado Medical School System, said the study findings make sense, and might be most helpful in the context of future research.
"There's no question that chronic fatigue syndrome is a real diagnosis. It's just a question as to how do you actually make that diagnosis? What is the definition? What are the criteria?" said Pagel, who is also director of the Sleep Disorders Center of Southern Colorado, in Pueblo, Colo.
"And for that I wouldn't say that this work ties PET scans to a clear method for diagnosis, or to any clear treatment approach," he said.
"I really don't think this means that everybody should go out and get a PET scan to diagnose [chronic fatigue syndrome]," Pagel said. "But at the same time, it doesn't surprise me at all there would be a potential level of nerve inflammation in certain groupings of people with [the condition]. It certainly fits with what we know. And I think this finding will be useful as the research continues."
Toward a clearer diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome
Journal information: Journal of Nuclear Medicine
Citation: Brain scans spot possible clues to chronic fatigue syndrome (2014, May 3) retrieved 17 July 2019 from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2014-05-brain-scans-clues-chronic-fatiguesyndrome.html
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Egleton
Does the chronic fatigue cause the inflamation, or does the chronic inflamation cause the fatigue?
It would be helpful if sleep deprived people (eg shift-workers) were also scanned to see if there is any inflamation.
This would turn the arrow of causality to the former case.
I have never found a satisfactory reason for the obviously necessity to sleep. The answer that you sleep because you are tired is trite and circular.
If evolution works on subtle advantages and disadvantages, why has it overlooked such a huge disadvantage? Unconsiousness is lethal, and so is lack of sleep. But why?
CFS 'sounds' like an auto-immune attack. But, like other conditions where a suspect virus is present in one study group, yet missing else-where, there may be multiple triggers...
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The Problems of Social Media
Tapas Easwar
A few days ago, a 14 year old Dutch girl identified only as “Sarah” sent out a tweet to American Airlines.
“hello my name’s Ibrahim and I’m from Afghanistan. I’m part of Al Qaida and on June 1st I’m gonna do something really big bye,” — @bizzledemetriax
The internet caught wind of this latest round of online idiocy, and it spread like wild-fire. Within a matter of time, that tweet garnered over 2000 retweets, even a response from American Airlines, saying that they had reported her tweet and IP address to the authorities. This spurned a serious of replies from “Sarah” back at American Airlines, saying she was joking, sorry, and that she was so scared.
Yesterday, she was arrested by Rotterdam authorities, with an investigation pending.
This leads us to today, where now dozens upon dozens of teenagers are following in “Sarah’s” footsteps by tweeting more bomb-threats at American Airlines (likely in retaliation for arresting the Dutch teen), and bizarrely, Southwest Airlines — a completely unrelated airline.
While Sarah may have just been spouting off the idiotic thoughts that came to her head, like many teenagers before her, the fact of the matter is that she did so on a public, nay, international, platform. She many have genuinely not known that she would cause trouble, and that an airline as big as American, would take it seriously, because y’know, bomb threats. When the lives of their passengers are at stake, the airline has to do everything in their power to prevent anything from happening, even if the threat turns out to be fake. Her copycats, however, know exactly what they are doing, and I hope that they too realize soon how unfunny it all really is.
http://youtu.be/ewLXytkbbqA
Social media is amazing. It lets me connect and contact some of my favourite people I otherwise would have absolutely no access to, and have conversations with them. It allows disgruntled people to voice their opinions about companies, letting their public voice enact some sort of positive change. It lets me, sitting at home, get real-time updates about the situations going on all over the world. It lets important people reach out to the masses to talk about things that matter to them; to spur conversation in an effort to help better the world. The downside is that it lets everyone think that what they have to say is important, even if 99% of the time it’s just verbal diarrhoea turned into digital text.
The problem, however, lies in the fact that it creates a sort of disconnect, in that people do not associate their online persona’s with their real-life selves. They think that just because they hide behind an online handle, they can get away with anything, because the online world is different from that of the real world, and that doing something online cannot have consequences offline. That is entirely untrue, as seen in the case with “Sarah”, and something that more people need to realize.
And that’s the issue with having everything instant — there’s no longer any time to sit and think about what you want to say. You see something, react, and post said reaction, and then move onto the next thing. We’ve become addicted to this, and go crazy inside until we get it out of our system in a way that the whole world can know.
Don’t get me wrong, I love social media and think that it’s a great tool when used properly, but when idiots get a hold of it and use it to spew their idiocies across the web for the rest of us, it ruins it for the rest of us.
Perhaps arresting “Sarah” was the right thing to do. She’s no longer a child, but is not quite yet an adult either, but she also needs to learn a lesson, and be used as an example of what not to do.
https://twitter.com/TheAngryGents/statuses/455770962693476352
People like to say that this newest generation is going downhill, and there are many instances where I’d normally like to disagree, but in this case, I simply cannot. I’m frankly quite scared for when these maladjusted teens grow up and have to face the real world with real consequences.
www.tapaseaswar.com
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Republican Senate Intel Head Burr Exposed As Trump Mole By Mueller
Burr, Carter Page, Comey, counterintelligence, counterintelligence inquiry, DOJ, Donaldson, Executive branch, FBI, FBI investigation of Russian interference, Gang of eight, intelligence, McGahn, mole, Mueller, Papadopoulos, Paul Manafort, Putin, Roger Stone, Russia, spy, Trump, Wyden
Whereas the former House Intel Chair (Republican) Devin Nunes has been openly obstructionist, the Republican Senate Intel head has acted as a clandestine spy-mole for Trump. This allowed the Trump administration to know who was being investigated so that they could know what measures to take to impede the investigation-obstruct justice.
“On March 16, 2017, the White House Counsel’s Office was briefed by Senator Burr on the existence of “4-5 targets” in “the FBI’s investigation of Russian interference…” (“Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election“, Special Counsel Mueller March 2019, p. 52)
US Senator Wyden alluded to this in his statement: “Finally, the Senate Intelligence Committee must thoroughly investigate counterintelligence, including Donald Trump’s financial entanglements with the Russians, issues that were outside the scope of the special counsel’s inquiry. Given evidence from the Mueller report, the committee must take steps to ensure its investigations do not leak to the executive branch.” (US Senator Wyden, 18 April 2019) https://www.wyden.senate.gov/news/press-releases/wyden-statement-on-the-special-counsel-report-
From the report:
“On March 9, 2017, Corney briefed the “Gang of Eight” congressional leaders about the FBI’s investigation of Russian interference, including an identification of the principal U.S. subjects of the investigation. 307 Although it is unclear whether the President knew of that briefing at the time, notes taken by Annie Donaldson , then McGahn’ s chief of staff, on March 12, 2017 , state, “POTUS in panic/chaos … Need binders to put in front of POTUS. (1) All things related to Russia.” 308 The week after Comey’s briefing, the White House Counsel’s Office was in contact with SSCI Chairman Senator Richard Burr about the Russia investigations and appears to have received information about the status of the FBI investigation. 309”
The HOM (harm to ongoing matter) blot out in the original appears to be Roger Stone.
“309 Donaldson 11/6/17 302, at 14-15. On March 16, 2017, the White House Counsel’s Office was briefed by Senator Burr on the existence of “4-5 targets.” Donaldson 11 /6/17 302, at 15. The “targets “ were identified in notes taken by Donaldson as “Flynn (FBI was in – wrapping up –> DOJ was looking for phone records”; “Comey –> Manafort (Ukr + Russia, not campaign)”; [HOM (Harm to Ongoing Matter)]; “Carter Page ($ game)”; and “Greek Guy” (potentially referring to George Papadopoulos, later charged with violating 18 U.S.C. § 1001 for lying to the FBI). SC_AD_00l98 (Donaldson 3/16/17 Notes). Donaldson and McGahn both said they believed these were targets of SSCI. Donaldson 11/6/ 17 302, at 15; McGahn 12/ 12/17 302, at 4. But SSCI does not formally investigate individuals as “targets”; the notes on their face reference the FBI, the Department of Justice, and Comey; and the notes track the background materials prepared by the FBI for Comey’s briefing to the Gang of 8 on March 9. See SNS-Classified-0000140-44 (3/8/17 Email, Gauhar to Page et al.); see also Donaldson 11 /6/17 302, at 15 (Donaldson could not rule out that Burr had told McGahn those individuals were the FBI’s targets).
Searchable file but huge pdf – 133.9 MB: https://cdn.cnn.com/cnn/2019/images/04/18/mueller-report-searchable.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole_(espionage)
“Trump Supporter Or Investigator? 5 Problems For Devin Nunes And Trump White House” March 28, 2017 10:40 AM ET, by DOMENICO MONTANARO https://www.npr.org/2017/03/28/521776396/trump-supporter-or-investigator-5-problems-for-devin-nunes-and-the-trump-white-h
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Interdisciplinary PhD Programme in Social Studies
The Makerere Institute of Social Research launched its Interdisciplinary PhD in Social Studies in January, 2012. The five-year programme entails two years of coursework and three years of dissertation research and writing. Four broad themes define the programme’s intellectual focus: Political Studies, Political Economy, Historical Studies, and Cultural Studies. Students specialize in one field, but take classes across all four. This allows students to be grounded theoretically, while also giving them a broad foundation in historically informed debates in the humanities and social sciences. In addition, there is a set of core courses, with a focus on theory and historiography, required of all students. The courses are taught by MISR faculty, faculty from other Makerere departments, and by preeminent visiting scholars through the MISR Global Scholars Programme.
The MISR Interdisciplinary PhD programme is open to applicants who have earned a B.A. Upper Second or equivalent (students with lower than a B.A. Upper Second must demonstrate evidence of subsequent achievement such as publications or a postgraduate degree). Students who have a Masters or PhD are welcome to apply; however, all students must complete the entire programme, including the two years of coursework, regardless of prior academic qualifications.
The fee structure is as follows:
Ugandans/East Africans: 4 million Uganda Shillings per semester. East Africa includes: Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Somalia, Djibouti, Congo, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Comoros, Mauritius, Madagascar.
Students from outside East Africa: US$4,000 per semester.
Every applicant who is admitted will automatically be considered for financial aid.
The application form can be downloaded below under downloads. Hard copies of the application form are also available from the office of the Director. Complete instructions for interested applicants can be found in the application form.
Applications closed.
For more information about the MISR PhD programme, or about MISR, please contact the Director of MISR at director@misr.mak.ac.ug or visit the MISR website at: http://www.misr.mak.ac.ug.
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We Will Miss You Steve!!
As we all know that Steve Jobs, the legendary innovator has passed away and left many people in tears around the world. I was in a shock on Wednesday when I heard the news after I was done with my Art class. It felt like a close family member had passed away. I cannot do justice by writing about a person whom I have never met. And lots of intelligent and smart people around the world have written about Steve Jobs. Take a look at this Techcrunch article on Steve Jobs which aggregated some famous stories on Steve Jobs. So me writing on Steve would be like a just another fan writing on Steve. But I couldn’t help it as every other fan so I am just writing what I am feeling. Just a coincidence, today is 14th October 2011, the day iPhone 4S goes on sale and Apple has kept a celebration to remember Steve Jobs. What a day to give a tribute to a legend.
I have been reading lots of articles on Steve and also eagerly waiting for his Biography written by Sir Walter Issacson who wrote Biography of Einstein. According to this video conversation feature on Charlie Rose on Bloomberg website, Steve Jobs wanted his Biography to be written by the person who wrote Einstein’s Biography. Amazing! And for those who don’t know it is coming this October 24. I was long ago waiting for Steve’s Biography to come out as a I have read lots of his stories before he passed away. I knew the biography was going to come in March next year. Then I found out that it was due in November this year. So I pre-ordered it on the same day Steve died in the afternoon before I heard the news about his death. So in the evening when I heard the news I was devastated and in tears. ‘How could that happen?” – I told my wife and we both were sad to hear the news. People who met Steve Jobs at some point in their life must have felt the same way (Fast Company article on people who met Steve).
We realize the true value of a person when the person is away from us. I realized this long ago when I came to United States leaving my family back in India. Steve Jobs was the person who realized what the true value of life was. He lived life to its fullest.
I had been posting Steve Jobs’s quotes n my Facebook wall for a while and I want to re-post them here which I believe are life changing. I often remember these quotes whenever I am struggling with some problem. Here they are.
“The only thing that kept me going was I truly loved what I did.” - Steve Jobs.
“It's your heart running around outside your body." -- Steve Jobs quote on children and family as told by Eric Schmidt on BW.
“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while.” - Steve Jobs
"Apple was a very bottom-up company when it came to a lot of its great ideas. We hired truly great people and gave them the room to do great work. A lot of companies — I know it sounds crazy — but a lot of companies don't do that. They hire people to tell them what to do. We hire people to tell us what to do. We figure we're paying them all this money; their job is to figure out what to do and tell us. That led to a very different corporate culture, and one that's really much more collegial than hierarchical." -- Steve Jobs 1996 Interview with Terry Gross as seen on NPR.ORG
“Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish.” - Steve Jobs at Stanford Commencement speech in 2005.
He will always be at the top of my mentors list. I never met him but he influenced me the most. Here is one more classy statement from Naval on Twitter,
“I never met my greatest mentor. I wanted so much to be like him. But, his message was the opposite. Be yourself, with passionate intensity.” – Naval
Steve Jobs was different from any of us in the world and there can be only one Steve Jobs in the world. Steve cared deeply about what he did and that reflected in all Apple products. And through all his products we will miss him.
Steve you will be missed…!! And for all Steve Jobs fans I have one thing to say yet, "The best of Steve Jobs is yet to come."
Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish.
Posted by Mitul Suthar at 5:00 PM
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(VIDEO) 50 Years of AMG with Bernd Schneider
SUPERCARS, TRACK DAYS, VIDEOS
(GALLERY) Coventry Motofest 2017
Cult Classics: MG Metro 6R4
CLASSIC CARS, LATEST NEWS, Modified Cars, OLD SCHOOL CLASSIC
Birthed in the middle of the golden era of rallying, the MG Metro 6R4 took the quirky, iconic and rather sheepish body of the Metro and transformed it into a Frankenstein-like beast made to compete in the short-lived Group B category of rallying.
The tiny frame was kitted out with a lightweight aluminium-alloy 3.0 litre V6 engine positioned in the middle and was also made to be 4WD. The crazy little motor would eventually become a 400bhp beast that was capable of hitting 100 mph in just 8.2 seconds and 60 mph in 3.2 seconds.
After hearing this, you can understand why this modded Metro gained a cult following and became a legendary cult classic which represented a rallying icon, as well as a respected extension of the Metro name. Only a few hundred were ever made which were sold to the public after the end of the Group B rally racing, meaning that they are incredibly rare and very valuable.
To truly understand the greatness of this incredible machine, you must first be familiar with the story of the short-lived Group B era of rallying. Introduced by the FIA in ‘82, Group B was the extreme of rally car racing. Where Group A was full full of power restrictions, technology restrictions and only allowed mass produced cars with at least 4 seats, Group B essentially reduced all these restrictions. This allowed for cars to be much lighter and sport higher horsepower engines with high turbo boost pressure, obviously resulting in some crazy overpowered vehicles.
Group B rallying quickly became a hit, attracting a great amount of spectators and competitors very quickly. However, the era soon came to an end due to the immense danger which the sport incurred on the competitors and the spectators, leading to several fatal accidents. After just 4 years, this kind of racing was put to an end in 1986. Group B rally was the star that shone twice as bright, but lived half as long.
In terms of competition, the MG Metro 6R4 was able to hold its ground, but was not an undisputed champion by any means. The metro came 3rd in 1985 during the Lombard RAC rally, but other than that, the success of the 6R4 was rather limited. The legend that the car became was the true success of this motor.
The incredible engineering of the car was so great, that the design was bought by TWR which eventually lead to the design to be used in the equally-legendary Jaguar XJ220. That’s right, an engine that was used in the tiny, rickety shell of a little toy Metro was then adapted to be used in a Jaguar super/sports car.
Although it sounds crazy, it’s actually not that surprising considering what the 6R4 was capable of. With acceleration times like 0-30mph in 1.2 seconds and 30-50mph in just 1.3 seconds, the 6R4 really was a force to reckoned with. But before we stop swooning over this “little rally car that could”, we’ve got to talk about the sheer sound it produced.
Despite it being related to a cheaply made city car that could probably lose itself in a pot hole, the rally derivative of the Metro sounded like an actual Ferrari. We can only imagine the feeling it gave to spectators that would hear the echoing roars that bounced through the hills of the countryside as the car approached them. Match this glorious sound with the appearance of a hot hatch kitted out with front and rear spoilers, wide body, rally livery, mud flaps (the whole shebang) and you’ve got yourself an icon that will be remembered for decades to come.
What do you think of the classic MG Metro 6R4? Let us know!
Image credits: Imgur, Wikimedia, Wikimedia, Wikimedia, Wikimedia, Wikimedia, Wikimedia, Wikimedia, Staticflickr
classicclassic carCult classicMetro 6R4MGMG MetroMG Metro 6R4
Damien 16th April 2018
A local guy had a metro in a rally recently and it sounded amazing. They look great too.
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PSLV-C43 successfully launches earth observation satellite HysIS and 30 foreign satellites
The Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C43) successfully launched 31 satellites from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) today in Sriharikota.
The PSLV-C43 lifted off at 9:57:30 (IST) from the First Launch Pad and injected India’s Hyper-Spectral Imaging Satellite (HysIS) into a 645 km sun-synchronous polar orbit 17 minutes and 19 seconds after the lift-off. Later, 30 foreign satellites were injected into their intended orbit after restarting the vehicle’s fourth stage engines twice. The last satellite was injected into its designated orbit 1 hour and 49 minutes after the lift-off.
After separation, the two solar arrays of HysIS were deployed automatically and the ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command Network at Bengaluru gained control of the satellite. The satellite will be brought to its final operational configuration in the next few days. HysIS Project Director Shri Suresh K. said that the satellite is performing normally after the launch.
HysIS is an earth observation satellite built around ISRO’s Mini Satellite2 (IMS-2) bus weighing about 380kg. The mission life of the satellite is five years.
The primary goal of HysIS is to study the earth’s surface in both the visible, near infrared and shortwave infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Data from the satellite will be used for a wide range of applications including agriculture, forestry, soil/geological environments, coastal zones and inland waters, etc. HysIS had the company of one micro and 29 nano-satellites from eight countries, including Australia (1), Canada (1), Columbia (1), Finland (1), Malaysia (1), Netherlands (1), Spain (1) and USA (23). The total weight of these satellites was about 261.50 kg. Satellites from Australia, Columbia, Malaysia and Spain were flown aboard PSLV for the first time. These foreign satellites launched are part of commercial arrangements between Antrix Corporation Limited and customers.
Congratulating the ISRO scientists after the successful launch of PSLV C-43, ISRO Chairman Dr K. Sivan said it is a very proud moment for the nation as the HysIS was indigenously designed and built. “HysIS is a state-of-the-art satellite with many indigenous components developed by SAC, Ahmedabad and SCL, Chandigarh,” he said.
PSLV is a four stage launch vehicle with a large solid rocket motor forming the first stage, an earth storable liquid stage as the second stage, a high performance solid rocket motor as third stage and a liquid stage with engines as fourth stage.
Today’s was the 45th flight of PSLV and 13th one in the Core Alone configuration. So far, the PSLV has launched 44 Indian and nine satellites built by students from Indian universities. The vehicle has also launched 269 international customer satellites. In the last PSLV launch on September 16, PSLV-C42 had successfully launched two commercial satellites from UK-based Surrey Satellite Technology Limited. Dr Sivan thanked the foreign countries for posing faith in India to launch their Satellites. “Our customers are very happy that their satellites are precisely delivered into orbit,” said Dr Sivan.
November 29, 2018 SITHARAcustomer, satellite
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UnitedHealth Group said Friday that Dirk C. McMahon, currently president and chief operating officer of Optum, would become CEO of its UnitedHealthcare division. McMahon replaces Steve Nelson, who is retiring from UnitedHealthcare. The nation's largest health insurer also said Daniel J. Schumacher, currently president and chief operating officer of UnitedHealthcare, was named president and chief operating officer of Optum, the company's health-services arm.
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THE 10 COMMANDMENTS OF STARTUP SUCCESS
Tim Ferriss, Entrepreneur, Author
Cameo appearances: Airbnb's Brian Chesky, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Endeavor's Linda Rottenberg, and more.
Photography Courtesy of Tim Ferriss
About this episode:
Guest host Tim Ferriss brings you a special remix featuring actionable lessons from episode of Masters of Scale Season One from Brian Chesky, Mark Zuckerberg, Linda Rottenberg, and more. Transcript below.
"Follow these 10 commandments and you’ll be on your way to startup success, life success, as well as your hero’s journey."
- TIM FERRISS
"All of the advice I give entrepreneurs comes from lessons that I have personally learned."
- REID HOFFMAN
LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE NOW
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GUESTS ON THIS EPISODE
Tim Ferriss is an early-stage technology investor/advisor and the author of five #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers, including The 4-Hour Workweek. He is also the host of The Tim Ferriss Show podcast, which is the first business/interview podcast to exceed 200 million downloads.
BRIAN CHESKY
Brian Chesky is the co-founder and CEO of Airbnb, the pioneering person-to-person marketplace for home (and room) rentals with 3 million listings worldwide. Brian graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design, where he learned to design with empathy for his customers.
Mark Zuckerberg is the founder and CEO of Facebook, the social network that he originally launched as a student at Harvard which now serves 1.8 billion people worldwide.
“To succeed, entrepreneurs need a good idea, sufficient resources, good timing, and a certain amount of luck. But they also need to follow this commandment: have grit and stay on your hero’s journey.”
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
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REID HOFFMAN: I’m Reid Hoffman and you’re listening to Masters of Scale. What follows is a special episode of the Tim Ferriss show that we produced with him. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Tim, he shot to fame with his book, The 4-Hour Workweek. And he’s an accomplished speaker who has given multiple TED talks. He also has a terrific podcast.
Tim studies the lives of high performing people and distills their practices and perspectives down to actionable lessons you can use in your own life and business. I’ve known Tim for years and have always been impressed by the caliber of the audience who faithfully listen to his show. For his audience and for you, we’ve created a special remix of Masters of Scale Season One, including a lot of previously unpublished recordings. It’s the 10 commandments of startup success. I hope you enjoy it and perhaps even go subscribe to Tim’s podcast as well on Apple podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you listen.
Again, his podcast is The Tim Ferriss Show and you can read more at Tim Ferriss’ blog at tim.blog.
[THEME MUSIC]
TIM FERRISS: Commandment number one: expect rejection. But learn from every single “no.” As a founder you have to be resilient, you have to learn to weather rejection as it is a universal experience. And this clip that you’re about to hear brings that to life in full color.
KATHRYN MINSHEW: I had been turned down 148 times.
HOFFMAN: That’s Kathryn Minshew, co-founder and CEO of The Muse, a career development website that she pitched to investors 148 times—not that she was counting.
MINSHEW: There were literally days where I had a “no” over breakfast, and “no” over a 10:30 AM coffee, a “no” over lunch. Disinterest at 2:00 PM, somebody who left a meeting early at 4:00. And then I would go to drinks and feel like I was being laughed out of the room.
And when we finally raised our seed round, I went back and counted. It was both painful and gratifying at the same time, looking at all those names, and thinking, “I remember that ‘no,’ I remember that ‘no,’ I remember that ‘no’”—and they sting; every one stings.
HOFFMAN: Today, the Muse serves users in the millions. Kathryn raised $16 million last year—and her tale is the origin story of most great startups. So, if you’re hearing a chorus of no’s, you should look for other signs that you’re onto something. I believe that the best ideas often appear laughable at first glance.
FERRISS: Most entrepreneurs hear a chorus of no’s as they get started and you have to expect it. In fact, it’s not just when you get started. Because in the beginning it could be a handful of perspective customers, then it’s venture capitalists, then it is maybe even private equity folks, and then investment bankers, and so on and so forth, potential suitors, and it goes on and on and on. So, you have to expect it and you have to condition yourself to deal with it.
Reid says that these no’s can actually be a very good thing. And particularly in the beginning, you don’t WANT everyone to say yes. And here’s why:
HOFFMAN: The first truth of entrepreneurship and investing is that the very big ideas are contrarian, because the contrarian is part of the reason why a bunch of large companies and competitors haven’t already done it, why a bunch of other entrepreneurs haven’t already succeeded at it. And so that leaves the space for the creation of something—and to create something big, you have to have that initial space. For example, in the early stages of Google, search was a terrible way of making money in advertising, because advertising is time-on-site. And what does search do? It shuffles you off the site as fast as you can go. That’s not a good business model. So at Airbnb it’s like, “Someone’s going to rent a couch or a room from someone else? Who are the freaks on both sides of that transaction?” So all of these things have a similar quality—very smart people will tell you, there’s no there, there.
FERRIS: So it can be a good thing to hear a lot of no’s, to get those rejections. But sometimes, your bad idea is just a bad idea. So how do you tell the two types of feedback apart? Or put it a different way: how do you interpret the no’s?
Reid has a great way of describing the kind of “no” that you do want. Apparently, you want a, what he would call a “squirmy” no. And Reid explains this with the help from Tristan Walker. Tristan’s company produces the Bevel razor, which is designed for men with coarse and curly hair.
HOFFMAN: So how can you tell a truly bad idea from a bad-sounding idea? How can you be sure your ugly duckling could become a swan? This is the key: You have to pay attention to the quality, not the quantity of rejections. You want to see at least a teeny minority of investors squirm. You don’t have to get them to a “yes,” but you should detect some friction, as they reason their way to a “no.”
Tristan has a keen ear for this quality in his conversations. He can pinpoint, down to the PowerPoint slide number, the moment his audience stops paying attention.
TRISTAN WALKER: I had a slide in there—I think it was like slide 14—where I talked about Proactiv—the acne system—as a good analogy to what we’re trying to do. It’s the difference between Gillette and Bevel, as Neutrogena and ProActiv—it’s a system that solves a very important issue. And this VC looked at me—and I’ll never forget this—he said, “Tristan, I’m not sure issues related to razor bumps, shaving or irritation are as profound and big an issue for people as acne.”
At which point, I said, “I kind of understand what you’re saying, but all you had to do was get on the phone with 10 black men, and eight of them would have said, ‘This is a permanent thing I have to deal with.’ All you had to do is get on the phone with 10 white men, four of them would have said the same thing. Could have done it for women too, and you would get the same ratios.” So it wasn’t that it was a bad idea, or not as important—it’s just that that person was unwilling to acquire the context necessary to understand what we’re working on. That’s just laziness—and at that point, I can’t fix that. So I just gotta move on until I find somebody who understood it.
HOFFMAN: Notice how quickly Tristan’s mind moves on to the next investor. When the quality of the questions drops, he knows, mid-pitch, that the conversation is over—the rest is noise. Those half-hearted questions are like the elevator music of the pitch process. It’s meant to pacify entrepreneurs. In fact, it grates at them. It also wastes their time. Tristan will tell you he prefers a hard “no” to a comforting “maybe.”
WALKER: Silicon Valley investors will tell you all the time, “We want to invest in people who can execute with some semblance of pedigree, chasing a significant white space and a big opportunity.” For us, it was like “Check, check, check, check”—and we heard 99 percent no’s. How much is bullshit, right? And you’re just trying to say something that I want to hear, as opposed to telling the truth. And I wish that Silicon Valley would tell the truth a little bit more.
HOFFMAN: Tristan raises a really interesting question here. How much of this investor hemming and hawing is, well, bullshit? What’s really going through their heads?
As a partner at Greylock, I want to share what happens after an entrepreneur leaves the room, and an investor is left to mull over a crazy idea. It begins with the debrief of the investor’s partners.
If I’m presenting an idea to my partners at Greylock, and they all go, “That’s great! We should do that.” I’m like, “Shit. Here’s a bunch of hyper-smart people and no one’s saying, ‘Oh, watch out for this, or watch out for that.’” It’s too easy. The idea is so obviously good, I can already hear the stampede of competitors trampling over our hopeful little startup. On the other hand, you don’t want every person in the room to say, “Reid, you’re out of your fucking mind,” because then you’re wondering, “Hmmm, am I drinking the Kool-Aid in a very bad way?”
What you want is some people going, “You guys are out of your minds,” and some people going, “I see it.” You want a polarized reaction.
So take my decision to invest in Airbnb as an example. David Sze told me during the Airbnb de-brief:
ROBOTIC VOICE: David Sze is a partner at Greylock Investment.
HOFFMAN: “Well, every venture capitalist has to have a deal that doesn’t work that they learn from. Airbnb can be yours.” And David Sze is a super smart VC; he invested in LinkedIn. He invested in Facebook. He invested in Pandora. He personally returned two-and-a-half billion dollars to Greylock’s funds. He’s as smart as smart money gets—and believe me, I weigh his objections carefully. If someone as smart as David disagrees with me, I worry.
But I also get excited—it’s an emotional roller coaster. And as this sort of emotional turmoil plays out in the background discussion, it’s hard to give an entrepreneur a hard “no.” The best ideas make you want to say “yes” and “no” in the same breath.
FERRISS: So you want to hear a “squirmy no.” The “squirmy no” refers to the kinds of no’s that mean you’re potentially on to something. But let’s be honest: it’s never easy to hear “no”. And sometimes it can be extremely excruciating, terrible. So Reid also asked a few entrepreneurs to talk about how they deal with rejection, and how they learn from rejection.
HOFFMAN: So you have to gird yourself for a string of rejections. Some entrepreneurs simply develop a thick skin. Others treat it like a normal part of their workday. You know, wake up, brush your teeth, listen to people crush your dreams. It’s a living.
But there’s another, more hopeful approach. Our producer, Dan Kedmey, talked with a number of entrepreneurs who pitched seemingly laughable ideas in all kinds of industries. Like Abby Falik, founder and CEO of Global Citizen Year. Her not-for-profit sends students abroad for a year of international service between high school and college. Back in 2008, she was struggling to get funding, and she turned to a leadership coach for advice. We asked her to share that advice.
ABBY FALIK: The no’s are actually a gift.
HOFFMAN: You heard that right, a gift.
FALIK: And he said between now and when we talk two weeks from now, I want you to go out into the world and gather as many no’s as you possibly can. It is your homework to be rejected over and over and over and over and come back and report on it. And it ended up being the most important thing I could have ever done, and the most important advice I could have been given at that point.
HOFFMAN: The most successful entrepreneurs listen closely to the no’s. They mine their rejections for clues. Kathryn Minshew, the founder of The Muse, got her share of rejections over the course of 148 no’s she shared at the top of this episode. We asked her for the reasons that investors turned her down.
MINSHEW: “It’s a bit too early for us but keep in touch.” “Once you hit 100,000 monthly active users, give me a call.” “This is a fool’s errand. It’s expensive. It doesn’t scale.” “That’s not very tech, that’s not a scalable platform.” “Aren’t you worried that you’re going to lose all your users once they turn 30 and, you know, have babies?” Or, “I get that women in New York and San Francisco love this product, but I think you’re going to really have a hard time finding women who care about their careers once you go outside of the coasts.” And I just remember looking at these people and thinking, “Do you know a lot of women?”
HOFFMAN: Kathryn is right to ask this question. She knows more about women than most investors, and she also knows more about her business. Entrepreneurs have to learn how to hold on to what they know through the arduous pitch process.
FERRIS: Commandment number two: hire like your life depends on it because it does. Hiring the right people can make or break a company. And this is a theme that comes up again and again with successful founders.
Airbnb’s Brian Chesky personally interviewed the company’s first 500 employees, for instance. That was incredibly time-consuming, painstaking work, but Brian would not have had it any other way. Patience, he says, in this particular case, pays dividends.
BRIAN CHESKY: And one of the most important decisions a startup can make is who they hire. Because who they hire becomes them. And so we interviewed people for core values. What this ended up, and that meant we spent like four or five months to hire our first engineer. Back then a lot of people thought we were crazy because time is of the essence when you’re a startup. You’ve said it’s like jumping off a cliff and assembling the airplane on the way down. Imagine jumping off the cliff, trying to assemble the airplane on the way down, and someone’s there to help you with the airplane, and you spend five months debating whether they’ll fit the culture.
Meanwhile the ground is coming. That takes like real patience and some courage. The reason we did that though was because we thought in the high-class event we are successful: do I want to work with 100 more people like this? Because if I hire someone, they are going to interview the new people. And so we thought of hiring as this mechanism where, do I want to, if I could hire anyone in the world, would I hire the person sitting across me, and do I want 10 or 100 more people like them?
FERRISS: But if you launch a truly successful company, eventually, the hiring process has to scale. Eric Schmidt had a lot to say about hiring quickly, but not hastily. It’s one thing to do something quickly, quite another to do something in a rush. When he was CEO of Google, the company quadrupled in size each year, while maintaining super-high standards, which are famous even within Silicon Valley. He told Reid how he did it:
ERIC SCHMIDT: So the company was getting very large, very quickly. And I had suggested to Larry and Sergey that there was a problem with what I called “glue people.” And glue people are very nice people who sit between functions, and help either side, but don’t themselves add a lot of value. And I thought, “These are nice people, but we don’t really need them. We can have these groups talking directly.” And Larry looked at me and says, “We could solve this problem, if you would just review all the hiring.” And I said, “Larry, we can’t look at all the hiring.” He said, “Sure we can.”
So the company, of course, invented a number of hiring algorithms, which are used throughout the industry today. Many of them include pretty aggressive hiring interviews from peers, asking people to do work, and so forth. Ultimately, the judgment has a lot to do with whether the person is interesting or not. And so we would, for example, take a position that we want to hire rocket scientists, because rocket scientists are inherently interesting. And in sales, we love to hire Olympians. Or Super Bowl winners, or football players—because the discipline that they had in their lives as young people—men and women—to get to that point indicated that an extra set of discipline.
HOFFMAN: I want to acknowledge that most companies don’t have the option of hiring rocket scientists, Olympic athletes, and Super Bowl winners. But Eric does have more pragmatic advice for companies that can’t set the bar at Himalayan heights.
SCHMIDT: So today I would suggest that—and this has since been confirmed by many studies—that persistence is the single biggest predictor of future success. And so we would look for persistence. And the second thing was curiosity. What do you care about? The combination of persistence and curiosity is a very good predictor of employee success in a knowledge economy.
FERRISS: So persistence plus curiosity is one formula for hiring success. Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook has another. Here’s what he told Reid:
MARK ZUCKERBERG: So the single most important thing is to get the best people you can around you. When I look at my friends who were running other good companies, the single biggest difference that I see in whether the companies end up becoming really great and reaching their potential, or just pretty good, is whether they’re comfortable and really self-confident enough to have people who are stronger than them around them. I’ve adopted this hiring rule, which is that you should never hire someone to work for you, unless you would work for them in an alternate universe.
Which doesn’t mean that you should give them your job, but just if the tables were turned and you were looking for a job, would you be comfortable working for this person? I basically think that if the answer to that is “no,” then you’re doing something expedient by hiring them, but you’re not doing as well as you can on that.
There are all these things that Sheryl, for example, is just much stronger than me at, and that makes me better and makes Facebook better. And I am not afraid or threatened by that—I value that. That’s what makes Facebook good.
FERRIS: Of course, here Mark is talking about Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook. And she has her own take on this rule …
SHERYL SANDBERG: The lesson everyone talks about, but I really mean, is you really do want to hire people who are better than you are, and who are different than you are. This is where we talk about diversity. I don’t just mean racial, national, age, gender. All of that diversity is super important. In addition to that cognitive diversity, which you get from all those backgrounds, but also just personality diversity.
If you are a white male who likes to code and sci-fi movies, you probably don’t want your whole team to be that. I think about David Fischer. David Fischer and I have worked together at Treasury, at Google, and at Facebook. Personality types were just very different. I’m much more up and down. I will get nervous something’s not moving fast enough. I will be exuberant, and I will be down. Not David. David is absolutely calm. Over decades of working together, that balance has really been important, because sometimes I’ll look at David and say, “This is an emergency.” He’ll say, “No it’s not Sheryl, calm down.”
And sometimes I’ll say, “David, you’re not moving fast enough,” and he’ll say, “You’re right.” I think Mark and I have that too. We are very different. We are separated by—obviously gender, 15 years, he’s my boss, he’s 15 years younger. Completely different personalities, completely different working styles—and I think’s that served Facebook well.
FERRISS: Commandment number three: in order to scale, you have to do things that don’t scale. And this commandment came from the very first episode of Masters of Scale with Brian Chesky and that is what got me hooked on this podcast, because of how actionable the specific examples were. And it might sound counter-intuitive that you have to do things that don’t scale in order to scale but it’s really important that you get your hands dirty in the early days. And specifically handcraft the experience for your handful of first few customers. And to use a term the cool kids like, to finesse all of the touchpoints.
So every single separate interaction that your product or service has with your customer, if you were to look at it as say a slideshow or separate chapters, how can you optimize each of those? And to serve your customers one-by-one, you often take a concierge approach, and again, that is to perfect your prototype. At which point, then you can pour fuel on the fire to scale. But if you do it beforehand, you run into all sorts of problems. So, don’t stop until you know exactly what your perspective customers want. That’s what Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky did.
Brian took Reid back to his lean years, the early days when he went door-to-door, meeting Airbnb hosts in person. This clip we’re going to hear starts with Brian recalling a conversation he had in 2009 with Paul Graham, of Y Combinator fame,
who gave him some perplexing, it seemed at the time, advice….
CHESKY: And he asked us, “Where’s your business?” And I go, “What do you mean?” “Like where’s your traction?” And I go “We don’t have a lot of traction.” He goes, “Well people must be using it.” I said, “There’s a few people in New York using it.” And he said something I’ll never forget. He said, “So your users are in New York and you’re still in Mountain View.” I said, “Yeah.” And he said, “What are you still doing here?” And I go, “What do you mean?” He said, “Go to your users. Get to know them. Get your customers one by one.” And I said, “But that won’t scale. If we’re huge and we have millions of customers, we can’t meet every customer.” And he said, “That’s exactly why you should do it now because this is the only time you’ll ever be small enough that you can meet all your customers, get to know them, and make something directly for them.”
HOFFMAN: Brian and his co-founders followed his advice to the letter.
CHESKY: We literally commuted to New York from Mountain View. So, we would be in Y Combinator for Tuesday night dinners and then Wednesday Joe and I would go to New York. We literally would knock on the doors of all of our hosts. We had their addresses and we say, “Knock, knock. Hello. Hey, this is Brian, Joe, we’re founders, and we just want to meet you.”
HOFFMAN: Now, it’s a little creepy to just knock on the door unannounced.
CHESKY: We needed an excuse to get into their home.
HOFFMAN: So, they come up with an offer that hosts couldn’t refuse.
CHESKY: We’d send a professional photographer to your home and photograph your home. Of course, we didn’t have any money and we couldn’t employ photographers. So, Joe and I, we’d show up at their door and they’re like “Wow. This company is pretty small.”
HOFFMAN: These home visits became Airbnb’s secret weapon. It’s how they learned what people loved.
CHESKY: It’s really hard to get even 10 people to love anything but it’s not hard if you spend a ton of time with them. If I want to make something amazing, I just spend time with you. And I’m like, “Well what if I did this, what if I did this, what if I did this?”
HOFFMAN: From those questions, a handcrafted experience is born.
CHESKY: We’d find out “Hey, I don’t feel comfortable with the guest. I don’t know who they are.” “Well what if we had profiles?” “Great!” “Well what do you want in your profile?” “Well I want a photo.” “Great. What else?” “I want to know where they work, where they went to school.” “OK.” So you add that stuff. And then you literally start designing touchpoint by touchpoint. The creation of the peer review system, customer support, all these things came from us literally—we didn’t just meet our users, we lived with them. And I used to joke that when you bought an iPhone Steve Jobs didn’t come sleep on your couch, but I did.
HOFFMAN: [laughs] Yes. Was there a particular experience that has really stuck in your mind?
CHESKY: I remember we met with a couple hosts. It’s winter. It’s snowing outside and we’re in snow boots. We walk up to the apartment and we went there to photograph the home. And we’re like, “I’ll upload your photos to the website. Do you have any other feedback?” He comes back with a book, it’s a binder and he’s got dozens of pages of notes. He ends up creating a product roadmap for us, we should have this, this, this, this and this, and we’re like, “Oh my god this is our roadmap because he’s the customer.” I think that always stuck in our mind as, the roadmap often exists in the minds of the users you’re designing things for.
FERRISS: As Airbnb grew, Brian never stopped handcrafting the user experience. At one point, to envision what Airbnb could become, he and his team imagined what he calls an “11-star check-in experience.” And this was something I highlighted for myself as a thought exercise that I wanted to try with a number of companies I’m involved with and a few projects I’m working on myself.
Now only part of what follows was heard on Masters of Scale. For this particular episode, they gave me the complete, un-cut version of Brian’s thought experiment. So, I hope you enjoy.
CHESKY: If you want to build something that’s truly viral you have to create a total mindfuck experience that you tell everyone about. We basically took one part of our product and we extrapolated what would a five-star experience be. Then we went crazy. So a one, two, or three-star experience is you get to your Airbnb and no one’s there. You knock on the door. They don’t open. That’s a one star. Maybe it’s a three star if they don’t open, you have to wait 20 minutes. If they never show up and you’re pissed and you need to get your money back, that’s a one-star experience. You’re never using us again.
So, a five-star experience is you knock on the door, they open the door, they let you in. Great. That’s not a big deal. You’re not going tell every friend about it. You might say, “I used Airbnb. It worked.” So, we thought, “What would a six-star experience be?” A six-star experience: You knock on the door, the host opens. “Hey, I’m Reid. Welcome to my house.” You’re the host in this case. You would show them around. On the table would be a welcome gift. It would be a bottle of wine, maybe some candy. You’d open the fridge. There’s water. You go to the bathroom, there’s toiletries. The whole thing is great. That’s a six-star experience. You’d say, “Wow I love this more than a hotel. I’m definitely going to use Airbnb again. It worked. Better than I expected.”
What’s a seven-star experience? You knock on the door. Reid Hoffman opens. Get in. “Welcome. Here’s my full kitchen. I know you like surfing. There’s a surfboard waiting for you. I’ve booked lessons for you. It’s going to be an amazing experience. By the way here’s my car. You can use my car. And I also want to surprise you. There’s this best restaurant in the city of San Francisco. I got you a table there.” And you’re like, “Whoa. This is way beyond.”
So, what would an eight star start check in be. An eight-star check-in, I would land at the airport. I would show up and there would be a limousine waiting for me. The limousine would be like, know all my preferences. It would take me to the house and it would be like a total surprise. So, what would a nine-star check-in be? A nine-star check in, I would show up to the airport and there’d be a parade in my honor. And I would probably have an elephant you know waiting for me as the traditional Indian ceremony. I would ride on the elephant and there’d be this parade taking me to the to the house.
So, what would a ten-star check in be? A ten star check in would be The Beatles check in. In 1964. I’d get off the plane and there’d be 5,000 high school kids cheering my name with cars welcoming me to the country. I’d get to the front yard of your house and there’d be a press conference for me, and it would be just a mindfuck experience. So, what would an 11-star experience be? I would show up at the airport and you’d be there with Elon Musk and you’re saying, “You’re going to space.”
The point of the process is that maybe 9, 10, 11 are not feasible. But if you go through the crazy exercise of keep going, there’s some sweet spot between they showed up and they opened the door and I went to space. That’s the sweet spot. You have to almost design the extreme to come backwards. Suddenly, doesn’t knowing my preferences and having a surfboard in the house seem not crazy and reasonable? It’s actually kind of crazy logistically, but this is the kind of stuff that creates great experience.
FERRIS: Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator, considers this so-called 11-star experience as a prerequisite to scale. Suppose you try to scale a sub-par experience — the sort of product that gets only lukewarm approval from users or just polite indifference – that four or five stars is a default? He offers a cautionary tale in this following clip.
SAM ALTMAN: The first thing you have to do is build a product that is so good, people spontaneously want to use it and tell their friends about it. And if you can do that you still have to blitz scale but it’s the easy kind it’s you have too much demand. The hard kind of blitz scaling is where you try to start scaling up before the product is really great. And then most of your effort in scaling is to generate demand.
So I think the number one most important insight about how to blitz scale is that the good kind of blitz scaling is when you are not having to generate demand as you go but that you first got the product right. And in many of these cases — Stripe, Dropbox, Airbnb — they took a long time to get their product right but they were obsessed with that. And then when they did all their effort is “Okay, we have so much demand that without much more effort, we know this is going to keep growing 20, 30 percent a month for years.” That’s a real problem. It’s a high-class problem, but it’s still a real problem. How do we build that? So that is the kind of scaling that works, and it has generated Facebook, Google I mean a lot of it. It’s the same playbook. I think the kind of blitz scaling that we have seen go badly is “We have a mediocre product. We have raised hundreds of millions of dollars and our VC is beating down our throats to hire more sales people to grow faster.”
HOFFMAN: Any particular examples?
ALTMAN: I don’t want to name names. There’s so many to pick from. Thankfully most them are not YC. One thing that is pretty good and again a few exceptions to this, we try to beat that idea out of people at YC and thus most of the mistakes in Silicon Valley of that sort in the last decade have not been ours.
FERRIS: Commandment number four: raise more money than you think you need — potentially a LOT more. Now, this is a somewhat controversial point and some venture capitalists, VCs, argue the exact opposite, that you should try to be as lean as possible. I think, in fact, the top performing venture capitalists, of which Reid would certainly be one, even if they voice seemingly conflicting opinions, would agree that it’s largely a matter of what you have done before you raise the money. Much to Sam Altman’s point, which is a critical condition.
So for instance, when I’m personally getting involved in startups, and I have something like 70 different startup investments since 2007 (if you want to see them, you can check them out at angel.co/tim), you will notice that most of them are direct-to-consumer, many, because that’s where I can affect the outcome to the greatest extent. And some of the most successful to date have focused on product, exclusively, no marketing and PR in very early days, and have shunned PR in fact and business development opportunities and self-funded whenever possible to the point that they have a functional prototype. Meaning that they have identified some type of product market fit, as it’s called, and they have refined something that they feel that they can then pour gasoline on. And that is certainly true, for instance, in the case of a number of companies like Uber, just to take one.
When I was initially interacting with Garrett and Travis, both the co-founders, this was before Uber was Uber. It had a different name, it was an LLC, so prior to raising money, looking at prototypes, looking at the market research that they did, looking at how they tested it, looking at how they interviewed potential users but especially potential drivers, to really come up with a, let’s call it, a version zero, that got traction before they went out and then looked for external validation and financing, meaning through venture capitalists. And that I think is a common characteristic among all of my best investments, at least the early stage investments.
So, back to the commandment. In this particular case: raise more money than you think you need, potentially a lot more. So, you’ll notice Uber, at least in one case, raised initial money after they had satisfied a lot of conditions and product refinement. And then after they saw the opportunity to scale, raised more money than they thought they would need.
And the logic for this, Reid would argue, is that entrepreneurs are always going to run into a minefield of unexpected problems and expenses. He explains this particular point with a story. One that involves Mariam Naficy, CEO of Minted and then the CEO of EVE.com.
HOFFMAN: Silicon Valley is on fire, nothing bad could happen. My friend, Mariam Naficy, is CEO of a startup called Eve. And she had to have the domain name Eve.com. The only problem? She has to convince the owner to sell it to her and was facing a negotiation that I do not envy.
YOUNG GIRL: Hello? Who is this?
MARIAM NAFICY: It is a five-year-old girl, Eve Rogers.
YOUNG GIRL: This is Eve.
NAFICY: …who gets on the phone. And so, I think, “What on earth am I going to say to this 5-year-old?” So, I said, “Hello.”
YOUNG GIRL: Hi.
NAFICY: “Could I buy your domain name?” And she was just saying to me, “What? I don’t really understand.”
YOUNG GIRL: Um, what?
NAFICY: And I’m sure Eve’s mom, on the other line, was laughing her head off. I mean, this is a great joke to play on this silly entrepreneur from California who’s calling. “I’m just going to watch her be tortured by my five-year-old for a while.”
HOFFMAN: Mariam then turns this risky negotiation over to her lead investor, the legendary start-up whisperer, Bill Gross.
NAFICY: So, he gets on the phone with her mom, and he negotiated the purchase. And it was equity in the company, a board seat for her daughter—an observer board seat—trips to Idealab to see Bill several times a year.
HOFFMAN: You had a five-year-old observer on your board? [Laughing]
NAFICY: Yes. She didn’t actually show up for the board meetings, but she did occasionally come by and visit. Disneyland, software, educational software—it was a very large package that was negotiated.
HOFFMAN: If you were going to call your younger self, how would you have handled this negotiation differently?
NAFICY: I would probably throw in the Disneyland almost immediately, because now I know what a five-year-old girl wants. I have a daughter. And I would have said, “How many times a year do you want to go to Disneyland?”
HOFFMAN: Once a year? Twice a year?
YOUNG GIRL: Maybe about 100 times a year.
NAFICY: Exactly.
Ferriss: Reid is totally right in this case and in many cases of course. You need enough capital to cover unexpected expenses, as we’ve already covered, sure. But you also need to be prepared for unexpected opportunities and you might need some type of resources to exploit those.
We’ll fast forward here to Mariam’s new company, Minted, which she originally thought would be an online stationery store with cards from brand-name companies. But she also side experiment where unknown artists could submit designs to an online competition. She told Reid what happened next:
NAFICY: I open the doors. There’s not a sale for an entire month. Nobody wants the branded stationery products that we’d spent most of our two-and-a-half million launching—because again, being conservative, I’d said, “I know, I’ll do an Eve.com, I’ll put all these brands online, sign them up exclusively.” We had exclusive distribution rights. Nobody wanted to buy them at all.
Instead, the teeny-weeny assortment that I had sourced through this one competition I had run, one transaction a week. Then the next week, there were two. We had sourced 60 designs through our competition, and I’d saved a tiny bit of money to build what I really wanted to build.
Out of the two-and-a-half million, I probably spent like $100,000 on what really became Minted. It was like this little side thing, and there was a programmer up in Oregon, and he and I were working at night on building the first competition. And that is the only place where we saw any sales movement.
HOFFMAN: Mariam stumbled onto the power of crowdsourcing—the idea that ordinary people, when they come together in large numbers, can do work once reserved only for experts. Etsy is an example of this. Kickstarter as well. But at this point, in 2008, it wasn’t understood very well. It was something Silicon Valley was just getting its head around.
NAFICY: I realized that this crowdsourcing thing was way different, and I’d uncovered something that was more of a massive social, cultural change going on in the US—and maybe in the world—versus just some small-business idea. Because what was happening, that I didn’t realize, was that who’s considered a creative out there is actually changing a lot right now, due to technology and exposure. And so, people are emerging as creatives who haven’t gone to school. They haven’t gone to design school, they haven’t gone to art school, and they’re massively disrupting art and design right now. And there is a true meritocracy that you can actually build and unleash.
HOFFMAN: Here, Mariam runs into another reason you need to raise more money than you think you need: unexpected opportunities. Mariam’s plan to start a lifestyle business just didn’t pan out. She didn’t have enough funding to cover her Plan B—or her “Plans B” as I like to say. Opportunities may arise later than you hoped, and you want the capital to carry you in new directions. So, she reluctantly pitched her idea and secured another round of funding. And if that weren’t risky enough, she’s about to encounter one more familiar source of uncertainty… a stock market crash.
NAFICY: And we raised our venture around two weeks before Lehman failed, because this investor of mine had said to me, “I feel something really bad is going to happen, you should go raise.” So, we just went out in August—”Who’s in town? Anybody? Is anyone in town in August?” So, we went and raised money, and closed it literally right before Lehman [Brothers] failed.
HOFFMAN: Believe it or not, Mariam launched her wildly risky, experimental business idea into the heart of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression: the collapse of the U.S. housing market in 2008. Suppose she had waited until, say, September to raise that money. Lehman collapses, panic grips investors and no one in their right mind gives cash to a bold little experiment in crowdsourcing. Like that, Minted closes for business. Which is another reason you should always take the money whenever and wherever you can get it. You know never know when it will dry up.
FERRISS: Commandment number five: release your products early enough that they can still embarrass you. Imperfect is perfect, in this case. The fifth commandment is actually one of Reid’s more famous recommendations. He believes that if you’re not embarrassed by your first product release, you’ve released too late.
And there are certain subtleties to this of course. And I should note that, this is just one example of how Reid thinks of speed. And I’ve become fascinated by how he prioritizes speed in all areas. And to that point, I would love to read something from a piece called Ten Thousand Hours with Reid Hoffman, written by Ben Casnocha, you can find him as casnocha.com.
And one of the core tenets, one of the lessons learned, is speed. And so the words that are going to follow are Ben’s:
“His first principle is speed. His most tweeted quote ever is, “If you aren’t embarrassed by the first version of your product, you shipped too late.” His second most tweeted quote ever is, “In founding a startup, you throw yourself off a cliff and build an airplane on the way down.” Practically, he employs several decision-making hacks to prioritize speed as a factor for which option is best—and to speed up the process of making the decision itself. When faced with a set of options, he frequently will make a provisional decision instinctually based on the current information. Then he will note what additional information he would need to disprove his provisional decision and go get that. What many do instead – at their own peril – is encounter a situation in which they have limited information, punt on the decision until they gather more information, and endure an information-gathering process that takes longer than expected. Meanwhile, the world changes.”
Just a quick note from me: this is very similar to how good military strategists think of making decisions. Back to Ben:
“If you move quickly, there’ll be mistakes borne of haste. If you’re a manager and care seriously about speed, you’ll need to tell your people you’re willing to accept the tradeoffs. Reid did this with me. We agreed I was going to make judgment calls on a range of issues on his behalf without checking with him. He told me, [FERRISS: This is the part I highlighted for myself in Evernote.]
“In order to move fast, I expect you’ll make some foot faults. I’m okay with an error rate of 10-20% — times when I would have made a different decision in a given situation – if it means you can move fast.”
FERRISS: I’m going to reread that. And just for people who don’t know, foot faults, I had to look it up, is an expression used in tennis, where if they serve and their foot goes over a line, that’s a foot fault. That is an error. So again, here’s the quote from Reid to Ben, who was his chief of staff, and handling a lot.
And then Ben closes with: “I felt empowered to make decisions with this ratio in mind—and it was incredibly liberating.”
And here’s a condition that I want to emphasize that Ben also brings up, here we go:
“Big companies are different. Reid once reflected to me that the key for big companies like LinkedIn is not to pursue strategies where being fastest is critical—big companies that adopt strategies that depend on pure speed battles will always lose. Instead, they need to devise strategies where their slowness can become a strength.”
Thank you, Ben. So back to Reid’s commandment, so to speak. Release your products early enough that they might still embarrass you. This is the classic Silicon Valley approach of pushing imperfect things out, testing them and improving them with user feedback — iterate, iterate, iterate. We’ve all heard about this, instead of waiting until you think you have something perfect.
Now, I should know. As someone who writes books, as someone who has podcasts, that I don’t think this is always interpreted very well and people think it’s an excuse to put out really haphazard products or services. And it works best for products and services that can be iterated and pushed out to the initial recipients very easily, like certain types of software or certain types of apps.
In the case of a book, you don’t have that option. You put out a book, unless it is a Kindle version, and people are going to go back and reread what they already read, you’re not able to say, immediately update the user experience for the first hundred thousand people who buy your book. So you think about this, or at least I think about this, slightly differently.
If you’re putting out a book chapter by chapter, on the other hand, perhaps, I would use a slightly more fast and loose approach, which I certainly see implemented with dozens of the startups that I work with like Shopify, whose offices I’m sitting in right now.
Alright, so, who is the person that epitomizes this? Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook is probably the person who most embodies this commandment in many people’s minds and Reid talked to him about it. Here’s some audio.
HOFFMAN: My friend Mark Zuckerberg is the perfect person to talk to about this. He has no qualms about rushing out an imperfect product. In fact, his famous mantra is “Move fast and break things”—and I’d argue that it’s the foundation of Facebook’s success. If Mark cares about anything, it’s making sure his team moves with the swiftness of a teen hacker, releasing products that are anything but perfect, so their audience can improve them.
ZUCKERBERG: I think the strategy of Facebook is to learn as quickly as possible what our community wants us to do—and that requires a culture that encourages people to try things and test things and fail.
HOFFMAN: But how did he get Facebook’s 17,000-plus employees to shed their perfectionist streaks? You’re about to find out. We’ll start Mark’s story when he was an undergraduate at Harvard. By this time, he was in the habit of slapping together programs on the fly. He couldn’t help himself.
ZUCKERBERG: I took this class, “Rome of Augustus.” And the final exam—they were going to show some piece of art from the Augustan period in Rome, and you had to write an essay on the historical significance. And I was actually coding the first version of Facebook when I should have been studying for that, so a couple of days before the exam, I was like, “Alright, I’m kind of screwed.” This isn’t something like math, where you could just show up, and figure out how to do the problem on the exam. You actually need to know the context of this, or else you can’t write these essays.
HOFFMAN: Wait a second, rewind.
ZUCKERBERG: This isn’t something like math, where you could just show up, and figure out how to do the problem on the exam.
HOFFMAN: Who does that? In any case, with the exam fast approaching, you might expect Mark to cut back on the coding. Instead, he doubled down on it.
ZUCKERBERG: I built this service where basically anyone in the class could go to it, and it showed you a random piece of art, and you could type in whatever context you thought was important. And then after that, it would show you everything that everyone else in the class had put in. So, it was a study tool, but it kind of crowd-sourced exactly what people needed to know for each piece of art. And the professor ended up telling me after that, that the grades on the final were higher than they’d ever been before. And I ended up passing that class.
HOFFMAN: Imagine, for a moment, what would have happened if Mark was a little less hacker and a little more perfectionist. What if he took his time to get the “Random Piece of Art” program just-so? It might have looked nicer. It might have had more features. But he would have missed the opportunity to put it in front of his classmates when they needed it, and more importantly, would have missed the learning about how they used it.
But many of us—and I’m guessing most of Mark’s Harvard classmates—have a tough time rushing things out. High-achieving people have a tendency to be perfectionists. And the same instincts that make us good students, can make us lousy entrepreneurs.
FERRISS: So, you have to un-learn how to be a perfectionist. And you also have to un-learn the habit of listening to everything your users tell you because that will drive you crazy and destroy your business. Reid will also tell you: You have to be selective in the user feedback that you take into account and incorporate.
HOFFMAN: Success has a funny way of sneaking up on the best entrepreneurs. They devote themselves to understanding and serving a teeny cohort of users. They don’t always recognize that this intimate link is precisely what enables their product to evolve for the mass market. That’s one reason I encourage entrepreneurs to release a product earlier than they’d like. Release, observe, react—over and over again.
It isn’t just about speed, and it certainly isn’t about sloppiness, but rather a precise dance between Facebook’s tiny team and its growing user base. The users normally take the lead—but not always. Sometimes Mark had to break the choreography and give the users a twirl.
That’s because you have to discern what users actually want. And Mark received an early education in the gap between what users say and what they do—particularly as he expanded the social network to new campuses.
ZUCKERBERG: We’d seen this funny dynamic where—we talked about how we started it at Harvard, and then we’d launch at Yale, and then all the people at Harvard would be like, “Oh, come on. Them?” And then it’s at every step along the way. You go from Yale, and you launch at Columbia, and the people at Yale are like, “Aw really? Those guys?” We’re at Indiana University, and Indiana State launches, and the people at Indiana University are like, “Come on.” So, we were used to this this dynamic of people assuming that a change is like, “Why are you doing this?” but then coming around pretty quickly.
HOFFMAN: Notice the lesson Mark is learning here—he’s learning how to listen. Each college said they didn’t want another college to join—and then, as each new college joined, the network got stronger, and people liked it more. This is a great example of how entrepreneurs need to both listen to what users say, and selectively ignore them. People can’t always accurately predict their own tastes or even their own interests.
For example, a baseline for Facebook is: other people are going to upload pictures about you, other people are going to tag them, and when those other people tag them, your friends are going to see them, possibly before you. Do you want that product, yes or no? Most people, described that way, would say “I don’t want that product! No, no, no! I don’t want that product.” And yet everyone’s super happy with that product. People systemically are very poor at predicting their own reactions to new things.
FERRIS: The core idea here is that you have to experiment if you’re going to effectively innovate. And this gets harder and harder as you grow, of course. Mark shared some details on exactly how Facebook succeeds on a massive scale, how do you innovate as a larger company, and how do you change your mantra over time. Reid Explains:
HOFFMAN: For Mark and his growing team at Facebook, the mantra of “move fast and break things” served as a rallying cry, and the philosophy made a lot of sense when they were a fledgling startup. But when you have thousands of employees moving fast and breaking things, someone has to clean up their messes. As Facebook grew, Mark became aware of a growing tension between his hacker ethos—to move fast—and his responsibility as CEO to avoid breaking things on such a massive scale. Thus, a new mantra was born: “Move fast…with stable infrastructure.”
ZUCKERBERG: Well, it’s less catchy.
HOFFMAN: But the best mantras do more than just sound good. They give you the resolve to make tough decisions.
ZUCKERBERG: So “move fast,” I think, is interesting, because you actually have to be willing to give something up to get it. And the question is, “What are you willing to give up?” And early on, the trade was, “Move fast and break things.” The idea was, we will tolerate some amount of bugs and flaws in the service of moving faster and learning what our community wants faster. But we got to a point where it was taking us more time to go back and fix the bugs and issues that we were creating than the speed that we were gaining by going faster.
So we’re like, “OK, we need a new strategy to enable us to move fast.” And what we came up with was: we’re going to do this by building the best infrastructure. So an engineer who comes from any company is going to be able to ship their product faster here—and test it better, and move faster, and all these things—at Facebook, than anywhere else in the world. So that’s what we mean by “Move fast with stable infrastructure.” But again, we don’t get it for free—we invest a huge amount in building infrastructure. So I think these values always come down to, what are you willing to give up to get something? Because they’re not free—nothing is.
HOFFMAN: Mark concedes that “Move fast with stable infrastructure” is a clunky mantra. It doesn’t have the snappy appeal of “Move fast and break things,” but it adds guardrails to protect the company in its new phase. You can still release something bold and half-baked. You can still break things. Just don’t break the infrastructure. Because the infrastructure is too slow to repair, and if you break the infrastructure, it will ultimately slow you down.
And with that new rule in mind, Mark laid the groundwork for mass experimentation on Facebook. How does it work exactly? One thing you should know about Facebook: it has many faces.
ZUCKERBERG: At any given point in time, there isn’t just one version of Facebook running, there are probably 10,000. Any engineer at the company can basically decide that they want to test something. There are some rules on sensitive things, but in general, an engineer can test something, and they can launch a version of Facebook not to the whole community, but maybe to 10,000 people or 50,000 people—whatever is necessary to get a good test of an experience. And then, they get a readout of how that affected all of the different metrics and things that we care about. How were people connecting? How were people sharing? Do people have more friends in this version? Of course, business metrics, like how does this cost the efficiency of running the service, how much revenue are we making?
It can even kick off qualitative studies and ask people how happy they are with this version. And then at the end of that, the engineer can come to their manager, and say, “Hey, here’s what I built, these are the results. Do we want to explore this further and do this?” And giving people the tools to be able to go get that data without having to argue whether their idea’s good through layers of management before testing something, frees people up to move quicker. If the thing doesn’t work, then we add that to our documentation of all the lessons that we’ve learned over time. If it does work, then we can incorporate those small changes into the base of what Facebook is—that now everyone else who is trying to build an improvement, that’s the new baseline that they need to get against.
FERRISS: But when is it ok to experiment? Is it always ok? Is it possible that the risk or cost could be too high? Mark sets a pretty high bar for this.
ZUCKERBERG: On a day-to-day basis, a lot of the decisions that I’m making are like, “Ok, is this going to destroy the company?” Because if not, then let them test it. If the cost of the test isn’t going to be super high, then in general we’re going to learn a lot more by experimenting and by letting the teams go and explore the things that they think are worth exploring than by having a heavy hand in that.
FERRIS: And Reid holds — more or less — to his theory that you should be embarrassed by your first product release.
HOFFMAN: The word “embarrassment” plays a key role here. Over the years, some people have interpreted my theory as permission to cut corners, act recklessly, or proceed without a clear plan.
But notice: I said, “If you’re not embarrassed by your product.” I didn’t say “If you’re not indicted” or “If you’re not deeply ashamed by your product.” Indeed, if you launched so fast that your product generates lawsuits, alienates users, or burns through capital without any apparent gain, you did in fact launch too soon.
FERRISS: Commandment six: Decide. Decide. Decide. Every founder has to learn how to make decisions. It is often times better to make a wrong decision, usually correctable, than no decision. And we actually alluded to this earlier with my story about Ben and Reid. This is something Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, learned when he was taking flying lessons:
ERIC SCHMIDT: In aviation, they teach you to make rapid decisions, and they, over and over again: “Decide, decide, decide.” It’s better to make a decision and just accept the consequences. And that discipline helped me in the hard times when I was at Novell in a real hardcore turnaround.
FERRISS: It’s also served him well in the free-wheeling, idea-generating climate he cultivated at Google. In fact, he might argue it was the secret to their success and continues to be the secret to their continued success: you must have disciplined decision making in order to survive let alone thrive.
SCHMIDT: The most important thing to do is to have quick decisions—and you’ll make some mistakes, but you need decision-making. We ultimately adopted a model of a staff meeting on Monday, a business meeting on Wednesday, and a product meeting on Friday, and this was organized so that people could travel in the right ways. And the agenda was, everybody knew which meeting the decisions were made at—and so as long as you could wait a week, you knew you would get a hearing on your deal.
I cannot tell you how many people have told me that at Google, decisions are made today quickly, in almost every case, even at our current scale. And that’s a legacy of that decision. Most large corporations have too many lawyers, too many decision-makers, unclear owners, and things congeal—they occur very slowly. But some of the greatest things happen very quickly. We made the decision to purchase YouTube in about 10 days—incredibly historic decision—because we were ready, people were focused, we had a board meeting—we wanted to get it done.
HOFFMAN: We have a word for these kinds of evasive maneuvers here in Silicon Valley. We call it an OODA loop. That’s a fighter pilot term. It stands for observe, orient, decide, act. The fighter pilot who has the fastest OODA loop wins. The other one dies. If you’ve ever watched the movie Top Gun, you’ll have a basic understanding of how an OODA loop works.
Tom Cruise’s character, Maverick, has a few bad guys on his tail. In a split second, he orients himself to the enemy’s formation. Then he decides to perform a crazy aerial maneuver—he acts, and he confounds everyone. Score one for the free world. Now I’m not suggesting that tech executives secretly want to blast each other out of the sky. What they do want is to perform slightly crazy, super-fast maneuvers, again and again.
You’ll often hear founders asking: What is the OODA loop of an organization or an individual? Because speed matters in combat, and also in fast-moving industries.
FERRISS: Commandment number seven: be prepared to both make and break plans. In a fast-growing organization, leaders have to be ready to pivot. Even though pivot is sometimes used as a word that can be a cover up for anything. And I think it was Marc Andreessen, in my podcast episode with him who said, “When I was getting started, we didn’t have a fancy word for it, we just called it a fuck up.”
Nonetheless, you have new competitors, new threats, new opportunities on an ongoing basis. So you have to be adaptable. Nearly everything can be subject to change, so that much I think, we can agree on. Reid talks about this concept with Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg.
HOFFMAN: The path to scale always, unfortunately, includes some broken promises, as Sheryl would soon find out. Everything—from interviews to office space—changes as you grow. And even a small take-back can matter to a team.
SANDBERG: I’ll give you another silly example that I don’t think is silly—birthdays. We celebrated everyone’s birthday that day. Then it became that week. Eventually we had a huge sheet cake with quarterly birthdays. My team was 4,000 when I left, and everyone’s name is on it. Now it sounds like that wouldn’t matter, but it did—because if you started out and we celebrated everyone’s birthday, and we took that away, that was a problem. Now I’m not saying, “Be mean and don’t celebrate birthdays.” I’m saying, “Figure out what your systems are going to look like later and do it now.”
FERRISS: Sandberg’s ability to recognize when a once-functional system has stopped serving the team’s culture and productivity keeps Facebook on track. Founders have to be able to cut their losses when programs or projects no longer make sense, and this very frequently happens, and I think this is something the founder of Softbank might have mentioned at one point, but that company’s systems and processes often need to be replaced when companies triple in size or hit multiples of ten. So say, if you go from three to nine to 27 then at a 100 people or a thousand people or so on, systems need to be replaced or updated. And Zynga’s Founder Mark Pincus is excellent at stopping things when they’re not working.
HOFFMAN: By the time Mark launched Zynga, he was acutely aware of the dangers of stubbornly sticking to his ideas. He started to draw the distinction between his usually-great instincts and his not-always-great ideas.
PINCUS: I’ll try anything, and I’ll kill anything, and I’ll kill it quickly. And I’m not going to let killing an idea kill a winning instinct. And so that was a really core idea that I’m still thinking about and learning as an entrepreneur. And I can see it playing out so often in people’s companies.
HOFFMAN: Mark separates specific ideas—which must be killed when they don’t work—from underlying instincts. And this willingness to kill ideas is essential to making innovation work.
FERRISS: So, you have to be willing to pivot, and you have to make firm decisions. But there’s one more thing (there are many other things of course, but one in particular): you have to keep your team together, through the twists and turns. Margaret Heffernan, former CEO of 5 tech companies, shared a story with Reid about a company that got this right.
MARGARET HEFFERNAN: I think the most sensational example of this I’ve ever come across—I’ve spent a lot of time hanging out with and writing about Ocean Spray, the cranberry company. They’re one of the biggest cooperatives in the United States, an extraordinary business.
At one point, Pepsi tried very hard to buy them. And of course, the company is owned by the cranberry farmers. So this was a really passionate, passionate debate, you could never have resolved it by who cared most, because everybody cared totally. It ended up the vote was 49.9% in favor of selling, 50.1% in favor of staying an independent cooperative.
What made the company what it is today, which is very successful, global, multi-billion-dollar business, is that after the vote, everybody got behind it. There was no question. That’s the vote. That’s the outcome. Now we all work together to make it successful.
FERRISS: Commandment number eight: don’t tell your employees how to innovate. And there are certainly people who would disagree with or have a different tack but what does that mean? That means manage the chaos, which might seem to be a contradiction. Many creative people find that leading an innovative company actually means a lot less of producing your own great ideas, and a lot more of shepherding your employees’ great ideas to fruition. And they often come from unexpected places. Eric Schmidt thought a lot about this when he was the CEO of Google.
SCHMIDT: I think a fair statement is that the founders built the company in the image of what they saw at Stanford graduate school. So the offices for example, if you had them, would have four people in them—which is the number of graduate students that are in an office. And of course, everyone’s very crowded, and it’s very casual. And of course, there’s free food, and everyone is sort of hanging out all day. And that graduate student culture—that sense that somehow, we’re about to discover something new—permeated the decision making, so they were able to invent a new ideas. So the culture of food and benefits and being quirky came from the founders trying to recreate that feeling.
HOFFMAN: Amid this creative ferment, his job was simple. He just had to give employees a slight nudge to deliver on their promising ideas.
SCHMIDT: The first thing I did was I went to the staff meeting. And the staff meetings were long, and they were like being in graduate school. “What do you think of this? What do you think of that?” But a real lack of business procedures, and that kind of thing, which were easily remedied.
HOFFMAN: When you’re surrounded by bright young minds, you don’t have to push too hard for interesting ideas. They tend to tumble out of conversations or shared challenges and take you in unpredictable directions. But not every manager is comfortable with this type of chaos. It requires a particular kind of leader who can embrace both humility—the uncomfortable notion that you don’t have all of the best ideas yourself—and uncertainty—because you can’t always schedule innovation on a predictable timeline. I’m going to come right out and say it: if you’re a control freak, you’re going to have a hard time with this.
FERRISS: Google is certainly not the first organization to embrace contained chaos, if we want to call it that, but they do lean into it in a way that’s rare, especially for big companies and even within Silicon Valley.
HOFFMAN: Eric took some radical steps to keep ideas flowing in the organization. This meant empowering engineers and keeping management in check. For instance, product leaders can draw in as many engineers as they’d like on any given project, so long as they can convince engineers to join their team.
I’ve talked to other managers at Google who are frustrated with this because they argue: “We agree that my project is strategic. Why don’t you just assign some engineers to me?” And the answer is “No, no you have to persuade the engineers that your project’s a good one to work on. And then, by the way, you can have all of the engineers that you can persuade to work on that project.” And that’s central to Google’s culture for making progress.
Eric took this idea one step further. He granted employees the freedom not only to choose their projects, but openly defy their managers along the way. Google famously instituted a rule that any employee could devote 20% of their work week to any project they’d like.
Twenty percent time was in some ways a logical extension of Google’s graduate school culture. Managers, like research advisors, can set timetables and budgets for experimentation. But the staff, like the “students,” pick the research agenda.
SCHMIDT: Many, many initiatives in the company have come out of 20 percent time ideas. Much of the mapping work, many of the search ideas, many of the advertising, many of now the AI work, have come from people working and practicing in new areas.
HOFFMAN: As Eric says, many of the products people know best — Gmail, Google Maps, Google News, AdSense — grew out of ideas generated by employees, during this 20% time. But WHY exactly, does it work?
SCHMIDT: And while the rule says you can do anything you want to with your 20 percent time, these people are computer scientists and engineers, they’re not going to veer too far away from their core business and that is the genius of 20 percent time.
HOFFMAN: The tendency of high-performing employees to use their 20% time productively is the well-documented genius of the program. But there’s also a hidden genius of 20 percent time. It allows reasonable employees to defy unreasonable managers. And this institutionalized defiance can help balance the power and keep high-performing employees engaged during challenging times.
SCHMIDT: So the interesting thing about 20 percent time is although it’s reported as you get to spend one day doing whatever you want, what it really served was a check and balance on the power of the engineering management over the subject. So if an employee is under pressure, the manager says you’ve got to work harder you’ve got to give me everything you have. That employee can legitimately look that boss in the eye and say I’ll give you 100 percent of my 80 percent time. And that simple principle, which never really happens in practice, but it’s understood, empowers the employee with both dignity but also some choices.
FERRISS: Commandment number nine: to create a winning company culture, make sure every employee owns it. This commandment is very often overlooked, especially at the startup stage and I’ve been guilty of this, I know many people who have. Many founders, especially inexperienced ones, downplay the role of culture in their success, or simply don’t know where to start.
And many of the founders, co-founders that I’ve worked with are in the latter category. They recognize how it can be important and a critical, cohesive factor but they don’t know where to start.
Reed Hastings, the founder & CEO of Netflix has strong feelings about company culture. His first startup, Pure Software, sold for $750 million, so it was successful from an objective standpoint. But he shared with Reed Hoffman that it failed when it came to company culture. And when he started Netflix he wanted to correct that mistake and we get to some of the concrete corrections and where you can find a lot more about the specifics of that but here first, how Reid would sum it up.
HOFFMAN: So Reed made a very typical mistake in his first company. He thought he could solve his company’s problems just by working harder. But hard work isn’t enough; and more work is never the real answer. To succeed as you scale, you have to leverage every person in the organization. And to do that, you have to be very intentional about how you craft the culture. This was exactly the lesson Reed took from Pure Software. Their management decisions had created a culture that rewarded the wrong behavior and retained the wrong employees.
REED HASTINGS: Well the mistakes in Pure was that every time we had a significant error, sales call didn’t go well, a bug in the code, we tried to think about in terms of what process could we put in place to ensure that this doesn’t happen again and thereby improving the company. And what we failed to understand is by dummy proofing all the systems that we would have a system where only dummies wanted to work there, which was exactly what happened. And so the average intellectual level fell and then the market changed as it inevitably does in that case it was C++ to Java but it could be anything. And we were unable to adapt to it because we had a bunch of people who valued following the process rather than the first principle thinking.
HOFFMAN: Notice Reed’s double insight here. Pure software couldn’t adapt because they had the wrong employees. And they had the wrong employees because of management decisions that explicitly selected for those employees. It was an insight that catapulted him.
FERRISS: What Reed learned from his first company was that culture directly impacted both who worked in a company, and how well they performed. At Netflix , he knew he’d need people who could adapt with the times as technology changed, as it very often, and I should say, always does, and they went from a company that mailed DVDs to a company with streaming video and original content.
The whole story is definitely worth hearing in the entire unedited version that is found on the Masters of Scale podcast, but here we’ll stay focused on how this realization affected Netflix ’s culture and hiring practices. When Reed thought about growing the Netflix team, he already had a very clear idea of who he needed. Here’s Reid Hoffman to explain what Reed Hastings did next:
HOFFMAN: Reed’s knowledge of history, the changing nature of technology and the historical moment he was in, led to the understanding that he would need people to change with the times. People who can rip up a process and return to the first principles of delivering entertainment by any means necessary, whether it’s horseback, mail, fiber optic cable — or maybe in the future Elon Musk’s neural lace. Regardless, you need people who can change the business model, fast.
So how did Reed identify those candidates? It started with a now legendary document at Netflix: a collection of more than 100 slides known as the “culture deck.” These slides defined exactly what the Netflix culture stands for, and who they’re trying to hire, and what they can expect.
HASTINGS: The culture deck started about 10 years ago. So first couple of years we were just focused on survival and then we got public in 2002. Cash flow positive and it was clear we were going to survive. So we then started really thinking about the culture, what we wanted to be, how we wanted to operate. And so over successive years I improved this deck which I would go through with new employees. And sometimes those new employees would love it, sometimes they were like oh my god why didn’t you tell me this before I started. That doesn’t make sense to me. And so we realized we should give it to every candidate. And so then about 2007, 2008 we did that by posting it on SlideShare but again it was really just to be able to send a link to the candidates and then you know and it’s not very pretty, it’s not very highly designed, doesn’t look like it’s an external marketing piece but that authenticity really people liked in the outside world and now it’s you know over you know 10 million views on SlideShare and continues to be studied around the world.
HOFFMAN: And what were the unexpected benefits of having published it?
HASTINGS: Well let’s see the core benefit which we did expect was that candidates were very aware of the culture. The unexpected benefit was many people became candidates for us because they loved that what we described in terms of freedom and responsibility that might not have otherwise thought about us.
FERRISS: Now when you read Netflix culture deck, which many people have, you’ll see they have a very specific way of describing themselves — as a “sports team”, not a “family”, which I love. They use internal collaboration to drive external competitiveness.
HASTINGS: In team sports that really succeed there often is a lot of warmth between the players. And so it’s emphasizing those aspects and demonstrating that when people come in everyone tries to help them but ultimately it is about performance. Unlike a family which is really about unconditional love you know even if your brother you know does something awful and goes to jail your love doesn’t stop ok and that’s it just a different and important part of society. But that’s not what we’re about. What we’re about is collectively changing the world in the areas of Internet television and that takes incredible performance at every level. We’re also about really honest feedback all the time. So you can learn and be the best that you can be.
FERRISS: Most CEOs would agree that a successful company culture is one that that lets team members be the best that they can be. And as you consider the best way to do that for your company and your team, you’ll want to pay particular attention to how people compete. This is where a lot of company cultures go sideways. Margaret Heffernan, former CEO of five tech companies, says this:
HEFFERNAN: There is often a belief among very successful, very competitive, people that the thing you want to do in a company is get everybody to compete with each other, that if it’s everybody is racing against everybody you’ll have this kind of a white heat of brilliance and creativity. And I think pretty much everything about that’s wrong. And that’s not to say that I’m not competitive, I’m deeply competitive with myself in the sense that I really want to do a better job today than I did yesterday. But I don’t want you to fail.
And I have seen more companies and organizations go wrong. Because of what I think of as negative competitiveness. I do want you to fail or I want your department to fail or I want your product to fail because that will make me shine. I’ve seen more damage and destruction and waste from that mentality than probably from any other misunderstanding.
We all grow up in education systems that are very individualistic: my grades, my college place, so there’s always a tendency to think, “I have to get ahead.” But actually, what makes people successful is each other. It’s you coming to me with an idea and my thinking, “that’s interesting” or “what about this” or “I know somebody you should talk to” or “Oh, go and look at this product, that might give you some ideas”.
If you can build an environment in which people really want to help each other, full of people who are generous you will do infinitely better than creating something kind of Olympic sport within the company. And quite where this idea that if we all competed against each other we’d all do better came from, I don’t know. It’s definitely not Darwin.
But I see it especially I have to say among young men and this belief that at one level you know if everybody’s is competing everybody will get faster. I think it’s a catastrophe. And I see it bring down really tremendous companies that get so lost in the fight they forgot why they were there in the first place.
HOFFMAN: I totally agree and I actually think one of the key things that companies do at scale in order to try to set against this because there’s always that kind of the “how do I win” this kind of a culture is to say that part of the dialogue in performance reviews and culture and compensation is: how did you help other people and in particular how did you help other people outside of the specific team you’re in. And I think that’s actually I’m really glad to I asked you that question because I think that what you just said is super critical.
HEFFERNAN: Well it’s really interesting. I remember speaking at a conference and on this subject in the Q&A someone said well you know how would you find people like that when you’re interviewing them for jobs. And I said, well I’d ask them who helped them in their career because you know if they can’t remember anybody. That’s a pretty bad sign you know. Anyway, the next person speaking at this conference was the chief technology officer from somewhere. And in his Q&A somebody asked him who helped you in the course of your career. And he couldn’t think of anybody. And there was this sort of stunned, horrified silence. You know, and the truth is that all of us I’m sure this is true of you too, all of us got help from so many people. And you can’t remember one of them? And of course, actually, singing the praises of people who’ve helped you is absolutely joyous task.
FERRISS: Commandment number 10: have grit and stick with your hero’s journey. So the other commandments from Masters of Scale cover just about everything in first principles, basic concepts, that you need to succeed as a startup founder: hiring and funding, managing and innovating, making decisions fast and testing products early. This tenth commandment makes all the rest possible. To succeed, entrepreneurs need a good idea, sufficient resources, good timing, tough to always make that one work or guess it, and of course that means, a certain amount of luck. But they also need to follow this commandment: have grit and stay on your hero’s journey.
HOFFMAN: Some people mistake grit for sheer persistence. Charging up the same hill, again and again. But that’s not quite what I mean by the word “grit.” The sort of grit you need to scale a business is less reliant on brute force. It’s actually one part determination, one part ingenuity, and one part laziness. Yes, laziness.
You want to conserve your energy. You want to minimize friction and find the most effective, most efficient way forward. You might actually have more grit if you treat your energy as a precious commodity. So forget the tired cliché of running a marathon. You want to be more like Indiana Jones, somersaulting under blades, racing a few steps ahead of a rolling boulder and swinging your whip until you reach your holy grail.
FERRISS: Of course, the hardest time to show grit is when you need it the most. When the situation seems dire, when the odds are against you. Reid sees these life-and-death moments a lot in the companies he’s built and advised. Here’s what he thinks you should do when you find yourself in such a position:
HOFFMAN: These are the critical junctures that determine whether you fold or scale your business. You might win big, and you might lose big. And grit is the stick-to-it-ness that kicks in when you actually understand the risks — and know you might die — but move ahead anyway. In fact, I have a prepared speech for these pivotal moments.
I have a given a version of this speech at some point on every single board that I’ve been on, which is the heroic possibility. That the road in front of you is super fucking hard, that is not a given that you’re going to win it. But if you win it you’re going to be a hero. And so, the question for you is: Are you a hero? And most people then they kind of hear that speech they go, “Yeah,” because that’s what they want to be. That’s why they’re doing this. They want to be a hero. So you’re giving them a frame to do it. And you might lose, right? You might be dead on the battlefield. This is why it’s a hero’s journey. This is why you will be heroes if you do this. And by the way the people who don’t resonate with that? You want them off the boat.
FERRISS: Bonus commandment number 11: pay it forward. What does that mean? Well, the other commandments from Masters of Scale covered just about everything you need to succeed as a startup founder. The final commandment kicks in after you succeed or reach some type of certainty that you’ll survive or just have a little bit of extra cash on hand in some cases.
Because Reid will tell you, the long-term success of any company, anywhere in the world — depends on the ecosystem around it. To create an ecosystem like Silicon Valley, and many places have tried, where startups thrive, and scale-ups are possible — successful entrepreneurs have to follow this commandment and pay it forward. That means they invest in the other companies around them, the little guys.
In this next clip, Linda Rottenberg explains how she sees this. She’s the CEO of Endeavor and her passion is in supporting entrepreneurs around the world. And Linda is awesome, I haven’t seen her in years. Hi Linda! She says the willingness of successful entrepreneurs to pay it forward is THE determining factor in whether a startup scene, ecosystem, or city, thrives or not.
LINDA ROTTENBERG: Many cultures have one or two or three successful business people that create companies. But if they don’t pay it forward and if they don’t reinvest in the ecosystem becoming mentors becoming angel investors inspiring their employees to start companies then it stops. Right. And so what Endeavor tries to do is create that that ecosystem foundation where the successful entrepreneurs go on and pay it forward. And then that’s when you see a multiplier effect.
FERRISS: Linda has a great story about this…
ROTTENBERG: It was really in 2000 when I got called into a room by Pedro Aspe, the former finance minister of Mexico who was then leading the largest private equity firm. And he had gathered a group of about 12 individuals. And before I walked in the room someone said to me Linda, do you know what percentage of Mexico’s GDP is in this room? And I said no, and I don’t think I want to. So I was asked by it was Lorenzo Zambrano of Cemex, Carlos Slim of you know all the telecom, Emilio Azcarraga of the media, etc.
And one of the people in the room said well why are all these entrepreneurs coming out of Chile and Argentina and Brazil even Uruguay, like what’s wrong with Mexico. So, in my oh politically astute way, chica loca says to this group of men, “well here in Mexico, you’re the big fish. And think of entrepreneurs as the little fish. And here the big fish tend to eat the little fish. So, if you want something like Endeavor. Think of us like an aquarium where you learn to feed the little fish.”
And the fact that they actually didn’t throw me out of the room, my life is about not being thrown out of rooms I guess, and they all signed up. And in fact, a decade later Emilio Azarraga’s, one of his magazines had a study on, survey on entrepreneurship in the country and the headline was big fish feeding the little fish.
FERRISS: If you follow these 10 commandments you’ll be on your way to startup success, life success, as well as your own hero’s journey. And this episode isn’t quite over though, because I promised I would have some new questions that were burning in my head for Reid that I wanted to get to him. And so let us jump right into that.
If you could have one gigantic billboard anywhere with anything on it, so metaphorically speaking, getting a message to millions or billions of people, what would it say? It could be a few words or a paragraph.
HOFFMAN: One of the quotes that I most love is this simple almost-haiku: If I am only for myself, what am I? If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If not now, then when?
FERRISS: What is the book or books that you have given most as a gift?
HOFFMAN: Obviously, I give out my own books, fairly often: The Start-Up of You, The Alliance. Recently, I’ve been giving out another book by a friend of mine, Joshua Cooper Ramo, The Seventh Sense.
FERRIS: What fiction books have you reread or recommended the most?
HOFFMAN: Obviously, this is one of the places where my inner nerd, my geek shows. The books I’ve most often read are Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, because it’s so important to show this journey, these hobbits, these little people in a hero’s journey about how you can change the world within a context where Tolkien is fairly sophisticated around the questions of the corruption of power, the intersection of races, and the needs for us to all to work together.
FERRIS: Is there a book that has most impacted your life?
HOFFMAN: Well, I’m enough of a reader that many books have impacted my life. I would say most recently, Sapiens has had me thinking a lot about what the evolution of humanity and what our future looks like.
FERRIS: What have you changed your mind about in the last few years and why?
HOFFMAN: I’d give two answers here. The first is a personal one: which is previously, I’d always avoided politics because it seemed like a zero-sum game and I care about building things, I care about these Archimedean levers by which you move the world. And yet I realized, that if I don’t myself engage in politics and take a more active responsibility then I’m shirking my duties as a citizen. So that’s a personal change.
Scientifically, I’ve actually come around to the view that artificial intelligence is going to have a huge impact on our lives. I was an artificial intelligence undergraduate and major and more or less thought, there were going to be some interesting toys and not going to create something massive. And yet, as the five years goes by, as 10 years goes by, as 20 years go by, I think we’re going to see massive transformation in many industries, in many parts of life, that come from it. I’m not yet at a view that we’re on a short path to artificial general intelligence machines but the impact that the old techniques now applied is going to have on our lives is going to be ferocious. And that’s something that I rediscovered in the last few years.
FERRISS: What purchase of one hundred dollars or less has most positively impacted your life in say the last six months or from recent memory?
HOFFMAN: This is going to sound a little strange, but my trainer started recommending that I add moringa leaf powder to my tea. And that’s actually added a rich antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and a little bit more substance such that drinking tea now feels a little bit like a snack and is super healthy.
FERRIS: What advice would you give to a college senior about to enter the so-called “real world”?
HOFFMAN: Well, for the college senior, this is one the key audiences to which I wrote my book, The Start-Up of You, and the answer is to think about yourself as an entrepreneur, not necessarily starting a business but beginning a path that isn’t a career path but actually in fact, a set of entrepreneurial experiences by which you’re strategically defining your forward life. That means, looking for opportunities that change your trajectory along the variables that matter to you. Whether they’re economic, or mission, or people you’re working with.
FERRISS: What advice would you give to a smart, aggressive 30-year-old, assuming that in both cases, they’re similar to how you were at that age?
HOFFMAN: For the 30-year-old, you know, it’s again much like The Start-Up of You. But I think it begins to say, ok, here are the assets that I have, how do I really leverage them, how do I amplify them? As opposed to those first steps in the journey, thinking about, “ok, I’ve done this. What are the things that lead me from here?”
Now, not surprisingly, in both answers, because I approach my life in a very strategic way, these are ways that I was behaving both as a college senior and as a 30-year-old.
FERRISS: How has a failure or apparent failure set you up for later success? Do you have a favorite failure of yours?
HOFFMAN: Well one of the things that I like about the entrepreneurial life is that we fail all the time. Like literally, I’ve got just like dozens of failures and failing fast in order to try to succeed. And perhaps in this context, the best one is my very first startup, SocialNet. I literally made most of the classic mistakes in the first year. And all of the advice I give entrepreneurs, for example, if you’re not embarrassed by your first product release, you’ve released too late, all of that comes from lessons that I have personally learned. And so that that favorite failure, my first company, SocialNet, was literally one of those experiences where when you say “oh, it’s a learning experience”, it really does mean lots of scars and lots of blood on the floor.
FERRISS: What is the worst advice you hear commonly dispensed and repeated in your field? That could be startups, VC, investing of other types, or whatever you choose.
HOFFMAN: So, the classic mistake that people say and entrepreneurs do is they believe that what is valuable about what they’re doing is they have a unique, secret idea. And that they should hold their idea close to their chest and not talk to anyone about it because that’s the precious gem that they have.
And actually, the truth is your asset is that you are in motion on this idea and you should talk to everyone smart who can give you feedback to try to refine the idea, to try to build it. Because your unique asset is that you’re in motion on it and you’re acting on it and you’re making something happen now. And you know, it doesn’t mean you publish your idea to the world. But it does mean that every time you can get good feedback that would help recruit people, help you refine the idea, help you advance the idea, you take it.
FERRISS: What is an unusual habit or an absurd thing that you love? For instance, Cheryl Stayed needs to perfectly layer each sandwich so that every bite includes every ingredient.
HOFFMAN: You’d think, I’m a software guy, I’m a digital guy, that everything is digital recording. Well I found this little shop in New York, online, called the Unemployed Philosopher’s Guild. And they sell these little notebooks, you know like, Plato’s Republic and Alice in Wonderland and Pangea Passport and actually having these little highly designed notebooks that kind of have these literary references that are the things that I write notes on, that’s an absurd thing that I actually love.
FERRISS: What rules or criteria do you use to determine what to say yes to?
HOFFMAN: Obviously, you get totally overloaded by saying yes and I frequently, sadly, refer to myself, as a kid in a candy store, and I end up saying yes to too many things and that creates a challenge. It’s kind of like “oh I’ll have that one too” and “yes, that too!” And that’s challenging. So when trying to apply intelligence and discipline to it, I look at a couple of different things.
So first, is it something that is big and important in the world, something I am uniquely well-suited for? Second is, is it referred to me by someone I deeply trust? Someone who knows me, knows the problem, or knows the opportunity and thinks it should happen? And the third is, some room for serendipity. Some room for trying something new and different in a way that would stimulate me to think or to learn or to essentially have a new epiphany or a new vista open for you. And so always leaving room for some serendipity. Of course, between all of that, the usual thing is that in every particular hour slot in my calendar, there are usually 10 things that are competing for it.
FERRISS: Alright folks, that’s it. Thank you again, Reid. It’s always wonderful speaking with you, learning from you, and congratulations on the new podcast among many, many other things.
HOFFMAN: Thanks again to Tim for this fun podcast mashup. And his podcast is The Tim Ferriss Show and you can read more of Tim’s blog at tim.blog.
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Bringing Light to Motherhood - Introductory Certificate Training
Maternal Mental Health NOW is thrilled to offer our introductory-level self-paced online certificate training on perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, including depression and anxiety during pregnancy, postpartum depression and anxiety, OCD, and postpartum psychosis. Our Bringing Light to Motherhood: Online Training on Maternal Mental Health allows you learn on your own schedule from the comfort of your home. The online program offers 12 hours of pre-recorded video lectures, personal stories, interactive quizzes, and supplementary reading material that you can access when it's convenient for you.
Bringing Light to Motherhood is an approved pre-requisite course for Postpartum Support International's Certification in Perinatal Mental Health (PMH-C).
The training is comprised of 7 independent modules: (1) Risk Factors & Prevalence, (2) Symptoms & Diagnoses, (3) Screening & Assessment, (4) Attachment & Bonding, (5) Interventions, (6) Treatment Plans, and (7) Psychopharmalogical Considerations.
What do we cover in our training?
Myths, expectations & stigma
Impact on fetus, infant, developing child, family and couples
Inter-generational transmission of trauma
Risk factor & co-occuring conditions
Prevention approaches
Attachment theory & dyadic approaches
Treatment & intervention
Psychoparmacological considerations
Health Care Professionals including therapists, clinical psychologists, social workers, community health workers, counselors, nurses (neonatal, labor and delivery, maternity, NICU), midwives, nurse practicioners, physicians (psychiatrists, OB/GYNs, pediatricians, neonatalogists, family practitioners, general practitioners, primary care physicians), lactation consultants, health educators, doulas & home visitors.
Training Objectives:
Recognize and describe symptoms of perinatal mood and anxiety disorders
Identify risk factors, co-morbid conditions and additional considerations
Administer screening and assessment tools to pregnant and postpartum women
Apply the basics of effective intervention and utilize resources for informed care
Materials provided: learning videos, additional readings, and resources
You will have access to the content and materials in the training for 12 months from your date of registration.
*Partial scholarships available for those who qualify.
Continuing Education:
12 CEs provided by:
This course meets the qualifications for 12 hours of continuing education for LMFTs, LPCCs, LCSWs, LEPs, and psychologists as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences and California Board of Psychology. Los Angeles Child Guidance Clinic is the sponsor of continuing education for this learning module and is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Los Angeles Child Guidance Clinic as the sponsor maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
Diana Barnes, PsyD, MFT
Diana Lynn Barnes is an internationally recognized expert in women’s reproductive mental health. She is the editor and a contributing author of the definitive text Women’s Reproductive Mental Health Across the Lifespan (Springer, 2014).
She is a past president of Postpartum Support International and sits on their President’s Advisory Council. She is also a lead trainer with Maternal Mental Health Now. In addition to a private practice specializing in mood and anxiety disorders around the childbearing years, Dr. Barnes is a nationally known forensic expert and consultant in criminal cases where maternal mental illness is at issue. She is the 2009 recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the Eli Lilly Foundation.
Emily Dossett, MD, MTS
Emily Dossett is the founder and director of the Women’s Mental Health Program at LAC+USC Medical Center, which integrates psychiatry, obstetrics, and pediatrics to deliver maternal mental health care across the peripartum. As Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Dr. Dossett teaches regularly and conducts research on access to perinatal mental health care. Dr. Dossett is the psychiatric director of MAMAs Neighborhood, Los Angeles County program addressing toxic stress in pregnancy. She advises numerous policy organizations, including the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the California Health Care Foundation, Mathematica, and the Institute for Medicaid Innovation.
Gabrielle Kaufman, MA, LPCC, BC-DMT, NCC, PMH-C
Gabrielle Kaufman is a dance/movement therapist and licensed professional clinical counselor with over 20 years experience in the helping profession. Currently, she is director of Training and Technical Assistance for Maternal Mental Health NOW. Prior to this, she served as director of the New Moms Connect Program of Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles. She served as Los Angeles coordinator for Postpartum Support International and has a private practice in Los Angeles providing services in both English and Spanish languages.
Caron Post, PhD
Caron Post is a clinical psychologist and consultant in private practice in Los Angeles. She is the former Executive Director of Maternal Mental Health NOW and past recipient of The Los Angeles Psychological Association’s Distinguished Service to the Community, Diversity and Social Justice Award. She received her doctorate in clinical psychology from New York University.
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Texas A&M Institute For Advanced Study introduces 2016-17 Faculty Fellows
Mays Business School, September 22nd, 2016
From Texas A&M Today
(NOTE: V. Kumar will be working with Mays faculty researchers)
The Texas A&M University Institute for Advanced Study (TIAS) has announced its 2016-17 class of Faculty Fellows—10 distinguished scientists and scholars who are nationally or internationally renowned for conducting groundbreaking research in chemistry, mathematics, engineering, medicine, astronomy, atmospheric science, marketing or law.The newest class of Faculty Fellows includes members of the United States’ National Academies as well as representatives from major scientific or professional organizations in the U.S., the United Kingdom, Canada and Germany.Each Faculty Fellow will partner with one or more of the departments offering graduate degrees housed in Texas A&M’s 16 colleges or schools or at Texas A&M’s branch campus in Galveston. The Institute provides fellowships for graduate students to work with Faculty Fellows, as well as funding to support visiting graduate students and post-doctoral researchers affiliated with the Faculty Fellows.A long-time champion of the Institute, Chancellor John Sharp of The Texas A&M University System provided the funds that launched TIAS in 2010. “The talent that the TIAS program brings to Texas A&M is causing everyone else in higher education to take notice,” Chancellor Sharp said. “It was money well spent to enrich the academic experience with such world-class scholars and researchers.”
TIAS Founding Director John Junkins
President Michael K. Young of Texas A&M University said, “This fifth class of TIAS Faculty Fellows offers truly outstanding credentials. In collaboration with our exemplary faculty, these Fellows will sustain the extraordinary trajectory of TIAS, inspire truly transformative intellectual experiences among our students, and advance the international reputation of the Texas A&M research enterprise.”
Provost and Executive Vice President Karan Watson said, “Each of these remarkable individuals offers a strong portfolio of world-class accomplishments in their fields. As we have seen with the previous four classes of Faculty Fellows, the research that will emerge from their collaborations with our own outstanding faculty and students will be exciting and extraordinary.”
Each year, the Institute selects its Faculty Fellows from among top scholars who have distinguished themselves through outstanding professional accomplishments or significant recognition. Former classes have included two Nobel laureates, a Wolf Prize recipient, a recipient of the Hubble Medal in Literature for Lifetime Achievement, a recipient of the National Medal of Science, an awardee of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, a recipient of the highest award in Architecture and a two-time recipient of the State Prize of Russia.
TIAS Founding Director John L. Junkins said, “This fifth class of 10 outstanding scholars have intellectual strengths centered in six colleges, however their scholarship impacts many disciplines. These Fellows being in residence afford our faculty and students extraordinary opportunities to collaborate one-on-one with top people in their fields. We expect game-changing and life-changing outcomes as a consequence.”
The Institute will induct the Faculty Fellows Class of 2016-17 at its annual gala in early 2017.
Christopher C. Cummins, Henry Dreyfus Professor of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Among the most innovative synthetic chemists of his generation, known for his impact on small molecule activation, Cummins is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a corresponding member
Christopher C. Cummins
Gerald Galloway
Huajian Gao
Maryellen Giger
Robert Kennicutt Jr.
Charles E. Kolb
V. Kumar
William M. Sage
Thomas S. Ulen
of Germany’s Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Cummins will collaborate with faculty-researchers from the College of Science and the College of Engineering.
Ingrid Daubechies, James B. Duke Professor of Mathematics and Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke University – One of the world’s most cited mathematicians recognized for her study of the mathematical methods that enhance image-compression technology, Daubechies is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Daubechies will collaborate with faculty-researchers from the College of Science and the College of Engineering.
Gerald Galloway, Glenn L. Martin Institute Professor of Engineering, University of Maryland – Regarded as the leading flood-management expert in the United States, he is known for his work on the Galloway Report, a federal study that focused on the Great Flood of 1993 along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Galloway is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Public Administration. He will collaborate with faculty-researchers at Texas A&M University at Galveston.
Huajian Gao, Walter H. Annenberg Professor of Engineering, Brown University – Known for his research into micromechanics, the basic principles that control mechanical properties and behaviors of materials in both engineering and biology, Gao is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He will collaborate with faculty-researchers in the College of Engineering.
Maryellen Giger, A.N. Pritzker Professor of Radiology and College Vice-Chair for Basic Science Research, The University of Chicago – An expert in computer-aided diagnosis as well as digital signal and image processing, Giger is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. She will collaborate with faculty-researchers in the College of Engineering as well as with scientists and clinicians in the Texas A&M Health Science Center, the Houston Medical Center and local hospitals.
Robert Kennicutt Jr., Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy, University of Cambridge – Best known for his work on the Kennicutt-Schmidt law, which relates gas density to star-formation rates, Kennicutt is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Fellow of the Royal Society in the United Kingdom. Kennicutt will collaborate with faculty-researchers in the College of Science.
Charles E. Kolb, President and Chief Executive Officer, Aerodyne Research Inc. – A leader of one of the world’s most prominent research institutions specializing in atmospheric chemistry, air quality and climate, Kolb is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a recipient of the Alexander von Humboldt Research Award. Kolb will collaborate with faculty-researchers in the College of Geosciences.
V. Kumar, Regents’ Professor and the Richard and Susan Lenny Distinguished Chair Professor of Marketing, Georgia State University – An acknowledged expert on marketing research methods and customer relationship management strategy, Kumar has been recognized with eight lifetime achievement awards. Kumar will collaborate with faculty-researchers in the Mays Business School.
William M. Sage, James R. Dougherty Chair for Faculty Excellence in Law and Vice Provost for Health Affairs, The University of Texas at Austin – Nationally known as an expert in national health care reform including market principles driving access to health care, Sage is a member of the National Academy of Medicine. Sage will collaborate with faculty-researchers in the School of Public Health, the College of Medicine, the Bush School of Government and Public Service and the School of Law.
Thomas S. Ulen, Swanlund Chair Emeritus at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Professor Emeritus of Law at the University of Illinois College of Law – Author of pioneering textbooks and journal articles that examine a variety of issues related to economics, legal scholarship and legal education. Ulen serves on the Board of Directors and is a founding member of the American Law and Economics Association. He will collaborate with faculty-researchers in the School of Law and the College of Liberal Arts.
Categories: Faculty, Featured Stories, Mays Business, News, Research Notes, Texas A&M
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Torchbearer- Against The Tide
By Matthew_Brooks
matthew brooks reviews, Reviews
When reviewing music, it is inevitable that, at some point, a PR company will send you an album pitched as “for fans of X, Y and Z bands” or “where X band meets Y”. Most of the time it’s a tenuous link and you develop a healthy scepticism for such claims. But when Torchbearer’s EP arrived in the MMH inbox labelled as “for fans of Every Time I Die, Gallows and Comeback Kid” how could I resist? Does a direct comparison to three of the best bands in hardcore history help or hinder this release?
Against The Tide definitely plays most closely to the Comeback Kid vein of comparison, without the nihilistic leanings of Gallows or the southern-fried, big riffs of ETID in most places. It’s made up of chunky, relatively up tempo metallic hardcore riffing. Structurally, it doesn’t really do much to wow a listener, dwelling mostly in verse-chorus structures with solid break downs thrown in for good measure. Third track, Ascender, brings in a bit of that bluesy ETID feel at times, with the break down riff being the best part of the whole EP. Sadly, that infectious feel isn’t really present elsewhere on the EP and as a result the rest of the songs feel a little flat by comparison. All the riffing is solid and works but there’s little exciting about the way it’s used. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not bad, it just needs something more to make it stand out as anything more than another hardcore EP. The final, self-titled track does bring a bit more interest by having a melodic intro, but it crashes back into the same sort of muscular, but unremarkable, hardcore of the rest record and really wastes the potential impact that could have been created.
The harsh vocals on this record, like the riffing, is functional but unremarkable, the biggest issue is not the technical ability, but how it’s used. There are no big slogans to shout along to, the one mosh call on the self-titled track doesn’t induce that “Here we bloody go!” feeling that a good mosh call should, it feels like a wasted opportunity. The clean vocals are still rough around the edges in a way that is perfect for a hardcore band, even crafting a decent hook on the first track, Time Served. Unfortunately- other than this single point of interest- they aren’t used terribly well, with clean choruses not sticking in the mind. There are also the strangely jarring woahs in the background on Paralysed, they feel like they’re lifted from a different song entirely. They don’t fit whatsoever because they feel overly bright for the musical canvas, it’s a disappointing stain on an otherwise solid song.
Against The Tide has fared much better than many records that are pitched in a similar fashion, in that I can actually hear the influence of the bands that it’s likened to. The PR certainly did their job in getting me to write about it, so my smarmy commentary at the beginning is self-defeating. Ultimately though Torchbearer needed to do something more than functionally proficient hardcore on their next release if they were looking to make an impact in the crowded hardcore, and musical, landscape of 2019. Maybe next time out they can iterate on the basics they have here for greater effect.
Highlight: Ascender
Against The Tide is out 12th July 2019, and will be available here.
Torchbearer can be found here:
against the tide, harddcore, Metalcore, Metallic Hardcore, torchbearer
Abbath – Outstrider
Matt Finucane- Vanishing Island
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Tag Archives: joel mordi
Quality Education: Africans Are Among the Best Educated US Immigrants, Study Finds #education #globalgoals
African Graduates
They have higher rates of college education than native-born Americans.
By Salem Solomon
WASHINGTON — When you picture an African immigrant in the United States, do you imagine someone with little or no schooling, struggling to find work? New research shows a different reality: African immigrants in the United States are college-educated and employed at about the same rates as the general population, and far more likely to be educated and working than their counterparts in Europe.
The report, by the Pew Research Center, found 69 percent of sub-Saharan African immigrants in the United States have some college education. That number is six percentage points higher than the level for native-born Americans, and far higher than levels in Europe.
In Britain, about half of sub-Saharan African immigrants have some college education. In France, the number is 30 percent. In Italy it is only 10 percent.
The Pew study, based on 2015 data from the U.S. Census Bureau and Eurostat’s Labor Force Survey, also found about 93 percent of African immigrants in the United States were employed, whereas in Europe employment figures ranged from 80 percent in Italy to 92 percent in the U.K. These numbers were roughly equal to the general population in each country.
Monica Anderson is a research associate at Pew and a co-author of the report. The research team wanted to compare demographics of African immigrants in the United States to their counterparts in Europe, Anderson told VOA by phone.
“What we found is that the sub-Saharan African immigrant population [in the U.S.] really stands out and that they are a very highly educated group,” Anderson said.
“The majority of sub-Saharan African immigrants in all of these countries that we looked at are employed, and when you look at their employment compared to those who were actually — who were born in those specific countries — there’s really not a lot of difference,” she added.
MIGRATION ROUTES
In 2015, about 2.1 million African immigrants were living in the U.S., according to Pew. That number has more than doubled since 2000.
They came to the United States in different ways – to study, for employment opportunities, and through family reunification programs, the latter denounced by President Donald Trump as “chain migration.”
Some Africans come to the United States as refugees and asylum seekers. In 2016, about 31,000 Africans were admitted into the United States as refugees, accounting for 37 percent of all admissions. About 19 percent of admissions came from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where conflict has displaced nearly two million people in the past 18 months.
Thousands more come through the State Department’s diversity visa lottery, which provides 50,000 permanent resident visas annually to persons from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. In 2015, the last year for which data is available, African immigrants made up 46 percent of applicants invited to request immigrant visas.
EASE OF REACH
One explanation for the difference in education levels is that Europe is much easier to reach for low-income Africans who travel by boat or other means.
Since 2010, violence, turmoil and poverty have driven approximately 1.5 million Africans to leave the continent for the United States or Europe, and the numbers have grown each year, according to the United Nations.
Hundreds of thousands have risked crossing the Mediterranean Sea on rickety boats, hoping to make it to Italy or Greece.
In contrast, Africans coming to America often have the money to travel by plane, and the permission to enter the country once they arrive.
“It is also about proximity, and I think there are other studies and literature out there about how proximity might impact the kind of characteristics that different groups might have when they’re migrating,” Anderson said. “So those who have a lower socioeconomic status may not have the capabilities or have the resources to move to a distant country.”
BETTER OFF?
Higher education and employment levels don’t necessarily translate into a higher quality of life for African immigrants in the United States, based on previous research by Pew.
Despite high education and employment rates, black immigrants — including those from Africa, the Caribbean, Central America and South America — have a median household income that’s about $8,200 lower than the U.S. average, Pew researchers found.
Forty percent of black immigrants are homeowners, 24 percent less than the overall U.S. population, and 20 percent of black immigrants live below the poverty line, compared to 16 percent of the overall U.S. population.
These numbers suggest that, despite relatively high education and employment rates, African immigrants face challenges getting access to all the opportunities that other groups enjoy.
May 3, 2018 Allegra Callies Leave a comment
Categories: Decent Work and Economic Growth, Gender Equality, Partnerships For the Goals, Peace, Justice And Strong Institutions, Poverty, Quality Education, Reduced Inequalities Tags: @mif_nigeria, african american, education, global goals, joel mordi, MIF Nigeria, mordi Ibe Foundation, mordi joel, sustainable development goals
Reduced Inequalities: 160 Babies, Children Rescued in Latest Nigerian ‘Baby Factory’ Raid #sdgs #globalgoals
The victims have all been relocated to government-approved homes.
More than 160 children were rescued from a Nigerian “baby factory” and two illegal orphanages this week, according to a report by the BBC. It was one of the largest raids in recent history.
“The children and teenagers rescued from the baby factory were placed at Government Approved Homes for Care and Protection,” the Lagos State government said in a statement.
But the war on human trafficking is far from being won.
Baby factories are a recurring problem in Nigeria, where it is not uncommon for unmarried pregnant women to be lured to a location with the promise of healthcare only to be imprisoned and have their baby stolen. In other instances, women are kidnapped, raped, and forced to become pregnant.
The children are then “sold for adoption, used for child labour, trafficked to Europe for prostitution or killed for ritual purposes,” according to the BBC report.
Some of the babies and children rescued had been sexually abused, said Agboola Dabiri, the Commissioner for Youths and Social Development in Lagos State, in a statement.
The Commissioner also noted that of the 163 children rescued in total, 100 were girls and 62 were boys.
More than 4.8 million people worldwide are victims of forced sexual exploitation, or sex trafficking, according to the International Labour Organization. It’s also estimated that one in three trafficking victims are children below the age of 18.
Categories: Decent Work and Economic Growth, Good Health And Well-being, Partnerships For the Goals, Peace, Justice And Strong Institutions, Poverty, Quality Education, Reduced Inequalities Tags: baby factory, blogger, Girls, global goals, Health, humanity, joel mordi, Maternal, MIF Nigeria, mordi Ibe Foundation, mordi joel, Neonatal, SDGs, Women
Good Health & Well-Being: Diddy Donated $200K to Provide Healthcare to Women in Uganda #health #agenda2030 #Africa #Uganda #sdgs #globalgoals
“It’s important to give back. It’s important to be an agent of change.”
An initiative started by rapper French Montana, in partnership with Global Citizen, in February of last year to bring health care to a rural medical clinic in Uganda can now count on another star philanthropist.
On Thursday, Rolling Stone reported that rapper Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs donated $200K to the Suubi Health Center in Budondo, which provides maternal care services to rural mothers in the region.
According to the report, $100K of the donation came through Ciroc, a vodka company owned by the rapper. Combs matched that donation with $100K of his own money.
The money will go toward building a prenatal care clinic, birth house, and new ambulance, Rolling Stone reported.
“It’s important to give back. It’s important to be an agent of change,” Combs said in a video released on YouTube by the Mama Hope organization,
Combs’ donation brings the total money raised for the Suubi Health Center to $400K.
In May, French Montana donated $100K to Mama Hope after visiting Uganda in February to film the music video for his hit song “Unforgettable.” He had been inspired to visit after seeing a video posted online of Uganda’s Triplets Ghetto Kids, a local dance troupe.
Montana’s generosity in turn convinced The Weeknd to match the $100K donation, which, according to Mama Hope, allowed the clinic to increase its serving capacity from 56,000 people to 260,000.
Access to health care for poor women in Uganda is severely lacking, especially in rural areas.
Fewer than half of Ugandan women made at least four visits — the minimum number recommended by the World Health Organization — to antenatal care centers, according to UNICEF. In some regions, midwives must handle an estimated eight to 10 births each day and patients must walk almost 20 miles to reach the nearest health center, Insider reports.
The maternal mortality rate in Uganda, while lower than it used to be, is still 336 maternal deaths for every 100,000 births.
The Mordi Ibe Foundation campaigns on the Global Goals for Sustainable Development, including goal number three: good health and well-being. This goal specifically calls on all countries to reduce their maternal mortality rates to below 70 per 100,000 births by 2030.
Combs, who has invested in youth on numerous occasions in the past, sees his donation as an opportunity to create a brighter for women and children not just in his own country, but around the world.
“I’ve always said my purpose is to inspire and empower the next generation to become great leaders — and to honor their hustle along the way,” he told the Rolling Stone.
When it comes to his investment in maternal health care, Diddy’s showing that he’s still “All About the Benjamins.”
April 8, 2018 Allegra Callies Leave a comment
Categories: Decent Work and Economic Growth, Gender Equality, Good Health And Well-being, Life on Land, Partnerships For the Goals, Poverty, Quality Education, Reduced Inequalities Tags: humanity, joel mordi, MIF Nigeria, mordi Ibe Foundation, mordi joel, SDGs, sustainable development goals, uganda
Women & Girls: Saudi Woman Seen Wearing Miniskirt in Snapchat Video Arrested #pressforprogress #timeisnow #globalgoals #sdgs
A six-second Snapchat led to this woman’s arrest.
Six seconds can change your life.
For a woman in Saudi Arabia, a six-second Snapchat video of her wearing a miniskirt and walking through a fort in Ushayqir, a village in the ultra-conservative region of Njad, was that moment. It also led to her detainment by police and arrest.
Over the weekend, a video was posted to Snapchat to an account attributed to a popular user and model with the user name “Khulood” that featured a young woman strolling through Ushayqir in a skirt and crop-top.
On Monday, media sources reported that a woman, believed to be “Khulood,” was being investigated by legal and religious authorities in Saudi Arabia. Her full name, however, was not released by the authorities.
Then this morning, Saudi State television station, Al Ekhbariya, stated that a young woman had been arrested by police in Riyadh, 95 miles north of Ushayqir, for “wearing suggestive clothing.”
“Riyadh police arrested a woman dressed in indecent clothing in the village of Ushayqir, and has sent her to the public prosecutor,” Saudi State television station, Al Ekhbariya said in a tweet. She was reportedly released a few hours later.
In Saudi Arabia, women are required by law to wear an abaya, a long loose-fitting cloak, and a head-covering. However, the country makes exceptions for foreign dignitaries. Those exceptions have included Michelle Obama, who visited in 2015, and Melania and Ivanka Trump, who visited Saudi Arabia in May.
For Saudi women, however, wearing clothing deemed “immodest,” is still banned, along with driving and opening a business without male permission. Each act is considered a punishable crime.
And so the video has sparked debate through social media over Saudi Arabia’s conservative and controversial dress code law, with some arguing that the law reflects Saudi culture and should be respected.
“Just like we call on people to respect the laws of countries they travel to, people must also respect the laws of this country,” Saudi writer Ibrahim al-Munayif wrote on his Twitter account, according to the Washington Post.
Others say the dress requirement is discriminatory against women.
“Saudi Arabia’s purported plans to reshape society and advance women’s rights will never succeed as long as authorities go after women for what they wear,” Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa Division, told the Washington Post.
The debate also included discussion on women’s dress policy in the workplace, which if violated, can incur fines of up to $300, according to the Washington Post.
Police said that the woman detained told them she was with a male guardian the entire time she was in Ushayqir and that she did not post the video herself, the Guardian reports. She did not offer a statement or alternative explanation as to how the video was released.
“She admitted to visiting the site in question with a male guardian, and that the viral videos were published by an account attributed to her without her knowledge,” the Riyadh police said in a statement, according to CNN.
And although she denies posting the video herself, her choice and bravery to wear immodest clothing was seen as inspiration by some.
Categories: Decent Work and Economic Growth, Gender Equality, Partnerships For the Goals, Peace, Justice And Strong Institutions, Poverty, Quality Education, Reduced Inequalities Tags: 2017 most dangerous cities for women, global goals, global goals week, humanity, international day of rural women, joel mordi, mordi Ibe Foundation, mordi joel, Sexual violence against women and girls, sustainable development goals, violence against women and girls, women and girls
Women And Girls: Apple’s New Hijab Emoji Sparks Both Controversy and Hope #pressforprogress #timeisnow #sdgs #globalgoals
“I just wanted an emoji of me.”
Last year, Rayouf Alhumedhi was sitting in her bedroom in Berlin creating a group chat with her friends when she had a realization:
“The fact that there wasn’t an emoji to represent me and the millions of other hijabi women across the world was baffling to me,” she told CNN.
The Saudi-born teen decided to take action. She created a draft of a hijabi woman emoji and sent it to the Unicode Consortium, the nonprofit responsible for reviewing and developing new emojis.
“I just wanted an emoji of me,” she recalled.
On Monday night, her wish was granted. Alhumedhi found out “just like everyone else” that her emoji had been accepted; her friend messaged her a link to a Buzzfeed article which detailed the plans to release the new emojis in Apple products in the coming months.
Emojis have grown more inclusive over the past years, expanding their catalogue to feature a wide range of skin tones. Beyond the hijab, emoji is set to release gender neutral and breastfeeding women emojis later this year.
Apple’s inclusion of the headscarf-wearing emoji did not come without contention. Some people took to social media to express disapproval of the company’s decision. One user said that, by adding the hijab emoji, the company is expressing “support for the oppression of women.”
Alhumedhi is of the opposite mindset. Her family moved to the German capital from Saudi Arabia – a nation notorious for its oppression of women – when Rayouf was a child. She views the emoji she proposed as a means of increasing representation of Muslim women, and possibly even a vehicle to “indirectly promote tolerance.”
There has been a spike in hate crimes against Muslims since the 2016 United States presidential election. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) reports that 15% of the time, headscarves act as the trigger for attackers.
Alhumedhi hopes that the new emoji can help reduce the stigma against hijabs, and illustrate that the millions of women who choose to wear a headscarf are “normal people carrying out daily routines just like you.”
April 8, 2018 Allegra Callies 4 Comments
Categories: Gender Equality, Partnerships For the Goals, Poverty, Reduced Inequalities Tags: @mif_nigeria, Gender Equality, gender parity, humanity, joel mordi, MIF Nigeria, mordi Ibe Foundation, mordi joel, SDGs, sustainable development goals, women empowerment, womens right
Women & Girls: This Is What It’s Like to Be Sex Trafficked in India at 14 #sdgs #2030Now #agenda2030 #Syria #globalgoals
Sadhna thought she would be helping with housework, until she was drugged and raped.
Sadhna used to love to fish. Her father would always be waiting for her when she got home, with the oven burning and ready to cook the family meal.
“I used to cuddle up beside him as he’d clean and cook the fish so we could have a meal together,” she says, telling her story to anti-slavery organisation International Justice Mission . “I miss the wonderful time we had in the village.”
Sadha and IJM shared her interview and story with Global Citizen. As Sadha looks back at her childhood, she recalls a time when she says she wasn’t afraid of anything.
Brilliant green rice paddies surrounded her family’s small home as far as she could see, and the narrow pathways of her village were shaded by mango, tamarind and coconut trees. When the landowner fell asleep, Sadhna and her friends would shin up the tree and steal the fruit.
As beautiful as these memories remain, however, Sadhna knows her childhood was far from idyllic. She says soberly, “For as long as I can remember, there were problems in my family.”
Her parents were gone most of the time. Most days, they travelled two hours by bus to work in Kolkata; her mother as a housekeeper and her father as a rickshaw driver. They struggled to make ends meet and argued constantly about the family’s poverty.
Each morning, as Sadhna and her friends walked to school, she felt guilty she wasn’t helping more. She remembers, “While I ate my lunch, I always wondered whether my mother and little sister at home had anything to eat.”
But then, in 2010, Sadhna’s family was changed forever: her father died, and Sadhna was left holding everything together.
At just 11 years old, she had to perform the Hindu funeral rituals and start contributing to the family’s upkeep. She sold frayed coconut husks as a packing material, earning just 30 rupees (around 50 cents) a week, but it was never enough.
“I felt like I was left all alone to take care of my family,” Sadhna says. “At age 12 or 13, a girl dreams of her future and her studies, but I couldn’t afford to do that. I would always think how to protect my family or educate my younger sister and take care of my mother.”
She adds: “I broke down at times, but I didn’t let my mother take notice of that.”
Before long, Sadhna’s family packed up their small hut and went to Kolkata, seeking new opportunities and, once there, both Sadhna and her mother began working 12-hour days as housekeepers.
She stuck it out for three long years, before Sadhna began asking friends to help her find a better job. A girl in the neighbourhood put her in touch with a woman looking for house help, and Sadhna, now 14, went to meet her.
They met in an ordinary house, in an ordinary neighbourhood in Kolkata. The woman led Sadhna inside, and into a room full of strange men, beer bottles, and crushed cigarette packets.
“The lady told me not to worry, as I would get a nice job where I would be able to earn a lot of money,” she remembers—though she knew something was off. “I didn’t like the atmosphere, and I asked them to let me leave. They told me to sit and have a glass of water…I don’t remember anything after drinking the water.”
Sadhna woke up hours later on the floor—disoriented, naked, and afraid. Her clothes were strewn everywhere. She quickly learned that she had been raped, that this apartment was operating as a private brothel, and that she was now their property. She began to cry.
“The lady threatened to expose me to my family and my villagers. She said she knew everything about me,” Sadhna remembers shakily. She begged to leave until the madam relented—instead agreeing to call her back whenever a customer wanted sex. “She told me that two men would be following me, and if I tried to contact anyone she would get my mother and sister killed.”
Terrified, Sadhna told her mother she had found a well-paying job as a housekeeper and hurriedly convinced them to move back to their village. For the next two months, she slept at home and traveled one hour back and forth to Kolkata.
At the house, Sadhna and two or three other girls she never saw would be sold for sex several times a day in three tiny rooms — “not even big enough for a single bed” — hidden from anyone passing by the house. She says: “Those people were constantly calling me up and threatening me of dire consequences if I didn’t turn up. They even sent men to follow me. I had no other option but to go back to them.
And private brothels like this have been growing more and more popular in Kolkata in recent years.
They are based in unassuming houses or apartments, where pimps and madams arrange private meetings between customers and the girls through secret networks, according to International Justice Mission. They are more hidden than traditional brothels in red-light districts, but they exploit young girls just the same.
“She used to take money from the customers in front of me, and I had to go with them even if I didn’t want to,” Sadhna continues. “The customers who visited me at that house didn’t behave very nicely with me. They were so bad I can’t even discuss it now…I felt worthless and couldn’t see any way out of it.”
Event though Sadhna wasn’t physically restrained, she was still trapped. Threats kept her bound by fear, too scared to run. While the stigma placed on a young girl who has lost her virginity made her too ashamed to tell anyone.
“I struggled with myself constantly,” she remembers. “I didn’t know if I could ever come out of this trap and live a normal girl’s life. I had lost all hope of getting out. I felt as if I had no hope left in life and had become a worthless human being.”
The experience changed her. “After that incident, I stopped laughing or mixing with others,” she continues. “I felt totally isolated from girls like me. I realized I had wasted my life and could never be one of them. I felt as if it was the end of the road for me.”
It was on January 8, 2013, that the police finally arrived. Sadhna was with a customer in one of the tiny rooms when officers raided the house. Police and staff from International Justice Mission had been investigating the brothel for weeks, documenting the abuse that Sadhna and another young woman had been suffering — and they were here to rescue them.
As the customer fled outside, Sadhna listened to the raid. She heard the madam frantically begging not to be arrested, terrified of anyone finding out she had been running a brothel.
Sadhna gave her statement to the police, and was taken to a shelter. But it was clear the two months of exploitation she had suffered had taken their toll. Gone was the playful mischief, gone was the energetic smile and carefree spirit.
“I’ll never be able to trust anyone in life again,” she remembers thinking when she was first rescued. “This has shocked me beyond imagination. I stopped caring about anything in life. I had faced the worst experience of my life and didn’t bother anymore about anything else.”
But, after meeting other survivors like herself at the shelter, Sadhna began to open up, and, slowly, return to the fun-loving girl she had been.
“I found out that some of the girls had to go through a tougher time than me in the past,” she remembers. “In spite of these difficulties, they were trying to turn around and do something worthwhile in life. That pushed me to think positively about the future of my own. They motivated me to start going to school, to look ahead in life and to forget the past like they did.”
Sadhan was able to re-start her education, and to rebuild her self-esteem. She rediscovered her talent for music and dancing, and learned how to manage her feelings of fear and anxiety.
To close this painful chapter of her life, Sadhna knew she would have to see the madam held accountable for her crimes.
“I was scared of going to the court in the beginning, but the aunties from the shelter encouraged me to testify,” she says. “I felt by testifying in court I could save the life of another girl like me who would be a victim if this lady got away without a trial.”
Now, aged 19, Sadhna is once again confident and vibrant. She loves maths, and computers, watching horror films, and practicing traditional Hindi dance. Her younger sister has also been living in the shelter with Sadhna since late 2016, and Sadhna hopes to be able to support her sister, so she will never have to live through the same exploitation.
“My dream is to complete my education and get a job as a social worker, to hear the stories of other girls and help them,” she says. “I was quite fearless in my childhood days. Through this phase of life, I started getting scared of people around me. Now I’ve learned to draw inspiration for these experiences and have become fearless again. I’m no longer scared of anything in life.”
Categories: Decent Work and Economic Growth, Gender Equality, Partnerships For the Goals, Peace, Justice And Strong Institutions, Poverty, Quality Education, Reduced Inequalities Tags: @mif_nigeria, global goals, global goals week, joel mordi, MIF Nigeria, mordi Ibe Foundation, mordi joel, SDGs, Sustainable Cities and Communities, women and girls, womens day, womens right
Affordable And Clean Energy: Bernie Sanders Introduces Legislation to Rebuild Puerto Rico With Clean Energy #globalgoals #sdgs
Sanders’ new bill would invest billions into modernizing Puerto Rico’s infrastructure.
The tail end of Hurricane Maria’s driving rains and powerful winds retreated from Puerto Rico over two months ago, but the aftermath of the devastating storm is not leaving the island any time soon.
Nearly 3.5 million American citizens are still facing a severely damaged electrical grid, crumbling infrastructure, and apathy from a president who has been roundly criticized for his recovery effort.
However, some are choosing to view the massive operation of rebuilding Puerto Rico as a chance to improve the island, bringing it back better than ever before. Leading this charge is former presidential hopeful and current Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.
After visiting Puerto Rico last month, Sanders introduced a $146 billion recovery plan Tuesday aimed at rebuilding Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. Notably, the plan calls for the elimination of Puerto Rico’s outstanding debt, and prevents all proposed privatization of any public institutions on the islands.
Aptly named the “The Puerto Rico and U.S Virgin Islands Equitable Rebuild Act of 2017,” Sanders’ plan offers a different vision of recovery than anything previously proposed. The bill emphasizes the importance of placing control of recovery into the hands of local impacted communities, with special focus on the sustainable development of infrastructure, and a clean energy power grid.
As hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans leave the island for the mainland of the US, the bill would also incentivize residents to remain in their homes by offering subsidies to municipalities and homeowners who install renewable energy technologies like solar, wind, and geothermal power systems.
the havoc wreaked by Hurricanes Irma and Maria in Puerto Rico were exacerbated by the effects of rampant poverty, high rates of unemployment, and a lack of economic investment by the US government into efficient infrastructure systems.
Sanders’ bill, which is to be co-sponsored by Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), would seek to remedy some of these longstanding social ills by including increased funding to the island’s healthcare and education systems.
Furthermore, the bill would provide additional funds to be invested in efforts to prepare for and mitigate the effects of climate change — a reality that could worsen the impacts of future weather-related disasters hitting both the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
Global Citizen campaigns on the United Nations’ Global Goals for Sustainable Development, and taking action on climate change is goal number 13. Acting too late to combat the effects of climate change would be devastating to millions around the world at risk from weather catastrophes like hurricanes. You can take action on this issue here.
Even with the support of high ranking Democrats, it is expected that Sanders’ bill will not pass through the Republican-controlled congress, as reported by the Washington Post. Earlier in November, Puerto Rican governor Ricardo Rosselló requested just under $95 billion to aid relief efforts on the island, but Congress has not approved this sum. Sanders’ bill would nearly double that.
As of this week, Congress has allotted $51 billion in aid for Puerto Rico, with another round of cash expected to be approved in December, Reuters reported.
Sanders told the Washington Post that it is Congress’ responsibility to pass legislation that solves the longstanding structural deficiencies of Puerto Rico.
“Congress must work with the people of Puerto Rico to fundamentally transform its expensive, antiquated and unreliable system,” he said.
Categories: Affordable And Clean Energy, Industry Innovation and Infrastructure, Partnerships For the Goals, Poverty Tags: @mif_nigeria, Affordable And Clean Energy, joel mordi, mordi Ibe Foundation, mordi joel, Poverty, Puerto rico, SDGs, sustainability, Sustainable Cities and Communities, sustainable development goals
Women And Girls: 7 Feminist Laws Iceland Has That the World Needs #feminist #feminism #globalgoals #sdgs
By a lot of measures, Iceland is the best place to be a woman. Iceland starts gender equality lessons in preschool. The country has not just one, but three, laws protecting women at work. Sick of media, treating women as sex objects? That doesn’t fly in Iceland, where a law bans gender discriminatory advertising. Plus, the country was the first to ban strip clubs for feminist reasons.
Overall, the Nordic country has a near perfect score on the gender-equality scale. For eight years, the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report ranked Iceland No. 1 on its list of countries actively closing gaps in gender equality. In 2009, Iceland became the first country to completely close the gender gap in education and health. And in 2016, Iceland was 87% of the way to closing the gender gap in all sectors.
Clearly, Iceland is leading the way, so what are the policies and standards in place that the rest of the world is looking up to?
Here are seven laws and standard practices that support women’s rights, and penalize gender discrimination.
1. Women’s Equality Is Literally Protected by Law
The Act on Equal Status and Equal Rights of Women and Men is the reason gender equality is a hallmark of Icelandic culture. The law, established in 2000, was revamped in 2008 with the overarching goal of reaching equal rights through all paradigms of society. This law includes information on gender equality for government and businesses to follow.
Within the law there are nine defined areas of gender discrimination. It identifies differences between indirect and direct gender discrimination, acknowledges gaps in wages, and recognizes that gender-based violence is detrimental to society.
The law draws out a roadmap to achieving gender equality, even including language on changing negative gender stereotypes. Within the law are 35 articles outlining specific policies on everything from outlawing gender discrimination in schoolbooks and the workplace to buying goods and services.
2. ‘Equal Pay For Equal Work’ Is Mandatory, Almost
When Icelanders found out it would be another 122 years before they closed the gender pay gap at the current rate, that was unacceptable. Lawmakers took action, announcing on International Women’s Day that Iceland would require companies to prove they pay employees equal rates for equal work, or pay the fine.
Parliament is expected to pass the bill becoming the first country to make gender wage discrimination illegal. After passing, the government expects the law to roll into effect by 2020 in an effort to close the gender wage gap.
Currently women make between 14-18% less than men. But the country is soon to ending the last bit of gender inequality in the workplace.
“We want to break down the last of the gender barriers in the workplace,” said Thorsteinn Viglundsson, Iceland’s social affairs and equality minister. “History has shown that if you want progress, you need to enforce it.”
3. Companies’ Boards Must Include At Least 40% Women
After the shocking corruption and financial collapse in 2009, the government made an effort to include more women in seats of power to reduce corruption. They also prosecuted those responsible for the financial crisis, unlike in the US.
Article 15 of the Act on Equal Status and Equal Rights of Women and Men states that no public company board or government council or committee may have less than 40% gender equality.
The law also states that any company with more than 25 employees must have a gender equality program in place, which will review goals every three years.
4. Best Parental Leave Policy in the World
Iceland has the best maternity/paternity policy in the world. The official law, created in 2000, is known as the Icelandic Act on Maternity/Paternity and Parental Leave. The law itself was amended in 2006 increasing parental leave from six to nine months. The government covers parental leave for birth, adoption, and foster care for all employees in Iceland, even those who are self-employed paying 80% of earned salary to new parents. Parents split the time of leave equally to ensure children grow up with equal care from both parents, and workplaces are balanced. The policy is truly the gold standard of parental care.
5. From Preschool to College, Kids Learn Gender Equality Matters
After kids grow up with equal time from parents, gender equality lessons don’t stop. Article 23 of the Act on Equal Status and Equal Rights of Women and Men mandates that gender equality must be taught in schools throughout all levels of education.
That means from early education through university, which is free, all sports, classes, and forms of schooling must include and practice gender equality. Iceland has no time for sexist books or assignments either.
The law states: “educational materials and textbooks shall be designed in such a way as not to discriminate against either sex.” So you would never see an assignment, like the school in Utah, which forced girls to go on dates with male classmates, telling girls to “keep it to yourself” if they feel fat.
6. Paying For Sex Is Illegal. Stripclubs Are Illegal. Prostitutes Are Victims.
Paying for sex is illegal in Iceland. It has been for decades. The difference, however, is in 2007 the government amended the law arguing that most people who turn to soliciting sex have no other option or were coerced by others.
So instead of penalizing victims of poor circumstances who are often forced into prostitution, the law places criminalization on those who pay for sex, and third parties involved.
The country also banned stripclubs in 2009 for feminist reasoning. The revised law states no business may profit from nudity of employees. The law passed with full support in parliament.
“It is not acceptable that women or people in general are a product to be sold,” said Kolbrún Halldórsdóttir who proposed the ban on strip clubs.
This applies to public advertising too. No ad may belittle any gender or go against the country’s fierce mission to achieve gender equality.
7. There Is a Magical ‘Ministry of Gender Equality’
Ironically, the caveat to achieving gender equality for Nordic countries is taking it for granted.
“Our biggest challenge is taking equality for granted. We relax too much. We think everything is done for good. This worries me,” said Gro Bruntland, Norway’s first female prime minister.
Fortunately, in Iceland, there’s a ministry to complacency on gender equality. The ministry of gender equality, as in Harry Potter, is magic. But unlike the fictional novel, this ministry is real.
The country created agency to check and balance progress on advancing equality as part of a revisions to the Act on Equal Status and Equal Rights of Women and Men. The agency includes a three part council which includes the Equal Status Council, the Complaints Committee, and a new Centre for Gender Equality.
Together these agencies research, advertise, advocate, and check laws on gender equality. Their goal is to create a legal, cultural, historical, social and psychosocial approach to gender equality.
Categories: Gender Equality, Partnerships For the Goals, Quality Education, Reduced Inequalities Tags: feminism, feminist, Girls, girls education, global goals, global goals week, joel mordi, mordi Ibe Foundation, mordi joel, Nigeria, SDGs, sustainable development goals, united nations global goals, violence against women, Women, women and girls, women empowerment, women in politics, womens day, womens history month, womens right
Food & Hunger: A promising study on nutrition #GlobalGoals #SDGs #Nutrition
About 40 percent of children under 5 in sub-Saharan Africa are stunted, or short for their age, a result of problems such as chronically poor nutrition, inadequate maternal and child care, and repeated bouts of infectious disease. A new study has found that a broad effort to address the problem — like that used by the Millennium Villages Project — that includes improved farming techniques and diet, better access to health care, disease control and other services may help reduce the problem. In this video, the researchers explain their work.
Categories: Climate Action, Good Health And Well-being, Hunger, Partnerships For the Goals, Poverty, Reduced Inequalities Tags: @mif_nigeria, child care, global goals, global goals week, global health, Hunger, joel mordi, MIF Nigeria, mordi Ibe Foundation, mordi joel, Poverty, Reduced Inequalities, SDGs, sustainability, sustainable development goals, united nations global goals
Zero Poverty: Ending Extreme Poverty … in a Generation #2030Now #GlobalGoals #SDGs #Poverty #ZeroPoverty
The Zero Poverty Project
1.3 billion people in our world currently live in extreme poverty.
From The Global Poverty Project:
These 1,300,000,000 individuals live on less than what you can buy in the US for $1.25 per day. You might think this buys more in a poor country than it does here, but actually, it’s a figure that’s been adjusted for purchasing power, which means that anywhere in the world, the $1.25 a day measure buys little more than enough basic food, clean water and cooking fuel to make two simple meals.
In the last 30 years, the proportion of the world’s population that live below this line has halved – from 52% in 1980, to 25% today. That’s a decline from 1.9 billion people down to 1.3 billion people.
At the Global Poverty Project we’re passionate about communicating these amazing achievements, and highlighting the opportunity we have to bring this number down to zero – within a generation.
This post summarizes how we can each play a part in realizing this opportunity – moving a world without extreme poverty from its current status of ‘improbable possibility’, to ‘likely reality’. This list is designed to introduce you to the key themes and issues related to ending extreme poverty.
How we think about extreme poverty
We know ending extreme poverty is a big and complex challenge. It has many causes, and there’s certainly no silver bullet or single solution, but we don’t think that this complexity means the challenge cannot be overcome. There are a huge number of smart and talented people all over the world in charities, business, academia, evaluation organisations,government and think-tanks who are building an evidence base of things that work, things that don’t and why.
The big three issues
To see an end to extreme poverty, there are three big issues that we need to see action on – governance, aid and trade. We know that we have the resources (economic, social, political and environmental) to see an end to extreme poverty. But, right now, the world works in a way that keeps some people poor, which is what we all need to focus on to see an end to extreme poverty.
Improving governance structures can ensure that decision-making works in favour of the world’s poorest people. At present, most discussions about governance are framed in terms of corruption. Rather than treating the problem of corruption as an excuse to stop investing in development efforts, we need to get behind those working in communities to counter corruption: by holding local leaders to account, increasing transparency, and ensuring that laws are applied. Corruption is not only a problem that needs to be tackled in poor countries. In rich countries we need to hold governments and businesses to account for any complicity in the process of corruption, or for unethically undermining poverty reduction through actions like avoiding tax or utilising vulture funds to recover illegitimate debts. We’ve posted more about corruption here, including an interview with leading experts here, or you can see the work being done by corruption-fighting organisations like Global Witness and Transparency International.
Next, we need to make sure that aid that’s given – whether through donations to charities or taxes to government – is spent on programs that really work. Foreign aid won’t end poverty – but it’s a vital ingredient that can be used to make investments in things like health, education and infrastructure – resources needed for countries and communities to lift themselves out of poverty and prevent dependence on aid in the future. We’ve written more about good aid here, here and here.
Ultimately, extreme poverty ends when local communities can trade their way to a better future. The amazing poverty alleviation that we’ve seen in the past generation has been led by countries who have joined global markets: in China 400 million citizens have been lifted out of poverty since 1980, South Korea has moved from aid recipient to aid donor by building industry and creating world-renowned brands, and Botswana has grown faster than any other country in Africa by wisely investing proceeds from its diamond mines. Currently, the potential of trade is limited by the rules which work against poor countries, and will need to be reformed before we will see an end to extreme poverty.
The Elephants in the Room
Beyond these three issues, climate change and resource limitations are the elephants in the room, threatening the potential end to extreme poverty. The impact of these issues can be seen in the Pakistan floods, and in the record food prices which will mean that 1 billion people go to bed hungry tonight. On both of these issues our challenge is distribution, not scarcity. We aren’t running out of food – there’s more than enough food on our planet to feed everyone. The problem is that the world’s poorest people can’t afford to buy enough of it. In order to realize the potential of developing populations, rich countries have to increase their efficiency in resource use, and support clean development.
All of the opportunities and challenges of fighting extreme poverty outlined above are technically possible and eminently affordable. Our role is to make them politically viable and increasingly probable.
We can make a start with simple changes to the way that we act on a daily basis and by learning more about the issues so we can make informed decisions, especially about the ethics of the products we buy and the effectiveness of the money we donate.
Beyond that, we can help others realise that it is possible to end extreme poverty, that we are already making significant progress, and that practical steps can be taken to overcome the challenges that remain.
From there, it’s about using your voice as a citizen to join the campaigns and initiatives of organisations fighting hard in your local community to change the rules and systems that keep people poor: ensuring that corruption is reduced, that aid is given in appropriate quantities in the right way to the right things, and changing trade rules to give the world’s poorest a fair chance to lift themselves out of poverty.
Most importantly, it’s about recognizing that the movement to end extreme poverty is led by people in poverty themselves. As we reflect on the changes of the last generation, we can look forward a generation and see a real prospect of extreme poverty not existing. Our role is to get behind the world’s poor, give voice to their aspirations, and work as citizens and consumers to make the end of extreme poverty the legacy that our generation leaves on this world.
Simon Moss, Co-Founder and Chief Operations Officer, Global Poverty Project
Categories: Clean Water And Sanitation, Climate Action, Decent Work and Economic Growth, Gender Equality, Good Health And Well-being, Hunger, Life on Land, Partnerships For the Goals, Peace, Justice And Strong Institutions, Poverty, Quality Education, Reduced Inequalities, Responsible Consumption and Production, Sustainable Cities and Communities Tags: @mif_nigeria, Clean Water And Sanitation, Decent Work and Economic Growth, gender discrimination, Gender Equality, global goals, global goals week, good health and wellbeing, Hunger, joel mordi, Life on Land, MIF Nigeria, mordi Ibe Foundation, mordi joel, Partnerships For the Goals, Peace, Justice And Strong Institutions, Poverty, Quality Education, Reduced Inequalities, responsible production and consumption, SDGs, Sustainable Cities and Communities, sustainable development goals, united nations global goals, zero hunger
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Millbrook House, High Street, Milton, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, OX14 4EL
Email: millbrook@millbrookhouse.org.uk
Millbrook House is in the village of Milton, about 5 miles south of Abingdon, Oxfordshire.
The apartments are within walking distance of Milton Park.
Abingdon, Didcot, Culham and Harwell are all within a 5 mile radius.
Milton is less than a mile from the A34 with Oxford city centre 14 miles to the North.
We are 22 miles from Junction 9 of the M40 and 13 miles from Junction 13 of the M4.
Didcot Parkway Station which is on the main line to London Paddington (45 minute) is just 3 miles away.
Heathrow Airport is 52 miles away. Airport pick-ups can be arranged with a local taxi company.
Millbrook House
OX14 4EL
There is a Post Office, shop, chemist, and small supermarket on Milton Park.
Our village pub, The Plum Pudding is a 5 minute walk.
Milton Village and Milton Park are served by Thames Travel Buses, X2, X32 and 32A.
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Archive for the tag “Mogadishu Declaration”
Mogadishu Declaration on Regional Cooperation on the Current Drought (22.02.2017)
Mogadishu – Wednesday, 22 February 2016 – The following joint declaration was made in Mogadishu by H.E. Ismaïl Omar Guelleh, President of the Republic of Djibouti, H.E. Hailemariam Desalegn, Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, H.E. Uhuru Kenyatta, President of the Republic of Kenya, and H.E. Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, President of the Federal Republic of Somalia.
1. We have come together as the heads of government of four countries in a region facing significant stress as a result of the current drought. Multiple seasons of failed rains and global weather patterns have, yet again, negatively affected the resilience mechanisms of millions of our people. This is evident in the immediate humanitarian crisis facing us today and will show up in longer term socio-economic vulnerability in communities that today are selling all their assets and uprooting their families for survival.
2. This situation, which may worsen in Somalia and result in a renewed famine over the coming months, could also have security and political implications in our region and beyond, as coping mechanisms are eroded and tensions over dwindling resources risks sparking conflict. Scores of people are moving both within countries and across borders in the hope of increasing their chances of survival. This upheaval is taking a particularly heavy toll on children and women, and makes people vulnerable to exploitation, human rights abuses and to criminal and terrorist networks. Drought-related disease outbreaks and inter-communal conflict are already on the rise.
3. While each of our governments is mobilising to respond, the dire situation calls for international collaboration and regional partnership between governments, civil society, aid organisations, business and international donors.
4. We commit ourselves to regional cooperation to facilitate a more comprehensive response and strong partnership.
5. We commit to strengthening our cross-border collaboration and our efforts to establish security and stability in Somalia to ensure an effective response to the drought and to enable further progress in peace building and state building in Somalia. We further commit to the provision of appropriate protection and assistance to those compelled to leave their areas of origin as a consequence of the drought, including those who have fled to neighbouring countries.
6. We will be consulting on a regular basis to review progress on these issues, and to agree upon any necessary collective action that will help our countries and region respond to this emergency. Furthermore, we have instructed our respective foreign ministers and drought response teams to work together and keep us briefed.
7. In the longer term, we commit to working together bilaterally and through existing regional bodies such as IGAD, the African Union as well as the United Nations to address the underlying structural issues that commonly affect our economies, environments and communities, including cross-border rangeland and water resource management.
Posted in Africa, Aid, Army, Civil Service, Economic Measures, Economy, Ethics, Governance, Government, Law, Leadership, Politics, Transparency, Weather and tagged African Union, Agricultrual Output, Agricultural Export, Arusha, AU, Beans, Buale Market, Busia, Cassava, Cassava Flour, Cereal Producing, Cereals, Climate, Crops, Dar Es Salaam, Djibouti, Dr. Joseph Magufuli, Drought, Dry Season, EAC, East Africa, East African Community, El Nino, Embu, Ethiopia, Export, FAO, Farming, Federal Republic of Somalia, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Garissa, Goat, GoK, GoU, Government of Ethiopia, Government of Kenya, Government of South Sudan, Government of Tanzania, Government of Uganda, Grazing Resources, Groundnuts, H. E. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, H.E. Hailemariam Desalegn, H.E. Ismaïl Omar Guelleh, H.E. Uhuru Kenyatta, H.E. Yoweri Museveni, Hailemariam Desalegn, Hailemariam Desalegn Boshe, Hyperinflation, IGAD, IGAD Drought Disaster Resilience and Sustainability Initiative, Intergovernmental Authority on Development, John Magufuli, John Pombe Joseph Magufuli, JPAM, Juba, Kampala, Kenya, Kenyatta Government, Kilfi, Kwale, Lake Victoria, Lamu, Lira Market, Livestock, Lower Shabelle, Lt. Gen. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni., Maize, maize decline, Mandera, Marsabit, Milk, Milk production, Mogadishu, Mogadishu Declaration, Mogadishu Declaration 22.02.2017, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, Pastoral Areas, President Kenyatta, President Magufuli, President Museveni, President Salva Kiir Mayardit, Prime Minster Hailemariam Desalegn, Rain, Republic of Djibouti, Rift Valley, Salva Kiir Mayardit, Somalia, Sorghum, South Sudan, SPLA, SPLM, SPLM-IO, Staple Food, Tana River, Tanzania, Taraka Nithi, Uganda, Uhuru Kenyatta, Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta, uni-modal rainfall, United Nation, Water Availability, Wheat Flour, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, Yoweri Museveni | Leave a comment
Kenya: Turkana Country Government – Statement on the Council of Governor’s legal push over the Division of Revenue Impasse (16.07.2019)
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LUXIQÒ FOAM IMPROVES COMPLIANCE, QUALITY OF LIFE FOR PATIENTS WITH SCALP PSORIASIS; ZINC PYRITHIONE DOES NOT INCREASE EFFICACY OF OLUXÒ FOR PSORIASIS
Winston-Salem, NC – Wake Forest University School of Medicine recently announced results from two studies conducted on LuxiqÒ (a novel foam topical corticosteroid, betamethasone valerate) Foam, 0.12% and OLUXÒ (clobetasol propionate) Foam, 0.05%.
Study investigator Steven R. Feldman, M.D., Ph.D., professor of dermatology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, was the principal investigator in the studies, which evaluated quality of life for patients treated with Luxiq for scalp dermatoses and the efficacy of OLUX alone and OLUX combined with zinc pyrithione for mild-to-moderate psoriasis.
In the first study, results indicated that patients treated with Luxiq experienced improved quality of life over those treated with other topical treatments for corticosteroid-responsive scalp dermatoses, citing the foam’s ease of use in comparison to many available dermatological lotions, creams, gels and ointments.
"Vehicle characteristics are a major consideration for patients," Feldman said. "Our study proves foam-based treatments like Luxiq, which are easier to apply, less messy and cosmetically more acceptable than many available dermatological treatments, are preferred by patients and result in increased quality of life."
The study asked 24 patients living with scalp psoriasis to evaluate treatments, including gels, emollients, creams, ointments and foams based on preference. On an overall Quality of Life (QOL) Scale, Luxiq foam rated higher than other treatments. More specifically, QOL scores were greater for Luxiq than Derma-Smoothe, an oil-based treatment (2.67 versus 1.75). Criteria for evaluating quality of life included ease of application, time consumption, absorption, touch, smell, how it feels on skin, and staining. At conclusion of the study, the majority of patients requesting a prescription chose Luxiq foam (11 of 18).
In the second study, Wake Forest researchers reported that adding zinc pyrithione to OLUX for the treatment of mild-to-moderate psoriasis did not increase efficacy. A randomized, double blind Phase IV study was conducted with 25 patients. OLUX was applied to both sides of the patient’s body, with zinc pyrithione randomly sprayed on the right or left side. The treatments were applied for two weeks, not to exceed 50g of OLUX per week. At the end of the two-week period, the changes in baseline scores were not significantly different between the treatments (OLUX –3.5; Olux and zinc –3.3).
Contact: Jim Steele or Mark Wright, (336) 716-4587.
Connetics Corporation is an independent pharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative therapeutics for the dermatology market. Contact: Lisa Waters, (310) 479-9929
Main Number: news@wakehealth.edu, 336-713-4587
William Applegate Named Dean of Wake Forest University School of MedicineView Previous
Multimillion-dollar Pain Research Center Funded at WFUBMCView Next
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Former Norwegian International Paul Ince Reveals The Best Player He Ever Partner
Europe-latestnews
Paul Ince had a fine career, playing for both Manchester United and Liverpool, as well as having a spell with Italian giants Inter Milan. He’s played with some great players, and was indeed a great player himself.
But when asked who the best player he played alongside at Liverpool was, he came out with probably the last player you’d ever think of: Stig Inge Bjornebye.
The Norwegian spent eight years at Anfield and played over 100 games, but he’s hardly one of the first names who’d roll off your tongue when mentioning some of the great Liverpool players who played during Ince’s period at the club, which includes Robbie Fowler, Steve McManaman, Jamie Redknapp and Stan Collymore.
Ince was over in Norway promoting a Norwegian-written biography of his career, so he had good reason to big up his former Norwegian colleague.
Chibuzor Chilaka
Position: Attacker
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Why are North Koreans in China processing Alaskan snow crab meat destined for Rhode Island?
How U.S.-caught seafood subsidizes the North Korean government on its way to the Walmart freezer
On Wednesday afternoon, the Associated Press released a bombshell investigation into China’s use of North Korean labor, specifically focused on workers processing seafood in a Chinese plant. While it’s not exactly news that North Korea sends its citizens to be “guest-workers” elsewhere in the world—in July, The Guardian reported on how the practice helps the country offset devastating sanctions—the story contained a major revelation: The snow crab, salmon fillets, and squid rings produced in the plant end up in American homes.
“Americans buying salmon for dinner at Walmart or ALDI may inadvertently have subsidized the North Korean government as it builds its nuclear weapons program,” according to AP, since the country kept up to 70 percent of its guest-workers’ paychecks. “Their purchases may also have supported what the United States calls ‘modern day slavery’—even if the jobs are highly coveted by North Koreans.”
“Something that would cost us $1 per pound labor here, they get it done for 20 cents in China.”
It’s a crazy story, and well worth the read. And like AP’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 2016 report on slavery in Thailand’s shrimp industry, it’s a reminder that our seafood food supply chain is still largely invisible—even when the dish on the table is as bare bones as a salmon steak.
But one detail in this story hits closer to home than the living quarters described in the piece—a faraway, harshly-lit dormitory in Hunchun, China. Some of the seafood in question, painstakingly picked apart by North Korean workers, was snow crab originally caught in Alaska. Which means the crustaceans somehow made the 4,000-mile journey from Alaska to China, before traveling 4,000 miles back to American distributors like Rhode Island’s Sea-Trek Enterprises, which ultimately shipped them out to retailers all over the world.
How can that globe-spanning supply chain possibly make logistical—let alone economic—sense?
Officially, the U.S. considers all North Koreans working abroad to be engaged in “forced labor.”
Turns out, it’s common for U.S. seafood companies to send their catch to China for processing. In 2005, the Seattle Times published a story probing a single company’s decision to send 30 million pounds of its Alaskan salmon and Dungeness crab catch to China for filleting and de-shelling. In terms of raw profit, the decision has a kind of graceful economic logic: “Something that would cost us $1 per pound labor here, they get it done for 20 cents in China,” Charles Bundrant, founder of Trident Seafoods, told the paper. Even after the company accounted for the cost of shipping seafood thousands of miles (and keeping it cold the whole time), sending it to China was still worth the time and money. Fish and crabs are full of tiny bones, Bundrant reminded the paper, and it’s tough work that can’t currently be automated. Human hands are still the best at picking them clean.
As we reported last month, this problem—millions of tiny bones and no one to pick them out—is exacerbated by an ongoing labor shortage in Alaska. It should’ve been a banner year for the salmon catch in Bristol Bay, but seafood companies weren’t able to hire enough employees to gut all those fish. The companies, which typically recruit workers from as far away as Guam, pay about $10 an hour, not enough to entice local Alaskans to take up a dirty, grueling job. At the same time, processors weren’t able to take advantage of the country’s limited quantity of H-2B visas for non-seasonal guest workers. Two companies profiled by our reporter Sarah Gibson had actually built new facilities to avoid sending their headed and gutted salmon to China and Japan for filleting. But the labor shortage meant they couldn’t staff those new operations, and the low profit margin for wild-caught salmon meant they couldn’t offer employees higher salaries. The region’s snow crab fishermen, it seems, face a similar labor bottleneck.
When you consider the ongoing shortage of processing staff, the temptation to ship American-caught seafood out to Asia starts to make more sense. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) estimates that between 2010 and 2014, about a quarter of the U.S. snow crab catch was exported to China.
Once in China, crab meat is picked out of the shell and sold elsewhere—often to Japan, which is the second-largest consumer of snow crab in the world. That global cold chain is made more economically feasible by the use of North Korean laborers, who, according to AP, are reliable and inexpensive. Officially, the U.S. considers all North Koreans working abroad to be engaged in “forced labor,” and while their toil can be bought cheaply, the numbers add up. AP estimates that the North Korean government is sending tens of thousands of workers worldwide, netting as much as $500 million a year. “That could account for a sizable portion of North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile programs, which South Korea says have cost more than $1 billion,” according to the report.
The story’s impact my prove to be explosive. It will undoubtedly provoke anger at the likes of Walmart for inadvertently subsidizing the North Korean government. And major American companies may have violated federal law, thanks to an order signed by President Trump in August that banned the import of goods produced by North Korean labor anywhere in the world. There may be political implications, too, at a time when diplomacy is quickly flailing—tempers are flaring between two nuclear powers over real and perceived slights, and rhetoric is ratcheting up.
All so no one chokes on a fishbone.
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Pure Michigan Business Connect
to Our Communities
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DTE Energy is committed to growing Michigan’s economy and is investing in the state’s future, buying from Michigan-based suppliers. This helps to add high-quality jobs in our local communities.
In 2011, DTE Energy made a cumulative $750 million, five-year commitment to the State of Michigan as part of the Pure Michigan Business Connect (PMBC) initiative to increase goods and services spent with Michigan-based suppliers. In 2013, DTE Energy increased that five-year commitment to $1.1 billion.
Over that five year span, DTE Energy increased spending with Michigan suppliers from $475 million in 2010 to $945 million in 2015. That accounts for a five-year increase of $1.7 billion compared to the 2010 baseline, far exceeding both the original and revised goals.
Commitment to Support Businesses
In 2015, the original PMBC commitment was successfully achieved. Going forward, DTE Energy has pledged to spend at least $1 billion with Michigan-based suppliers each year over the next five years. We also made a commitment to support businesses within the city of Detroit by increasing spending with Detroit-based suppliers.
Spending Forecast
As a result of a strong performance through the first half of 2016, DTE Energy raised its forecast and is on track to spend between $1.1 billion and $1.2 billion with Michigan-based suppliers this year.
Economic Support
Are you looking for a way to support Michigan’s economy in your own community or thinking about expanding your business’s footprint in Michigan? Pure Michigan Business Connect can put you in touch with resources to help you get started.
Name: William Ringrose, Head of Section, DTE Energy Program
Company: DNV GL
Locations: Oslo, Norway (Global Headquarters)
Houston, Texas (Administrative Headquarters)
Oakland, California (NA Energy Headquarters)
100 countries including the U.S./Michigan offices in Clark Lake, Detroit and Okemos
“DTE has been 100 percent responsible for our move into Detroit. Within our implementation programs in the US, it has one of the largest budgets and highest headcount, and serves as the leader for innovation, best-practices and new technology.”
Name: Louis James, President
Company: SEEL, LLC
Locations: Detroit, Michigan
“With the help of PMBC along with DTE’s leadership and mentorship, we have been able to hire and develop Michigan talent at all levels, going from 10 employees in 2010 to 65 today. Our annual revenue has grown to $15 million and we are expecting a 30 percent growth rate, year over year, for the next five years.”
Name: Dale Anderson, Executive Vice President
Company: Miller Pipeline
Locations: Indianapolis, Indiana (Headquarters)
Throughout the eastern U.S., including Michigan locations in Grand Rapids, Hale and Kalkaskar
“As a contractor, our primary goals are to provide a safe work environment for our employees, while continuing to build long-term partnerships with our clients. DTE’s continued investments in infrastructure will have a positive impact on our employees, our business partners and the residents of the community.”
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A Matter of Degrees: Gators Graduate During 2017 Commencement Weekend
After a whirlwind weekend, more than 1,400 Gators graduated from the University of Houston-Downtown (UHD). Spring 2017 Commencement Weekend offered graduates, friends, families and faculty an opportunity to celebrate academic achievements and new beginnings.
On May 12, UHD hosted the first Graduate Programs Commencement for the recently named Marilyn Davies College of Business. Master of Business Administration graduates were recognized during this event in the Wilhelmina Cullen Robertson Auditorium. Davies College of Business Corporate Fellow Brad Cannaday served as the event's guest speaker.
Two days later, the Gator community filled the stands at Minute Maid Park for the 62nd annual General Commencement ceremony. It was May 14, Mother's Day, and the moms in attendance were saluted by UHD President Dr. Juan Sánchez Muñoz during his speech. Muñoz also applauded the 2017 graduates' accomplishments.
"Earning a bachelor's or master's degree takes discipline. It also takes passion, drive, and the desire to achieve your goals. Today is proof of that," he said.
During the ceremony, the University awarded its first honorary degree to former New Mexico Governor and former Ambassador to the United Nations Bill Richardson. That honor was presented by former UHD Interim President Dr. Michael A. Olivas.
Olivas himself was honored by Muñoz, who presented him with a recognition of outstanding service. The award, a massive blue trophy, was a token of the UHD community's appreciation for Olivas' leadership in 2016.
Among those graduating during this event were outgoing Student Government Association President Mustapha Nyallay, who is headed to law school at George Washington University; UHD's youngest graduate Alice Turchaninova, who earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics at age 19; and the University's oldest graduate James Thomas, who received a bachelor's degree in interdisciplinary studies at age 66.
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Associate Professor Patricia J. Dubin, MD, of UTHSC Named Chief of Pediatric Pulmonology and Sleep Medicine at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital
| May 2, 2017
Patricia J. Dubin, MD, is the new chief of Pediatric Pulmonology and Sleep Medicine at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital. (Photo provided by Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital)
For Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital’s new chief of pediatric pulmonology and sleep medicine, Patricia J. Dubin, MD, who is also an associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics in the College of Medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC), pursuing new treatments for respiratory issues is more than just a passion – its personal.
As a child, Dr. Dubin was diagnosed with asthma. As she grew older and honed in on a career in medicine, she knew wanted to find a way to help children with respiratory problems breathe easier. But for Dr. Dubin, it was more than her own experience that shaped her future in pulmonology. During her senior year of undergraduate studies, the daughter of a favorite professor, just 10 years old, died. The young girl had cystic fibrosis.
“It had a pretty profound effect on our entire campus, because we all kind of knew this little girl, and that was one of the first exposures that I really had to cystic fibrosis,” said Dr. Dubin. “When we look at our field, many people think pulmonary evolved out of a need to take care of patients with asthma and other types of breathing disorders, but in large part it evolved around the disease of cystic fibrosis.”
Dr. Dubin began her medical school training at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, followed by a pediatric residency at Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital, where she was able to engage in a fair amount of pulmonary training through the general pediatrics residency. She completed her pediatric pulmonology fellowship at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, and she stayed on for a decade, focused on research and clinical work. She moved to West Virginia University School of Medicine, where she was chief of Pediatric Pulmonology and Sleep Medicine, and served as the director of the Mountain State Cystic Fibrosis Center.
At Le Bonheur, Dr. Dubin will focus on developing research, clinical and education programs in pediatric pulmonology and sleep medicine.
The connection between sleep medicine and breathing disorders drew Dr. Dubin’s particular interest, something she calls a “natural fit for people who think a lot about respiratory problems.”
“A good portion of pediatric sleep medicine is secondary to breathing problems,” said Dr. Dubin. “When we look at the different kinds of pathology, we think of obstructive sleep apnea or difficulty breathing during sleep. While that is a large part of pediatric sleep medicine, it is not the entire story. There are many other types of disorders.”
Dr. Dubin will also continue her clinical work with young respiratory patients who seek treatment at Le Bonheur from across the region. Each year, asthma is the cause of more than 3,500 asthma-related visits to Le Bonheur.
“There are many things that attracted me to Le Bonheur,” says Dubin. “I was attracted by the institutional commitment to community service, clinical program development, research and education.”
She also cites the potential of Le Bonheur’s programs, opportunities for partnering with other research hospitals, and Le Bonheur’s focus on the needs of the community when it comes to respiratory treatment and therapy.
“There is a clear commitment to the Memphis community through development of programs that address unmet needs for the city and region as well through the development of programs that will garner national attention,” said Dr. Dubin. “The partnership with St. Jude also allows us to focus on respiratory care in oncology and hematology patients.”
“I think many of us in medicine are inspired by our personal experiences, and that drives us to do what we do,” she continued.
In the next year, Dubin will lead pulmonary and sleep medicine program development in the areas of asthma, cancer-related respiratory disease, hematology- related disease, primary ciliary dyskinesia (respiratory disease that is present at birth and causes permanent and irreversible respiratory damage if not identified early) and medically complex and technology-dependent children.
*Editor’s Note: Sally Walker Davies is the author of the originally published article used for this release.*
Tags: College of Medicine, Dr. Patricia Dubin, Featured, Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, News Releases, Pediatrics
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William Friedman
AKA Wolfe Frederick Friedman
Born: 24-Sep-1891
Birthplace: Kishinev, Russia [1]
Died: 12-Nov-1969 [2]
Location of death: Washington, DC
Cause of death: Heart Failure
Remains: Buried, Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, VA
Occupation: Scientist
Executive summary: Cryptography pioneer
Military service: US Army (1918-41, to Lt. Cmdr.)
William Friedman was born in Russia, and came to America with his family while he was still an infant. He studied genetics and worked in that field at Riverbank Laboratories, a predecessor of today's Alion Science and Technology. There he met and fell in love with his future wife, cryptanalyst Elizebeth Smith, and became drawn into her area of work. By the outbreak of the First World War, Friedman and his wife were among the nation's foremost cryptographers, and volunteered their codebreaking services to the war effort. After their work led to the arrest of 135 purported German spies in America who had been sending messages in encrypted Hindu, US military cryptographers were sent to Riverbank for classes taught by Mr and Mrs Friedman.
In 1918 Friedman joined the US Army and was assigned to France, where he helped break German coded communications during the last months of the war. He later served as personal translator to General John J. Pershing, and in 1929 he was installed as Director of a new super-secret unit of the Army, the Signal Intelligence Service. In this position he oversaw the decoding and translation of the Japanese diplomatic code (called the Purple Code) in 1940, and headed Operation Magic, the group of hundreds of military cryptographers that deciphered Japanese coded communications during World War II, providing crucial intelligence before the Battle of Midway.
The work of Friedman and his wife laid the foundation for the present-day US National Security Agency, and when the NSA was established in 1952, Friedman was its first Chief of Cryptography. For many years, the Friedmans' children and acquaintances were told only that he worked for the Army. The immense pressure of being in charge of US codebreaking during WWII and the subsequent Cold War caused Friedman to suffer at least two nervous breakdowns.
He invented several machines used in codebreaking, but was prohibited for reasons of national security from filing patents. After retiring in 1955 he was allowed to patent three of these devices, and received a lump payment of $100K from the federal government as compensation for six additional inventions on which patents remained prohibited. In retirement, he returned for special (and still classified) NSA assignments, but was critical of the Agency, and expressed concern that it was unnecessarily investigating the communications of ordinary citizens. In 1958, NSA agents raided the Friedmans' home and seized certain papers, the nature of which remains secret. He died in 1969.
[1] Now Chisinau, Moldova.
[2] 2 November 1969, according to some sources.
Father: Frederick Friedman (translator)
Mother: Rosa Friedman
Brother: M.J. Friedman
Wife: Elizebeth Friedman (cryptologist, m. 21-May-1917, d. 1980, two children)
Daughter: Barbara
Son: John
High School: Pittsburgh Central High School, Pittsburgh, PA (1909)
University: Michigan State University (attended)
University: BS, Cornell University (1914)
US Defense Department Chief of Cryptography, National Security Agency (1952-55)
US Defense Department Chief of Cryptography, Armed Forces Security Agency (1949-52)
US Defense Department Chief Cryptanalyst (1941-47)
US War Department Chief Cryptanalyst (1941-47)
US Army to Director, Signal Intelligence Service (1918-41)
Alion Science and Technology Ciphers & Genetics Mgr., Riverbank Labs (1915-18)
Alion Science and Technology Genetics Mgr., Riverbank Labs (1915-16)
Commendation for Exceptional Civilian Service 1944
Congressional Order of Merit 1946
National Security Medal 1955
Military Intelligence Hall of Fame
Naturalized US Citizen 1896
Nervous Breakdown 1939-40
Heart Attack Apr-1955
Heart Attack May-1969
Heart Attack 12-Nov-1969 (fatal)
Jewish Ancestry
Romanian Ancestry
Russian Ancestry
Risk Factors: Depression
Author of books:
The Index of Coincidence and Its Applications in Cryptography (1922)
Six Lectures on Cryptology (1963, essays)
The Shakespearean Ciphers Examined (1957, non-fiction; with Elizebeth Friedman)
NNDB MAPPER Create a map starting with William Friedman
Orgone Therapy
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No More Kids with Cancer
About US Our Vision Our Inspiration Our Team Childhood Cancer Contact and Information
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Where Your Money Goes/
2018 Purple Ball
Purple Ball Photos
Mustard Challenge
Parkway Run
Blog and Media/
1950s Drugs for Today's Kids is Unacceptable
Mustard Challenge FAQs
The Mustard Challenge raises awareness about childhood cancer and helps fund research into safer, non-toxic and effective treatments for kids with cancer.
What is the Mustard Challenge?
On April 15th 2017, No More Kids with Cancer launched the "Mustard Challenge’. We’ve dared people to take part in a fun and entertaining act of recording themselves eating a spoon of spicy mustard and sharing their experience via social media. The Mustard Challenge’s goal is to raise awareness of our cause and encourage donations, funding research to discover safer, non-toxic and effective treatments for children with cancer. Why mustard? Today’s children are still treated with 1950s drugs based on the same chemical used in Mustard Gas, a weapon of World War I & II.
How do I participate in the Mustard Challenge?
1 ACCEPT: Accept the challenge.
2 PERFORM: Take a video of yourself eating a spoonful of spicy mustard. If you have a sensitivity to mustard – please use something else or donate!
3 SHARE Share you video to social media, tagging/challenging four of your friends to take the challenge.
4 DONATE: Make a donation to support No More Kids with Cancer.
Do I have to donate if I take the challenge?
No, you do not have to donate! By participating in the Mustard Challenge you’re already bringing awareness to the 1950s-era treatments and the critical need to accelerate research and increase funding. However, by making a donation, you will help accelerate and fund research to discover safer, non-toxic and effective treatments for children with cancer.
Do I have to be challenged to participate in the Mustard Challenge?
Absolutely not! If you want to take the Challenge, we encourage you to take the Challenge and start the chain in your community. Challenge your friends and family – the more people involved, the more we bring awareness to this issue and raise funds for research and better treatments.
What if I am allergic to mustard, should I not take the Mustard Challenge?
You can still take the Mustard Challenge, but please do not take the challenge with mustard! Take the challenge with something you have on hand but may not enjoy you – say a spoonful of mayonnaise, ketchup, or hot sauce. Or you can participate in the challenge by donating to the cause at www.mustardchallenge.com.
Who started the Mustard Challenge?
Amy and Hank Summy's daughter, Naya, passed away at the age of 11 from brain cancer. Naya raised a lot of money for childhoood cancer research and wanted her efforts to continue if she died. Honoring Naya's wish, Amy and Hank co-founded No More Kids with Cancer. Since the beginning, No More Kids with Cancer has raised significant funds for childhood cancer research, attracting top researchers, scientists, advocates and philanthropists to enable its impact. Also, 100% of donations have funded childhood cancer research. Amy and Hank developed the Mustard Challenge with their friends at Pure Growth to raise awareness and funds to enable research into safer, non-toxic and effective cancer treatments for kids.
How did the Mustard Challenge idea come about?
The genesis of the Mustard Challenge was a simple fact: Today, kids with cancer are still being treated with toxic chemotherapy drugs from as far back as the 1950s. Some of these drugs are based on the same chemical used in mustard gas, a weaponized vapor deployed during World War One. Ordinary household mustard was a perfect metaphor for this unacceptable fact. Inspired by the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, we’re challenging people to eat a spoon of spicy mustard in support of No More Kids with Cancer and/or make a donation. It’s simple, fun, easy to do, requires a bit of bravery. 100% of donations fund research, enabling the Mustard Challenge to genuinely make a difference to those who need it most.
Is Mustard Safe?
We're using mustard to shine a light on the old medicines that are being used to treat childhood cancer - including chemotherapy drugs derived from the same chemicals as mustard gas. To be clear, mustard is not related to mustard gas, and mustard is thought to have health benefits. However, we are not endorsing mustard or its health benefits. If you are sensitive to mustard, we encourage you to take the challenge with another food in your kitchen cabinet that's equally challenging, or simply donate to the cause!
How do I donate?
You can donate at www.mustardchallenge.com or you can mail a check made out to No More Kids with Cancer and send it to P.O. Box 1427, Edgemont, PA 19028. You will receive your donation receipts in the mail within 30 days of delivery.
Can I direct my donation to go towards research?
100% of your tax deductible donation will be used to fund groundbreaking research to bring non-toxic and more effective treatments to children with cancer!
Why should I donate to No More Kids with Cancer?
The World Health Organization stats childhood cancer is reaching crisis levels. In the U.S., cancer is the leading cause of death by disease in children. Yet, less than 4% of the annual budget for cancer research is allocated to childhood cancer. With only 3 drugs developed in the last 30 years, current treatments for children are from the 1950s.
No More Kids with Cancer believes that 1950s drugs for today's kids is unacceptable and that our children deserve better!
No More Kids with Cancer is a different type of charity. 100% of public donations go to groundbreaking childhood cancer research. Our founders and private donors fund our low operating costs to maximize the impact of donations from the public.
About No More Kids with Cancer
What does No More Kids with Cancer do?
We are inspired by children with cancer, and our inspiration began with one special girl, Naya Summy. In 2013, Naya was diagnosed with brain cancer. She was nine. She endured two brain surgeries, intense radiation and chemotherapy, only to relapse one year after her diagnosis. A cure didn't exist for Naya. In less than two years, her disease overtook her body and her brightness and smile left our world. Even through her own suffering, her only wish was for other children: cure childhood cancer for future children.
Cancer kills more children than any other disease. However, only 4% of the National Cancer Institute’s research budget is dedicated to childhood cancer research and only 3 new drugs have been approved for children’s cancer treatment in 30 years. Therefore, most children are still treated with toxic drugs developed in the 1950s. To change this, we created No More Kids with Cancer and The Naya Foundation, a 501c3 charity (EIN 47-3573433).
We believe our children deserve better. We believe research will fuel the discovery of new drugs to help reduce cancer related suffering and death in children. We’re dedicated to raising money to fund groundbreaking research to discover non-toxic treatments for kids. 100% of donations go directly to research. We hope you can help us fight this important cause and change many children’s lives, for the better!
Where does the money go?
All (100%) of the money raised from the Mustard Challenge will fund groundbreaking research that leverages the latest understanding in cancer biology to bring safer, more effective and modern treatments to children with cancer. The research we fund will help children with cancer — and the doctors and researchers working to save them — who urgently need alternatives to the 50s-era, inhumane, side-effect-laden standard treatments used today.
Our Scientific Review Committee will seek projects and opportunities with a high potential of creating breakthroughs and safer treatments for children with cancer. We won’t fund just any project. We will seek to fund novel ideas, therapies and options that result in safer and more effective treatments.
We will actively seek to support high-potential early stage clinical trials (phase 0, phase I, phase II) or other clinical research (e.g. biomarker development, new imaging tools, etc.) targeting pediatric cancer. If we raise enough money, we will fund teams to accelerate the discover of new treatments for specific pediatric cancers, and even infrastructure to multiply the number of research trials that can be supported.
Can you give me a breakdown of how the 2017 Mustard Challenge proceeds will be allocated?
All (100%) of the money raised from The Mustard Challenge will fund groundbreaking research that leverages the latest understanding in cancer biology to bring safer, less toxic and more effective treatments for children with cancer. The research we fund will help children with cancer — and the doctors and researchers working to save them — who urgently need alternatives to the 50s-era, inhumane, side-effect-laden standard treatments used today.
The First $6 Million Funds a New, Collaborative Pediatric Brain Cancer Dream Team.
No More Kids with Cancer is collaborating with Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) to fund a new Pediatric Brain Cancer Dream Team. No More Kids with Cancer (NMKwC) will donate to SU2C up to a total of $6 million from the contributions made through the Mustard Challenge. SU2C will match the donation dollar-for-dollar up to a total of $6 million. The combined funds from NMKwC and SU2C will be used to fund a new, collaborative Pediatric Brain Cancer Dream Team. A scientific ‘Dream Team’ is made up of researchers in multiple disciplines and institutions to bring options to children faster. Dream Teams are accelerating cures and treatments in adult cancers today and the same model can be applied to children.
If the Mustard Challenge raises more than $6 million, amounts will be applied to additional groundbreaking research projects. Our Scientific Review Committee will seek projects and opportunities with a high potential of creating breakthroughs and safer treatments for children with cancer. We won’t fund just any project. We will seek to fund novel ideas, therapies and options that result in safer and more effective treatments.
We will actively seek to support high-potential early stage clinical trials (phase 0, phase I, phase II) or other clinical research (e.g. biomarker development, new imaging tools, etc.) targeting pediatric cancer. The projects can be one or a combination of the following: kick-starter grants between $100,000-$250,000; clinical trials between $250,000 - $1,000,000 or grants to early-career physician-scientists with novel ideas to cure childhood cancer averaging $100,000 - $250,000 per year; and larger grants which have the possibility to accelerate cures for a type of pediatric cancer, including another Dream Team.
Why should people donate to No More Kids with Cancer?
We created the Mustard Challenge to generate awareness for the lack of investment and resources given to finding a cure for childhood cancer. Here are some of the horrifying facts:
Childhood cancer is the #1 cause of death by disease in the U.S.:
1 in every 285 children in the U.S. will be diagnosed with cancer.
Every 3 minutes, a child is diagnosed with cancer somewhere in the world. Over 300,000 children will be diagnosed with cancer each year.
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Tag: soldier
The Letter/Choices #writephoto
June 6, 2019 notestowomen12 Comments
As I stand here gazing at the calm waves, I think about my grandmother, Maude. A lovely woman who was a nurse during the second World War. She was twenty-three at the time. I can still remember the sadness in her eyes when she spoke of the young soldiers who died. There was one particular soldier whom she would never forget. Every time she talked about him, her voice broke and tears sprang to her eyes.
“I will never forget that boy,” she said. “He must have been about seventeen years old. He had a boyish face. I thought to myself, it’s a pity that someone so young was fighting in this terrible war. He
“Nurse, could you write a letter to my mother and tell her that I’m in hospital?”
“I told him, ‘I’ll write it when I come back later.’ All he said was, ‘Okay'” and then I left. When I returned later that evening, he was dead.” It was at that point that she broke down. “If I had known that he was going to die, I would have written the letter when he asked me. If only I had stayed. That boy never got to say goodbye to his mother because of me.”
For years, she has lived with this regret. Even after she married my grandfather and they had four wonderful kids, she never seemed completely happy. There was always a sadness in her countenance and it was years later when I found out the reason for it. A young soldier whose name she didn’t know who had made a simple request of her because he knew he wasn’t going to make it through the night. My grandmother thought that the letter could wait but she was wrong. She made a choice that she had to live with.
Sometimes I think about that soldier whose single thought was of his mother. I think of her. As a mother, myself, I can’t imagine how I would feel if my son was away at war and I had no idea where he was–if he was hurt or even still alive. Did that mother pray for her son–that he was still alive and would return home one day? I can’t imagine how she must have felt when she found out that he had died in a hospital so many miles away from home.
When I leave here, I will go to the chapel and light three candles–one for my grandmother, one for the young soldier and one for his mother. War is a terrible thing but I will always be eternally grateful to the brave soldiers, the unsung heroes like the young man, who gave their lives to win the war against the evil Nazi regime and for our freedom.
This story was inspired by a true account of a nurse stillld write it later. When she returned to the hospital
Today is D-day. Let us remember all those who sacrificed their lives and those who survived and the dedicated doctors and nurses who cared for the wounded.
This was written for the #writephoto Prompt – Choices at Sue Vincent’s Daily Echo.
Source: Ranker;
Mary Seacole
February 24, 2015 notestowomenLeave a comment
I just finished reading a very long but interesting biography of Mary Seacole. When I mentioned her to my husband, he immediately knew who I was talking about. He’s from Jamaica where Mary was born. She was born on November 23, 1805 to a Scottish father and Jamaican mother. Her father was a soldier in the British Army and her mother was a free woman. Mrs. Seacole was a doctress, a healer who used traditional Caribbean and African herbal remedies. She ran Blundell Hall, a boarding house, considered one of the best hotels in Kingston. It was from watching and helping her mother, that Mary became interested in nursing.
Mary was proud of her Scottish ancestry and called herself a Creole. Legally, she was classified a mulatto, a multiracial person with limited political rights. She was also very proud of her black ancestry. “I have a few shades of deeper brown upon my skin which shows me related—and I am proud of the relationship—to those poor mortals whom you once held enslaved, and whose bodies America still owns.” Being the educated daughter of a Scottish officer and a free black woman with a respectable business would have afforded Mary a high position in Jamaican society.
Mary married Edwin Horatio Hamilton Seacole, rumored to have been the illegitimate son of Horatio Nelson and his mistress, Emma, Lady Hamilton. Edwin was a merchant. The newly married couple moved to Black River where they opened a provisions store which failed to succeed. In the early 1840s, they returned to Blundell Hall.
During the years 1843 and 1844, disasters struck Mary and her family. They lost much of the boarding house in a fire on Kingston. Blundell Hall burned down and was replaced by the New Blundell Hall which was deemed “better than before.” She lost her husband and then her mother. Overcome with grief, Mary didn’t move for days. Then she composed herself and assumed the role of manager of her mother’s hotel and plunged herself into work, turning down many offers of marriage. She became a widely respected among the European military visitors to Jamaica who frequently stayed at Blundell Hall.
During the cholera epidemic of 1850 which killed 32,000 Jamaicans, she treated patients and blamed the outbreak to infection brought on a steamer from New Orleans, Louisiana. Shortly after she arrived in Cruces, Panama where her half-brother moved, cholera struck. Familiar with the disease and having treated those who had the infection, Mary moved into action, treating the first victim who survived. This did wonders for her reputation and many patients were brought to her as the infection spread. The epidemic raged, causing many casualties which filled Mary with exasperation with the victims, claiming that they “bowed down before the plague in slavish despair.” Towards the end, she too became sick but managed to pull through.
During the Crimean War, disease broke out and hundreds perished, mostly from cholera. Hundreds more died while waiting to be shipped out or on the voyage. It was during this time that Florence Nightingale was charged with the responsibility of forming a detachment of nurses to be sent to the hospital to save lives. After suitable candidates were selected following interviews, Florence left for Turkey. Mary tried to join the second group of nurses to the Crimea. She applied to the War Office and other government offices but arrangements for departure were already underway. She applied to the Crimean Fund, a fund raised by the public to support the wounded in Crimea for sponsorship to travel there but again, she was refused. Resolute, she decided to travel to Crimea using her own resources and to open a British Hotel.
On the ship Malta, Mary met a doctor who recently left Scutari, where Florence Nightingale was. He wrote Mary a letter of recommendation to Florence. Mary visited Florence at the Barrack Hospital in Scutari, asking for a bed for the night as she planned to travel to Balaclava the following day to join Thomas Day, her Caribbean acquaintance. In her memoirs, Mary mentioned that Florence was very friendly. They found a bed for her and breakfast was sent to her in the morning.
As she had planned, Mary opened the British Hotel near Balaclava. Meals were served there and there was outside catering. It prospered. Meals and supplies were provided for the soldiers. One frequent visitor was Alexis Soyer, a French chef who advised her to concentrate on food and beverage service and not to have beds for visitors as the few either slept on board the ships in the harbor or in tents in the camps.
The Special Correspondent of The Times newspaper highly commended Mary’s work, citing, “Mrs. Seacole…doctors and cures all manner of men with extraordinary success. She is always in attendance near the battle-field to aid the wounded, and has earned many a poor fellow’s blessings.”
Florence Nightingale acknowledged favorable views of Mary to Soyer and Mary had told him how kindly Florence had given her board and lodging. When Soyer mentioned Mary’s inquiries of her, Florence responded pleasantly and with a smile that , “I should like to see her before she leaves, as I hear she has done a great deal of good for the poor soldiers.” Yet, Florence didn’t want her nurses to associate with Mary and in a letter to her brother-in-law, Sir Harry Verney, she insinuated that Mary had kept a “bad house” in Crimea and was responsible for “much drunkenness and improper conduct”. This letter came at the time when Mary approached Sir Harry for the opportunity to assist in the Franco-Prussian War because of his involvement in the British National Society for the Relief of the Sick and Wounded.
In spite of this, Mary moved in royal circles. Prince Victor of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, a nephew of Queen Victoria was one of Mary’s customers in Crimea when he was a young Lieutenant. Perhaps as a token of gratitude and appreciation, he carved a marble bust of her in 1871 which was exhibited in the Royal Academy summer exhibition a year later. Mary also became the personal masseuse to the Prince of Wales who suffered from white leg rheumatism.
Sadly, while she was well-known at the end of her life, Mary quickly faded from public memory and her work in Crimea was overshadowed by Florence Nightingale’s for many years. And there were controversies surrounding Mary. It has been argued that she is being promoted at the expense of Florence Nightingale. According to Professor Lynn McDonald, “…support for Seacole has been used to attack Nightingale’s reputation as a pioneer in public health and nursing.”
There are claims that her achievements have been exaggerated for political reasons and a plan to erect a statue of her at St. Thomas’ Hospital in London, describing her as “pioneer nurse” has sparked some outrage. According to those who oppose, Mary has no connection with the institution whereas Florence Nightingale did. In Dr. Lang’s opinion, she “does not qualify as a mainstream figure in the history of nursing.”
Mary’s name appears in an appendix to the Key Stage 2 National Curriculum, as an example of a significant Victorian historical figure but teachers are not required to include her in their lessons. At the end of 2012, it was reported that she would be removed from the National Curriculum. This was opposed by Greg Jenner, the historical consultant to Horrible Histories. He believes that removing Mary from the curriculum would be a mistake in spite of the fact that her medical achievements have been exaggerated.
In January 2013, Operation Black Vote launched a petition to request that Education Secretary Michael Gove not drop Mary Seacole or Oloudah Equiano from the National Curriculum. Reverend Jesse Jackson and others wrote a letter to The Times, protesting the proposed removal of Mary Seacole from the National Curriculum. The campaign was a success as Michael Gove was forced to concede after receiving approximately 35,000 signatures.
Today, Mary Seacole is remembered in the Caribbean. She was posthumously awarded the Jamaican Order of Merit in 1991. In 1954, the headquarters of the Jamaican General Trained Nurses’ Association was christened “Mary Seacole House”. This was quickly followed by the naming of the University of the West Indies in Mona, Jamaica. A ward at the Kingston Public Hospital is named in her memory. In Britain, buildings and organization now commemorate her by name and near the bottom of Fleet Street in London a Seacole Lane existed until it was redeveloped in the 1980s.
Notes to Women celebrate this pioneer in healing and helping those who were sick. She may not have been a registered nurse and her achievements may have been exaggerated but what matters is that she had the heart for nursing. There are some in the nursing profession who not in it because it is their passion. Mary Seacole had the heart and the passion for nursing and she was a blessing to many of those whom she treated. We think that this phenomenal woman should be recognized for what she has done.
She is a role model for all of us. She was proud of her heritage. She defied racism and bigotry and she embarked on her calling to help others, not allowing rejection or any other obstacles to get in her way. If you have a goal in life, make it happen. Don’t dream. Act. Florence Nightingale was not the only light. Like Mary Seacole, you can be light too wherever you are.
I must say that I don’t appreciate your friend’s kind wishes with respect to my complexion. If it had been as dark as a nigger’s, I should have been just as happy and useful, and as much respected by those whose respect I value: and as to his offer of bleaching me, I should, even if it were practicable, decline it without any thanks.
I have a few shades of deeper brown upon my skin which shows me related to those poor mortals you once held enslaved, and whose bodies America still owns. Having this bond, and knowing what slavery is, having seen with my eyes and heard with my ears proof positive enough of its horrors, is it surprising that I should be somewhat impatient of the airs of superiority which many Americans have endeavoured to assume over me.
I have always noticed what actors children are……….whatever disease was most prevalent in Kingston, be sure my poor doll soon contracted it…….before long it was very natural that I should seek to extend my practice, and so I found other patients in the cats and dogs around me.
Doubts and suspicions rose in my heart for the first and last time, thank Heaven. Was it possible that American prejudices against colour had some root here? Did these ladies shrink from accepting my aid because my blood flowed beneath a somewhat duskier skin than theirs?
Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Seacole; http://www.biographyonline.net/humanitarian/quotes/mary-seacole.html
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Home » Just-so stories
Category Archives: Just-so stories
Prediction, Accommodation, and Explanation in Science: Are Just-so Stories Scientific?
July 14, 2019 3:37 pm / 1 Comment on Prediction, Accommodation, and Explanation in Science: Are Just-so Stories Scientific?
One debate in the philosophy of science is whether or not a scientific hypothesis should make testable predictions or merely explain only what it purports to explain. Should a scientific hypothesis H predict previously unknown facts of the matter or only explain an observation? Take, for example, evolutionary psychology (EP). Any EP hypothesis H can speculate on the so-called causes that led a trait to fixate in a biological population of organisms, but the claim that they can do more than that—that is, that they can generate successful predictions of previously unknown facts not used in the construction of the hypothesis—but that’s all they can do. The claim, therefore, that EP hypotheses are anything but just-so stories, is false.
Prediction and novel facts
For example, Einstein’s theory of general relativity predicted the bending of light, which was a novel prediction for the hypothesis (see pg 177-180 for predictions generated from Einstein’s theory). Fresnel’s wave theory of light predicted different infraction fringes to the prediction of the white spot—a spot which appears in a circular object’s shadow due to Fresnel diffraction (see Worrall, 1989). So Fresnel’s theory explained the diffraction and the diffraction then generated testable—and successful—novel predictions (see Magnus and Douglas, 2013). There is an example of succeful novel prediction. Ad hoc hypotheses are produced “for this” explanation—so the only evidence for the hypothesis is, for example, the existence of trait T. EP hypotheses attempt to explain the fixation of any trait T in humans, but all EP hypotheses do is explain—they generate no testable, novel predictions of previously unknown facts.
A defining feature of science and what it purports to do is to predict facts-of-the-matter which are yet to be known. John Beerbower (2016) explains this well in his book Limits of Science? (emphasis mine):
At this point, it seems appropriate to address explicitly one debate in the philosophy of science—that is, whether science can, or should try to, do more than predict consequences. One view that held considerable influence during the first half of the twentieth venture is called the predictivist thesis: that the purpose of science is to enable accurate predictions and that, in fact, science cannot actually achieve more than that. The test of an explanatory theory, therefore, is its success at prediction, at forecasting. This view need not be limited to actual predictions of future, yet to happen events; it can accommodate theories that are able to generate results that have already been observed or, if not observed, have already occurred. Of course, in such cases, care must be taken that the theory has not simply been retrofitted to the observations that have already been made—it must have some reach beyond the data used to construct the theory.
That a theory or hypothesis explains observations isn’t enough—it must generate successful predictions of novel facts. If it does not generate any novel facts-of-the-matter, then of what use is the hypothesis if it only weakly justifies the phenomenon in question? So now, what is a novel fact?
A novel fact is a fact that’s generated by hypothesis H that’s not used in the construction of the hypothesis. For example, Musgrave (1988) writes:
All of this depends, of course, on our being able to make good the intuitive distinction between prediction and novel prediction. Several competing accounts of when a prediction is a novel prediction for a theory have been produced. The one I favour, due to Elie Zahar and John Worral says that a predicted fact is a novel fact for a theory if it was not used to construct that theory — where a fact is used to construct a theory if it figures in the premises from which that theory was deduced.
Mayo (1991: 524; her emphasis) writes that a “novel fact [is] a newly discovered fact—one not known before used in testing.” So a fact is novel when it predicts a fact of the matter not used in the construction of the hypothesis—i.e., a future event. About novel predictions, Musgrave also writes that “It is only novel predictive success that is surprising, where an observed fact is novel for a theory when it was not used to construct it.” So hypothesis H entails evidence E; evidence E is not used in the construction of hypothesis H, therefore E is novel evidence for hypothesis H.
To philosopher of science Imre Lakatos, a progressive research program is one that generates novel facts, whereas a degenerating research program either fails to generate novel facts or the predictions made that were novel continue to be falsified, according to Musgrave in his article on Lakatos. We can put EP in the “degenerating research program, as no EP hypothesis generates any type of novel prediction—the only evidence for the trait is the existence of the trait.
The term “just-so stories” comes from Rudyard Kipling Just-so Stories for Little Children. Then Gould and Lewontin used the term for evolutionary hypotheses that can only explain and not predict future as-of-yet-known events. Law (2016) notes that just-so stories offer “little in the way of independent evidence to suggest that it is actually true.” Sterelny and Griffiths (1999: 61) state that just-so stories are “… an adaptive scenario, a hypothesis about what a trait’s selective history might have been and hence what its function may be.” Examples of just-so stories covered on this blog include: beards, FOXP2, cartels and Mesoamerican ritual sacrifice, Christian storytelling, just-so storytellers and their pet just-so stories, the slavery hypertension hypothesis, fear of snakes and spiders, and cold winter theory. Smith (2016: 278) has a helpful table showing ten different definitions and descriptions of just-so stories:
So the defining criterion for just-so stories is that there must be independent evidence to believe the proposed explanation for the existence of the trait. There must be independent reasons to believe a certain hypothesis, as the defining feature of a scientific hypothesis or theory is whether or not it can predict yet-to-happen events. Though, as Beerbower notes, we have to be careful that we do not retrofit the observations.
One can make an observation. Then they can work backward (what Richardson (2007) elicits is “reverse engineering”) and posit (speculate about) a good-sounding story (just-so storytelling) to explain this observation. Reverse engineering is “a process of figuring out the design of a mechanism on the basis of an analysis of the tasks it performs” (Buller, 2005: 92). Of course, the just-so storyteller can then create a story to explain the fixation of the trait in question. But that’s only (purportedly) the explanation of why the trait came to fixation for us to observe it today. There are no testable predictions of previously unknown facts. So it’s all storytelling—speculation.
The theory of natural selection is then deployed to attempt the explain the fixation of trait T in any population. It is true that a hypothesis is weakly corroborated by the existence of trait T, but what makes it a just-so story is the fact that there are no successful predictions of previously unknown facts,
When it comes to EP, one can say that the hypothesis “makes sense” and it “explains” why trait T still exists and went to fixation. However, the story only “makes sense” because there is no other way for it to be—if the story didn’t “make sense”, then the just-so storyteller wouldn’t be telling the story because it wouldn’t satisfy their aims of “proving” that a trait is an adaptation.
Smith (2016:277-278) notes 7 just-so story triggers:
1) proposing a theory-driven rather than a problem-driven explanation, 2) presenting an explanation for a change without providing a contrast for that change, 3) overlooking the limitations of evidence for distinguishing between alternative explanations (underdetermination), 4) assuming that current utility is the same as historical role, 5) misusing reverse engineering, 6) repurposing just-so stories as hypotheses rather than explanations, and 7) attempting to explain unique events that lack comparative data.
EP is most guilty of (3), (4), (5), (6), and (7). It is guilty of (3) in that it hardly ever posits other explanations for trait T, it’s always “adaptation”, as EP is an adaptationist paradigm. It is guilty of (4) perhaps the most. That trait T still exists and is useful for this today is not evidence that trait T was selected-for its use as we see it today. This then leads to (5) which is the misuse of reverse engineering. Just-so stories are ad hoc (“for this”) explanations and these types of explanations are ad hoc if there is no independent data for the hypothesis. Of course, it is guilty of (7) in that it attempts to explain, of course, unique events in human evolution. Many problems exist for evolutionary psychology (see for example Samuels, 1998; Lloyd, 1999; Prinz, 2006;), but the biggest problem is the ability of any hypothesis to generate testable, novel predictions. Smith (2016: 279) further writes that:
An important weakness in the use of narratives for scientific purposes is that the ending is known before the narrative is constructed. Merton pointed out that a “disarming characteristic” of ex post facto explanations is that they are always consistent with the observations because they are selected to be so.
Bo Winegard, in his defense of just-so storytelling, writes “that inference to the best explanation most accurately describes how science is (and ought to be) practiced. According to this description, scientists forward theories and hypotheses that are coherent, parsimonious, and fruitful.” However, as Smith (2016: 280-281) notes, that a hypothesis is “coherent”, “parsimonious” and “fruitful” (along with 11 more explanatory virtues of IBE, including depth, precision, consilience, and simplicity) is not sufficient to accept IBE—IBE is not a solution to the problems proposed by the just-so story critics as the slew of explanatory virtues do not lend evidence that T was an adaptation and thusly do not lend evidence that hypothesis H is true.
Simon (2018: 5) concludes that “(1) there is much rampant speculation in evolutionary psychology as to the reasons and the origin for certain traits being present in human beings, (2) there is circular reasoning as to a particular trait’s supposed advantage in adaptability in that a trait is chosen and reasoning works backward to subjectively “prove” its adaptive advantage, (3) the original classical theory is untestable, and most importantly, (4) there are serious doubts as to Natural Selection, i.e., selection through adaptive advantage, being the principal engine for evolution.” (1) is true since that’s all EP is—speculation. (2) is true in evolutionary psychologists notice trait T and that, since it survived today, there must be a function it performs for why natural selection “selected” the trait to propagate in species (though selection cannot select-for certain traits). (3) it is untestable in that we have no time machine to go back and watch how trait T evolved (this is where the storytelling narrative comes in: if only we had a good story to tell about the evolution of trait T). And finally, (4) is also true since natural selection is not a mechanism (see Fodor, 2008; Fodor and Piattelli-Palmarini, 2010).
EP exists in an attempt to explain so-called psychological adaptations humans have to the EEA (environment of evolutionary adaptiveness). So one looks at the current phenotype and then looks to the past in an attempt to construct a “story” which shows how a trait came to fixation. There are, furthermore, no hallmarks of adaptation. When one attempts to use selection theory to explain the fixation of trait T, they must wrestle with spandrels. Spandrels are heritable, can increase fitness, and they are selected as well—as the whole organism is selected. This also, of course, falls right back to Fodor’s (2008) argument against natural selection. Fodor (2008: 1) writes that the central claim of EP “is that heritable properties of psychological phenotypes are typically adaptations; which is to say that they are typically explained by their histories of selection.” But if “psychological phenotypes” cannot be selected, then the whole EP paradigm crumbles.
This is why EP is not scientific. It cannot make successful predictions of previously unknown facts not used in the construction of the hypothesis, it can only explain what it purports to explain. The claim, therefore, that EP hypotheses are anything but just-so stories is false. One can create good-sounding narratives for any type of trait. But that they “sound good” to the ear, and are “plausible” are not reasons to believe that the story told is true.
Are all hypotheses just-so stories? No. Since a just-so story is an ad hoc hypothesis and a hypothesis is ad hoc if it cannot be independently verified, then a hypothesis that makes predictions which can be independently verified are not just-so stories. There are hypotheses that generate no predictions, ad hoc hypotheses (where the only evidence to believe H is the existence of trait T), and hypotheses that generate novel predictions. EP is the second of these—the only evidence we have to believe H is true is that trait T exists. Independent evidence is a necessary condition of science—that is, the ability of a hypothesis to predict novel evidence is a necessary condition for science. That no EP hypothesis can generate a successful novel prediction is evidence that all EP hypotheses are just-so stories. So for the criticism to be refuted, one would have to name an EP hypothesis that is not a just-so story—that is, (1) name an EP hypothesis, (2) state the prediction, and then (3) state how the prediction follows from the hypothesis.
To be justified in believing hypothesis H in explaining how trait T became fixated in a population there must be independent evidence for this belief. The hypothesis must generate a novel fact which was previously unknown before the hypothesis was constructed. If the hypothesis cannot generate any predictions, or the predictions it makes are continuously falsified, then the hypothesis is to be rejected. No EP hypothesis can generate successful predictions of novel facts and so, the whole EP enterprise is a degenerative research program. The EP paradigm explains and accommodates, but no EP hypothesis generates independently confirmable evidence for any of its hypotheses. Therefore EP is not a scientific program and just-so stories are not scientific.
Just-so Stories: Cartels and Mesoamerican Ritual Sacrifice
July 7, 2019 4:01 pm / 4 Comments on Just-so Stories: Cartels and Mesoamerican Ritual Sacrifice
Mexican drug cartels kill in some of the most heinous ways I’ve ever seen. I won’t link to them here, but a simple Google search will show you the brutal, heinous ways in which they kill rivals and snitches. Why do they kill like this? I have a simple just-so story to explain it: Mexican drug cartels—and similar groups—kill the way they do because they are descended from Aztecs, Maya, and other similar groups who enacted ritual sacrifices to appease their gods.
For example, Munson et al (2014) write:
Among the most noted examples, Aztec human sacrifice stands out for its ritual violence and bloodshed. Performed in the religious precincts of Tenochitlan, ritual sacrifice was a primary instrument for social integration and political legitimacy that intersected with militaristic and marketplace practices, as well as with beliefs about the cosmological order [6]. Although human sacrifice was arguably less common in ancient Maya society, physical evidence indicates that offerings of infant sacrifices and other rituals involving decapitation were important religious practices during the Classic period [14], [15].
The Aztecs believed that sacrificial blood-letting appeased their gods who fed on the human blood. They also committed the sacrifices “so that the sun could continue to follow its course” (Garraud and Lefrere, 2014). Their sun god—Uitzilopochtli—was given strength by sacrificial bloodletting, which benfitted the Aztec population “by postponing the end of the world” (Trewby, 2013). The Aztecs also sacrificed children to their rain god Tlaloc (Froese, Gershenson, and Manzanilla, 2014). Further, the Aztec ritual of cutting out still-beating hearts arose from the Maya-Toltec traditions (Ceruti, 2015).
Regarding Aztec sacrifices, Winkelman (2014: 50) writes:
Anthropological efforts to provide a scientific explanation for human sacrifice and cannibalism were initiated by Harner (1970, 1977a, 1977b). Harner pointed out that the emic normalcy of human sacrifice—that it is required by one’s gods and religion—does not alone explain why such beliefs and behaviours were adopted in specific societies. Instead, Harner proposed explanations based upon causal factors found in population pressure. Harner suggested that the magnitude of Aztec human sacrifice and cannibalism was caused by a range of demographic-ecological conditions—protein shortages, population pressure, unfavourable agricultural conditions, seasonal crop failures, the lack of domesticated herbivores, wild game depletion, food scarcity and famine, and environmental circumscription limiting agricultural expansion.
So, along with appeasing and “feeding” their gods, there were sociological reasons for why they committed human sacrifices, and even cannibalism.
When it comes to the Maya (a civilization that independently discovered numerous things while being completely isolated from other civilizations), they had a game called pok-ta-tok—due to the sound the ball made when the players hit it or it fell on the ground. Described in the Popul Vuh (the Ki’iche Maya book that lays out their creation myth), humans and the lords of the Underworld played this game. The Maya Hero Twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque went to the Underworld to do battle against the lords of the Underworld—called Xibalba (see Zaccagnini, 2003: 16-20 for a description of the myth Maya Hero Twins and how it relates to pok-ta-tok and also Myers (2002: 6-13)). See Tokovinine (2002) for more information on pok-ta-tok.
This game was created by the Olmec, a pre-cursor people to the Maya, and later played by the Aztecs. The court was seen as the portal to Xibalba. The Aztec then started playing the game and continued the tradition of murdering the losing team. The rubber ball [1] weighed around ten pounds, and so it must have caused a lot of bruising and head injuries to players who got hit in the head and body with the ball—as they used their forearms and thighs to pass the ball. (See The Brutal and Bloody History of the Mesoamerican Ball Game, Where Sometimes Loss Was Death.)
According to Zaccagnini (2003: 6) “The ballgame was executed for many reasons, which include social functions, for recreation or the mediation of conflict for instance, the basis for ritualized ceremony, and for political purposes, such as acting as a forum for the opposing groups to compete for political status (Scarborough 1991:141).” Zaccagnini (2003: 7-8) states that the most vied-for participants in the game were captured Maya kings and that they were considered “trophies” of the kings’ people who captured them. Those who were captured had to play the game and they were—essentially—fighting (playing) for their lives. The Maya used the game for a stand-in for war, which is seen in the fact that they played with invading Toltecs in their region (Zaccagnini, 2003: 8).
Death by decapitation occurred to the losers of the game, and, sometimes, skulls of the losing players were used inside of the rubber balls they used to play the game. The Maya word for ball—quiq—literally means “sap” or “blood” which refers to how the rubber ball itself was constructed. Zaccagnini (2003: 11) notes that “The sap can be seen as a metaphoric blood which flows from the tree to give rise to the execution of the ballgame and in this respect, can imply further meaning. The significance of blood in the ballgame, which implies death, is tremendous and this interpretation of the connection of blood and the ball correlated with the notion that the ball is synonymous with the human head is important.” (See both Zaccagnini, (2003) and Tokovinine (2002) for pictures of Maya hieroglyphs which depict winning and losing teams, decapitations, among other things.)
So, the game was won when the ball passed through the hoop which was 20-30 feet in the air, hanging from a wall. These courts, too, were linked to celestial events that occurred (Zaccagnini, 2003). It has been claimed that the ball passing through the hoop was a depiction of the earth passing through the center of the Milky Way.
Avi Loeb notes that “The Mayan culture collected exquisite astronomical data for over a millennium with the false motivation that such data would help predict its societal future. This notion of astrology prevented the advanced Mayan civilization from developing a correct scientific interpretation of the data and led to primitive rituals such as the sacrifice of humans and acts of war in relation to the motions of the Sun and the planets, particulary Venus, on the sky.” The planets and constellations, of course, were also of importance in the Maya society. Šprajc (2018) notes that “Venus was one of the most important celestial bodies”, while also stating:
Human sacrifices were believed necessary for securing rain, agricultural fertility, and a proper functioning of the universe in general. Since the captives obtained in battles were the most common sacrificial victims, the military campaigns were religiously sanctioned, and the Venus-rain-maize associations became involved in sacrificial symbolism and warfare ritual. These ideas became a significant component of political ideology, fostered by rulers who exploited them to satisfy their personal ambitions and secular goals. In sum, the whole conceptual complex surrounding the planet Venus in Mesoamerica can be understood in the light of both observational facts and the specific socio-political context.
The relationship between the ballgame, Venus, and the fertility of the land in regard to the agricultural cycle and Venus is also noted by Šprajc (2018). The Maya were expert astronomers and constantly watched the skies and interpreted certain things that occurred in the cosmos in the context of their beliefs.
I have just described the ritualistic sacrifices of the Maya. This, then, is linked to my just-so story, which I first espoused on Twitter back in July of 2018:
Mexican drug cartels and similar groups kill the way they do because they're descendants of those who did ritualistic sacrifice. #justsostories
— RaceRealist (@Race__Realist) July 23, 2018
Then in January of this year, white nationalist Angelo John Gage unironically used my just-so story!:
some things don't change pic.twitter.com/q7ShrgSIIj
— Angelo John Gage (@AngeloJohnGage) January 4, 2019
Needless to say, I found it hilarious that it was used unironically. Of course, since Mexicans and other Mesoamericans are descendants of the Aztec, Maya and other Indian groups native to the area, one can make this story “fit with” what we observe today. Going back to the analysis above of the Maya ballgame pok-ta-tok, the Maya were quite obviously brutal in their decapitations of the losing teams of the game. Since they decapitated the losing players, this could be seen as a sort of cultural transmission of certain actions (though I strongly doubt that that is why cartels and similar groups kill in the way they do—the exposition of the just-so story is just a funny joke to me).
In sum, my just-so story for why Mexican drug cartels and similar groups kill in the way they do is, as Smith (2016: 279) notes “always consistent with the [observation] because [it is] selected to be so.” The reasons why the Aztecs, Maya, and other Mesoamerican groups participated in these ritualistic sacrifices are numerous: appeasing gods, for agricultural fertility, to cannibalism and related things. There were various ecological reasons why the Aztecs may have committed human sacrifice, and it was—of course—linked back to the gods they were trying to appease.
The ballgame they played attests to the layout of their societies and how it made their societies function in the context of their beliefs regarding appeasing their numerous gods. When the Spanish landed at Mesoamerica and made first contact with the Maya, it took them nearly two centuries to defeat them—though the Maya population was already withering away due to climate change and other related factors (I will cover this in a future article). Although the Spanish destroyed many—if not most—Maya codices, we can glean important information of their lifestyle and how and why they played their ballgame which ended in the ritualistic sacrifice of the losing team.
Snakes, Spiders, and Just-so stories
April 15, 2018 3:33 pm / 26 Comments on Snakes, Spiders, and Just-so stories
Evolutionary psychology (EP) purports to explain how and why humans act the way they do today. It is a framework that assumes that certain mental/psychological traits were useful in the EEA (Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness) and thusly were selected for over time. It assumes that traits are adaptations then “works backward” by reverse engineering. Reverse engineering is the process of figuring out the design of the mechanism based on its function. (Many problems exist there which will be covered in the future; see also Evolutionary Psychology: The Burdens of Proof by Lloyd, 1999). But let’s discuss snakes and other animals that we have fears of today; is there an evolutionary basis for said behavior and can we really know if there was?
Fear of snakes and spiders
Ohman (2009: 543) writes that “Snakes … have a history measured in many millions of years of shaping mammalian and primate evolution in important respects” and that “snakes … are promising tools for probing the emotional ramifications of deep evolutionary heritages and their interaction with the current environment.” Are they promising tools, though? Were there that many snakes in our EEA that made it possible for us to ‘evolve’ these types of ‘fear modules’ (Ohman and Mineka, 2001)? No, it is impossible for our responses to snakes—along with some other animals—to be an evolved response to what occurred in our EEA because the number of venomous, dangerous snakes to humans and our ancestors was, in reality, not all that high.
Ohman and Mineka (2003: 5-6) also write that “the human dislike of snakes and the common appearances of reptiles as the embodiment of evil in myths and art might reflect an evolutionary heritage” and “fear and respect for reptiles is a likely core mammalian heritage. From this perspective, snakes and other reptiles may continue to have a special psychological significance even for humans, and considerable evidence suggests this is indeed true. Furthermore, the pattern of findings appears consistent with the evolutionary premise.”
Even the APA says that an evolutionary predisposition to fear snakes—but not spiders—exists in primates (citing research from Kawai and Koda, 2016). Conclusions such as this—and there are many others—arise from the ‘fact’ that, in our EEA, these animals were harmful to us and, over time, we evolved to fear snakes (and spiders), but there are some pretty big problems with this view.
Jankowitsch (2009) writes that “Fear of snakes and spiders, which are both considered to be common threats to survival in early human history, are not thought to be innate characteristics in human and nonhuman primates, learned.” For this to be the case, however, there would need to be many spiders and snakes in our EEA.
Philosopher of science Robert C. Richardson, in his book Evolutionary Psychology and Maladapted Psychology (Richardson, 2007) concludes that EP explanations are speculation disguised as results. He says that the stories that state that we evolved to evolved to fear snakes and spiders lack evidence. Most spiders aren’t venomous and pose no risk to humans. In the case of snakes, one quarter are poisonous to humans and we’d have to expect this ‘module’ to evolved on the basis of a minority of snakes that are poisonous to humans:
On this view, at least some human fears (but not all) are given explanations in evolutionary terms. So a fear of snakes or spiders, like our fear of strangers and heights, serves to protect us from dangers. Having observed that snakes and spiders are always scary, and not only to humans, but other primates, Steven Pinker (1997: 386) says “The common thread is obvious. These are the situations that put our evolutionary ancestors in danger. Spiders and snakes are often venomous, especially in Africa…. Fear is the emotion that motivated our ancestors to cope with the dangers they were likely to face” (cf. Nesse 1990). This is a curious view, actually. Spiders offer very little risk to humans, aside from annoyance. Most are not even venomous. There are perhaps eight species of black widow, one of the Sydney funnel web, six cases of brown recluses in North and South America, and one of the red banana spider in Latin America. These do present varying amounts of risk to humans. They are not ancestrally in Africa, our continent of origin. Given that there are over 37,000 known species of spiders, that’s a small percentage. The risk from spiders is exaggerated. The “fact” that they are “always scary” and the explanation of this fact in terms of the threat they posed to our ancestors is nonetheless one piece of lore of evolutionary psychology. Likeways, snakes have a reputation among evolutionary psychologists that is hardly deserved. In Africa, some are truly dangerous, but by no means most. About one quarter of species in Uganda pose a threat to humans, though there is geographic variability. It’s only in Australia—hardly our point of origin—that the majority of snakes are venomous. Any case for an evolved fear of snakes would need to be based on the threat from a minority. In this case too, the threat seems exaggerated. There is a good deal of mythology in the anecdotes we are offered. It is not altogether clear how the mythology gets established, but it is often repeated, with scant evidence. (pg. 28)
The important point to note here, of course, is the assumption that we have an evolved response to fear snakes (and spiders) based on a minority of actually dangerous species to humans.
Just-so stories
The EP enterprise is built on what Gould (1978) termed “just-so stories”, borrowed from Rudyard Kipling’s (1902) book of stories called “Just So Stories” (which he told to his daughter) where he imagined ways that in which certain animals look the way they do today. These stories needed to be told “just so” or she would complain.
And the Camel said ‘Humph!’ again; but no sooner had he said it than he saw his back, that he was so proud of, puffing up and puffing up into a great big lolloping humph.
‘Do you see that?’ said the Djinn. ‘That’s your very own humph that you’ve brought upon your very own self by not working. To-day is Thursday, and you’ve done no work since Monday, when the work began. Now you are going to work.’
‘How can I,’ said the Camel, ‘with this humph on my back?’
‘That’s made a-purpose,’ said the Djinn, ‘all because you missed those three days. You will be able to work now for three days without eating, because you can live on your humph; and don’t you ever say I never did anything for you. Come out of the Desert and go to the Three, and behave. Humph yourself!’ (How the Camel got His Hump)
These stories “sound good” but is there any way to verify these nice-sounding stories? One can then make the same argument for EP hypotheses: can they be independently verified? The thing about functional verification is that we cannot possibly know the EEA of humans—or other animals—and thusly any explanation for the functionality of a certain trait are nothing but just-so stories.
Kaplan (2002: S302) argues that:
Evolutionary psychology has not yet developed the tools necessary to uncover our “shared human nature” (if such there is—see Dupre 1998) any more than physical anthropology has been able to uncover the specifics even of such clear human adaptations as our bipedalism. It is obvious that our brains were subject to selective pressures during our evolutionary history; it is not at all obvious what those pressures were.
I don’t deny that we are the products (partly, natural selection isn’t the only mode of evolution) of evolution; I do deny that these fantasy stories can tell us anything about how and why we evolved though. I don’t see how EP can develop such tools to uncover our “shared human nature”—or any other “nature” for that matter—unless time machines are developed and we can directly observe the evolution of trait X that is being discussed.
A simple argument to show that EP hypotheses are just-so stories:
P1) A just-so story is an ad-hoc hypothesis
P2) A hypothesis is ad-hoc if it’s not independently verified (verified independently of the data the hypothesis purports to explain)
P3) EP hypotheses cannot be independently verified
C) Therefore EP hypotheses are just-so stories
This simple argument shows that all EP hypotheses are just-so stories since they cannot be independently verified of the data they attempt to explain. Stories can “sound good”, they can “sound logical”, they can even be “parsimonious” and they can even be the “inference to the best explanation“, (how do you but just because these stories are “parsimonious”, “sound logical” and are the “inference to best explanation” doesn’t make the stories true. The above argument holds for one of HBD’s pet theories, too, the cold winter theory (CWT). It cannot be independently verified either, and it was formulated after national IQ differences were known; therefore CWT is a just-so story.
(I will cover this more in the future.)
Stories about snakes and spiders in our evolutionary history are likely wrong—especially if they derive from what supposedly occurred in our EEA, an environment we know almost nothing about. The fact of the matter is, regarding snakes and spiders, there is no evidence that our fear of them is an adaptive response to what occurred in our EEA. That is a just-so story. Just-so stories are ad-hoc hypotheses that cannot be independently verified, therefore EP hypotheses are just-so stories.
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September, 5
Jackson family's touring tribute
Members of Michael Jackson's family are to team up with producer David Gest in a touring tribute to the late superstar.
The singer's brother Tito and sister Rebbie will play a series of dates in the UK and Europe next year.
The tour announcement comes ahead of next month's Michael Forever concert in Cardiff which will feature Christina Aguilera, although it has not been universally backed by Jackson's family.
Gest said his A Jackson Named Michael: Remembering A Legend shows would take the form of a spoken word event - with memories and stories about the singer who died in 2009 - with the addition of music.
The tour, which features singer and Jackson family friend Deniece Williams, will also include a Q&A session with the audience.
Gest said: "The majority of the show will be reminiscences and stories about Michael that the public has never heard."
The shows will launch in March 2012 and Gest has also produced a new documentary, Michael Jackson: The Life of an Icon, to be released on DVD and Blu-Ray on October 31.
Jackson's doctor Conrad Murray goes on trial this month charged with the involuntary manslaughter of the singer.
Madonna has announced she's working on a new album.Fresh from promoting her directorial debut W.E. at Venice Film Festival, the Queen Of Pop is heading to the studio to make…
Adele has graced the front cover of UK Vogue, and used the opportunity to insist she's happy with her figure.
Singer-songwriter PJ Harvey could become the first act to win the Mercury Prize twice if she proves the bookies right and picks up the award later.
Katy B has revealed she is trying not to think about her chances of winning the Mercury Prize this week - for fear of jinxing it.
Chris Brown has rewarded an honest fan who returned his Rolex watch after he dropped it at the MTV Video Music Awards.The F.A.M.
Queen fans have voted the chorus of their mega-hit Don't Stop Me Now as the band's best ever lyric in a poll to mark the group's 40th anniversary.
Rapper Example stormed straight to the top of the singles chart with his track Stay Awake.The song is the lead single from his new album Playing in the Shadows.
Maroon 5 want to take a new direction with their upcoming fourth album, Adam Levine has said.The group, who are set to top the Billboard Hot 100 charts with their new…
Singer-songwriter Adele has been forced to cancel the first two dates of her biggest ever UK tour due to illness.
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Tag Archives: richard harris
Unforgiven – Review
Clint Eastwood and the western genre pretty much go hand in hand. Eastwood practically built his career out of playing heroic gunslingers navigating through the violent old west. From his iconic performances in Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns like The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, to more traditional American westerns like Hang ‘Em High, Eastwood has really just become a staple of the genre. Wether it was intentional or not, he was also responsible for resuscitating this kind of film making with his 1992 revisionist western classic, Unforgiven, which has gone down in modern history as one of the best American films.
After cutting a woman working in a brothel in the town of Big Whiskey, Sheriff Little Bill Dagget (Gene Hackman) runs two cowboys out of town, despite the other girls wanting to see them hanged for their crime. As a last resort, the women at the brothel pull their money and put a bounty on the cowboys’ head, which draws in a couple of bounty hunters like English Bob (Richard Harris). It also attracts the attention of a young gunslinger called the Schofield Kid (Jaimz Woolvett) who hires the help of a retired outlaw known for his brutality, William Munny (Clint Eastwood). After a wave of reluctance passes, Munny realizes he needs the bounty money and brings along his old friend, Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman), to help him and the Schofield Kid kill the two criminals. What this gang of bounty hunters don’t know is that Little Bill Dagget runs Big Whiskey with an iron fist, and he’ll be damned if a bunch of no good gunslingers undermine his authority.
I’m not really a huge fan of classic westerns where the hero is a moral gunslinger who faces off against the clearly evil bad guys. It doesn’t seem like that’s really what the west should be portrayed as. Granted, there are some exceptions, but I like my westerns to be a bit more complicated than that. That’s why I love a good revisionist western like The Wild Bunch and Unforgiven. There really aren’t any clear good or bad guys in this movie, even though you’d want to think that Clint Eastwood is the obvious good guy. This just isn’t the case, because it’s made clear that William Munny was an awful guy in the past and you can still see some of that evil lurking beneath the surface. On the flip side, Little Bill Dagget makes some pretty brutal moves in this movie, but there’s still a human side to him that just wants to live a peaceful life. This is an intriguing western with complex characters.
Another interesting thing about this movie is that it can be argued that Unforgiven is just as much about a lifestyle, set of beliefs, or state of mind as it is about the characters. There are a lot of characters in this movie that all get ample amounts of screen time, which makes it hard to really distinguish who the main protagonist is. This is a movie that does tell a story about a group of people who clash in a small western town, but it’s also a look at the violence and attitudes of people during the time period. Is it all accurate? I don’t know, but it is a good way of examining the tropes of a genre along with what is known about the time period. This is kind of a weird thing to figure out the first time you watch the movie, but after letting the structure sit with you for a while, it starts to really feel like Eastwood did something new with this movie and reinvigorated a genre and his faltering career.
Unforgiven is possibly the most beautifully shot western I’ve ever seen. A lot of this is due to Eastwood’s skill as a director, but credit also has to be given to cinematographer Jack N. Green. Green worked with Eastwood before Unforgiven and would work with him even more afterwards, but nothing in his career has really stood up to his work on this film. The silhouetted figures riding their horses in front of a setting sun has never looked as great as it does here. That along with the natural looking lighting in the various saloons and jailhouses makes this film feel as naturalistic as it does artistic.
Unforgiven is a modern day masterpiece that has gained the recognition and reputation that it deserves. It took home 3 Oscars, which were Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor for Gene Hackman, and Best Editing. There’s plenty to enjoy with this movie, but Unforgiven is more than just a western featuring the heroics of the good guys and the evil deeds of the bad guys. Instead, it explores a time period and the thin line between leading a good life and falling into unforgivable sin. This may well be Eastwood’s best movie and certainly has a place as one of the best westerns ever made.
Tags: academy awards, action, adventure, classic, clint eastwood, crime, drama, film, gene hackman, gunslingers, jaimz woolvett, modern classic, morgan freeman, movies, murder, oscars, revenge, review, revisionist western, richard harris, unforgiven, western
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The domestic violence towards women in the untied states
Most of this violence is intimate partner violence. Men are more likely to perpetrate violence if they have low education, a history of child maltreatment, exposure to domestic violence against their mothers, harmful use of alcohol, unequal gender norms including attitudes accepting of violence, and a sense of entitlement over women. There is evidence that advocacy and empowerment counselling interventions, as well as home visitation are promising in preventing or reducing intimate partner violence against women.
Situations of conflict, post conflict and displacement may exacerbate existing violence, such as by intimate partners, as well as and non-partner sexual violence, and may also lead to new forms of violence against women.
Introduction The United Nations defines violence against women as "any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual, or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life. It includes rape, defined as the physically forced or otherwise coerced penetration of the vulva or anus with a penis, other body part or object. The prevalence estimates of intimate partner violence range from 23.
Intimate partner and sexual violence are mostly perpetrated by men against women. Risk factors Factors associated with intimate partner and sexual violence occur at individual, family, community and wider society levels. Some are associated with being a perpetrator of violence, some are associated with experiencing violence and some are associated with both.
Risk factors for both intimate partner and sexual violence include: Factors specifically associated with intimate partner violence include: Factors specifically associated with sexual violence perpetration include: Gender inequality and norms on the acceptability of violence against women are a root cause of violence against women. Health consequences Intimate partner physical, sexual and emotional and sexual violence cause serious short- and long-term physical, mental, sexual and reproductive health problems for women.
They also affect their children, and lead to high social and economic costs for women, their families and societies. Have fatal outcomes like homicide or suicide. Lead to unintended pregnancies, induced abortions, gynaecological problems, and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. The 2013 analysis found that women who had been physically or sexually abused were 1.
They are also twice as likely to have an abortion. Intimate partner violence in pregnancy also increases the likelihood of miscarriage, stillbirth, pre-term delivery and low birth weight babies.
30 Shocking Domestic Violence Statistics That Remind Us It's An Epidemic
These forms of violence can lead to depression, post-traumatic stress and other anxiety disorders, sleep difficulties, eating disorders, and suicide attempts. The 2013 analysis found that women who have experienced intimate partner violence were almost twice as likely to experience depression and problem drinking. Health effects can also include headaches, back pain, abdominal pain, gastrointestinal disorders, limited mobility and poor overall health.
Sexual violence, particularly during childhood, can lead to increased smoking, drug and alcohol misuse, and risky sexual behaviours in later life. It is also associated with perpetration of violence for males and being a victim of violence for females. Impact on children Children who grow up in families where there is violence may suffer a range of behavioural and emotional disturbances. These can also be associated with perpetrating or experiencing violence later in life.
Intimate partner violence has also been associated with higher rates of infant and child mortality and morbidity through, for example diarrhoeal disease or malnutrition. Social and economic costs The social and economic costs of intimate partner and sexual violence are enormous and have ripple effects throughout society. Women may suffer isolation, inability to work, loss of wages, lack of participation in regular activities and limited ability to care for themselves and their children.
Prevention and response There are a growing number of well-designed studies looking at the effectiveness of prevention and response programmes. More resources are needed to strengthen the prevention of and response to intimate partner and sexual violence, including primary prevention — stopping it from happening in the first place. There is some evidence from high-income countries that advocacy and counselling interventions to improve access to services for survivors of intimate partner violence are effective in reducing such violence.
Home visitation programmes involving health worker outreach by trained nurses also show promise in reducing intimate partner violence.
However, these have yet to be assessed for use in resource-poor settings. In low resource settings, prevention strategies that have been shown to be promising include: To achieve lasting change, it is important to enact and enforce legislation and develop and implement policies that promote gender equality by: While preventing and responding to violence against women requires a multi-sectoral approach, the health sector has an important role to play.
The health sector can: Advocate to make violence against women unacceptable and for such violence to be addressed as a public health problem. Provide comprehensive services, sensitize and train health care providers in responding to the needs of survivors holistically and empathetically.
Prevent recurrence of violence through early identification of women and children who are experiencing violence and providing appropriate referral and support Promote egalitarian gender norms as part of life skills and comprehensive sexuality education curricula taught to young people.
Generate evidence on what works and on the magnitude of the problem by carrying out population-based surveys, or including violence against women in population-based demographic and health surveys, as well as in surveillance and health information systems. WHO response At the World Health Assembly in May 2016, Member States endorsed a global plan of action on strengthening the role of the health systems in addressing interpersonal violence, in particular against women and girls and against children.
Global plan of action to strengthen the role of the health system within a national multisectoral response to address interpersonal violence, in particular against women and girls, and against children WHO, in collaboration with partners, is: Building the evidence base on the size and nature of violence against women in different settings and supporting countries' efforts to document and measure this violence and its consequences, including improving the methods for measuring violence against women in the context of monitoring for the Sustainable Development Goals.
This is central to understanding the magnitude and nature of the problem and to initiating action in countries and globally. Strengthening research and capacity to assess interventions to address partner violence.
Undertaking interventions research to test and identify effective health sector interventions to address violence against women. Developing guidelines and implementation tools for strengthening the health sector response to intimate partner and sexual violence and synthesizing evidence on what works to prevent such violence.
Supporting countries and partners to implement the global plan of action on violence by: Declaration on the elimination of violence against women.
Writing a character reference for a judge
Sa pangangalaga sa wika at kalikasan wagas na pagmamahal talagang kailangan
The role of human nature in antigone a play by sophocles
A focus on human suffering in elie wiesels story night
Hunger was a good discipline by ernest hemingway
The unified community on the pequod in moby dick a novel by herman melville
When an employee says he is hiv positive case study answers
Effect of positive feedback on employee performance
Sociological perspective of money can t buy happiness
A biography of the life and times of cicero the persuader
An overview of the egyptian pyramids in ancient egypt
The factors leading to divorce in the united states
A report on the article do trees help or hurt by the associated press
A biography of cleopatra vii philopator a queen of egypt
The effects of motivation on the performance of an employee
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Groundhog Day Shifts Opening Date on Broadway
August 17th, 2016 | By Imogen Lloyd Webber
Groundhog Day is still coming to Broadway! Groundhog Day is still coming to Broadway! Groundhog Day is still coming to Broadway! After a bit of a switcheroo with the producing team, Broadway.com has confirmed that the Andy Karl-led tuner, which received rapturous reviews in London, remains Main Stem-bound. However, the stage adaptation of the 1993 film is no longer confirmed to be starting previews on January 23, 2017 and officially opening on March 9.
Directed by Matthew Warchus, the musical features a score by Matilda scribe Tim Minchin and a book by Danny Rubin (who co-wrote the original film). The production is currently playing at the Old Vic, with Karl as Phil and Carlyss Peer as Rita.
Groundhog Day follows TV weather man Phil (played by Bill Murray in the film), who reluctantly goes to cover the story of Punxsutawney Phil for the third year in a row. Making no effort to hide his frustration, he covers the story and moves on, expecting his job to be finished. However, he awakes the "following" day and discovers that it's Groundhog Day again, and the fun happens again and again and again. He soon realizes he must take advantage of it in order to secure the love of a coworker.
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40 Fun Facts in Honor of the 40-Year Anniversary of A Chorus Line
July 25th, 2015 | By Gemma Wilson
Forty years ago, A Chorus Line, the beloved downtown musical celebrating the lives of Broadway's hard-working dancers, made its way uptown to the spotlights and footlights of Broadway, and the American musical has never been the same. The show, spearheaded by legendary director/choreographer Michael Bennett with music by Marvin Hamlisch and lyrics by Edward Kleban, opened at the Shubert Theatre on July 25, 1975, and tells the story of 17 dancers vying for eight spots in a Broadway chorus. To celebrate the show's big 4-0, we've rounded up 40 of our favorite fun facts about the game-changing musical, with a nod to the words that have been a part of this singular sensation from the beginning: "This show is dedicated to anyone who has ever danced in a chorus or marched in step…anywhere."
1. Broadway lore has it that director/choreographer Michael Bennett thought up A Chorus Line from scratch, but the famous interviews on which the show was based—hours and hours of tape of dancers sharing their life stories—were actually started by veteran Broadway dancers Michon Peacock and Tony Stevens in January 1974.
2. Bennett, who had just worked with Peacock on Seesaw, was part of this first all-night interview marathon, and the stories he heard clicked with an idea he already had rattling around in his head—making a dance musical about dancers. He was inspired, believe it or not, by the Watergate hearings, and the "falsehood and apathy" that gripped the country in those days.
3. Bennett played the interview tapes for Public Theater impresario Joseph Papp, and convinced Papp to fund a five-week workshop of a new musical, which was virtually unheard of for anything but experimental theatre in those days.
4. The concept of the show was truly original: a show with no real set, no costumes to speak of, no star and no narrative had never been seen on Broadway before.
5. Before that first interview session, four of the dancers—Sammy Williams, Thommie Walsh, Priscilla Lopez and Kelly Bishop—were so nervous about the event that they met up at Walsh's house to get stoned.
6. In a contract signed early in the development process, the dancers involved sold their stories to Bennett for $1 each.
7. When A Chorus Line got picked up by Joseph Papp and the Public Theatre, the original dancers had to audition to play themselves in the final version—and not all of them got the job.
8. Bennett and his team played fast and loose with the interview material—for example, Maggie's story about pretending to dance around the living room with her father, "an Indian chief," was actually Donna McKechnie's story, and she played Cassie.
9. One of the original dancers interviewed, Nicholas Dante, would go on to write the book for A Chorus Line with James Kirkwood, Jr. (His story inspired the character of Paul, for which Sammy Williams won a Tony.)
10. At one point during previews, Bennett had his good friend Neil Simon secretly punch up the jokes. As an inexplicable thank you, Bennett sent Simon a set of satin pillowcases.
11. During the workshops, the characters that landed roles at the end of the show would change at every performance, so the actors would be genuinely surprised (and sometimes genuinely hurt). Bennett locked down those choices for the final show.
12. In previews of the show, former star dancer Cassie didn't get hired. It was Neil Simon's then-wife Marsha Mason who called up Bennett and suggested (strongly) that he change the ending to be less of a downer.
13. Bennett was notoriously difficult to work with—before opening night in Los Angeles, he came up to Sammy Williams, who played Paul, and demanded that he produce real tears during his monologue that night. When Williams asked how he might do that, Bennett suggested that he "think about how much I hate you." It worked.
14. Donna McKechnie, who won a Tony Award for playing Cassie in A Chorus Line, was briefly married to Bennett in 1976, but they actually first met as teenagers dancing on the musical TV show Hullaballoo.
15. Kelly Bishop, who played Sheila and won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical, went on to play Baby's mom in Dirty Dancing and Emily Gilmore on Gilmore Girls.
16. Bennett and Baayork Lee, who created the role of Connie, were also old friends—they had already worked on five Broadway shows together by the time A Chorus Line rolled around, and Lee credits Bennett with letting her "walk in platform shoes and wear my hair down" so the 4-foot-10 actress could stop playing children.
17. Another small world coincidence—Clive Wilson, who took on the small role of assistant director Larry, landed the role after reconnecting with Bennett, with whom he'd danced on a CBC variety show in Toronto as kids.
18. Amazingly, A Chorus Line was the first Broadway show for composer Marvin Hamlisch and lyricist Edward Kleban—though Hamlisch already had two Oscars for his work on The Sting and The Way We Were.
19. Footing the bill for A Chorus Line was a major financial strain for the Public Theater in the beginning, but the buzz about the show was so intense that the run sold out fast, and a move to Broadway seemed inevitable.
20. Hamlisch is one of only two people (Broadway legend Richard Rodgers being the other) to win both the EGOT and a Pulitzer Prize.
21. Kleban hated A Chorus Line hit "What I Did For Love" so much (he thought it was too focused on being a hit, rather than forwarding the story) that he forbade anyone from performing at his funeral—he even wrote it into his will.
22. Despite Kleban's hatred for it, "What I Did For Love" was indeed a hit—Aretha Franklin and Petula Clark both recorded it on albums.
23. Bennett handpicked Barry Bostwick to play Zach (the on stage show's director, and a version of Bennett himself), but he left the show during the second workshop. The role of Zach then went to Robert LuPone, brother of the one and only Patti!
24. Priscilla Lopez, who sings the famous line about loving Robert Goulet in "Hello Twelve, Hello Thirteen, Hello Love," says that Robert Goulet made a point of visiting her backstage after he saw the show.
25. A Chorus Line opened at the Public Theater on April 15, 1975. (On April 15 of this year, the cast of Hamilton at the Public performed their own anniversary tribute that you need to watch immediately.)
26. Clive Barnes' original review in The New York Times opened with the sentence: "The conservative word for A Chorus Line might be tremendous, or perhaps terrific."
27. A Chorus Line was nominated for 13 Tony Awards in 1976 and won nine, including Best Musical, Best Director and Best Choreography.
28. In 1976, A Chorus Line became the fifth musical ever (after Of Thee I Sing, South Pacific, Fiorello! and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying) to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
15. After her marriage with Bennett fell apart, McKechnie's depression stopped her from dancing. She choreographed for the L.A. Raiders cheerleading squad before returning to New York and the dance world.
29. Back when the show was just taking off, Bloomingdale's wouldn't give the young dancers charge cards, but they were more than happy to help them come hawk the Chorus Line merch—with the dancers' images on it!—being sold at the height of the show's fame.
30. On September 29, 1983, a massive A Chorus Line gala performance celebrates the show's 3,389th performance, surpassing Grease as the longest-running show on Broadway.
31. Bennett invited all 457 of the show's alumni from its eight companies to perform for the 3,389th performance; the stage had to be specially reinforced to support them all.
32. A Chorus Line remains the sixth longest-running Broadway show ever, having closed on April 28, 1990 after 6,137 performances.
33. When A Chorus Line closed in 1990, The Public Theater (then the New York Shakespeare Festival) had made a net profit on it of $37.8 million, and funded many of the company's other projects, including Shakespeare in the Park.
35. A 1985 film adaptation didn't fare so well—of Michael Douglas as Zach, The New York Times' Vincent Canby wrote, "His warmest smile would freeze a cardboard container of coffee in five seconds."
36. Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon's daughter Nicole Fosse is in the Chorus Line film as the tone-deaf Kristine.
37. Bob Avian, who co-choreographed the original production of A Chorus Line, returned to direct a 2006 Broadway revival of the show, with Bennett's original choreography re-staged by Baayork Lee.
38. The next famous man to play the role of Zach? Saved By the Bell favorite Mario Lopez, in the 2006 revival.
39. Lee went on to set Bennett's choreography on almost all of the A Chorus Line revivals of the last 30 years.
40. One of the show's original endings involved bringing up an audience member on stage to perform, to show just how much a great chorus can do to make anyone look great. The idea was scrapped, and "One" became the show-stopping ensemble finale.
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Clarification of Employer’s Continuing Obligation to Make and Maintain an Accurate Record of Each Recordable Injury and Illness
Get the Record Straight: Latest on OSHA’s E-Recordkeeping and Anti-Retaliation Rule [Webinar Recording]
May 16, 2017 May 26, 2017 Amanda Strainis-Walker Leave a comment
On May 16, 2017, Amanda R. Strainis-Walker and Dan C. Deacon of Conn Maciel Carey’s national OSHA Practice Group, presented a webinar regarding “OSHA’s E-Recordkeeping and Anti-Retaliation Rule.” Here is a link to a recording of the webinar.
OSHA’s controversial new Electronic Injury and Illness Recordkeeping data submission rule, along with its new Anti-Retaliation elements has thus far survived a barrage of negative stakeholder comments during the rulemaking, multiple enforcement deferrals, and a legal challenge complete with a preliminary injunction motions, and continuing legal challenges. As of today, all elements of the rule are in effect, including limits on post-injury drug testing and safety incentive programs, and barring a change before July 1, 2017, thousands of employers will, for the first time, be required to submit injury and illness recordkeeping data to OSHA, possibly for publishing online.
Participants in this complimentary webinar learned about:
Requirements of OSHA’s Electronic Injury Recordkeeping data submission
The status of OSHA’s new database to receive injury data
OSHA’s policy on publishing the injury data received from employers
The Anti-Retaliation Elements of the E-Recordkeeping Rule
The status and future of this new Final Rule
The fate of “Volks” Recordkeeping Statute of Limitations Rule
This was the fifth webinar event in Conn Maciel Carey’s 2017 OSHA Webinar Series. Plan to join us for the remaining complimentary monthly OSHA webinars. Click here for the full schedule and program descriptions for the 2017 series, and/or to register for the entire 2017 series, click here to send us an email request, and we will get you registered.
If you missed any of our prior webinars in the 2017 or past years’ OSHA Webinar Series, here is a link Conn Maciel Carey’s Webinar Archive.
“OSHA’s Midnight Attempt to Overrule Federal Court’s Decision Is Ripe for Rescission” – WLF Article
February 24, 2017 Eric J. Conn 2 Comments
Washington Legal Foundation just published Eric J. Conn’s “Legal Opinion Letter” article regarding OSHA’s new “Volks Rule” attempting to circumvent the D.C. Circuit ruling limiting OSHA’s statute of limitations for injury and illness recordkeeping violations from 5½ years to six months.
Below is a summary of the article with an update about Congressional action scrutinizing the Rule, and here is a link to the full article.
In the waning days of the Obama Administration, OSHA promulgated a new rule purportedly “clarifying” employers’ continuing duty to correct injury and illness recordkeeping logs for the entire five-year period the logs must be kept. See 81 Fed. Reg. 91,792 (Dec. 19, 2016). The final rule, dubbed the “Clarification of Employer’s Continuing Obligation to Make and Maintain an Accurate Record of Each Recordable Injury and Illness,” amended OSHA’s existing recordkeeping regulations in order to circumvent a 2012 decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in AKM LLC v. Secretary of Labor (Volks II), 675 F.3d 752 (DC Cir. 2012). This “clarifying” rule is unlawful and should be repudiated.
OSHA’s Injury and Illness Recordkeeping regulations require employers to record certain injuries and illnesses within seven days of the incident and also to preserve a copy of those records for five years. 29 C.F.R. Part 1904 et seq. Separately, the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSH Act) authorizes the Secretary of Labor to issue citations alleging violations of regulations adopted under the Act. 29 U.S.C. §§ 651-678. The statute of limitations in the OSH Act states, however, that “[n]o citation may be issued under this section after the expiration of six months following the occurrence of any violation.” 29 U.S.C. § 658(c).
The article provides a historical look at how OSHA interpreted and enforced its injury and illness recordkeeping regulations Continue reading →
OSHA Proposed Rule Attempts to Undo D.C. Circuit Recordkeeping Statute of Limitations Ruling
April 14, 2016 April 14, 2016 Eric J. Conn Leave a comment
By Eric J. Conn and Kate M. McMahon
Earlier this year, we wrote about a very significant rulemaking to amend OSHA’s injury and illness recordkeeping regulations to require employers to proactively submit their injury logs and reports to OSHA on a regular and frequent basis. We understand OSHA is committed to implementing that rule before the Obama Administration shuts out the lights and hands over the keys. The data submission recordkeeping rule is not, however, the only effort underway by OSHA to reform its recordkeeping regulations.
In what is certain to land OSHA back in court, OSHA plans to soon roll out a rule that attempts to end-run around the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit’s decision that rejected the Agency’s historical doctrine that violations of OSHA injury and illness recordkeeping requirements continued each day an employer’s log remained incomplete or inaccurate, and declared instead that recordkeeping violations may only be cited within a strict six month statute of limitations. OSHA has attached the misleading name “Clarification of Employer’s Continuing Obligation to Make and Maintain an Accurate Record of Each Recordable Injury and Illness” to this rulemaking.
The driver behind OSHA’s proposed amendment to its injury and illness recordkeeping rule is not to clarify anything, but rather to attempt to undo the D.C. Circuit’s very clear 2012 decision in AKM LLC v. Secretary of Labor (aka the Volks Constructors case). In Volks Constructors, OSHA argued that every day the logs remain inaccurate, the employer commits a new violation, and extends the enforcement deadline. In other words, even though Congress set a six month statute of limitations for OSHA violations, OSHA believed the statute of limitations for injury and illness recordkeeping violations was five years plus six months due to the “continuing” nature of recordkeeping violations. Applying this expansive and flawed view of the statute of limitations historically gave OSHA wide latitude in recordkeeping enforcement. Continue reading →
OSHA’s Top 5 Rulemaking Priorities to Close Out the Obama Era
December 10, 2015 December 8, 2015 Eric J. Conn Leave a comment
By Eric J. Conn
As we wind down the year and head into the waning days of the Obama Administration, we look with interest at the Administration’s latest, and likely final, Semi-Annual Regulatory Agenda, published November 20th.
If one were a jaded OSHA defense lawyer like me, the thought that publication of the Agency’s list of regulatory priorities and planned rulemaking activities on the eve of the Thanksgiving holiday, when most of the country is focused on family, preparing a Thanksgiving feast, and gearing up for some good football, might have been intentional. “Maybe they won’t notice?” Well, we did, and we thought it would be useful for our readers to have a summary of OSHA’s final priorities in the regulatory arena as the Obama Administration focuses on legacy, and what they would like to accomplish before Secretary Perez and Assistant Secretary for OSHA David Michaels turn out the lights next year at 200 Constitution Avenue.
In the “Fall 2015 Statement of Regulatory Priorities” that accompanied this regulatory update, Sec. Perez expressed:
“So many workplace injuries, illnesses and fatalities are preventable. They not only put workers in harm’s way, they jeopardize their economic security, often forcing families out of the middle class and into poverty. The Department’s safety and health regulatory proposals are based on the responsibility of employers to provide workers with workplaces that do not threaten their safety or health and we reject the false choice between worker safety and economic growth. Our efforts will both save lives and improve employers’ bottom lines.”
One note about OSHA’s robust list of planned regulatory activity for 2016 — and an apt idiom for an analysis of the Thanksgiving Regulatory Agenda — OSHA’s eyes are too big for its stomach. While the Agency’s plans look ambitious and aggressive, if history is a guide, the cumbersome rulemaking machinery will prevent much of these plans from coming to fruition, especially in the final few months before the presidential election. Unless 2016 is an exception, this means there really are only a few productive months remaining for OSHA to accomplish some subset of its long list of priority actions. Looking at the roadblocks Dr. Michaels has already faced in the regulatory arena throughout his term – some of which came from the White House itself – it is unlikely OSHA will accomplish much of what appears in its final Regulatory Agenda.
Notwithstanding, it is important to understand the Agency’s rulemaking plans for numerous reasons, the most important of which is that you can count on the fact that Dr. Michaels’ last priorities will become the first priorities of the next Administration, should a Democrat again take the White House.
Here is our summary of OSHA’s top five regulatory priorities for 2016: Continue reading →
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Tag Archives: Hypothalamus
100 Best Albums & EPs Of 2014 (Part Three) – Blueprint / Essa / Timeless Truth etc.
Check Part One and Part Two.
Blueprint – “Respect The Architect” (Weightless Recordings) – Responsible for releasing a steady stream of quality music over the last decade-plus, Ohio producer-on-the-mic Blueprint channeled his life experiences, both good and bad, into this emotionally-charged body of work. Capturing a variety of moods and thoughts, Blueprint moved seamlessly throughout this album, from moments of powerful reflection to striking artistic defiance. Genuine soul music.
Skanks – “The Shinigami Flowfessional” (Shinigamie Records) – Spreading love may well be the Brooklyn way as Biggie once said, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be delivered with a heavy dose of rawness, as evidenced by NY emcee Skanks’ impressive solo project. Backed by the rugged, thunder-clap production of France’s Kyo Itachi, the Bankai Fam member repped for both the streets of his Crooklyn stomping grounds and the culture of Hip-Hop with equal parts passion, aggression and determination. How about some hardcore?
Wu-Tang Clan – “A Better Tomorrow” (Warner Brothers) – At one point it looked like “A Better Tomorrow” wasn’t likely to see the light of day, with there being discord within the Clan regarding RZA’s creative direction for the project. Yet, the brothers from the slums of Shaolin managed to find some musical middle ground. For the most part, this 20th anniversary album effectively balanced the Abbot’s grand ideas with traditional Wu-Tang slang, showcasing the still-impressive verbal skills of each member and also including some poignant rhymes for our troubled times.
Dilated Peoples – “Directors Of Photography” (Rhymesayers Entertainment) – Viewing the world through a camera lens on their first group project since 2006, West Coast trio Evidence, Rakaa Iriscience and DJ Babu added more worthy sonic snapshots to their extensive musical photo album, which now spans almost two decades. With “Directors Of Photography”, the crew showcased their creative growth whilst remaining faithful to their underground Hip-Hop roots set in the 90s indie scene.
Giallo Point & SmooVth – “Portrait Of A Pimp” (Crate Divizion) – SmooVth by name, smooth by nature, the Strong Island lyricist plundered UK producer Giallo Point’s beat stash for this sublime, low-key lesson in minimalist magic. Weaving subtle-yet-vivid rhymes around exquisite beats that ranged from cool-breeze loops to 70s soundtrack-style drama, SmooVth used his calm-but-deadly delivery to draw the listener into a cinematic world of fine women, fast living and slick street tales.
Eff Yoo & Godilla – “They Came On Horseback” (Eff Yoo & Godilla) – Riding into town from the high plains of NYC and Pennsylvania respectively, mic-slingers Eff Yoo and Godilla stood as outlaws against Hip-Hop’s diluted mainstream, crafting an album for those who still appreciate genuine lyricism. Joined on their musical travels by the likes of Spit Gemz, Shabaam Sahdeeq and UG of the Cella Dwellas, this rough-and-ready posse made their way through the badlands of rap, inviting like-minded heads to ride alongside them. Saddle up!
Lord Finesse – “The SP1200 Project” (Slice-Of-Spice) – The Diggin’ In The Crates legend unleashed a mammoth selection of masterful, sample-based beats on this brilliant instrumental project. Capturing the timeless essence of classic golden-era Hip-Hop, Finesse demonstrated why his reputation as one of the game’s illest producers remains firmly intact to this day.
Essa – “The Misadventures Of A Middle Man” (First Word Records) – London’s Essa (formerly known as Yungun) is the perfect example of an emcee who has really kept it real over the years in the truest sense of the term. Having displayed consistent artistic growth, integrity and honesty since debuting in the early-2000s, this long-awaited album found Essa delivering expertly-written verses over a varied selection of musical flavours, from futuristic soul and afro-beat to traditional, drum-heavy Hip-Hop. Capturing Essa’s thoughts on topics such as his mixed-race heritage, religion and family, “The Misadventures…” offered insight into the world of an artist with a sharp mind and an equally sharp lyrical ability.
Diamond District – “March On Washington” (Mello Music Group) – Successfully achieving the delicate balancing act of pushing creative boundaries whilst still satisfying original fans, DMV trio Oddisee, yU and Uptown XO’s follow-up to their 2009 album “In The Ruff” demonstrated both musical growth and a deeper lyrical approach. Spring-boarding off of Oddisee’s ever-expanding production palette, the group crafted a now-school album with influences that could be traced back to 70s soul and 90s Hip-Hop.
K-9 – “The Re-Education Of King 9” (Rotton Products) – This self-produced album from London emcee K-9 is what KRS-One would no doubt describe as ‘edutainment’. Proudly displaying a strong reggae influence rooted in old-school sound-system culture, K-9 also drew heavily on his West Indian ancestry as he linked the social plight faced by many inner-city British Black Black youth to the experiences of older generations arriving in England in the late-40s and after. Tackling racism, injustice and colonialism, “The Re-Education Of…” is as much a history lesson as it is a snapshot of present-day Britain. Intelligent, entertaining and engaging. Overstand!
Golden Brown Sound – “The Great Man Theory” (GBS) – Claiming to be bringing ’88 back, “not the place and time, but the state of mind”, Boston duo NoDoz and DJ On & On succeeded in crafting an album that, like so many golden-era favourites of yesteryear, was recorded with the intention of being valued and embraced by the Hip-Hop Nation first and foremost. NoDoz’s passionate social commentary and life observations sat tightly over On & On’s pounding production, resulting in “The Great Man Theory” being a combustible mix of mental stimulation, energy and true skills.
Various Artists – “Jamla Is The Squad” (Jamla Records) – With Statik Selektah on the ones-and-twos, this mixtape-style compilation of Jamla artists and allies showcased just how much talent is affiliated with the 9th Wonder-helmed label. Featuring the likes of Big Remo, Rapsody and GQ delivering expert wordplay over the soul-drenched boom-bap of Khrysis, Eric G and 9th himself, this album proved, as Busta Rhymes mighty say, that Jamla really is the squid-aud!
Keith Science – “Hypothalamus” (Central Wax Records) – Following up 2012’s impressive “Vessels Of Thought Volume II”, New Jersey producer Keith Science unlocked his lab to present this collection of atmospheric instrumentals. Ranging from mesmerising, late-night-flavoured beats, to sparse, neck-snapping rhyme-ready tracks, with “Hypothalamus” Science proved himself to be a true master of the sampling arts.
Ray Vendetta & Greater Good – “Effortless” (GreaterGoodBeats.BandCamp.Com) – A member of talented UK collective Triple Darkness, London emcee Ray Vendetta stepped outside of crew ranks to drop this dope solo project. Combining life memories, positive sentiments and raw imagery with the hazy, head-nodding production of Greater Good, “Effortless” was a hypnotic, and at times haunting listening experience, which stayed with you long after the last track faded away.
Sonnyjim & Leaf Dog – “How To Tame Lions” (EatGood Records) – Collaborations between particular emcees and producers may look good on paper, but don’t always translate well once both parties are in the studio. When done right, however, the final results can be a match made in Hip-Hop heaven, like this EP from Birmingham emcee Sonnyjim and High Focus Records production wizard Leaf Dog. Meshing colourful wordplay and rewind-worthy punchlines with sublime beats, the pair displayed a natural chemistry throughout “How To Tame Lions” which, hopefully, will be heard again on future releases.
Von Poe VII – “Only Godz Relate” (Organized Threat) – An ambitious project of epic proportions, this thirty-track double-album from West Coast emcee Von Poe found the skilled artist unleashing intricate verses laced with socially conscious sentiments, street knowledge and a strong sense of cultural pride. Linking with equally talented wordsmiths such as Planet Asia and the UK’s Melanin 9, Poe also demonstrated a sharp ear for quality production, with “Only Godz Relate” possessing a strong sonic identity thanks to the ominous, piano-laced soundscapes of Saheed Sha, Endure and Faces. Peace to the Godz!
Creestal – “Difference” (Munchie Records) – French producer Creestal’s instrumental project “Difference” (a dedication to the “dark and rugged” aspects of America) offered listeners a captivating sonic journey which conjured up images of New York City project buildings, late-night street-corner drama and lost record collections rediscovered in dusty basements. Meticulously pieced together from a variety of random sample material, “Difference” was as unpredictable as it was enjoyable.
Timeless Truth – “Dominican Diner” (TimelessTruthNYC.Com) – Building on the strong foundations of their previous releases and continuing to carry on tradition, blood-related “Queens giants” Oprime39 and Superbad Solace repped proudly for their NY borough throughout “Dominican Diner”, accompanied by atmospheric production from the talented Fafu. Staying true to the golden-era codes and ethics of Rotten Apple Hip-Hop, Oprime and Solace respectfully paid homage to the NYC sound that raised them whilst making their own worthwhile contribution to the city’s rap legacy.
Supastition – “Honest Living” (Reform School Music) – Written during a period in when North Carolina-raised, ATL-based lyricist Supastition found himself unemployed and looking for a j-o-b in an unsteady US economy, “Honest Living” was working-class Hip-Hop capable of resonating with anyone struggling to make-ends-meet and provide for their family. Backed by the melodic boom-bap of German producer Croup, Supa provided the perfect soundtrack for everyone out there counting down to payday every month.
Jazz Spastiks – “The Product” (JazzPlastik) – UK production duo Coconut Delight and Mr. Manayana delivered a flawless album with “The Product”, a thoroughly-satisfying, head-nodding extravaganza which found the pair supplying the likes of Yesh, Apani B. Fly and Count Bass D with their classic brand of jazz-infused beats. Smooth horn samples, huge basslines and dreamy keys were the order of the day here, resulting in a warm, timeless listening experience.
Part Four coming soon.
Posted in Album Reviews, East Coast Hip-Hop, UK Hip-Hop, West Coast Hip-Hop
Tagged A Better Tomorrow, Blueprint, Central Wax Records, Crate Divizion, Creestal, Diamond District, Difference, Dilated Peoples, Directors Of Photography, Dominican Diner, East Coast Hip-Hop, EatGood Records, Eff Yoo & Godilla, Effortless, Essa, Fafu, First Word Records, Giallo Point & SmooVth, Golden Brown Sound, Honest Living, How To Tame Lions, Hypothalamus, Independent Hip-Hop, Jamla Is The Squad, Jamla Records, Jazz Spastiks, K-9, Keith Science, Lord Finesse, March On Washington, Mello Music Group, Munchie Records, Only Godz Relate, Organized Threat, Portrait Of A Pimp, Ray Vendetta & Greater Good, Reform School Music, RESPECT THE ARchitect, Rhymesayers Entertainment, Rotton Products, Shinigamie Records, Skanks, Slice-Of-Spice Records, Sonnyjim & Leaf Dog, Southern Hip-Hop, Supastition, The Great Man Theory, The Misadventures Of A Middle Man, The Product, The Re-Education Of King 9, The Shinigami Flowfessional, The SP1200 Project, They Came On Horseback, Timeless Truth, UK Hip-Hop, Underground Hip-Hop, Von Poe VII, Warner Bros, Weightless Recordings, West Coast Hip-Hop, Wu-Tang Clan
Old To The New Q&A – Keith Science
Although he’s been making beats since the 90s, New Jersey-based producer Keith Science might not be a familiar name to many. Keeping his talents under the radar from everyone other than his closest friends and family, Science has only been making his unique brand of sample-based boom-bap production available to the masses for the last couple of years.
Aside from dropping his debut instrumental project “Vessels Of Thought Volume II” in 2012, the NJ beat junkie has also worked with Kool Keith and the UK’s very own Mista Spyce of The Brotherhood fame.
Keith’s latest release, the hypnotic “Hypothalamus”, finds the talented music man once again putting his own spin on the traditional sounds of East Coast Hip-Hop with sublime results.
Here, Science discusses his passion for 90s Hip-Hop, the art of sampling and his personal approach to making music.
How were you initially introduced to Hip-Hop?
“Okay, well I’ve been a musician my entire life, y’know. When I was growing-up my dad was a blues guitarist and my uncle, who was real close with the family, he was a rock guitarist. So I grew-up primarily as a guitarist, playing different styles of music, and I really always wanted to keep the range of music that I listened to as diverse as possible. As a musician, I was constantly looking for something to inspire me. I was definitely listening to rap music as I was growing-up in the 80s and you had “Yo! MTV Raps” on all the time and I would watch that. But then when I heard what was happening in Hip-Hop in the early-90s, it hit me like a ton of bricks. That early-90s East Coast feel is just such a magical sound and I’d never really heard anything like that before. It was just so captivating and so creative. The music I was hearing gave me this unbelievable feeling compared to anything that I’d ever listened to before. Now, this was probably when I was about eighteen-years-old. That’s when I really fell head over heels in love with Hip-Hop. I mean, before that I’d been playing the guitar, writing my own music, and that really seemed like it was the direction I was going to go in. But then when I really got into Hip-Hop, it just changed everything.”
Can you remember some of those first early-90s albums you heard that really gave you that feeling you mentioned?
“Absolutely. The first album that comes to mind is “The Low End Theory” by A Tribe Called Quest. I was just glued to that one instantly. But the album that really did it for me and made me a Hip-Hop fan for life was Gang Starr’s “Daily Operation”. When I heard that it just changed everything. I can’t even really explain it. I mean, first of all, it just sounded so different to the other Hip-Hop records that I was listening to at the time. It was Premier, y’know (laughs). He’s the greatest ever. But there’s something about that “Daily Operation” album, even to this day, that just reminds me of why I love this music and why I want to be involved with it.”
For me, “Daily Operation” is the album that bridged the gap between the straight jazz loops Premier had been using on the first two Gang Starr albums and the boom-bap sound that became his trademark…
“Absolutely. I think you’re right on that. Also, that album is deceptively simple. It’s so simple but also so rich in terms of the creativity heard on it. “Daily Operation” is an album that literally gives me chills. I mean, if you listen to something off it like “Soliloquy Of Chaos”, that track in particular just puts you in such a trance the second it comes on and you don’t want it stop, y’know (laughs). It’s amazing.”
So as you were really starting to immerse yourself in Hip-Hop, was it a journey you were making on your own or did you also have friends at the time who were listening to the music?
“It was actually my friends who helped me get into it. A friend of mine had moved from our town to another town in New Jersey and over there they were listening to a lot of Hip-Hop. So he would come back with a lot of tapes and we would be listening to this stuff and were just being blown away by it. Some of the guys in this group of friends had already been listening to Hip-Hop and really studying it. I mean, I would see my friends all huddling around the stereo listening to a new Hip-Hop track and they would really be speaking in-depth about each different sound and the way the samples had been layered, all this kinda stuff. It really just blew my mind because before then I’d never really seen anyone sit there and really analyse music like that. So it taught me a lot about how to approach the music when I did start making beats. Plus, with the musical experience I already had and being able to play various instruments, it was just a real natural progression to me.”
So is that where the Science part of your name comes from, seeing your friends really studying the music and then doing that yourself?
“Exactly. The name was definitely born out of that original group of friends I had back in the early-90s. It just came from me studying Hip-Hop and I really feel the stuff I learned from being around those guys at that time are lessons that I still apply when I’m making music today. Unfortunately, I don’t know if many people still listen to music and study it in that same way today. I think a lot of people now jump into this style of music without even attempting to study the history which I think is a huge mistake. But I definitely think there seems to be more of an interest in that old sound now among the newer generation that are coming up which is pretty amazing.”
Speaking of studying the history, when you first started really listening to Hip-Hop in the early-90s were you aware of the rich heritage that New Jersey already had with the whole Flavor Unit movement, YZ, Poor Righteous Teachers etc?
“I kinda learnt about it as I went along. I mean, when I first got into the music I used to just study it all the time. I was so into it that I wanted to know everything about it. At one point, I was almost like a walking encyclopedia. Unfortunately, it’s not like that anymore as I can barely remember what I did yesterday (laughs). But there was a time when I was very dedicated to learning about the music and culture of Hip-Hop and making sure that anything I did didn’t violate the original principles.”
So did you start making beats almost immediately?
“Pretty much. What happened was, my uncle, who I mentioned earlier, had some old studio equipment. So back in the day he got hold of an old Tascam four-track cassette machine and he also got a couple of drum machines and a keyboard. So there was equipment around and I already knew how to work the stuff because I’d been using it for years. So when I started hanging-out with my group of friends who helped get me into Hip-Hop, one dude was an emcee and he wanted to make a beat. So he was asking me about it because he knew I had access to equipment. So I said I’d call my uncle up and see if he’d let us borrow some of the stuff. So my uncle let me borrow the four-track and the drum machines and my friend, who went by the name Swift Wisdom , he had a really cheap sampler. So we just started messing around and the first thing we did, I helped him make his beat because he already knew what he wanted to do and I knew how to use the equipment. So once that first beat was made, I was like, ‘You know what? I could learn how to do this and really go crazy with it.'”
Were you trying to shop beats at this point or were you really just keeping what you were doing within your own circle?
“Yeah, I was just keeping my beats within the crew. To be honest, I really didn’t feel like I was that good back then. I needed to learn and grow. I was still experimenting and it wasn’t really my time yet. Furthermore, on top of that, I really had bulls**t equipment (laughs). So it would have been really difficult for me to approach a big name emcee or something when I didn’t feel my beats were good enough. Or even if it was a good beat, it would have been made on crappy equipment so you wouldn’t have been able to record with it.”
Who would you say were some of your earliest influences when you started making beats?
“I’ve obviously gotta say DJ Premier as he was such a huge influence on me and there’s no way I’d even be able to do what I do today without what he did first. I was a huge Pete Rock fan, then there was Diamond D, Showbiz, Buckwild, all that D.I.T.C. stuff. Plus, all the Tribe stuff was a huge influence on me.”
Those influences can still definitely be heard in your music today because you’re very much about drums but there’s often a lot of melody in there as well…
“No doubt. I can’t tell you’re listening, man. That really is my thing so I’m glad you noticed that. The type of beats that I really liked the most back in the 90s were the ones where the drums were really hard but there was a nice semi-friendly melody going on over that with the samples and everything. There’s just something about the marriage of those two things together that I really like. I mean, one beat that immediately comes to mind when I think about that is DJ Premier’s remix of Fat Joe’s “The S**t Is Real”. That beat is hard as hell but it’s got a nice melody behind it as well. So that’s something I always try to do. I mean, not all of my beats are melodic, but that is a huge part of what I do. I think being a musician by nature, I always try to make things sound as musical and as organic as possible.”
I think that’s always the challenge with instrumental Hip-Hop, for a producer to take it beyond just being a good beat for someone to rhyme over and to make music that stands on its own, keeps your interest and doesn’t make you think, ‘I wish there was an emcee on this…’
“Right, absolutely. You’re exactly right. You’ve got to have some substance in there. That’s one of the mistakes I think I made as a young producer, I didn’t have enough layers or changes in the music I was making. Now, I’ve come up with a formula that works for me and I really try to make a song out of every track I do, even though there are no vocals. That’s something that’s especially evident to me on this new project “Hypothalamus” compared to the previous album, “Vessels Of Thought Volume II”.”
So were you producing consistently throughout the 90s? Is there any particular reason why you didn’t release any material during that time?
“That’s a good question and, to be honest with you, I did actually stop making beats for awhile. When Hip-Hop started to decline towards the end of the late-90s, I really started to get frustrated. I wasn’t happy about the direction the music was moving in and it made me lose interest. Also, around that time, I’d been doing a lot of music projects that included some stuff outside of Hip-Hop and I just felt burnt out. I felt like I didn’t even want to mess with music for awhile. Then my brother, who goes by the name DJ Uncut Raw, he and I got hold of some equipment at some point and we started making beats together. I mean, he’d got into it a little bit through being the younger brother watching me as we were growing-up. So we started working together and that was the first time I got an actual sampling drum machine. We built a studio in a friend’s house and were over there all the time. We had local emcees just coming through and we were just having fun with it. This was around the early-to-mid 2000s. Then I got to a point a couple of years ago where I decided that I wanted to try and formally release my music. So “Vessels Of Thought Volume II” kind of just started off with me making a beat-tape for me and my friends to listen to and a lot of people liked it, so I just ended-up formally pressing it up. I mean, I’m a pretty private guy. I’m not that person who’s trying to be all up in the cameras and everything. I’m just doing this because I love this music and I can’t sit back and just watch the art of sampling die.”
What is it about the actual act of sampling that really draws you in and keeps you feeling so passionate about it?
“The thing is, I use a really old style sampler and I do that for a reason. It’s because it has a certain, beautiful organic sound to it and that’s what really excites me about sampling. That sound is the sound of Hip-Hop. But it’s that whole process of sampling and achieving that sound that you’re hearing in your head that really excites me as well. I mean, a lot of people wouldn’t even want to touch the equipment I make my music on because that old equipment is hard to use (laughs). I mean, my new album “Hypothalamus” only has twelve tracks on it, but that album took me a whole year to make. I can’t be one of those people who pump out ten beats a day. I can’t do that. I’ll start a beat and maybe won’t go back to it until a month later when I’m really inspired by something or a particular idea grabs me. But to really answer your question, you can just do so many things when you’re sampling. The most exciting thing for me is to take sounds and try to make them sound completely different. I mean, the samples that I took from vinyl and used on the new album, you’ll never be able to figure out where I got them from (laughs). I don’t want to give away any tricks, but there’s so many things you can do with sampling and I really wish people would try to challenge themselves more and see what they can come up with. I think anyone doing this just needs to at least try and elevate themselves above what they’ve already heard being done. That’s how you end-up doing something creative. I mean, I love Hip-Hop more than other style of music but I’m open to listening to anything and I can be inspired by anything as long as it’s something that’s pure and great. Music speaks to you in general and if you want to be a good, well-rounded artist I think it’s important for you to listen to other genres and really study how different types of music are put together.”
What equipment do you use?
“I use an old Akai S2000 rack sampler for everything. If you look at the whole history of Akai, it’s probably the cheapest sampler they ever put out (laughs). But the reason I chose this machine is mainly because I didn’t know of anyone that was using it. Premier has the S950, Pete Rock did the SP12oo thing, but I wanted to use something that nobody else was using. So I decided to give this particular machine a shot. When I first started using it, the learning curve was definitely huge (laughs). It wasn’t pretty when I first started with that machine but I think I’ve got it now. I mean, I don’t use Pro-Tools or anything. This whole “Hypothalamus” album was mixed on my old analog recording console. If I could record to tape I would, but it’s just way too expensive at this point. But a lot of the equipment I use today is the stuff that was being used in studios back in the 90s. For me, it’s more fun sitting in front of a recording console than it is sitting in front of a computer screen with a mouse. I just think that all of this computer software used today makes it harder for people to differentiate themselves and really put their own character into their music. I mean, the way I work, it takes forever, but I run every single individual track in at its own time. So if I get the foundation of a beat down, before I go and record it I might sit there and mess with the sound of the bass drum for an hour or something (laughs). Then I’ll record just that track, then I’ll run in another track like the snare and layer it like that. So every single sound on my tracks gets attention. It takes forever and a lot of people wouldn’t want to do it like that, but that’s when you can have full control and really make what you’re doing musical.”
So do you think relying too heavily on computers whilst making music takes away from the creative process?
“It’s too easy to sound like everyone else when you’re involving computers too much in the recording process. I mean, I try to keep computers totally out of music if possible. Now, like I said, these days it’s too expensive to record on tape, so you have to stick with digital, but there are so many things that you can do to mess with samples and get a more organic sound than just relying on a computer. As I said, I don’t want to give away any secrets as it’s taken me twenty years to develop some of the techniques I use, but I just think producers out there should challenge themselves more and explore the other things that can be done with samples rather than just doing the obvious stuff. There are a lot of great rappers out there and I think that when it comes to a lot of people who have complaints about Hip-Hop today, it’s really the production that’s ruining it for them. I just think that a lot of the computer-based production being heard today sounds very sterile and stiff and doesn’t have that loose, organic bounce to it like it should. Those are the kind of things I try to focus on specifically when I’m making my records.”
You definitely have a real talent for creating particular moods in your music and really taking the listener somewhere on each track…
“When I make my music I just try and take my brain to another universe or something (laughs). I don’t even really know how to explain it. But it really feels good to hear people say that because it means they’re really listening and getting what I’m doing. I mean, my music is designed that way and it is made to tap into certain moods and hopefully take you somewhere as you’re listening to it. That is the ultimate goal, to create some type of emotion that really sticks with you after you’ve listened to the music.”
It was actually the work you did in 2012 with the UK’s Mista Spyce that put me on to you. How did you hook-up with him?
“First of all, big shout to Mista Spyce! To be honest with you, he’s really part of the reason that “Vessels Of Thought Volume II” even happened in the first place. I started posting some beats online, some of which would actually end up on “Vessels…”, and Spyce was one of the first guys to really listen and give me the nod of approval. He immediately wanted to work together, which we did and we made a couple of great tracks. Spyce was really encouraging and it kinda helped give me the confidence to formally release something and he continues to be supportive.”
If you could choose one emcee to work with, is there anyone in particular who immediately comes to mind?
“Now, this is a totally unoriginal answer and probably every producer will say the same thing, but I would definitely like to work with Nas. As far as I’m concerned he’s the greatest and there’s nothing else really to talk about (laughs). Nas is the type of emcee who can really light up any type of track. Someone else I’d like to work with is Jeru The Damaja. I’d really like to do something with him. But in terms of working with different emcees, we’ll see what happens in the future as a lot of people really still don’t know that I’m even out there yet. I hope I do get to work with more emcees but it’s tough to find the right people to work with. I mean, I’m not an emcee, but the one thing I will say about my beats is that I can see how some of them might not be considered easy to rap on (laughs). But as much as I enjoy making instrumentals, when you put vocals on a track it just takes it somewhere else and opens up a whole new level of creativity.”
And when it comes to other producers, is there anyone who you really think is setting the standard today?
“Hell yeah, The Alchemist. I really love what he’s doing and he really seems to always think outside the box. He’s just a true original in my opinion. I mean, I loved that s**t that he did with Prodigy on their “Albert Einstein” album. That album is really creative to me. The first two tracks on that album are just so good and you really get pulled in quick. That s**t is just hard! But musically Alchemist is just so unpredictable and I’m always excited to hear what he’s going to do next. Alchemist is definitely someone who, to me, is elevating the art of sampling and really showing what you can do with it.”
Now that “Hypothalamus” is out, do you have any goals for the next twelve months?
“All I can really hope for is that this album lets people know that I’m out there and if people want to work together then come and see me (laughs). I mean, after getting “Hypothalamus” out there, I haven’t even really made a beat in the last few months. I’ve been having to take care of a lot of business stuff with getting the vinyl finished and everything. But my girlfriend always tells me that the creative process needs a rest sometimes and I’m kinda in that rest period right now (laughs). I can’t wait to get back in that studio but I just have to wait until that inspiration hits me. I mean, sometimes it’s like that and you just have to wait until it’s the right time. For many years I felt like I was just making music for myself, so it’s great to have reached a point where people are receiving the music in the way it was intended to be received. It just makes me want to work harder.”
Ryan Proctor
Follow Keith Science on Twitter – @KeithScience
Check “Vessels Of Thought Volume II” and “Hypothalamus” on BandCamp.
Keith Science – “Logic Gates” (Central Wax Records / 2014)
Posted in East Coast Hip-Hop, Interviews, Production
Tagged A Tribe Called Quest, Akai, Central Wax Records, DJ Premier, East Coast Hip-Hop, Gang Starr, Hypothalamus, Independent Hip-Hop, Instrumental Hip-Hop, Keith Science, Mista Spyce, New Jersey, Sampling, Underground Hip-Hop, Vessels Of Thought Volume II
New Joint – Keith Science
Keith Science – “Parks Road” (KeithScience.BandCamp.Com / 2014)
Jazzy lo-fi vibes from the New Jersey producer’s quality instrumental album “Hypothalamus”.
Tagged East Coast Hip-Hop, Hypothalamus, Independent Hip-Hop, Keith Science, Underground Hip-Hop
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Gerald (Jerry) Mendelsohn, Ph.D.
Home › Gerald (Jerry) Mendelsohn, Ph.D.
B.S., Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University; M.A., Psychology, University of Michigan; Ph.D., Clinical Psychology, University of Michigan.
Positions and Honors
Present: Professor of Psychology, UC Berkeley; Research Psychologist, Institute of Personality Assessment and Research, UC Berkeley.
Former: Instructor of Psychology, University of Michigan; Research Psychologist, Mount Zion Hospital, San Francisco; Dean of Social Sciences, UC Berkeley; Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford; Elected to the Society for Personality; Elected Directeur d'tudes associe at l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France; Elected a Fellow of APS; Instructor, OLLI @Berkeley.
Subjects Taught at OLLI @Berkeley
Introduction to opera; Verdi's operas; Mozart-Da Ponte operas; 20th century Opera; Interracial dating.
Research Areas of Interest in ART
Personality; Causal attribution and interpersonal attraction; Individual differences in purposive behavior; Computer mediated communication
Mendelsohn, G. A., & Gall, M. (1970). Personality variables and the effectiveness of techniques to facilitate creative problem-solving. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 16, 346-351.
Mendelsohn, G. A., & Lindholm, E. P. (1972). Individual differences and the role of attention in the use of cues in verbal problem solving. Journal of Personality, 40, 226-241.
Mendelsohn, G. A. (1978). Verdi the man and Verdi the dramatist, Part I. 19th Century Music, 2, 110-142.
Mendelsohn, G. A. (1979). Verdi the man and Verdi the dramatist, Part II. 19th Century Music, 2, 214-230.
Mendelsohn, G. A. (1979). The psychological consequences of cancer: A study of adaptation to somatic illness. Cahiers d'Anthropologie, 2, 53-92.
Dakof, G. A., & Mendelsohn, G. A. (1986). Parkinson's disease: The psychological aspects of a chronic illness. Psychological Bulletin, 99, 375-387.
Mendelsohn, G. A. (1990). Psychosocial adaptation to illness by women with breast cancer and women with cancer at other sites. Journal of Psychosical Oncology, 8, 1-25.
Mendelsohn, G. A. (1993). It's time to put theories of personality in their place or, Allport and Stagner got it right, why can't we? In Craik, K. H. and Hogan, R. (Eds.), Fifty Years of Personality Psychology. New York: Plenum.
Mendelsohn, G. A., Dakop, G.A., & Skaff, M. (1995). Personality change in Parkinson's disease patients: Chronic disease and aging. Journal of Personality, 63, 233-258.
Brod, M., Mendelsohn, G. A. & Roberts, B. (1998). Patients' Experience of Parkinson's Disease, Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 53B, 213-222.
Robins, R. W, Mendelsohn, G. A, Connell, J. B., & Kwan, V. (2004) Do people agree about the causes of behavior? A social relations analysis of behavior ratings and causal attributions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86, 334-344
Alterovitz, S. S. R. & Mendelsohn, G. A. (2009) Partner preferences across the lifespan: Online dating by older adults. Psychology and Aging, 24, 513-517
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Menu Mandates and Obesity: A Futile Effort
One provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that has been delayed until 2017 is a federal mandate for standard menu items in restaurants and some other venues to contain nutrition labeling.
Drawing on nearly 300,000 respondents from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System from 30 large cities between 2003 and 2012, we explore the effects of menu mandates. We find that the impact of such labeling requirements on BMI, obesity, and other health-related outcomes is trivial, and, to the extent it exists, it fades out rapidly.
Another Look at ObamaCare and Part-Time Work
A new note from JPMorgan economist Jesse Edgerton looks at what is happening with Americans who are working part-time for “economic reasons” — or Americans involuntarily working part time. As you can see in the above chart — the red line — the numbers remains elevated despite big declines in the U-3 and U-6 jobless rates. Edgerton:
There has been little recent relationship between the number of “extra” part-time workers and the level of U3 unemployment, questioning the idea that driving U3 down further will reduce involuntary part-time employment. . . In a note last year, we pointed out that the shift strikingly coincided with the passage of the ACA, which included an employer mandate to provide health insurance to employees working 30 or more hours per week. . . passage of the ACA preceded a large and unprecedented shift from workers working more than 30 hours per week to just under 30 hours. We continue to believe that the ACA can explain a significant number of the “extra” involuntary part-time workers.
The ACA Exchanges Are Being Sabotaged — By The ACA
One of the reasons that ACA Exchange plans are losing money is their inability to attract enough healthy enrollees. Healthy people are, disproportionately, young people. And large numbers of young adults don’t have to enroll in ACA Exchange plans – because the ACA mandates that their parents’ employer provide them with coverage, and that coverage is almost invariably priced lower.
Anyone up to age 26 with a parent who has employer-based health coverage that includes dependents can enroll in the parent’s plan. This is called the “dependent care mandate,” and is a requirement of the ACA. There are no other requirements for this coverage option: the “child” does not have to live with the parent or be financially dependent or a dependent for tax purposes on the parent. The “child” could be employed and eligible for employer-based coverage on his/her own, but elect to take the parent’s coverage if it’s preferable.
Exchanges are being undermined, in part, by the ACA’s dependent care mandate.
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House in Edenton found to be oldest in N.C.
By Submitted Story on January 17, 2013
Wood aging expert Michael Worthington and property owner Steve Lane share research findings on the oldest dated house discovered in North Carolina. (submitted photo)
After two years of investigation of what was a planned rental property, the oldest dated house in North Carolina has been identified in Edenton.
Preservationists with the N.C. Historic Preservation Office, architectural historians with the Architectural Research Department at Colonial Williamsburg and local historians participated in the research.
Timbers in the one-and-a-half story house have been dated to 1718/19.
Dendrochronologist Michael Worthington made the announcement on Jan. 11, after confirming the date by finding the age of the tree rings of timbers in the structure.
At his side was Steve Lane, who with his wife Linda had bought the house to turn into a rental property.
The house was assigned a date of ca. 1900 in the Edenton National Register Historic District, but restoration carpenter Wayne Griffin and expert cabinetmaker Don Jordan exposed timber framing, weatherboarding, ceiling joists and other features that seemed much older.
The Lanes contacted HPO Restoration Specialist Reid Thomas in the Eastern Office for guidance in learning about the unique building, and he assisted by leading and coordinating three volunteer architectural visits.
The Lanes understood the potential importance of the house and sought and funded additional study.
Originally 16 feet by 25 feet, the house was divided in two rooms on the first floor and two in the attic. It was probably constructed in 1719. The original owners are not known.
The historical significance of the house is that it offers a rare glimpse into an almost lost vernacular building type in North Carolina, the kind that would be a home for the average citizen.
It provides valuable information about building type, house form and construction technology in eastern North Carolina as early as 1719. Further research may find additional historically significant information.
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February 28, 2011 by designingquilters
Seaborgium
Glenn Seaborg (1912-1999) was a chemist and winner of the Nobel prize. He discovered, or helped to discover, 10 elements, including number 106, which is named for him.
Seaborg was a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He also served as Chair of the US Atomic Energy Commission. He worked on the Manahattan Project, where he developed the extraction process used to isolate plutonium fuel for the second atomic bomb.
In 1980, he transmuted bismuth into gold, fulfilling the dream of alchemists throughout history. The technique is too expensive to be commercially viable.
He was also a pioneer of nuclear medicine. He considered his own biggest accomplishment to be his work on the Limited Test Ban Treaty. He influenced President Johnson’s administration to pursue the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Seaburg’s family name was originally Sjöberg, yet another connection between Sweden and the periodic table. Holmium is named for Stockholm, and four elements were discovered on the Swedish isle of Ytterby: Ytterbium, Erbium, Terbium and Yttrium. Johan Gadolin, who discovered Yttrium, was a Finn when Finland belonged to Sweden. Gadolinium is named for him. Cobalt and oxygen were both first recognized as elements in Sweden. Lise Meitner, part of the team that discovered nuclear fission, was born in Austria but lived and worked in Sweden. Meitnerium is named for her. Then of course there is Nobellium, named for another Swedish chemist. Also consider Thorium (after a Norse god) and Scandium, named for Scandinavia. Vanadium is a name from Norse mythology, and Tungsten comes from the Swedish for “heavy stone.”
This entry was posted in Transition Metals, View All Elements and tagged Kim B.
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Scalia Defends His Legal Writings on Homosexuality in Talk at Princeton University
Krystal Knapp4 min readDecember 11, 20126 comments
Photo of Justice Scalia by Denise Applewhite, Courtesy of the Princeton U. Office of Communications.
Less than a week after the U.S. Supreme Court announced it would take up the same-sex marriage issue, Justice Antonin Scalia was asked to defend his legal writings on homosexuality after his speech at Princeton University yesterday.
Several hundred people packed Richardson Auditorium to hear the Trenton native deliver the school’s annual Herbert W. Vaughan Lecture on America’s Founding Principles. Scalia spoke about his new book, “Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts.”
During the question and answer session, Princeton University student Duncan Hosie drew applause from the audience when he challenged Scalia for comparing laws banning sodomy with laws barring bestiality and murder. Scalia was unapologetic about his position or tactics.
“I don’t think it’s necessary, but I think it’s effective,” Scalia said. “It’s a form of argument that I thought you would have known, which is called ‘reduction to the absurd’.”
“If we cannot have moral feelings against homosexuality, can we have it against murder? Can we have it against other things?” Scalia said, adding dryly, “I’m surprised you aren’t persuaded.”
In his 45-minute talk, Scalia defended his judicial philosophy. He believes seeking the original meaning of the text is the best way to interpret the Constitution. Scalia, who spoke in a casual tone and cracked several jokes during his speech, criticized those who view the U.S. Constitution as a living document that changes with the times.
“I have classes of kids who come to the court, and they recite very proudly what they’ve been taught, that the Constitution is a living document,” he said. “It isn’t a living document. It’s, dead, dead, dead… I don’t say that them. I call it the enduring Constitution. That’s what I tell them.”
Scalia said interpreting laws requires adherence to the words used and to their meanings at the time they were written.
“When we read Shakespeare, we use a glossary because we want to know what it meant when it was written. We don’t give those words their current meaning.,” he said. “So also with a statute. Our statutes don’t change meaning from age to age to comport with whatever the zeitgeist thinks is appropriate.”
He contrasted his philosophy of originalism with the notion of a “living Constitution” that changes over time as society becomes more mature. He said that people who see the Constitution as changing often argue they are taking the more flexible approach. But their approach is restrictive, he said, and their true goal is to set policy permanently.
“If there’s anything you absolutely hate, why, it must be unconstitutional,” he said. “If there’s anything you absolutely have to have, it must be required by the Constitution. That’s where we are. It is utterly mindless.”
Scalia said it should be left up to states to approve legislation on issues like abortion, homosexuality and the death penalty.
“My Constitution is a very flexible one,” he said. “There’s nothing in there about abortion. It’s up to the citizens. The same with the death penalty,” he said. “Why would you think these nine unelected lawyers living in a marble palace have their thumb on the pulse of the American people so that they know what the evolving standards of decency are? I don’t know what they are. I’m afraid to ask.”
For originalists, Scalia said, the notion that the constitution changed from age to age was ridiculous.
He noted that looking at the text and determining the original intent of the law can lead to some outcomes that liberals support, and other outcomes that conservatives support. “It goes both ways,” he said.
SFB says:
I think you’re right that this is his point, but the Supreme Court has a track record of using the 14th amendment to invalidate arbitrary, discriminatory laws based on ‘local values’.
Kb Cash says:
I believe his point was, “if you can have a moral reaction to one, why not the other?”. He is stating that the Federal government should not override local values, and that all these laws are based on values. We live in a society where 99% of the population finds murder morally wrong, probably 95% find bestiality morally wrong, and maybe 40% find homosexuality morally wrong.
Scott Camuto says:
Scalia defends the duty of legislatures to create laws that criminalize certain behavior and does not believe the perrogative of courts are to reverse laws based on a policy whim. If a legislature can punish murder it can also punish other behaviors (sex included) There is no moral judgement on his part whether the law is good in his mind, he is however disturbed by the new meaning that many persons have towards the court as a body that should correct laws in its own image regardless of the Constittion’s text. He is a textualist not an originalist. However, to derive the meaning of a text it may require the historical documents of the time period to interpert meaning of the words. Scalia does not believe the Constitution is perfect but it is the law of the land until amended.
Krystal Knapp says:
Will check, but don’t think so.
Dan Godbey says:
Is there a transcript of this speech ?
Maybe you had to be there, but I don’t find his argument very convincing. How can you compare a transaction between consenting adults to bestiality or murder, each of which clearly involve a non-consenting party? They aren’t comparable at all. As for Constitutional originalism, if the original Constitution was so perfect then how come it’s been amended 27 times?
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Divine guidance can be tricky. Perhaps you have decided to go in a certain direction, but you are not one hundred percent certain that it is God’s will for you, especially if it is a big step. In mild confusion, you turn to a Christian friend and you say, “I think I am doing the right thing and in the will of God, but how can I know?” To which your adviser answers, seemingly wise, with this burning question: “Well, do you have a peace about it?”
Where did this concept come from? Everywhere you go, people seem to say it. “You’ll know you’re in God’s will because you’ll have a peace about it” This is very strange because it can’t be found in the Bible and has become received wisdom, but is perhaps no more than a charismatic myth. Some may point to Colossians 3:15 “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts”, but this verse is encouraging peace and forgiveness, nothing to do with guidance.
Of course, there are times when the Lord can graciously trouble a man or a woman about to do something unwise, leading them aside from God’s plan. I fled an educational college in my early years as a Christian because of a “troubled spirit”. But let’s wise up a minute. It would be fatal to our destiny if we automatically interpreted every feeling of unease or fear as a red light from heaven. When we are about to do something big, it takes courage. Courage, as we know, is not the absence of fear but the conquering of it. Ask a bride on the night before her wedding if she has a “peace about it” and often she’s too busy being sick with fear in the bathroom to answer you. A first day at a fresh job is far from relaxing. Doing something new can be stressful, not peaceful. But it doesn’t mean it isn’t God’s will.
Unfortunately, it is perfectly possible to be going in the wrong direction and feel fine about it. Billions of unsaved people will live that way today. Sometimes “Do you feel a peace about it?” is often no more than a pseudo spiritual way of saying “How do you feel about it?” I am not suggesting that this is not a valid question occasionally, but how we might feel about a certain situation should not be an indicator of how God feels about it.
If you are still unconvinced, or not “feeling a peace” about reading this article, consider some biblical data. Disobedient Jonah was told to go to Nineveh, but he fled to Tarshish, the exact opposite direction and the very edge of the world map at the time. No-one would deny that Jonah was going, purposefully, the wrong way and speeding out of God’s will. Yet as the divine stormy seas beat against his boat, terrifying the sailors, where was Jonah? He was below deck, asleep. He had a peace about where he was going. But he was wrong.
In Gethsemane, Jesus battles with an agonising choice. His direction is the cross, his destination is the Father’s divine road, one created before the world was made. Yet, the Lord was not enjoying peace in the Garden. So great was his anguish, his lack of peace, that he sweat blood. There was no peace for the shaking apostle in Corinth, nor the anxious Joshua, to whom God had to say “Be strong and very courageous”. To me it suggests that he was weak and fearful. But each of these were in the perfect will of God. Fearful, but right.
Many years ago I shook hands with a lady on the door after church who was on holiday. In conversation, she told me that she was about to move home, leave loved ones and begin a new chapter in her life. As she was telling me this, her face was full of angst, so I mentioned to her that in all this change she should not expect to “feel a peace about the situation”. As I spoke these words, tears began to flow. The stress had made her doubt God was in it.
Thank God for the nearness of the presence of the Lord Jesus, the only peace we truly need. The fruit of the Spirit is peace, and He does indeed fill our hearts with confidence in the day of trouble. But to truly find God’s will is to study His Word, hear His heart and be guided by mature people. Newsflash: “if it feels good, do it” may lead only to a whale’s mouth.
JOY Magazine, June 2008
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Tag Archives: systems thinking
Non-Linearity
Posted by petersironwood in America, management, psychology, Uncategorized
environment, equilibrium, feedback loops, ping pong, research, science, systems thinking, table tennis, testing, truth
A Chessboard Full of Rice
According to myth, the Emperor’s wise adviser once did him a great favor. So grateful was the Emperor that he begged his wise advisor to take any gift she might like from the vast treasures of gold or jewels, any lands or gardens, any of the Emperor’s many male children to be her companion. However, the advisor answered as follows: “Thank you for your generosity, oh mighty Emperor. I have no need of great material wealth. My needs and wants are simple. I do get hungry and thirsty, of course, as do we all, and sometimes my household runs short of rice. You see this fine chessboard?”
“Oh, yes, my wise counselor, it is indeed finely made of gold and silver and I would gladly give you twenty such!”
“Thank you again for your generosity, but I only wish for a some grains of rice. Give me one grain on this space and tomorrow, two grains on this space and the next day, four grains on this space. Each day for 64 days, double the number of grains of rice you gave me the day before. At the end of the 64 days, I will ask for no more.”
The Emperor looked puzzled. “Surely, you must have something more valuable than rice! Name it!”
“No, Sire, that is all I desire. Just the doubled rice will do quite nicely.”
“Well, it shall be so!” And thus the Emperor told his staff that they were to provide a grain of rice for the first day, two grains of rice for the next day and to double the amount each day until all 64 days had passed. At first, it seemed such a pathetic gift for such a great favor.
Even after 8 days, the wise counselor only received 128 grains of rice – not even a bowlful.
Readers familiar with exponential growth realize that on the 64th day, the Emperor has promised to deliver 2**63 grains of rice. This is not only more rice than the Emperor had at his disposal. It is more grains of rice than exist in all the kingdoms of earth. To be exact, the last payment is meant to be 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 grains of rice while the total is one less than 2**64. To put the matter scientifically — it’s a lot of rice! Much more than exists in the world.
How would you like the story to end? A wise Emperor, to my mind, would thank the counselor after a couple weeks and say, “I see, oh wise Counselor, that you used my gift to give me another gift to enhance my wisdom. For I now understand that what seemed at first an easy thing to do is actually quite hard. Doubling soon undoes even the richest king. I will keep this in mind when I think about interest rates and population growth.”
A crummy Emperor, on the other hand, might say, “I offer you a gift and you see fit to embarrass me by making me agree to an impossible task? Boil her in oil!”
The Lily Pad Pond Puzzle.
Beside my house is a pond. In this pond, a lily pad began to grow. Every day, it doubled in size. On day 20, it completely covered the surface of the pond. The surface of the pond is 400 square feet. How many days did it take to cover half of the pond?
Photo by Skitterphoto on Pexels.com
At first glance, you might think this problem is insoluble because you don’t know how big the lily pad was initially. In fact, you don’t even need to know how large the pond is. It will cover half the pond on day 19.
The Ping Pong Table Ping Pong Player Population
When I began at IBM Research in 1973, I soon discovered that a fair number of researchers were avid table tennis players. At lunch time, somewhere between six and twenty researchers would show up to play. There were two tables and some small amount of room for spectators to stand on the edges of the two ping-pong rooms and watch. Our rule was that if a person won, they would stay at the table and a new challenger would play. However, if you won three times in a row, you had to sit down regardlessly. I didn’t go over every lunch time, but I went over quite a few times over the course of my first ten years there and there was invariably someone to play with. Sometimes, I had a longer wait time than others, but it was never too long a wait.
Then, because management wanted to use one of the two ping-pong rooms for other purposes, they repurposed one of the rooms. Now, there was only one ping pong table. In the two ping-pong table case, remember, I never had to wait too long nor did I ever go there and have no-one to play. As I said, the number of players varied between somewhere around six to twenty. What is your prediction about how many players showed up when there was only one ping pong table?
Here’s what happened. The first day after this change happened, I went over and about fifteen people showed up. I, like everyone else, waited a long time for a game. Our “official” lunch hour was actually 42 minutes and the building was a five minute walk away. So, if you had to wait a half hour for your chance to play, it really wasn’t that much fun. In addition, there were some more subtle effects. All the players were good, but there some substantial differences in skill level. People tried to arrange it so that they played someone at about the same level. WIth only one table, this was trickier. In addition, when a relatively large number of people showed up, it was too crowded for everyone to see the match without interfering with play. It happened that I was too busy to go for a few days. The next time I showed up, no-one was there. Some of us talked about trying to “organize” the ping pong to insure that enough people showed up but everyone was busy and no-one wanted to take this on. Scheduling researchers is harder than you might think. It was hard for people to make a commitment to show up at noon because a meeting might run over, their manager might give them extra work, etc. The number of people showing up swung wildly for about two weeks and then stabilized.
At zero.
What had been a vibrant community with two ping pong tables did not stay the same size, or shrink to half when we were limited to one table. It went to zero.
Warring Positive Feedback Loops.
We’ve already talked about “positive feedback loops” which are also known as “vicious circles.” Sometimes, there are actually (at least) two positive feedback loops hiding beneath what appears to be a stable system. In the Case of the Missing Ping Pong Table described above, one positive feedback loop was simply that when you went there and had a good time through some combination of watching good matches or playing yourself, you were more likely to go there again. There was also a positive feedback loop that was more of a social nature. The more people who were there, the more likely it was you would find a good or interesting match. It was also more likely to be able to find someone you wanted to have a conversation with although the venue prevented this from being a big part of the adventure. Another way that having more people there increased the chances that more people would be there the next day was that it was kind of exciting to have a larger audience watching, cheering, throwing the ball back when the ball crept under the radiator after pin-balling around for awhile after a decent slam.
At the same time, there were other feedback loops, sometimes of the same factors but in a different range. For instance, beyond the point of having the periphery of the playing field covered one or two deep, additional spectators added only a little excitement and they were more likely to infringe on the needed space around the table. In addition, while the first ring of spectators felt very much a part of the action, the experience for the second ring of spectators was far less engaging. While I mentioned above that more players meant a better change of finding a good match, it also meant that one had to wait longer between matches. The worst case scenario, of course, is that you are the only one who shows up.
Behind Every Abstraction are a Host of Personal Stories.
Yes, you can practice against the wall, and I did this a few times, but it is significantly less fun than a real match. I love to serve, for instance. I have a raft of difficult serves. Just to give you one example, with most set-ups, I can hit the right side of the ball so thinly that I put enough side-spin for the ball to appear as though it isn’t even going to hit the table on the second side, but it does; it curves radically back around the left. Sometimes people are so surprised that they miss it entirely. Even if they get there, the sidespin often makes them hit it off the table or the curve causes them to mis-hit the ball on their thumb or finger. I can also add a fair amount of top-spin or under-spin as well. Anyway, I didn’t get to do any of that just hitting the ball against the wall. The wall was not perfectly smooth either. So I might hit three of four shots and then the ball would hit a little imperfection in the plaster and careen off to scribble scrabble along the floor and then crawl under the radiator. It’s the kind of annoyance that everyone has experienced. And if someone else is there, you can kind of glance at your friend who nods nearly imperceptibly as you get down on your hands and knees and stretch your fingers into the territory of God-knows what spiders or broken glass and feel around through the grit and dust until you retrieved the ball. And that little glance and that little nod actually make quite a difference. If you’re on your own, it’s not any fun at all. It’s just an annoyance. The only reason I even bother to hit against the wall is to learn to keep focus for extended periods of time. For this, it is good practice and a good challenge. But, if I’m interrupting this to go fish my hand into a pile of dust every couple minutes, it isn’t so likely I’ll come back.
These various factors were all in a dynamic balance so long as there were two tables. When the tables went from two to one, however, what had been a stable equilibrium became a very unstable one. Eventually, of course, it did find a new equilibrium point and that was zero. To crawl out of that, one person might show up. But most of the time, they were the only one. So, they would be less likely to come again. Even if two showed up, since no-one could play every day, you might still find yourself wondering whether someone would be there the next time.
Photo by panumas nikhomkhai on Pexels.com
You might have read this whole story and wondered why the hell this building full of Ph.D.’s couldn’t get their act together and arrange some matches. It’s an interesting question and here is my personal opinion. When it came to these brilliant scientists and engineers, they came from every part of the globe and they came in all shapes and sizes. Some were vastly overweight and others were ultra marathoners. But the ones who liked to play table tennis were, by and large, athletic and “hyper” – an impatient lot. What all of us really loved was working to find out the truth. And, these truths that we sought were ones the company that we worked for wanted us to seek. True enough, but by the same token, that meant the truth found and utilized would make people’s lives better in some way in the not too distant future. But working in a corporation also meant doing a bunch of administrivia. So, the ping pong set in particular, wanted to get up from their intense sedentary mental and administrative work and play hard at something completely physical and different. The last thing any of us wanted to do was add more administriva to our lives.
It’s easy and common to assume implicitly that the systems you deal with are linear.
They often aren’t.
Things can go out of control extremely quickly (into a dominant positive feedback loop) once the dynamic equilibrium is disturbed.
Would the invention of the iPhone have kept the ping pong community going?
Another takeaway: there are two quite distinct ways of analyzing that are going on in the essay above: a fairly abstract one (even if it uses concrete examples like rice and lily pads) and a very concrete and experiential one. In my experience, both of these modes are useful and valid and if taken together give a fuller picture of what’s going on. My experience in this was mainly in human computer interaction but I think it is equally true for many in law, medicine, management and many other fields. What’s your experience?
Author’s Page on Amazon.
Systems Thinking: Positive Feedback Loops
Posted by petersironwood in America, creativity, psychology, Uncategorized
Design, Feedback, innovation, learning, politics, POTUS, science, systems thinking, thinking, vicious circle
One of the most important tools of thought that anyone can learn: “Systems Thinking.” I touched on this in yesterday’s post “And Then What.” I pointed out that when you take an action that impacts a system such as a human being, a family, or a country, it does not react in a mechanical way.
Here are some examples. For many years, the United States and the USSR were involved in a cold war arms race. Every time the USSR added more nuclear missiles to their arsenal, the people in America felt less safe. Since they felt less safe, they increased their armaments. When the USA increased nuclear weapons, this made the Soviet Union feel less safe so they increased their arms again and so on. This is what is known in Systems Thinking as a “Positive Feedback Loop.” It is also popularly known as a “Vicious Circle” or “Vicious Cycle.”
Let’s say that you are in pretty good shape physically and regularly run, play tennis, or work out. The more you exercise (up to a point), the better you feel. Feeling better makes you feel more like exercise and more exercise makes you feel better. People call this a “Virtuous Cycle” or “Virtuous Circle” because we think the outcome is good. But formally, it is the same kind of cycle.
The most important thing to recognize about a Positive Feedback Loop is that it can be run in either direction. At some point, the US reduced their nuclear arsenal and this decreased the perceived threat to folks in the Soviet Union so the soviets felt that they could also reduce their nuclear arsenal which in turn, made people in the US feel safer and led to further reductions and so on.
Similarly, if you stop exercising for a month, you will tend to feel pretty crappy. Feeling crappy makes you feel less like exercising and this in turn makes you exercise less which in turn makes you even more out of shape, feel worse and be even less likely to exercise. You can break such a “vicious circle” by starting to exercise – even it it’s just a little to start moving the circle in the “virtuous” direction. (Incidentally, that’s why I wrote “Fit in Bits” which describes many easy exercises to get you started).
Photo by JESHOOTS.com on Pexels.com
“Vicious circles” also often cause disagreements to escalate into arguments and arguments into fights. Each person feels “obligated” not to “give in” and the nastier their opponent becomes, the nastier they become.
“Fawlty Towers” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fawlty_Towers), a British sit-com uses “Positive Feedback Loops” in the escalating action of the comedy plots. John Cleese plays the co-owner Basil (with his wife, Sybil) of a small hotel. Typically, John Cleese makes some rather trivial but somewhat embarrassing mistake which he wants to hide from his wife. In the course of trying to cover up this rather small mistake, he has to lie, avoid, or obfuscate. This causes an even more egregious mistake which makes him even more embarrassed so he must result to still more outlandish lies and trickery in order to cover up the second mistake which in turn causes an even bigger mistake, and so on.
That pattern of behavior reminds me of the current POTUS who is famously unable to admit to an error or lie and uses a second and bigger error or lie to try to cover up the first lie and so on. He seems, in fact, completely incapable of “systems thinking.”
For example, he may see (and exaggerate) a real, but containable threat such as a trade deficit. He sees the US send more money out of the country than the US takes in from trade. That’s a legitimate issue. But the approach he takes is to ZAP the other parties by slapping on tariffs without any real appreciation of the fact that our trading partners are extremely unlikely to react to tariffs on their products by simply doing nothing. One could use logic, empathy, or a look at history to determine that what is much more likely is that the other countries will put tariffs on our goods (which, of course, is precisely what happened).
Similarly, he demands absolute loyalty. He repeatedly puts himself and his own interests above the law, the Constitution, the good of the country and the good of his party. He expects everyone loyal to him to do the same. But he betrays these loyal appointees, friends, and wives whenever it suits him. He thinks he is being “smart” by doing what seems to be in his best interest at that moment. But what he fails to see is that by being disloyal to so many people who have been mainly loyal to him, he encourages his allies to only be loyal to him while it suits their interests.
In the Pattern “Reality Check,” I point out that such behavior is an occupational hazard for dictators. Apparently, it can even be such a hazard for would-be dictators as well. By surrounding himself with those who always lie, cover for him, laud him, cater to his insane whims, etc., such a dictator (or would-be dictator) loses touch with what is really going on. He becomes more and more disconnected from sensible action yet those who remain loyal must say and do more and more outrageous things to keep the dictator from finding out just how bad things really are. Eventually, the Emperor with no clothes may die of hypothermia because no-one has the courage to tell him that he’s actually wearing no protection against the elements!
Positive feedback loops exist in purely natural systems as well as biological and social systems. For example, increased global mean temperatures mean less arctic ice which means more solar radiation will be absorbed by the earth’s dark oceans rather than reflected back into space by the white ice and snow. This, of course, makes the earth hotter still. In addition, the thawing of tracts of arctic tundra also releases more methane gas into the atmosphere which is even more effective at trapping the earth’s heat than is carbon dioxide. Global climate change also makes forest fires more prevalent which directly spews more carbon dioxide into the air and reduces the number of trees that help mitigate the emissions of carbon dioxide by turning it into oxygen through photosynthesis.
A concept closely related to “Vicious Cycles” is that of “Cognitive Dissonance.” Basically, people like to believe that they are honest and competent. Much like John Cleese (Basil) in Falwty Towers, once they do something dishonest or incompetent, their first reaction is not to believe that they did something dishonest or incompetent. They will now try to distort reality by misperceiving, mis-remembering, or distracting.
For example, at the height of the Vietnam War, I was horrified at the beatings perpetrated by the police on peaceful protestors at the Democratic National Convention. I was also disturbed at the techniques the Democrats used at their convention to silence the voices of dissension within the convention. Candidate Nixon claimed he had a “secret plan” to end the War in Vietnam. I voted for Nixon. As it became clear that Nixon was a crook, I decided that I had made a mistake voting for the man. But I could have taken another path which would be to “double down” on the original mistake by continuing to support Nixon and dismiss all the growing evidence of his misdeeds. As his malfeasance became more and more egregious, it made the egregiousness of my original mistake of voting for him grow as well. So, it would be possible to become ever more invested in not believing the overwhelming evidence of his treachery. (Now, it turns out, it was even worse than we knew at the time. He actively thwarted the peace efforts of Johnson!). Perhaps because I’ve been trained as a scientist and science values the truth very highly, I did not fall prey to that particular instance of “Cognitive Dissonance.” I readily admitted it was a stupid mistake to vote for Nixon.
Of course, today, we see many people not just backed into a corner to support the current POTUS but backed into a corner of a corner. Instead of believing that a liar is lying, they protect their “integrity” by insisting that everything and everyone else is lying: the newspapers, the reporters, his opposition, people in other countries, his former business partners, his former customers, the CIA, the FBI, the NSA. Ironically, for some people, it would be easier to admit that voting for a slightly inferior candidate was a mistake than to admit that voting for a hugely inferior candidate was a mistake. Voting for a slightly inferior candidate is easily understood but if they voted for a candidate that bad and bad in so many ways it was a huge error. And now, as each new revelation comes to light, it is more and more and more embarrassing to admit what a huge mistake it was.
Another common example of a “Vicious Circle” is addiction. A small amount of alcohol, nicotine or heroine makes you feel better. But taking the drug increases your tolerance for it. So, next time, to feel better, you need to take a little more. Taking a little more increases your tolerance still further so now you need to take a still higher dosage in order to feel better. When you do, however, your tolerance increases still more. Whether it is drugs, gambling, addictive sex, or unbridled greed, the mechanism is the same. You need more and more and more over time due to the nature of the “Positive Feedback Loop.”
A similar mechanism may be at work in the minds of apologists for the NRA (National Rifle Association). As more and more innocent people are killed partly because of easy access to guns, the mistake of supporting the NRA in their refusal to support mandatory vetting, training, and competency demonstrations for gun owners becomes an ever-more obviously egregious error. But, rather than making this more likely for supporters to admit to such an error and therefore change their position, every new slew of innocent children killed for no reason makes them actually less likely to change their position. According to Cognitive Dissonance, every such death makes their earlier decision worse – unless there is some counter-balancing argument. As the number of innocent deaths arises, and indeed, as more and more evidence of the perfidy of the NRA becomes clear, many who previously supported the NRA become ever more entrenched because they “buy into” the great value of unlimited access to guns ever more. Why? They continue their support because not to do so makes them complicit in more and more horrendous crimes.
Photo by Specna Arms on Pexels.com
If you can see such patterns in your own behavior and in others, you can better choose the correct course of action for yourself and be more thoughtful in how you communicate with others about their errors. Hint: Trying to make people feel more guilty for their stupid decisions will likely backfire.
Author Page on Amazon.
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Don Quixote and The Narrative Self
Stefán Snaevarr asks, are our identities created by narratives?
Once upon a time a philosopher wrote an article called ‘Don Quixote and The Narrative Self’. He commenced by saying: In this essay, I will discuss the question of whether our selves are constituted by narratives, ie stories. Are we like Don Quixote, whose self was created by his reading of medieval romances: are we Homo quixotienses, the narrative self? Or are we rather like the protagonist of Sartre’s novel Nausea, Antonin Roquentin, whose life did not form any narrative unity? Are we in other words rather Homo roquentinenses?
The idea that our life is a story is by no means new. Thus the great bard Shakespeare said that life “...is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” (Macbeth) However, it took philosophers some time to discover the philosophical import of this view of life. It was actually a German chap called William Schapp who first gave this age-old idea a philosophical twist. He maintained that we live our lives in a host of stories, which have connection with the stories of other people in various ways; so actually, our selves are nothing but cross-sections of stories. Our identities are created by a vast web of stories, as is our relationship with reality. We understand and identify things by placing them in the stories we tell about them: just like selves, things do not really exist outside of stories. We are caught in this narrative web because we cannot exist outside of it. There is a world-wide web of stories: the world is that web.
Schapp’s main book was published fifty years ago, and was ignored by the philosophical community of the day. But in recent years, ideas resembling those of Schapp’s have become increasingly influential. What I call narrativism, the view that we are Homo quixotienses, is becoming quite popular.
What could explain this change in the intellectual climate? I think that one of the things which brought about this pro-narrativist change is the downfall of modernism in literature. Modernists such as French writer Alain Robbe-Grillet wanted to do away with ordinary storytelling. Ordinary stories were regarded as superficial and without any power to show the real nature of human life. Human life is simply not like a narrative, the modernists thought. This anti-narrativism had its heyday when Schapp was writing his books, so no wonder he was ignored. Then in the Sixties post-modernism arrived on the scene and telling stories in novels became all the rage again. Great storytellers like Gabriel Garcia Marquez were the darling of the literati. Believing in the redeeming quality of stories is now in vogue. Every day someone publishes a book telling you how you can become rich/ famous/happy/popular by telling stories.
My aim in the remains of this article is more modest. I want to introduce to you the thought of two celebrated narrativists. Both have developed influential conceptions of our identities as being structured by stories. The first one is Scottish philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre; the second is the French thinker Paul Ricoeur.
Like so many modern philosophers, MacIntyre’s starting point is the analysis of language. He says that our utterances are not really understandable unless we can place them in narrative contexts. Imagine that we are waiting for a bus for instance, and a woman next to us all of a sudden says, “The name of the common wild duck is Histrionicus histrionicus histrionicus.” To be certain, we understand the meaning of the sentence uttered: the problem is to understand the point of her uttering it. Suppose that the woman utters sentences like this at random intervals, in which case this would probably be a form of madness. But her uttering of the above sentence would be rendered intelligible if for instance we found out that she has mistaken me for a person who approached her in the library some days ago and asked her for the Latin name of the wild duck. We would also understand her action if we discovered she mistakenly thought I was her co-spy and she was uttering a code sentence to be decoded by me. In each case her act of uttering only becomes understandable by being put in a narrative context. The same holds for utterances in general.
Similarly, MacIntyre maintains that personal identities must have a narrative structure. Our actions are episodes in stories, not least in our own personal stories. As the above example illustrates, any action cannot be given an identity unless it is placed within an agent’s biography. Further, MacIntyre says that even if we can theoretically doubt the unity of our personality – doubt that we are the same persons today as we were ten years (or ten seconds!) ago – other people do not doubt this unity. We can for instance be held responsible for actions we did a decade ago. This can only happen because others regard us as having a narrative totality. MacIntyre uses an example inspired by Alexandre Dumas’ famous novel The Count of Monte Christo. Its protagonist is in a certain context described as “the prisoner of Chateau d’If” and in another context “the Count of Monte Christo.” To understand that we are talking about the same person only means that we can recount a story about how this person can under different circumstances be characterised in two completely different ways. In this fashion, a person’s identity is precisely the same type of identity presupposed of a character in a novel or a play. This unity is in turn a function of the unity of the narrative. Thus persons are abstractions from narratives. At the same time, MacIntyre emphasises that the concept of personal identity is not only logically dependent upon the concept of a narrative, but it’s also the other way round. Inother words it is meaningless to talk about a character biography unless one presupposes that its subject has a personal identity. The biography must be about a continually-existing thing. Conversely, it is pointless, meaningless, to state that some being has a personal identity through time, and at the same time deny that this being has a possible biography.
To my mind, MacIntyre’s analysis suffers from some significant unclarities. He ought to clarify whether or not he thinks our actions as such are in some way narratives themselves. If not, can they only be identified by means of narratives, even they are not stories themselves? It seems to me that he opts for this option, but I cannot be sure unless he clarifies the issue.
Secondly, our Scottish thinker relies too heavily on ordinary, common-sense conceptions of action and identity, and on the particular examples he gives. I feel there is a lack of systematicness in his theories about actions and identities; his approach is too intuitive. This same holds for his idea of our lives being stories. But I do agree with his contention that actions are basically narratively structured and described.
Ricoeur
Like MacIntyre, Ricoeur thinks that our actions have a narrative dimension. We fuse the temporal units of our actions together in the same way as in a story. But in contrast to the Scottish philosopher, French philosopher Paul Ricoeur emphasises the difference between life and stories. Our lives are not narratives, strictly speaking. Stories are told, lives are lived. But narratives still play a decisive part in our lives.
In the first place, an examined life is a life that must be examined through stories. We relate to ourselves by relating stories! Secondly, narratives play an important role in the creation and sustaining of our identities. Narratives do that by mediating between two basic aspects of our identities. On the one hand, we can talk about our identity as idem, or sameness, or on the other hand as ipse, or selfhood. Idem is the simple identity of a person as a thing in time and space. Ipse is the being of self, ie the being of someone who can relate to himself and has a history which he or she can consciously reflect upon. Idem provides us with answer to the question ‘What am I?’ ipse the answer to the question ‘Who am I?’
Idem can be divided in two sub-types of identities. One is numerical identity: my body is exactly what it is and not another body. The other type is a qualitative identity of the kind we refer to when we say that two ladies have the same dress on. The dresses are identical in the sense of being exchangeable; they have exactly the same qualities. Seemingly, the idem is partly the identity of the body, such that I can be said to have the same body I had as a new-born baby, even though I had not developed a self, an ipse, at that time. Similarly, a person who has lost his/her self due to Alzheimer’s disease might be considered the same as before in the idem sense of the word, even though he or she in some sense has lost his or her personhood.
Ipse (selfhood), is on the one hand the type of identity we can have as characters, not least as characters in stories. On the other hand, the identity of selfhood is the identity of the one who keeps his/her promises, for example. This latter part of the self is the voluntary side of it. We can choose whether or not to keep promises. Furthermore, we create parts of our selves by keeping or not keeping promises. By such acts we create our selves as ‘reliable’ or ‘unreliable’ persons. In contrast to this, we cannot choose the character we play. We cannot choose our talents or temperament. The one who plays the role of the dim-witted guy remains stupid.
There is a dialectical tension between idem and ipse. The reason is that it makes sense to talk about ipse even though the person changes quite a bit; at the same time the idem demands consistency: we want to say we are talking about the same thing. How can it be that we have certain permanence through time while changing all the time? It is narrative which solves this problem: it mediates between idem and ipse.
In all narratives there is both permanence and change – in Ricoeur’s vocabulary ‘concordance’ and ‘discordance’; the latter being unexpected events which disturb the sense of permanence. A story manages nevertheless to unite permanence and change. Analogously, it unites idem and its concordance, with ipse and its tendency towards discordance. It is a question of a synthesis of heterogeneous elements.
To understand this we must take a brief glance at Ricoeur’s theory about the general function of narratives. Narratives, or more precisely plots, synthesise reality. A plot fuses together intentions, causal relations, and chance occurrences in a unified sequence of actions and events. Ricoeur seems to think that the plot creates a unified pattern in a chaotic series of events, ties them together, making them meaningful wholes. Thus, through the lens of the story we see things in a particular way, just as we can see the Jastrow figure as a duck, given a certain perspective. Another narrative could presumably give a rabbit perspective on things.
‘Plot’ plays an important role in creating the permanent aspects of human character. Just as in Ricoeur’s scheme plot plays a constructive role for narratives, creating their permanent aspect, mutatis mutandis the same holds for human character. But despite unifying plots, narrative identities change all the time. They are not closed and static, but demand openness and freedom. In Ricoeur’s own words, “Life is an activity and passion in search of a narrative.” (‘Life in Quest of Narrative’) The self is not given; it is something that must be created. It must also be appropriated in communication with others and with the aid of stories: narratives can help make our lives meaningful. It seems that Ricoeur thinks that this meaningfulness is an essential part of the self.
The problem with Ricoeur’s theories is first and foremost his unclear, Continental way of expressing himself and the similarly Continental lack of examples and definitions. Further, I do not understand why narratives are needed to bridge the gap between idem and ipse. It seems to me that ipse (selfhood) is both permanent and changeable at the same time, in contrast to the idem, which is all permanence. This suggests that the idea of idem is superfluous, unless it is regarded solely as the permanence of the body (but it does seem that by ‘idem’ Ricoeur means something more than just bodily permanence). The ipse already contains the moment of permanence, ascribed to the idem. Maybe our French thinker ought to just do away with the concept of the idem. The narrative still has work to do, not in mediating between the idem and the ipse, but in mediating between the discordant and concordant moments of the ipse.
Despite this minor quibble, Ricoeur’s thinking is extremely inspiring. He manages to show that narratives play an essential role in the constitution of our selves, without succumbing to the dogma of life itself being a story.
Who has not read The Arabian Nights? Who does not remember the cunning princess Scheherazade, who saved her life by telling the Sultan excellent tales? She had to go on recounting stories in order to evade death; similarly we must go on narrating in order to stay who we are. Thus, if Scheherazade is our mother, Don Quixote is our father, and we are narrative beings. Homo sapiens is indeed Homo quixotiensis.
© Stefán Snaevarr 2007
Stefán Snaevarr is an Icelandic writer and a professor of philosophy at Lillehammer University College, Norway. He is the author of numerous books in Icelandic, Norwegian and English.
• Wilhelm Schapp (1976): In Geschichten verstrickt (Entangled in Stories). trans. by B. Heymann (2nd Ed).
• Alasdair MacIntyre (1981): After Virtue. Duckworth.
• Paul Ricoeur (1985): Temps et Récit 3. Le Temps Raconté. Éditions du Seuil.
• Paul Ricoeur (1988): Time and Narrative. Vol. 3, (translated from the French). University of Chicago Press.
• Paul Ricoeur (1988): ‘L’indentité narrative’, in Esprit, 7-8.
• Paul Ricoeur (1991): ‘Life in Quest of Narrative’ in On Paul Ricoeur: Narratives and Interpretation, ed. by David Wood. Routledge.
• Paul Ricoeur (1992): Oneself as Another (translated from the French). University of Chicago Press.
Hemingway and the Hero
Michael Uslan
The Nun’s Priest’s Tale
C.S. Lewis and the Search for Rational Religion by John Beversluis
The Fourfold Loves of C.S. Lewis and Benedict XVI
Sam Spade, Existential Hero?
That Shine of Heavenly Light
Wilde and Morality
Sartre on Literature
philosophy & literature
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Columbus sighted land October 12, 1492
American Minute with Bill Federer
Columbus was looking for a SEA route to India and China because 40 years earlier Muslim Turks conquered Constantinople in 1453 cutting off the LAND routes.
A biography of Columbus was written by Washington Irving in 1828, filled imaginative dialogue, such as Europeans arguing that the Earth was flat.
Washington Irving was known for imaginative stories such as “Rip Van Winkle,” “The Legend of Sleepy Hallow,” Dutch tales of visits from St. Nick, and coining New York City’s nickname “Gotham.”
Europeans knew the Earth was round from as far back as Aristotle in the 4th century BC.
In the 3rd century BC, Eratosthenes computed the circumference of the Earth with geometry and measurements of shadows cast by tall objects in Alexandria and Aswan.
In the 1st century BC, Posidonius used stellar observations at Alexandria and Rhodes to confirm Eratosthenese’s measurements.
In the 2nd century AD, astronomer Ptolemy had written a Guide to Geography, in which he described a spherical earth with one ocean connecting Europe and Asia.
St. Isidore of Seville, Spain, wrote in the 7th century that the earth was round.
Around the year 723 AD, Saint Bede the Venerable wrote in his work “Reckoning of Time” that the Earth was spherical.
Columbus knew the Earth was round, but the question was, how far around.
The confusion was over the length of a mile.
Columbus read Cardinal Pierre d’Ailly’s “Imago Mundi,” which gave Alfraganus’ estimate that a degree of latitude (at the equator) was around 56.7 miles.
What Columbus did not realize was that this was expressed in longer Arabic miles rather than in shorter Roman miles.
Therefore Columbus incorrectly estimated the Earth to be smaller in circumference, about 19,000 miles, rather than the actual nearly 25,000 miles.
Columbus knew there was land to the west, as he had heard stories of Irish monk St. Brendan sailing in 530 AD to “The Land of the Promised Saints which God will give us on the last day.”
He knew of the Christian Viking Leif Erickson’s voyage in the year 1000 to Vinland.
Columbus read of Marco Polo’s travels to China and India in 1271.
He studied Pliny’s “Natural History,” Sir John Mandeville, and Pope Pius II’s “Historia Rerum Ubique Gestarum.”
Columbus corresponded with Florentine physician Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli, who suggested China was just 5,000 miles west of Portugal.
Columbus may have possibly seen maps, rumored to have been in Portugal’s royal archives, from China’s treasure fleets which were sent out in 1421 by Ming Emperor Zhu Di.
Based on this, Columbus estimated that Japan, or as Marco Polo called it “Cipangu,” was only 3,000 Roman miles west of the Canary Islands, rather than the actual 12,200 miles.
Since no ship at that time could carry enough food and water for such a long voyage, Columbus would have never set sail if he had known the actual distance.
As a young man, Columbus began sailing on a trip to a Genoese colony in the Aegean Sea named Chios.
In 1476, he sailed on an armed convoy from Genoa to northern Europe, docking in Bristol, England, and Galway, Ireland, and even possibly Iceland in 1477.
When Muslim Turks conquered Constantinople in 1453 and hindered land trade routes from Europe to India and China, Portugal, which had been freed from Muslim domination for two centuries, began to search for alternative sea routes.
Portugal, under Prince Henry the Navigator, led the world in the science of navigation and cartography (map-making), and developed a light ship that could travel fast and far, the “caravel.”
During Portugal’s Golden Age of Discovery under King John II, Columbus sailed along the west coast of Africa between 1482-1485, reaching the Portuguese trading port of Elmina on the coast of Guinea.
In 1498, Portuguese sailor Vasco de Gama did make it around South Africa to India.
But six year before that, in 1492, the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella finished driving the Muslims out of Spain and wanted to join the quest for a sea trade route to the India.
They backed Columbus’ plan.
Though Columbus was wrong about the miles and degrees of longitude, he did understand trade winds across the Atlantic.
On August 3, 1492, Columbus set sail on the longest voyage to that date out of the sight of land.
Trade winds called “easterlies” pushed Columbus’ ships for five weeks to the Bahamas.
On OCTOBER 12, 1492, Columbus sighted what he thought was India.
He imagined Haiti was Japan and Cuba was the tip of China.
Naming the first island “San Salvador” for the Holy Savior, Columbus wrote of the inhabitants:
“So that they might be well-disposed towards us, for I knew that they were a people to be. ..converted to our Holy Faith rather by love than by force, I gave to some red caps and to others glass beads…
They became so entirely our friends that…I believe that they would easily be made Christians.”
The Moral Liberal contributing editor, William J. Federer, is the bestselling author of “Backfired: A Nation Born for Religious Tolerance no Longer Tolerates Religion,” and numerous other books. A frequent radio and television guest, his daily American Minute is broadcast nationally via radio, television, and Internet. Check out all of Bill’s books here.
Tagged as Bill Federer Columbus, China, circumference of the Earth, Columbus, flat earth, history, India, journey, round earth, SEA route to India, Washington Irving
293 – Oct 20 – This Day in Baptist History Past
“God make me faithful unto death.”
October 20, 1769 – William Ward was born. Just before sailing for India, the Lord caused William Carey’s path to cross that of young William Ward. It was the spring of 1793, and Ward was just 23 years old and was a printer of Derby, who was visiting city friends.
Carey unfolded to him the desire and purpose of his heart respecting Biblical translations. Laying his hand on Ward’s shoulder as they parted, he said, ‘I hope, by God’s blessing to have the Bible translated and ready for the press in four or five years…You must come and print it for us.’ Neither ever forgot this.
It was not until August of 1796 that William Ward was converted and, upon his baptism, united with the Baptist church in Hull. However, soon after that, a Christian friend, recognizing his gifts, offered to pay his expenses to study for the ministry. Thus Ward left the field of journalism and studied under Dr. John Fawcett at Ewood Hall,Yorkshire. Hearing again of the need of the Missionary Society for a printer to publish the Bengalee translation, he offered himself and was accepted.
On May 29, 1799, at the age of 29 Ward sailed with Dr. Marshman, Mr. Brunsdom, and Mr. Grant, with their families, for Bengal. He wrote as follows to Wm. Carey “…I know not whether you will remember a young man, a printer, walking with you from Rippon’s Chapel one Sunday, etc…It is in my heart to live and die with you. May…God make me faithful unto death.” The three have been designated the “Serampore triumvirate.” Carey, Ward, and Joshua Marshman. Ward died in 1823 at 54, Carey in 1834 at 73, and Marshman at 69 in 1837. The cord is joined now once again.
Dr. Greg J. Dixon from: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins/Thompson, pp. 435-36.
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Tagged as Baptist history, Dr. John Fawcett, faithful unto death, God, India, Lord, religious, spiritual, translation, William Carey
229 – August, 17 – This Day in Baptist History Past
Heaven’s bright light was her only escape from her torment
William Carey was born on August 17, 1761, and married Dorothy Plackett on June 10, 1781. The bride was five years his senior, and the couple shared a very meager lifestyle, but Carey considered his wife the “gift of God.” She couldn’t read or write however, Dorothy disciplined herself and learned to do both, as her husband studied, preached, and mended shoes to help pay expenses. One can only imagine the shock that Mrs. Carey experienced when her husband announced that God had called him for missionary service in India. Dorothy, along with Carey’s church members, resisted her travel to India because she was expecting a baby. So Carey took the family to stay with Dorothy’s sister at Piddington. However the officials refused to allow Carey and his companion, Dr. Thomas, passage on the English ship. Arrangements were made on a Danish ship, so Mrs. Carey with her one month-old son and three little ones, boarded the ship for the five-month journey to Bengal. The next 13 years of gloom dates from their first year. Money exhausted, Dorothy ill with a severe case of dysentery, her first born son still worse; unable to even afford bread; appalled at their destitution in a strange and friendless land “her brain began to give way.” Again in 1795 the dysentery came back, and her spirit passed into a “permanent gloom.” “Her mental distress had much worsened throughout her last five years…Carey insisted on keeping her under his own compassionate care, till the first week of Dec. 1807 she emerged from the long fearsome tunnel into heavens’ light and peace. Some have been embarrassed that Dorothy Carey died insane in her adopted land of India, but she will ever take her place as a heroine of the faith.”
Dr. Greg J. Dixon: From: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins/Thompson, pp. 338-39.
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Tagged as Baptist history, Dorothy, Dorothy Carey, India, religious, spiritual, William Carey
185 – July 03 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY PAST
Clough-John
Great outpouring of God’s Spirit
Rev. John E. Clough was born July 16, 1836, in New York. Soon afterwards they moved to Illinois and finally to Iowa. While training as a lawyer in Burlington in 1857 he was brought under conviction and was gloriously saved. Believing that he was called to proclaim the gospel to those who had never heard, he trained at Upper Iowa University and graduated in 1862. His appointment as a Baptist missionary to India took place in August of 1864, and he arrived in that country in March of 1865. Others had pioneered the work before him beginning in 1836. Lyman Jewett joined the mission in 1849. In 1852 he and his wife visited Ongole. They climbed a slope that overlooked the city and prayed that God would send a missionary to Ongole. Clough responded to that prayer and relocated to that city, and a modern miracle began. On Jan. 1, 1867 they organized a church with 8 members, and by the end of 1879, that church had grown to 13,106 members, with 46 national preachers and thirty assistants. His methods were biblical, tent meetings of evangelism, nationals were trained, and a circuit of more than eighty villages forty miles around ongole. As the work grew other missionaries came to join in the work. During a 3 year famine and pestilence they didn’t baptize but when it was over they baptized on July 3, 1878, 2,222 in one day. From June 16 to July 31, 1878, 8,691 had been immersed upon their profession of faith. This was one of the greatest outpourings of God’s spirit since Pentecost.
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Tagged as Baptist history, Illinois, India, Iowa, John E. Clough, lawyer Burlington, New York, religious, spiritual
94 – April – 04 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY PAST
William Carey
He led Carey to India
1793 – It was on this date that William Carey and Dr. John Thomas boarded the Earl of Oxford for India. Funds had been raised and they had been commissioned on March 20, therefore they were determined that this was God’s will. However, when the ship’s captain found out that if he took the missionaries he would lose his commission, he put them ashore. Through Dr. Thomas a Danish ship agreed to take them and defeat was turned to victory when they also found out that Mrs. Carey and the children would be able to sail with them who were not going to be able to go before and they sailed on June 13. Dr. Thomas was reared in the home of a Baptist deacon in England where he was early acquainted with the gospel. He was not saved however, until after medical school and marriage. Dr. Thomas then was assigned as the assistant surgeon on one of His Majesty’s ships and sailed several times to India. The British East India, Co. that had begun as a commercial enterprise later had become an arm of the British government. They were interested only in financial gain which meant that they actually worked against the advancement of the missionary cause. A few of the employees who were Christians built a chapel for worship in 1715 and invited Dr. Thomas to minister and then invited him to remain on a permanent basis. But he found out that his Baptist doctrines such as baptism by immersion became a detriment and he found himself at a great loss of financial support. It was these turn of events that brought the shoemaker-preacher Carey and the doctor together and God opening India as the first mission field for the Baptists of England. Dr. Thomas suffered many tragedies and died on Oct. 13, 1801, but few know that it was him that led Carey to India.
Dr. Greg J. Dixon, from: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins/Thompson /, pp. 137.
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Tagged as baptist deacon, Baptist history, commissioned, Danish ship, Dr. Thomas, Earl of Oxford, England, God, India, John Thomas, William Carey
77 – March – 18 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY PAST
Edward Payson Scott
The Power of Gospel music
1913 – Dr. Edward W. Clark passed away on this memorable day. He and his wife were the ones that followed Edward Payson Scott to the music loving head-hunting Naga’s in Assam, India. Payson went with a Bible and a violin in 1869, and the first twelve Naga’s that approached him changed their fierce attitude to joy as they heard him play, “Am I a Soldier of the Cross?” However, it wasn’t a spear that killed him but the cholera, just a year later. The Clark’s not only gained entry to the Naga’s but penetrated further South into an even more vicious head-hunting tribe, the Ao-Nagas and spent forty-two years in that land with only two furloughs. Clark had been born in New York on Feb. 25, 1830. Receiving Christ early in life as a farm boy, he looked forward to Christian service as he graduated from Brown University and then from seminary in Rochester, N.Y. He married Mary Mead and served a short pastorate in Logansport, Indiana and became the editor of a Christian publication when he was asked to take charge of a mission printing press in Sibsagor, the ancient capital of Assam, India. The accomplishments of Dr. and Mrs. Clark surely deserve to rank among those of the great missionary pioneers. It was sometime before they could settle at Molung among fierce savages. Clark found time to do a great deal of literary work. He reduced their language to writing, translated some of the gospels, and printed many books for use in their schools. His last work was the Ao-Naga-English Dictionary, upon which he worked the last seven years of his life. He was honored with three honorary doctorates but considered his greatest honor to simply be called a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Tagged as Assam, Baptist history, Bible, Brown University, cholera, Edward Payson Scott, Edward W. Clark, furlough, gospel music, head-hunting, India, Mary Mead, spear, violin
353 – Dec. 19 – This Day in Baptist History Past
The importance of doctrinal purity
1965 – Silas Fox, known as the White Fox of Andhra, recorded in his journal, “Prayed 3 hours. Read. Praise God.” However, on Sept. 27, 1960, he wrote: “No prayer, Result “TROUBLE: TROUBLE: TROUBLE.” Andhra is in an area in East India, in which Fox made a great impact, for fifty-one years preaching the gospel of Christ. His biographer said that preaching was his life’s blood, and he really had little gift for anything else. Silas Fox had a passion for souls from the day that pastor Andrew Imrie was used of God to ignite him after Silas was saved through Imrie’s ministry. In fact the very next day Fox lead a friend to Christ, and that zeal continued throughout his lifetime. Fox was born on Dec. 22, 1893. The next year his father died and he grew to manhood on very meager substance in Canada. After completing his Bible College training in 1916 he married Emma Graus, his childhood sweetheart on Nov. 23, and two days later they left for India. In contrast, in Southern India, in the State of Karala a native Indian missionary and his wife labored, who emigrated to America, were saved through the efforts of Baptist Sunday School workers, graduated from a Baptist Bible College, and went back to their native India with a burden to reach their people for Christ. In eight years he had established eight Baptist churches with their own buildings that throbbed with spiritual life, and a Bible College with thirty students who were training to reach the orient with the gospel. Fox had gone to India at a time when many denominations labored together. There was no doctrinal unity, only mission stations, hence no churches were founded.
[This Day in Baptist History II: Cummins and Thompson, BJU Press: Greenville, S.C. 2000 A.D. pp. 692-94. Donald S. Fox, The White Fox of India (Philadelphia: Dorrance and Company, 1977), p. 135.]
Prepared by Dr. Greg J. Dixon
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Tagged as Andhre, Andrew Imrie, Baptist Bible College, Baptist history, biographer, Donald S. Fox, East India, India, preaching, Silas Fox, White Fox
First woman missionary to India.
1800 – Hannah Marshman wrote in the mission journal that her outreach proved successful, for “The women appeared to have learned more of the Gospel than we expected. They declared for Christ at once.” She noticed when going to the bazaar’s that she never saw any women because of the Eastern culture. She knew that they would never be reached unless she visited them in their homes, so she tirelessly went house to house with the gospel. Hannah was the wife of Joshua Marshman, who along with William Carey and William Ward, have often been called the “triumvirate” in reference to the mission in India. In a letter to Andrew Fuller, Carey described Mrs. Marshman as “a prodigy of prudence.” She was certainly a Proverbs Chapter thirty-one woman. She was also the first woman missionary to India. She was born in 1767 in Bristol, England, but her parents died while she was an infant and she was reared by her grandfather, Rev. John Clark, a Baptist minister. Hannah was converted to Christ during her teen years and was baptized. She married Joshua Marshman in 1792, and he taught in the Christian school at the Broadmead Baptist Church in Bristol. Marshman studied Hebrew and Syriac under John Ryland and when William Carey appealed for a linguist the Marshmans sailed for India in 1795 with eight adult missionaries and their children. In Serampore they lived in a compound and it was Hannah’s duty to manage it. The Marshmans established a boarding school which also provided an education for the missionaries children. Hannah served for fifty years in India, taking one furlough. She died in 1847.
[This Day in Baptist History II: Cummins and Thompson, BJU Press: Greenville, S.C. 2000 A.D. pp. 667-68. Nesta B. Shoddy, Great Baptist Women (London: Carey Kingsgate Press, Ltd. 1955), p.42.] Prepared by Dr. Greg Dixon
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Tagged as Baptist history, bazaar, Broadmead Baptist Church, Eastern culture, gospel, Hannah Marshman, India, Joshua Marshman, journal, missionary, outreach, triumvirate, William Carey, William Ward, William Word
Wm. Ward
Other missionaries followed him
1798 – William Ward was appointed to serve as a printer, along with William Carey in India. Dr. Carey had translated the Bible into many languages in the area, and now was interested in a Javanese New Testament when he invited Gottlob Bruckner, a German, to come to India. Rev. Bruckner, with his two sons, made the journey in 1828. Little did he know that he would return to his wife three years later with only one son, having buried the other with a tropical fever. When the task was completed the missionary and his son boarded the ship with 2,000 Javanese Testaments, twenty thousand tracts, and a set of type faces with Javanese letters. Their ship was almost sunk in a typhoon, then arriving home soldiers seized all but a few of the Testaments, but he would not quit. Gottlob was born in 1783 on a farm in Germany. At age 20 he went to Berlin to seek his fortune and heard a gospel preacher and was saved. Through incredible trials he finally reached Semarang, Java in 1814 and became the pastor of a Dutch church and married his wife. While there Rev. and Mrs. Thomas Trowt, Baptist missionaries from England arrived, and they became great friends. It was Trowt that convinced Bruckner of believer’s baptism and when he immersed him the church folks turned him out of his pulpit. It was only six months later that Trowt died of a tropical fever. Bruckner died in 1857 and saw few direct results from his preaching, but other Christian missionaries followed him, and today there are more professing believers in Java than any place on earth where Islam is the strong majority religion. [S. Pearce Carey, William Carey (London: Hodder and Stoughton Limited, 1924), pp. 177, 410. This Day in Baptist History II: Cummins and Thompson, BJU Press: Greenville, S.C. 2000 A.D. 566-68.] Prepared by Dr. Greg J. Dixon
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Tagged as Baptist history, baptist missionaries, Bible, Bruckner, Christian missionaries, Gottlob Bruckner, India, Java, Javanese, language, New Testament, printer, Thomas Trowt, William Carey, William Ward
He published the Word
1829 – Cephas and Stella Bennett arrived in Calcutta, having sailed from Philadelphia the previous May. After spending several months observing the printing ministry of William Carey in India, they continued on to Maulmain, Burma, arriving on January 14, 1830. Cephas was born to the godly Rev. and Mrs. Alfred Bennett, pastor of the Baptist church in Homer, N.Y on March 20, 1804. Alfred was greatly used of the Lord in advancing the cause of foreign missions so it wasn’t unusual that his son would hear the “call of the heathen.” Cephas became burdened to preach as well as to print the word, so when he returned to America because of poor health in 1839, he was ordained and returned to the field in 1842. He had taken an American press with him, and his work was so efficient that in 1837, a tract was given to practically every Burman in Rangoon, who could read. Hundreds daily sought the missionaries to learn about Jesus, and many were saved through this effort. Large quantities of Bibles, New Testaments, portions of scriptures, innumerable books, besides tracts were made available. In 1834 Bennett founded the Maulmain Free School, which enrolled 122 children. At one time his was the only press in the world that could print in several languages, allowing him to provide the gospel to millions. Bro. Cephas Bennett finally left the field at age 77, having served in Burma for fifty years. [Henry C. Vedder, A Short History of Baptist Missions Philadelphia: Judson Press, 1927), p. 99. This Day in Baptist History II: Cummins and Thompson, BJU Press: Greenville, S.C. 2000 A.D. 543-44.] Prepared by Dr. Greg J. Dixon
Tagged as Alfred Bennett, Baptist history, Baptist Missions Philadelphia, Burma, Calcutta, Carey, Cephas, Cephas Bennett, foreign, Homer N. Y., India, Lord, Maulmain, ministry, Philadelphis, print the Word, publish, Stella Bennett
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Sarah Dees (BA, 2007) will start as assistant professor in religious studies at Iowa State University in the fall of 2019.
Ryan Goeckner (MA, 2018) will be a PhD candidate in cultural anthropology at the Ohio State University. His main reserach interests is contemporary Lakota activism and its relationships to Lakota oral and religious traditions. His MA thesis focused on these influences in the #NoDAPL movement for members of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.
Rache l Myslivy (MA, 2013) is the Program Director for the Climate and Energy Project. She was recently named one of Midwest Energy News' 40 under 40 leaders in clean energy and was accepted into the Forum for the Future's School of Systems Change.
Sarah Dees (BA, 2007) was selected to participate in the Young Scholars in American Religion program, a competitive program for early-career scholars sponsored by the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture at IUPUI. Dees graduated with her PhD from Indiana University in 2015 and is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University. Read more about Dees' work in the Young Scholars in American Religion program, here.
Nath an Bowman (MA, 2015) is a current KU Theater PhD student, and recently started the Kansas City Public Theater. Kansas City Public Theatre provides access to the arts through year-round theatre entertainment free of charge to the public. It produces new works and reimagined classics reflecting the unique history and concerns of the Kansas City community and cultivates civic-minded artists, audiences, and citizens through community-based devised theatre workshops.
Jennifer Heller (BA, 1996) was appointed to the position of director of institutional effectiveness at Park University in Parkville, Missouri. As director of institutional effectiveness, Heller will use research and data analysis to guide decision making and institutional improvement. She oversees the development of a comprehensive, integrated system of data collection, research, assessment, evaluation and reporting that supports strategic academic and operational planning, and she will provide the framework for data collection and analysis to inform evaluation of key institutional goals. Jennifer earned four degrees from the University of Kansas — BA in Religious Studies and BS in English Education, both in 1996, MS in Education in Teaching and Leadership in 1998, and a PhD in American Studies in 2007.
Emily Stratton (MA, 2013) was awarded a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad grant to fund her work in Accra for 2018. Her project, "Youth Precarity in a 'Pentecostalite' City" is a mixed-methods study in economic anthropology. She will be working with a small group of economically disadvantaged young men in Accra and studying their strategies for upward social mobility. Her study pays special attention to how youth -- regardless of how they may identify religiously or in what kinds of religious activity they do or do not practice -- consume Pentecostal/Charismatic Christianity, and how it affects the ways that they go about constructing meaningful livelihoods for themselves in a precarious economy. Stratton is a PhD candidate in the Department of Religious Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington.
After 16 years as a correspondent with the National Catholic Reporter, John L. Allen Jr. (MA, 1992) joined The Boston Globe in February 2014 as an associate editor covering “All Things Catholic.”
Torang Asadi
Torang Asadi received her MA in Religious Studies from the University of Kansas in Spring 2013. She is interested in the intersection of religion and law, the invention of culture, and perceptions of the body in various religious and social movements. She is currently pursuing her doctorate at Duke University.
Kerri Blumenthal (BA, 2003) is pursuing a Ph.D. in Religious Studies at the University of Florida; as a FLAS fellow in Quechua she spends extended time in the Peruvian Andes in dialogue with local communities about agriculture, industrialization, and religious rituals. Her dissertation assesses the impact of large economic structures on the religious lives of individuals living in and around mining communities in the Espinar Province near Cusco.
Kristi Boone (BGS, 2014) reports that she is working diligently on her MA in Religious Studies and Global Development at the University of Leeds.
John Charlton (MA, 1982), with co-author James Sherow, has published a new book titled Railroad Empire across the Heartland: Rephotographing the Westward Journey of Alexander Gardner (University of New Mexico Press).
Ron Cobb (MA, 1976) published his third book, Spiritual Journeys, this year.
Sarah Dees (BA, 2007) Accepted a postdoctoral fellowship (2016-2018) in the Department of Religious Studies at Northwestern University. In addition to revising her first book, she will be involved in a two year research project, "Politics of Religion: At Home and Abroad," sponsored by the Buffett Institute for Global Studies.
Abby Durham (BGS, 2013) recently accepted a position with the Levite Jewish Community Center in Birmingham, Alabama, where she is currently the Birmingham Community Youth Group Coordinator. Abby is also currently attending the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City as a distant learner; she is studying to receive her Master's degree in Jewish Education.
Seth George
Seth George (MA, 2014) is currently an Active Duty chaplain in the U.S. Army. He studies Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism, and investigates the doctrines of non-resistance found within certain Christian churches.
Jordan Goldschmidt (BA, 2008) is currently serving on the Wichita Holocaust Commemoration Council.
Jaimie Gunderson received her MA in Religious Studies from the University of Kansas in Spring 2013. Her research interests focus on the Ancient Mediterranean and Near East. She is currently pursuing her doctorate in Religion at Syracuse University.
Madisen Janssen (BA, 2014) is working with the prestigious Teach for America program as a Special Education teacher at a middle school in Kansas City. She is also serving as her school's debate coach, despite having no previous debate experience. She says, "Thank goodness for all of those Religious Studies debates in our classes!"
Jeff McDonald (MA, 2006) is currently an Assistant Professor at Keimyung University in Deagu, South Korea.
Jeremy Rapport (MA, 2002) continues to teach classes on American Religious History and New Religious Movements at the College of Wooster in Ohio, where he is preparing for his tenure review in the spring. He and his wife, Kris D'Atri (MA, 2002), have two children: Laura, 9, and Drew, 6.
Joel Rasmussen (BA, 1991) not only published an edited collection of essays entitled William James and the Transatlantic Conversation: Pragmatism, Pluralism, and Philosophy of Religion (co-edited with Martin Halliwell and published by Oxford University Press), as well as Volume 7 of Kierkegaard's Journals and Notebooks (Princeton University Press), for which he was a translator and editor, but he also was made Associate Professor of Nineteenth-Century Christian Thought in the Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Oxford, and an Associate Member of the Oxford Faculty of Philosophy.
Vibha Shetiya (MA, 2006) successfully defended her doctoral thesis in the fall of 2014, and received her Ph.D. degree in South Asian Studies at the University of Texas, Austin.
Phillip Spivey (MA, 1995) was promoted to Senior Lecturer in the University of Central Arkansas Department of Philosophy and Religion in Spring 2015. His reserach areas are Jewish Studies, World Religions, and History of Western Philosophy.
Emily Stratton
Emily Stratton received her MA in Religious Studies from the University of Kansas in Spring 2013. Her research interests pertain to church-society relationships in Africa, with particular emphasis on Ghanaian Pentecostalism. She is currently in her second year of her doctoral program in Religious Studies at Indiana University. This past summer, Emily spent 10 weeks in Ghana on a FLAS Fellowship for foreign language study. Of this experience, Emily reports: "I spent most of my time in Ghana's capital city, Accra, doing directed language study with a highly regarded linguistics professor at the University of Ghana, but I also had some wonderful adventures outside of class time in observing church services, observing the prevalence of religious practices and proselytism in public spaces, conducting informal interviews, and getting better acquainted with daily life in an urban West African setting." Emily has also been busy organizing conferences: her department's annual graduate symposium, which was entitled "Mediating Religion: Modes of Communication in Religious Contexts," and this year's annual Indiana University African Studies graduate symposium, which is entitled "Creating Africa: Expressive Spaces, Constructed Identities." Outside of the academic world, Emily is also a new member of the Bleeding Heartland Roller Derby league.
In 2014, Melodie Woerman (MA, 1983) celebrated 20 years of editing publications for the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas, where she now serves as the full-time Director of Communications. Melodie serves on a variety of Episcopal Church boards, including a term on the Standing Commission on Communication and Information Technology, and the Steering Committee for Episcopal Relief & Development. She also graciously serves on the board of the Friends of the Department of Religious Studies, of which she is currently the secretary.
Jimmy Yu (MA, 2002), who graduated from KU with a specialization in Chinese Buddhist history, was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in the Department of Religion at Florida State University.
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Annemarie Lee
Senior Lecturer, Physiotherapy
EmailAnnemarie.Lee@monash.edu
1 - 50 out of 100 results
Active Video Games as a Training Tool for Individuals With Chronic Respiratory Diseases: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW
Butler, S. J., Lee, A. L., Goldstein, R. S. & Brooks, D., 1 Mar 2019, In : Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and Prevention. 39, 2, p. 85-90 6 p.
Effect of early mobility as a physiotherapy treatment for pneumonia: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Larson, T., Lee, A., Brooks, D., Michieli, S., Robson, M., Veens, J., Vokes, O. & Lucy, D., 2019, In : Physiotherapy Canada. 71, 1, p. 82-89 8 p.
Acceptability and validity of a home exercise diary used in home-based pulmonary rehabilitation: A secondary analysis of a randomised controlled trial
Lahham, A., Mcdonald, C. F., Mahal, A., Lee, A. L., Hill, C. J., Burge, A. T., Cox, N. S., Moore, R., Nicolson, C., O'halloran, P., Gillies, R. & Holland, A. E., Jun 2018, In : Clinical Respiratory Journal. 12, 6, p. 2057-2064 8 p.
An exploration of pain experiences and their meaning in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Lee, A. L., Harrison, S. L., Goldstein, R. S. & Brooks, D., 2018, In : Physiotherapy Theory and Practice. 34, 10, p. 765-772 8 p.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease education in pulmonary rehabilitation: An official American thoracic society/thoracic society of Australia and New Zealand/Canadian thoracic society/British thoracic society workshop report
Blackstock, F. C. & on behalf of the American Thoracic Society, Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand, Canadian Thoracic Society, and British Thoracic Society, 1 Jul 2018, In : Annals of the American Thoracic Society. 15, 7, p. 769-784 16 p.
Clinical and Physiological Effects of Rollators in Individuals With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: A Systematic Review
Lee, A., Beauchamp, M., Goldstein, R. & Brooks, D., Nov 2018, In : Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and Prevention. 38, 6, p. 366-373 8 p.
Home-based pulmonary rehabilitation for people with COPD: A qualitative study reporting the patient perspective
Lahham, A., McDonald, C. F., Mahal, A., Lee, A. L., Hill, C. J., Burge, A. T., Cox, N. S., Moore, R., Nicolson, C., O’Halloran, P., Gillies, R. & Holland, A. E., 1 May 2018, In : Chronic Respiratory Disease. 15, 2, p. 123-130 8 p.
Pulmonary rehabilitation in bronchiectasis
Lee, A. L. & Holland, A. E., 2018, Bronchiectasis : The EMBARC Manual. Chalmers, J., Polverino, E. & Aliberti, S. (eds.). 1st ed. Cham Switzerland: Springer, p. 285-305 21 p.
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (Book) › Other › peer-review
Reliability and validity of non-radiological measures of thoracic kyphosis in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Lee, A. L., Goldstein, R. S., Rhim, M., Chan, C., Brooks, D. & Zabjek, K., 2 Dec 2018, In : International Journal of Therapy and Rehabilitation. 25, 12, p. 648-654 7 p.
Short-and long-term reliability of the 6-minute walk test in people with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
Holland, A. E., Hill, C. J., Dowman, L., Glaspole, I., Goh, N., Lee, A. L. & McDonald, C. F., 1 Aug 2018, In : Respiratory care. 63, 8, p. 994-1001 8 p.
Shuttle walk tests in people with COPD who demonstrate exercise-induced oxygen desaturation: An analysis of test repeatability and cardiorespiratory responses
McKeough, Z., Leung, R., Neo, J. H., Jenkins, S., Holland, A., Hill, K., Morris, N., Spencer, L., Hill, C., Lee, A., Seale, H., Cecins, N., McDonald, C. & Alison, J., 1 May 2018, In : Chronic Respiratory Disease. 15, 2, p. 131-137 7 p.
Smoking-related stigma expressed by physiotherapists toward individuals with lung disease
Bass, B., Lake, E., Elvy, C., Fodemesi, S., Iacoe, M., Mazik, E., Brooks, D. & Lee, A., 2018, In : Physiotherapy Canada. 70, 1, p. 65-71 7 p.
The Impact of Listening to Music During a High-Intensity Exercise Endurance Test in People With COPD
Lee, A. L., Dolmage, T., Rhim, M., Goldstein, R. S. & Brooks, D., 1 May 2018, In : Chest. 153, 5, p. 1134-1141 8 p.
Airway-clearance techniques in children and adolescents with chronic suppurative lung disease and bronchiectasis
Lee, A. L., Button, B. M. & Tannenbaum, E. L., 24 Jan 2017, In : Frontiers in Pediatrics. 5, 8 p., 2.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Short Survey › Research › peer-review
Australian and New Zealand Pulmonary Rehabilitation Guidelines
Alison, J. A., McKeough, Z. J., Johnston, K., McNamara, R. J., Spencer, L. M., Jenkins, S. C., Hill, C. J., McDonald, V. M., Frith, P. A., Cafarella, P., Brooke, M., Cameron-Tucker, H. L., Candy, S., Cecins, N., Chan, A. S. L., Dale, M. T., Dowman, L. M., Granger, C. L., Halloran, S., Jung, P. & 9 othersLee, A. L., Leung, R., Matulick, T., Osadnik, C., Roberts, M., Walsh, J. J., Wootton, S., Holland, A. E. & on behalf of the Lung Foundation Australia and the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand, 1 May 2017, In : Respirology. 22, 4, p. 800-819 20 p.
Balance and Falls in Acute Exacerbation of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: A Prospective Study
Oliveira, C. C., Lee, A. L., McGinley, J., Anderson, G. P., Clark, R. A., Thompson, M., Clarke, S., Baker, T., Irving, L. B. & Denehy, L., 3 Sep 2017, In : COPD: Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. 14, 5, p. 518-525 8 p.
Chronic Pain in People With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: Prevalence, Clinical and Psychological Implications
Lee, A., Goldstein, R. & Brooks, D., 2017, In : Journal of the Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Foundation . 4, 3, p. 194-203 10 p.
Do exercise interventions improve participation in life roles in older adults? A systematic review and meta- analysis
Beauchamp, M. K., Lee, A., Ward, R. F., Harrison, S. M., Bain, P. A., Goldstein, R. S., Brooks, D., Bean, J. F. & Jette, A. M., 1 Oct 2017, In : Physical Therapy. 97, 10, p. 964-974 11 p.
Home-based rehabilitation for COPD using minimal resources: A randomised, controlled equivalence trial
Holland, A. E., Mahal, A., Hill, C. J., Lee, A. L., Burge, A. T., Cox, N. S., Moore, R., Nicolson, C., O'Halloran, P., Lahham, A., Gillies, R. & McDonald, C. F., 1 Jan 2017, In : Thorax. 72, 1, p. 57-65 9 p.
Is ultrasound a reliable and precise measure of sternal micromotion in acute patients after cardiac surgery?
Balachandran, S., Sorohan, M., Denehy, L., Lee, A., Royse, A., Royse, C., Ali, K. M. & El-Ansary, D., 1 Feb 2017, In : International Journal of Therapy and Rehabilitation. 24, 2, p. 62-70 9 p.
Perspectives of healthcare professionals and patients on the application of mindfulness in individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Harrison, S. L., Lee, A., Goldstein, R. S. & Brooks, D., 1 Feb 2017, In : Patient Education and Counseling. 100, 2, p. 337-342 6 p.
Positive expiratory pressure therapy versus other airway clearance techniques for bronchiectasis
Lee, A. L., Burge, A. T. & Holland, A. E., 27 Sep 2017, In : Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2017, 9, 74 p., CD011699.
Prevalence and impact of urinary incontinence in men with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a questionnaire survey
Burge, A. T., Lee, A. L., Kein, C., Button, B. M., Sherburn, M. S., Miller, B. & Holland, A. E., 1 Mar 2017, In : Physiotherapy. 103, 1, p. 53-58 6 p.
Pulmonary Rehabilitation in Individuals With Non–Cystic Fibrosis Bronchiectasis: A Systematic Review
Lee, A. L., Hill, C. J., McDonald, C. F. & Holland, A. E., 1 Apr 2017, In : Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. 98, 4, p. 774-782.e1
Pulmonary Rehabilitation With Balance Training for Fall Reduction in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial
Beauchamp, M. K., Brooks, D., Ellerton, C., Lee, A. L., Alison, J., Camp, P. G., Dechman, G., Haines, K., Harrison, S. L., Holland, A. E., Marques, A., Moineddin, R., Skinner, E. H., Spencer, L., Stickland, M. K., Xie, F. & Goldstein, R. S., Nov 2017, In : JMIR Research Protocols. 6, 11, 11 p., e228.
Systematic review of postural assessment in individuals with obstructive respiratory conditions
Lee, A. L., Zabjek, K., Goldstein, R. S. & Brooks, D., 2017, In : Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and Prevention. 37, 2, p. 90-102 13 p.
The Bronchiectasis Toolbox: a comprehensive website for the management of people with bronchiectasis
Nicolson, C. H., Holland, A. E. & Lee, A. L., 2017, In : Journal of Medical Sciences. 5, 2, 7 p., 13.
The evidence of benefits of exercise training in interstitial lung disease
Dowman, L. M., McDonald, C. F., Hill, C. J., Lee, A. L., Barker, K., Boote, C., Glaspole, I., Goh, N. S. L., Southcott, A. M., Burge, A. T., Gillies, R., Martin, A. & Holland, A. E., 1 Jul 2017, In : Thorax. 72, 7, p. 610-619 10 p.
The role of pain in pulmonary rehabilitation: A qualitative study
Harrison, S. L., Lee, A. L., Elliott-Button, H. L., Shea, R., Goldstein, R. S., Brooks, D., Ryan, C. G. & Martin, D. J., 8 Nov 2017, In : International Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. 12, p. 3289-3299 11 p.
“We are all there for the same purpose”: Support for an integrated community exercise program for older adults with HF and COPD
Desveaux, L., Harrison, S., Lee, A., Mathur, S., Goldstein, R. & Brooks, D., 1 Jul 2017, In : Heart and Lung. 46, 4, p. 308-312 5 p.
An innovative program to support internationally educated health professionals and their instructors: Role of the clinical practice facilitator
Daniel, S., Lee, A. L., Switzer-McIntyre, S. & Evans, C., 1 Jan 2016, In : Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions. 36, 4, p. 269-277 9 p.
A randomised controlled trial of supplemental oxygen versus medical air during exercise training in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: Supplemental oxygen in pulmonary rehabilitation trial (SuppORT) (Protocol)
Alison, J. A., McKeough, Z. J., Jenkins, S. C., Holland, A. E., Hill, K., Morris, N. R., Leung, R. W. M., Williamson, K. A., Spencer, L. M., Hill, C. J., Lee, A. L., Seale, H., Cecins, N. & McDonald, C. F., 4 Feb 2016, In : BMC Pulmonary Medicine. 16, 1, 9 p., 25.
Mindfulness in people with a respiratory diagnosis: A systematic review
Harrison, S. L., Lee, A., Janaudis-Ferreira, T., Goldstein, R. S. & Brooks, D., 1 Mar 2016, In : Patient Education and Counseling. 99, 3, p. 348-355 8 p.
Pain and its clinical associations in individuals with cystic fibrosis: A systematic review
Lee, A. L., Rawlings, S., Bennett, K. A. & Armstrong, D., 12 Feb 2016, In : Chronic Respiratory Disease. 13, 2, p. 102-117 16 p.
Physiotherapy for cystic fibrosis in Australia and New Zealand: A clinical practice guideline
Button, B. M., Wilson, C., Dentice, R., Cox, N. S., Middleton, A., Tannenbaum, E., Bishop, J., Cobb, R., Burton, K., Wood, M., Moran, F., Black, R., Bowen, S., Day, R., Depiazzi, J., Doiron, K., Doumit, M., Dwyer, T., Elliot, A., Fuller, L. & 17 othersHall, K., Hutchins, M., Kerr, M., Lee, A. L., Mans, C., O'Connor, L., Steward, R., Potter, A., Rasekaba, T., Scoones, R., Tarrant, B., Ward, N., West, S., White, D., Wilson, L., Wood, J. & Holland, A. E., 1 May 2016, In : Respirology. 21, 4, p. 656-667 12 p.
Physiotherapy Interventions: Airway Clearance Techniques
Lee, A. L., McCarren, B., Shannon, H. & Rand, S., 2016, Cardiorespiratory Physiotherapy : Adults and Paediatrics . Main, E. & Denehy, L. (eds.). 5th ed. Elsevier, p. 250-292 43 p.
Protocol: Effects of a community-based, post-rehabilitation exercise program in COPD: protocol for a randomised controlled trial with embedded process evaluation
Desveaux, L., Beauchamp, M., Lee, A., Ivers, N., Goldstein, R. & Brooks, D., 2016, In : JMIR Research Protocols. 5, 2, p. e63
Mitchell, K. E., Pitta, F., Holland, A. E., Lee, A. L. & Denehy, L., 2016, Cardiorespiratory Physiotherapy: Adults and Paediatrics. Main, E. & Denehy, L. (eds.). 5th ed. Elsevier, p. 586-596 11 p.
Re: A possible pathological link among swallowing dysfunction, gastro-esophageal reflex, and sleep apnea in acute exacerbation in copd patients
Lee, A. L. & Goldstein, R. S., 27 Jan 2016, In : International Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. 11, p. 149-150 2 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Comment / Debate › Other › peer-review
Reliability of the hand held dynamometer in measuring muscle strength in people with interstitial lung disease
Dowman, L., McDonald, C. F., Hill, C. J., Lee, A., Barker, K., Boote, C., Glaspole, I., Goh, N., Southcott, A., Burge, A., Ndongo, R., Martin, A. & Holland, A. E., 1 Sep 2016, In : Physiotherapy. 102, 3, p. 249-255 7 p.
Risk factors for sternal complications after cardiac operations: A systematic review
Balachandran, S., Lee, A., Denehy, L., Lin, K-Y., Royse, A., Royse, C. & El-Ansary, D., 1 Dec 2016, In : Annals of Thoracic Surgery. 102, 6, p. 2109-2117 9 p.
Airway clearance techniques for bronchiectasis: Updated Review
Lee, A. L., Burge, A. T. & Holland, A. E., 2015, In : Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2015, 11, CD008351.
Alternative field exercise tests for people with respiratory conditions
Lee, A. L., Harrison, S., Beauchamp, M., Janaudis-Ferreira, T. & Brooks, D., Sep 2015, In : Current Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Reports. 3, 3, p. 232-241 10 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Review Article › Research
Distractive auditory stimuli in the form of music in individuals with COPD: A systematic review
Lee, A. L., Desveaux, L., Goldstein, R. S. & Brooks, D., 1 Aug 2015, In : Chest. 148, 2, p. 417-429 13 p.
Exhaled breath condensate pepsin: potential noninvasive test for gastroesophageal reflux in COPD and bronchiectasis
Lee, A., Button, B., Denehy, L., Roberts, S. K., Bamford, T. L., Mu, F-T., Mifsud, N. A., Stirling, R. G. & Wilson, J. W., 2015, In : Respiratory care. 60, 2, p. 244-250 7 p.
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Read The Mystery on Cobbett's Island Online
Authors: Kathryn Kenny
Tags: #Suspense
The Mystery on Cobbett's Island
This is a reissue edition of a book that was originally published in 1964. While some words have been changed to regularize spelling within the book and between books in the series, the text has not been updated to reflect current attitudes and beliefs.
Copyright © 1964, renewed 1992 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Random House Children's Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published by Golden Books, an imprint of Random House Children's Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, in 1964.
www.randomhouse.com/kids
www.trixiebelden.net
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kenny, Kathryn.
[Trixie Belden and the mystery on Cobbett's Island]
The mystery on Cobbett's Island / by Kathryn Kenny ; illustrated by Paul Frame ; cover illustration by Michael Koelsch. â 1st Random House ed.
   p. cm. â (Trixie Belden ; #13)
Originally published: Trixie Belden and the mystery on Cobbett's Island. Racine, Wis. : Whitman Publishing Company, 1964.
: When the Bob-Whitesâminus Danâhead to Cobbett's Island to spend ten days in a historic home on the beach, Trixie finds an old letter tucked away in a book and sets off on a long-delayed treasure hunt.
eISBN: 978-0-307-80872-1
[1. Buried treasureâFiction. 2. SailingâFiction. 3. IslandsâFiction. 4. Mystery and detective stories.] I. Frame, Paul, 1913â ill. II. Koelsch, Michael. III. Title. IV. Series.
PZ7.K396Ms 2005 [Fic]âdc22Â Â Â Â 2004017251
and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
1. An Unexpected Invitation
2. Foul Weather
3. An Emergency
4. The Neighbor
5. The Letter
6. Mystery in the Tool Shed
7. The Gazebo
8. A Sailing Lesson
9. An Accident
10. Jimmy’s Place
11. The Captain’s Tales
12. The Mysterious Stranger
13. Teacups and Sailboats
14. Another Clue
15. Jelly Doughnuts
16. The Chart and the Compass
17. A Little Black Box
18. Trixie’s Tops!
An Unexpected Invitation
“Oh, Moms, do you know what?” exclaimed Trixie as she dashed into the kitchen, letting the porch door slam behind her, and almost knocking a lemon pie out of Mrs. Belden's hands.
Her mother carefully put the pie, piled high with golden meringue, out of the way in the pantry, and then straightening her apron, she smiled fondly at her daughter and said, “Yes, I know what; another step and you would have had no pie for supper tonight! Now try to calm down and tell me what has you so excited that you would risk ruining your favorite dessert.”
Trixie pushed back the blond curls from her damp forehead and, taking a deep breath, said, “Mrs. Wheeler has invited all the Bob-Whites to the beach for ten days!”
“To the beach!” said Mrs. Belden. “How wonderful! Tell me all about it,” she invited.
As she spoke, she brought over a bowl of cherries and sat down next to Trixie who had collapsed into a chair at the big, round kitchen table.
Trixie popped a cherry into her mouth. Her eyes were snapping with excitement. “Well, the Wheelers rented a house on Cobbett's Island for weekends this summer so Mr. Wheeler could go deep-sea fishing. Then, last week he found out he has to go to Brazil on business, and he wants Mrs. Wheeler to go with him.”
“Yes, she told me yesterday she hoped she'd be able to go because she's never been to South America,” Mrs. Belden commented, “but she didn't say anything about the invitation.”
“I guess South America is the only place she hasn't been unless it's the South Pole.” Trixie laughed. “She probably didn't mention the plans because they weren't definite until today.” She reached for more cherries as she continued. “Anyway, the Bob-Whites were all up at the clubhouse this afternoon trying to think of something to do now that school is out.”
“Well, the Bob-Whites usually find something to keep them busy and stir up a lot of excitement, too,” her mother commented. She smiled warmly.
“I know we do. I guess it all started when Honey and I found Jim in the Mansion. A lot's happened since then,” said Trixie reminiscently.
“It certainly has,” agreed Mrs. Belden, “but get back to the invitation.”
“Well, Moms, we couldn't seem to think of any new project, and we were all getting kind of frustâfrustedâ”
“You mean âfrustrated,' don't you, dear? You're beginning to sound just like Mart with those big words.” Mrs. Belden smiled proudly at her daughter.
“As a matter of fact, it
Mart who said we were all getting kind of frustra-ted, and that we'd all better go up to Honey's house and have something to eat so we could think better. You know how food is usually Mart's solution to a problem.” She giggled.
Mart, Trixie's brother, was fifteen, eleven months older than Trixie, and looked so much like her that he was sometimes taken for her twin. In the last year, he had begun to grow so fast his wrists always seemed to be hanging out of his sleeves, but he still had the same sturdy build as his sister, the same sandy hair and blue eyes. Mrs. Belden smiled, for well she knew how all the Bob-Whites loved to eat, not just Mart, although he was probably the most ravenous of the group. Only yesterday her cooky crock had been emptied when all seven members of the B.W.G.'s, as they called themselves, had stopped at Crabapple Farm on their way home from their last day at school.
Besides Mart, Trixie, and her oldest brother, Brian,
the members of the secret club consisted of Honey Wheeler and her adopted brother, Jim Frayne, Diana Lynch, and Dan Mangan. All lived near each other a few miles outside the small Westchester County town of Sleepyside-on-Hudson, and all attended the same junior-senior high school.
“Well, just as we were eating those yummy brownies,” continued Trixie, “Mrs. Wheeler came in and said she had some news for us. Honey, who seemed just as mystified as the rest of us, asked her mother what it was all about, and then she told us! Can you imagine?”
“I think that's wonderful,” said Mrs. Belden, “and I can see no reason why you and your brothers can't go, ifâ”
The “if” was smothered by Trixie grabbing her mother and giving her a bear hug.
Mart, by the way?” asked Mrs. Belden. “And Brian? Where is he?”
“Oh, Brian's out in the barn working on an old rattletrap car that he towed home yesterday. All we need is another jalopy around here! And Mart is still up at the Wheelers' talking about the trip. We knew we could count on
letting us go, but do you think Daddy will agree?”
“That was the âif' I was about to mention,” said her
mother, “but I'm sure if this expedition doesn't cost too much he will let you go.”
“Oh, it won't cost much,” Trixie quickly assured her mother. “Cobbett's Island isn't more than three or four hours' drive from here. You have to take a ferry from the mainland, and there's fishing, and sailing, and a deserted lighthouse, and ⦔ Trixie was off again. “And I won't need anything but my old blue jeans, and those shirts we used for gym last year, and maybe a new bathing suit?”
The last item mentioned was more of a question than a statement of fact, and Mrs. Belden, obviously surprised, said, “Why, Trixie, don't tell me you're interested in getting something new for a change. Is my girl growing up?”
“Could be,” answered Trixie thoughtfully. “Of course, I don't know what I'd use for money. The yearbook and my class ring took all my extra cash,” she added, her face clouding. “What
I do?”
Her question was left unanswered as she and her mother heard the familiar sound of the Belden Buggy as it turned into the driveway. The family station wagon had been christened the Buggy three years ago when a queen bee had chosen its interior as a perfect place to swarm. It had taken Mr. Lawlor, the local bee authority,
all day to capture her and put her in a new hive where she was soon joined by her faithful followers.
Bobby, Trixie's little brother, who had been playing with his electric train in his room, came running downstairs, out the door, and up the drive to meet his father. He was followed closely by Reddy, the friendly but undisciplined Irish setter, who was never far away from the little boy. Trixie brought up the rear.
Mr. Belden had scarcely stepped out of the car before his children had thrown their arms around him and Reddy began barking a joyful welcome. “Now what have my pets been doing on their first vacation day? I wish banks closed for the summer, just like schools,” he said, “but when a bank closes it's a disaster, not a holiday.”
“Gosh, Daddy, do they ever have to close?” asked Trixie.
Mr. Belden walked toward the house with an arm around each one. He explained that in the old days, before banks were insured by the Federal Government, they sometimes failed, and the people who had money in them lost all their savings. But now such a thing was almost impossible.
Trixie thought of her college fund of fifty-nine dollars and seventy-two cents lying safe and sound in the bank, then she sighed contentedly. Smiling up at her father, she said, “Do you know what?”
You Mean I'm Not Lazy, Stupid or Crazy?!: The Classic Self-Help Book for Adults With Attention Deficit Disorder by Kate Kelly, Peggy Ramundo
Mercenary by Anthony, Piers
Beyond the Pale: A Novel by Elana Dykewomon
Castaways by Cheyenne McCray
Unexpected Chance by Annalisa Nicole
A Perfect Home by Kate Glanville
Black Bazaar by Alain Mabanckou
Gone Crazy in Alabama by Rita Williams-Garcia
Six Masters Island - The Cinderella Syndrome by Candace Smith
The Orphans (Orphans Trilogy Book 1) by Matthew Sullivan
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A Sense of Direction
I’m about 90 pages into Gideon Lewis-Kraus’s A Sense of Direction: Pilgrimage for the Restless and the Hopeful. It came out three months ago and promptly got a brief review in The New Yorker. As explained there,
Lewis-Kraus moved from San Francisco to Berlin and then set out on a series of pilgrimages: Camino de Santiago, in Spain; Shikoku, in Japan; and Uman, in Ukraine. He makes the three treks–Catholic, Buddhist, and Jewish, respectively–as a secularist, hunting for clarity while nursing his blistered feet. … Perhaps by design, the writing–beautiful and often very funny–frequently mimics the setting: during the Berlin segment it’s restless, and, on the circular route of Shikoku, sometimes lacks direction. But on the Camino Lewis-Kraus weaves a story that his both searching and purposeful, one that forces the reader, like the pilgrim, to value the journey as much as the destination.
I downloaded the first portion of the book in June, started it, but decided to defer reading it, or perhaps not read it at all. However, I kept seeing mention of it, including this interview of the author in Harper’s. Finally, last week, I downloaded the full book and began reading it.
Progress was slow initially, since I downloaded another book at the same time — James Sullivan’s Island Cup: Two Teams, Twelve Miles of Ocean, and Fifty Years of Football Rivalry — and was alternating between the two. I wrote about Island Cup last month. It’s the account of the rivalry between the Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard high school football teams. My interest in high school football is close to zero. But my interest in Nantucket is high, and what especially appealed to me was the opportunity to learn about year-round life on the islands. Writer and Martha’s Vineyard resident Tony Horwitz explained in his WSJ review that the book
may surprise summer tourists, who associate Nantucket with the homes of whaling captains and with sunburned WASPs in salmon pants. The Vineyard is likewise known for its affluent ease, a retreat for the Clintons, Kennedys and Obamas. But as Mr. Sullivan observes, these crowded resorts have a very different character in fall and winter. They’re small communities, mostly middle- and working-class, with large immigrant populations, isolated by fog and water from what islanders call “America.”
With a visit to Nantucket coming up soon, I thought Island Cup would be useful remedial reading. However, my alternation scheme seems to have turned into a focus on Lewis-Kraus, with island football on hold.
What better timing to be reading about the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage, by the way, than during cycling’s Vuelta a España (which I wrote about yesterday)? We’re into the Vuelta’s second week, and this year’s route has been zigzagging across the pilgrimage route. Compare. Below is the Vuelta map:
And here’s the pilgrimage map:
Last Wednesday’s Vuelta stage began and ended in Logroño. Lewis-Kraus and his companion, fellow writer Tom Bissell, just passed through Logroño in a passage I was reading yesterday.
I feel like I’m still settling into the book’s rhythms and the author’s voice. The portrayal of Berlin’s art world, or the slice of it within which Gideon-Kraus lived, was puzzling, both off-putting and fascinating. I’m not far into the Santiago pilgrimage now. Mostly I’m learning about blisters. Plus the gorgeous countryside.
As a counterpoint to The New Yorker review, here’s an excerpt from James Campbell’s WSJ review:
[Kraus-Lewis] is a guy with a laptop and a phone that translates whatever he needs to say to the natives. In truth, Mr. Lewis-Kraus isn’t the least bit interested in the natives—neither in Berlin, where he starts out, nor in Spain, nor Japan, nor Ukraine, where he ends up. The people he meets are mostly people like him, restless in their over-gadgetized lives, hopeful of glimpsing a private self in the wilderness.
Maybe my reading Campbell in the spring is the reason I hesitated to get the book. I have it now, though, and I’m reading it.
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Finding Safe Haven
For years, Angalia Bianca had slept in abandoned buildings throughout Chicago. She stole. She did drugs. She spent time in and out of jail for forgery, theft, trespassing, and possession of narcotics. But after she landed in prison for the seventh time, something changed -- Bianca knew she wanted a better life. She just didn’t know how to make it happen.
After serving her time, Bianca sought help from a local homeless organization, A Safe Haven, and moved to its shelter in the Rogers Park neighborhood. Bianca followed the program closely -- she attended all the required meetings, passed drug tests, and volunteered at every opportunity.
“They taught me basic life skills. I didn’t know how to get up in the morning, or how to clean the kitchen. They showed me how to do little things that most people take for granted,” she says.
A Safe Haven is a network of shelters that address the causes of chronic homelessness and teach residents how to relearn a life without drugs and alcohol. Neli Vazquez-Rowland, a member of the Rotary Club of Chicago, and her husband, Brian Rowland, founded the organization 20 years ago. Under Vazquez-Rowland’s guidance, more than 50,000 clients have followed a program that includes treatment, education, health care, job training, and job placement.
A PERSONAL STORY
Neither Vazquez-Rowland nor her husband had a traditional social service background, but they did have personal motivation to start A Safe Haven. In the early 1990s, both were flourishing in the financial field. Their lives took an abrupt turn when Rowland developed an addiction to alcohol. They could afford the pricey rehab but quickly realized that only their personal wealth separated them from the addicts who ended up on the streets or in jail.
“We realized how grateful we were that we had resources to get the help we needed and could pay for the best treatment that money could buy,” Vazquez-Rowland says. “That helped me understand the disparities between people with resources and people without resources and where their paths lead them. If you have money, you have access to treatment, you have access to legal representation, and you have the ability to get back on your feet and not lose your job. But if it happens in the poor communities, you get arrested and you end up in jail.”
As Rowland got sober, the couple discovered the paucity of services for people in recovery, especially for those with little money or family support. Government agencies weren’t meeting the needs of people they encountered who were struggling to get their lives back on track. So in 1994, Vazquez-Rowland and her husband bought and refurbished an abandoned apartment building in the Logan Square neighborhood. Their plan was to rent out the building for a year to people recovering from drug and alcohol addiction, and when the real-estate market recovered, sell it for a profit. But as more people showed up seeking their services, Vazquez-Rowland realized she and her husband could help transform people’s lives.
CREATING A SAFE HAVEN
So the couple established A Safe Haven Foundation, developing a comprehensive program to serve those in recovery. Vazquez-Rowland personally subsidized care for thousands as she continued to work in the investment business. But after five years, she and Rowland saw that this wasn’t a sustainable course.
In 1999, armed with a study conducted by Northwestern University that provided the hard data they needed to seek outside funding, they landed their first contract, with the Illinois Department of Corrections, to provide transitional housing for nonviolent ex-offenders.
Around that time, Vazquez-Rowland also decided to give up her career, leaving a job that had provided her family of four with a comfortable life. “We had this moment of truth,” she says. “We asked each other: ‘What are we doing? Are we in the business of finance or are we in the business of helping people?’ ”
After 20 years, A Safe Haven has 28 locations throughout Chicago, housed in once-abandoned buildings the couple bought in the South Shore, Englewood, and North Lawndale neighborhoods -- areas that other developers might shun.
FROM HOMELESSNESS TO INDEPENDENCE
Vazquez-Rowland has learned that there is no single approach to homeless services. Some clients were ready to move on to their own apartments but were shut out of the rental market because of bad credit or a criminal background. Some had difficulty finding a job after being released from prison. Others were families coming to the shelter for the first time because they’d lost their home to foreclosure after a job loss.
In response, A Safe Haven developed social enterprise ventures to employ its graduates. These include catering, landscaping, and pest control businesses.
“The services of A Safe Haven are free, but its clients commit to becoming self-sufficient. The reason it’s so powerful here is because there are so many people in different stages of their development,” Vazquez-Rowland says. “They’re getting that pride back in their eyes, and the enthusiasm to take care of themselves.”
While continuing to run A Safe Haven, Vazquez-Rowland spends three or four days a month at an office in Washington, D.C., meeting with leaders in government, business, and academia to promote her model nationally.
“We all want the same thing. We just don’t agree on how to achieve it,” she says.
In North Lawndale, one of Chicago’s most poverty-stricken neighborhoods, A Safe Haven’s headquarters serves as an oasis. Inside the building, a teenager explains how the organization helped reunite him with his father. An older woman who has finished the program says goodbye to the friends she’s made at the shelter as she leaves for her first apartment. A young man approaches Vazquez-Rowland in the cafeteria to thank her for saving his life.
Vazquez-Rowland can’t walk from one side of the building to the other without someone calling out her name and waving a greeting. She knows everyone by first name too.
“This is the most rewarding work in the world,” she says. “We’re saving lives.”
By Megan Ferringer
Adapted from a story in the February 2014 issue of The Rotarian
25-FEB-201
About Gunnison
Our club members are dedicated people who share a passion for both community service and friendship. Becoming a Rotarian connects you with a diverse group of professionals who share your drive to give back.
Our club accepts new members by invitation.
Rotary at a Glance
Rotary brings together a global network of volunteer leaders who dedicate their time and talent to tackle the world’s most pressing humanitarian challenges. Rotary connects 1.2 million members from more than 200 countries and geographical areas. Their work impacts lives at both the local and international levels.
Keep in touch, or reach out to us from via our social media websites!
All materials and photos, unless otherwise specified, copyright of Rotary Club of Gunnison.
All Rotary marks, logos, and copyrighted content is owned by Rotary International, used with permission.
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Tag Archives: Sebastian Shaw
So I’d been planning to see this movie with my mom for some time. We’re big James McAvoy, and this movie quickly jumped to the top of our list. We thought, “Hey, James McAvoy. A new X-men movie that looks quite good? Definitely.” And he didn’t disappoint. And neither did anyone else in the film X-Men: First Class. I did expect to take the phrase “First Class” literally, but I was a bit mistaken. (I thought this movie would focus on the first young group that Charles Xavier took into the X-Men academy. Guess not.) But I wasn’t disappointed at all. This movie delivered. I would say it did, even more than the original trilogy.
So the plot of this movie is the origins of the X-men. I’m pretty sure it holds true to the comics, and I think this
The rivals unite.
was a big plus. (Maybe a few liberties were taken?) But, either way, this 1960’s set X-men classic follows the origins of Erik Lensherr/ Magneto (Michael Fassbender) and Charles Xavier (James McAvoy). This is before Charles was given his wheelchair (explained) and so that’s why you see him puttering around on his own two legs. The hip, suave, young Xavier (a welcome change from Patrick Stewart’s stuffy portrayal of Professor X) has just become a Professor from Cambridge based on his work on human mutation. (Fitting right?) Parallel to this, Erik is on a rampage (using his harnessed powers) to destroy the German Nazis that imprisoned him during WWII and killing his mother. It was this pain that unleashed his powers as a young boy.
And it is through the power of the government that these two come together to team up for the only time in their lives. To stop an evil mutant of unspeakable power, Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) these two must recruit other mutants across the world in order to prevent nuclear disaster. As you watch the movie, you find that, in fact, the X-Men were what prevented the Cuban Missile Crisis. And then, as expected, things fall apart for the duo, leading up nicely to the next movies made years ago.
It sent chills down my spine when he put that helmet on.
I’ve heard people didn’t like this movie. People gave this a bad review and I was surprised. I found this to be a decent movie that was respectable among X-men entertainment. So I found it hard to believe, with such a good cast and decent special effects, how this movie could even be viewed as a bomb. I mean, come on, James McAvoy (great actor) and one of my personal favorites, Michael Fassbender? You can’t get much better than that. Throw in a handfull of cameos (yes, a scene of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine and Rebecca Romjin as a view of the older Mystique.) and great foreshadowing, and you have a great prequel.
I mean, I can’t say enough about the cast this film boasts. I have to say again, James McAvoy. Having another big action film under his belt, Wanted, he is perfectly comfortable as an action hero (although be it a passive one). Michael Fassbender. He is no newbie when it comes to action films. 300, Centurion, Inglorious Basterds. This guy has done some of the best action films of the decade. And he’s such a malicious character actor that when you see him as the villain, you can actually see the evil seething from him. Kevin Bacon. I haven’t seen him in a while and they hid it well in the trailers that he was in the movie. And as the villain? That was a shock. But still, he was quite devious. Combine that with Nicholas Holt as Beast (great job to say the least) and Jennifer Lawrence (academy award winner for Winter’s Bone.) among other X-Men, and you have a great cast.
Great group. Great cast. Great movie.
From the director Matthew Vaughn, director of some pretty badass action films, Layer Cake (personal favorite), Kick Ass, even Stardust was decent, you have to expect some good acting combined with great visual chemistry. There’s a great scene with Michael Fassbender absolutely destroying some Argentinian Nazi fools that brims with gorish action. This movie screams great summer film. If Stan Lee’s onboard (not just for the money, I hope) then it has to be good. His baby creation has come to life once again and it’s all good. 8.8 out of 10.
2 Comments | tags: 1960's, 300, academy, action hero, bad reviews, Cambridge, cameos, Centurion, Charles Xavier, comics, Cuban Missile Crisis, Erik Lensherr, foreshadowing, German Nazis, good cast, government, Hugh Jackman, human mutation, Inglorious Basterds, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Kevin Bacon, Kick Ass, Layer Cake, Magneto, malicious character actor, Matthew Vaughn, Michael Fassbender, mutants, Mystique, Nicholas Holt, nuclear disaster, original trilogy, Patrick Stewart, powers, Professor X, Rebecca Romjin, Sebastian Shaw, Stan Lee, Stardust, summer film, villain, visual chemistry, Wanted, wheelchair, Winter's Bone, Wolverine, WWII, X-men, X-Men: First Class, young Xavier | posted in Movies
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Darksiders 3 Trailer Shows Off Force Fury Hollow Form
The Force is with Fury in the latest gameplay trailer for Darksiders 3.
Published Oct. 3, 2018, 12:51 p.m. about Darksiders III
by Larryn Bell
Publisher THQ Nordic and developer Gunfire Games have unleashed a new trailer for Darksiders 3, which shows off one of Fury’s alternate forms called the Force Hollow. This ability transforms Fury into a purple-haired, hammer-wielding powerhouse who can pummel enemies and take on a rock-like form to traverse through the tunnels of post-apocalyptic Earth. You can check out the new Darksiders 3 Force Hollow trailer in the video below.
Although Fury will have several Hollow forms, this is the first time we’ve seen another one of these forms in action since the Flame Hollow reveal. The Force Hollow appears to be a more resilient form for Fury, allowing her to transform into a stone sphere that can traverse across crystal-encrusted walls. Like the Flame Hollow, the Force Hollow form also swaps out Fury’s primary weapon for something new, in this case a massive hammer that appears to pack a wallop.
At the end of the Force Hollow trailer, there’s a screen showing a huge boss that has not been shown before. There’s a good chance this is one of the seven deadly sins that Fury must hunt down in the game. The developers have already revealed Sloth, Envy, and Wrath, and judging by the coins strewn about the environment, there’s a good chance that the boss in this image is Greed, though the jury’s still out on that one.
Darksiders 3 is scheduled to release on November 27, 2018 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Windows PC. If you’re excited to jump into Darksiders 3 and take the reigns as one of the horsemen of the apocalypse, then make sure to check back here for more Darksiders 3 coverage. Pre-orders are also available for the Darksiders 3 Collector's Edition Guide for those who want to have official strategy at their fingertips come launch day.
Larryn is a content creator on YouTube and a full-time writer who has written guides and editorial features for various gaming websites. She can often be found at small gatherings preaching the gospel of The Witcher 3.
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The Pronk Pops Show 360, October 30, 2014, Story 1: Recommend U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay Be Used For Quarantine and Isolation U.S. Troops Returning From Ebola Hot Zone Response Missions in West Africa and Isolate Ebola Patients in 100 Bed Bio-Safety Level 4 Containment Center! — Videos
Posted on October 30, 2014. Filed under: American History, Benghazi, Biology, Blogroll, Business, Center for Disease Control, Chemistry, College, Communications, Constitutional Law, Corruption, Crime, Culture, Disasters, Diseases, Ebola, Ebola, Ebola, Economics, Education, Elections, Employment, Fast and Furious, Federal Government, Foreign Policy, Government, Government Dependency, Government Spending, Health Care, History, Illegal Immigration, Illegal Immigration, Immigration, Impeachment, IRS, Law, Legal Immigration, Media, Medical, Medicine, National Security Agency, Obama, Philosophy, Photos, Radio, Regulation, Resources, Scandals, Science, Social Networking, Social Science, Success, Taxes, Technology, Terror, Terrorism, Unemployment, Unions, United States Constitution, Videos, Violence, War, Wealth, Wisdom | Tags: 100 Bed Bio-Safety Level 4 Containment Center, America, Amnesty for Illegal Aliens, Articles, Articles of Impeachment, Audio, Bioconatinment Unit, Biocontainment Spacesuit, Breaking News, Broadcasting, Capitalism, Charity, Citizenship, Clarity, Classical Liberalism, Collectivism, Commentary, Commitment, Communicate, Communication, Concise, Convincing, Courage, Culture, Current Affairs, Current Events, Department of Defense, Department of State, Deportation, Ebola, Economic Growth, Economic Policy, Economics, Education, Evil, Experience, Faith, Family, First, Fiscal Policy, Free Enterprise, Freedom, Freedom of Speech, Friends, Give It A Listen!, God, Good, Goodwill, Growth, Hope, Individualism, Knowledge, Liberty, Life, Love, Lovers of Liberty, Mandatory Quarantine, Military Quarantine, Monetary Policy, MPEG3, News, Opinions, Peace, Photos, Podcasts, Political Philosophy, Politics, Prosperity, Quarantine, Radio, Raymond Thomas Pronk, Representative Republic, Republic, Resources, Respect, Rule of Law, Rule of Men, Show Notes, Talk Radio, The Pronk Pops Show, Truth, Tyranny, U.S. Constitution, U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, United States of America, Videos, Virtue, War, White House, Wisdom |
Story 1: Recommend U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay Be Used For Quarantine and Isolation of U.S. Troops Returning From Ebola Response Missions in West Africa and Care of Ebola Patients in 100 Bed Bio-Safety Level 4 Containment Center! — Videos
21-Day Quarantine For Troops Returning From Ebola Hot Zones
Pentagon orders 21-day Ebola quarantine for troops
Hagel Approves 21-day Ebola Quarantine For Troops
USAMRIID The US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease
USAMRIID Overview
BioContainment Unit at The Nebraska Medical Center
Activation- A Nebraska Medical Center Biocontainment Unit Story
Questions & Answers About Ebola – Doctors – Nebraska Medicine
Phil Smith, MD, medical director of the Biocontainment Unit at Nebraska Medical Center and Angela Hewlett, MD, associate medical director of the unit, provide answers to some commonly asked questions about the disease – both for providers and the general public.
Questions & Answers About Ebola – Nurses – Nebraska Medicine
Biocontainment Unit nurses Kate Boulter and Morgan Shradar answer questions for providers and the public about treating patients with the Ebola virus. For more information, visit http://www.NebraskaMed.com.
How Infectious Is Ebola? – Nebraska Medicine
Ebola Education Session – Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Demonstration
C-130 LANDING AT GUANTANAMO BAY CUBA IN High Def
Cool takeoff from NAS Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
BBC News – Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay dilemma
Maine Nurse Violates Cautionary Ebola Quarantine by Going for Bike Ride
US Ebola Nurse Kaci Hickox Fighting Quarantine ‘Completely Healthy’
WATCH: Kaci Hickox breaks her quarantine, gives CNN biking interview
Ebola Nurse Goes for Bike Ride – Quarantine Be Damned
Ebola Nurse Kaci Hickox Goes on Bicycle Ride
GOVERNMENT AGENCIES SCRAMBLE TO PURCHASE HAZMAT SUITS
Orders from one company surpass 1 million as concerns about Ebola linge
RELATED: Exclusive: U.S. Government Orders 250,000 Hazmat Suits to be Sent to Dallas
Government agencies across the world are rushing to snap up protective gear as concerns about the spread of the Ebola virus continue to dominate, with Lakeland Industries announcing that it has received 1 million orders for Hazmat suits alone.
Lakeland hit the headlines last month when it was revealed that the U.S. State Department had ordered 160,000 Hazmat suits from the Ronkonkoma, NY company.
The manufacturer saw its stock soar by 30% in after-hours trading on Wednesday after a press release on business activity related to Ebola revealed that the company was still being inundated with orders for Hazmat suits and other PPE items.
“Through its direct sales force and numerous distribution partners throughout the world, Lakeland has secured new orders relating to the fight against the spread of Ebola. Orders have been received from government agencies around the world as well as other public and private sector customers. Certain of these contracts require weekly delivery guarantees or shipments through the first calendar quarter of 2015. The aggregate of orders won by Lakeland that are believed to have resulted from the Ebola crisis amount to approximately 1 million suits with additional orders for other products, such as hoods, foot coverings and gloves,” states the press release.
The company adds that orders for ChemMAX and MicroMAX protective suit lines have increased 50% since August and are on course for a 100% increase by January 2015.
As Infowars reported last week, the federal government is quickly exhausting supplies for Hazmat suits in the United States, with numerous distributors being forced to place stock on hold for “government needs” only as concerns about Ebola linger after a third case was confirmed in New York.
Other federal agencies like the National Institutes of Health are also stockpiling PPE gear in anticipation of an “emergency event” disrupting the supply chain.
Lakeland, which already enjoyed a 40% stock surge in the aftermath of the first Ebola case being confirmed in the United States, is currently selling class A Hazmat suits for $1300 dollars. Business Insider’s Sam Ro accuses the company of cashing in on the spread of the Ebola virus and the fear that has come with it,” noting that the word “Ebola” is mentioned twelve times in their press release.
http://www.infowars.com/government-agencies-scramble-to-purchase-hazmat-suits/
Bioterrorism Agents/Diseases
A to Z | By category
The U.S. public health system and primary healthcare providers must be prepared to address various biological agents, including pathogens that are rarely seen in the United States. High-priority agents include organisms that pose a risk to national security because they
can be easily disseminated or transmitted from person to person;
result in high mortality rates and have the potential for major public health impact;
might cause public panic and social disruption; and
require special action for public health preparedness.
Agents/Diseases
Anthrax (Bacillus anthracis)
Botulism (Clostridium botulinum toxin)
Plague (Yersinia pestis)
Smallpox (variola major)
Tularemia (Francisella tularensis)
Viral hemorrhagic fevers (filoviruses [e.g., Ebola, Marburg] and arenaviruses [e.g., Lassa, Machupo])
Second highest priority agents include those that
are moderately easy to disseminate;
result in moderate morbidity rates and low mortality rates; and
require specific enhancements of CDC’s diagnostic capacity and enhanced disease surveillance.
Brucellosis (Brucella species)
Epsilon toxin of Clostridium perfringens
Food safety threats (e.g., Salmonella species, Escherichia coli O157:H7, Shigella)
Glanders (Burkholderia mallei)
Melioidosis (Burkholderia pseudomallei)
Psittacosis (Chlamydia psittaci)
Q fever (Coxiella burnetii)
Ricin toxin from Ricinus communis (castor beans)
Staphylococcal enterotoxin B
Typhus fever (Rickettsia prowazekii)
Viral encephalitis (alphaviruses [e.g., Venezuelan equine encephalitis, eastern equine encephalitis, western equine encephalitis])
Water safety threats (e.g., Vibrio cholerae, Cryptosporidium parvum)
Third highest priority agents include emerging pathogens that could be engineered for mass dissemination in the future because of
availability;
ease of production and dissemination; and
potential for high morbidity and mortality rates and major health impact.
Emerging infectious diseases such as Nipah virus and hantavirus
http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/agentlist-category.asp
Quarantined Ebola nurse takes cops for a ride: She defies orders to stay at home and goes for a cycle as police follow in car
Nurse Kaci Hickox, 33, and her boyfriend Ted Wilbur left their home on Thursday morning with their bikes for an hour-long ride
She said: ‘There is nothing to stop me from going for a bike ride in my home town’
She spoke to the press outside the home in Fort Kent, Maine, on Wednesday night, saying she will continue to fight the Ebola quarantine
Hickox shook the hand of MailOnline’s reporter at the scene and said: ‘You could hug me. You could shake my hand. I would not give you Ebola’
Maine Governor said he would give up on the state’s demand to keep the nurse under quarantine if she agrees to take a blood test
Governor Paul LePage added: ‘I don’t want her within three feet of anyone’
However a blood test for Ebola would only be positive if Hickox was displaying symptoms of the virus
By MARTIN GOULD IN FORT KENT, MAINE and LOUISE BOYLE FOR MAILONLINE
Nurse Kaci Hickox defied Maine’s mandatory Ebola quarantine on Thursday and headed out for a bike ride with her boyfriend.
The 33-year-old nurse left her home in Fort Kent, Maine with partner Ted Wilbur this morning, wearing gloves, a safety helmet and couple of layers of fleece to combat the bitter cold.
Miss Hickox broke her quarantine at 9am and took an ATV trail behind her home for the hour-long ride. A state trooper who had been stationed outside the house followed her in a police cruiser.
‘It’s just good to be out,’ Miss Hickox told MailOnline as she left.
Maine police were monitoring her movements and public interactions but there was no court order to arrest the nurse.
Nurse Kaci Hickox went for an hour-long bike ride on Thursday morning because, she said, ‘there was nothing to stop her’
The 33-year-old nurse went on a bike ride with her partner Ted Wilbur this morning as she defied the mandatory Ebola quarantine placed on her by the state of Maine
The nurse and her boyfriend went for a bike ride on Thursday morning and were trailed by a Maine state trooper who said he was monitoring her actions but had no intention of arresting her
Miss Hickox rides past the unmarked car of a Maine state trooper who followed the nurse but said he had no intention of arresting her
Nurse Kaci Hickox left her home on a rural road in Fort Kent, Maine, to take a bike ride with her boyfriend Ted Wilbur. Police are monitoring her, but can’t detain her without a court order signed by a judge
Maine nurse defies Ebola quarantine with bike ride
As she returned home, she said: ‘There is no court action against me. There is nothing to stop me from going for a bike ride in my home town.’
I shook Ebola nurse’s hand: The moment MailOnline reporter touched quarantined Kaci Hickox
On Thursday morning I woke to find myself featured in a mini-media firestorm. Why? Because I had shaken the hand of a woman I had just interviewed.
But this wasn’t any woman – it was Kaci Hickox, 33, the nurse who is challenging her 21-day quarantine after returning from treating Ebola victims in Sierra Leone.
Stories were written of our encounter with headlines such as: ‘Nurse breaks quarantine, shakes reporter’s hand’. It was newsworthy because she should not have contact with the public.
I was one of a handful of reporters outside her home in Fort Kent, Maine, when she decided to come outside and talk about her ‘appalling’ confinement.
Under Maine’s official health guidelines she is not supposed to be in public until the three-week period is over. That is not until November 10.
The guidelines are not mandatory but are voluntary. After she made it clear that she doesn’t intend to stick to the rules – which are more stringent than those imposed by the CDC – Maine officials are preparing to secure a court order to force her to stay away from the public.
Defiant Hickox is living with her boyfriend, Ted Wilbur – who has been out and about talking to friends. And on Thursday she went for a bike ride followed by a gaggle of reporters and cameramen.
Despite a state trooper being stationed outside the house, no one tried to prevent people from getting close to her.
Wednesday night’s impromptu press conference was the first time I had been face-to-face with Hickox. Towards the end she bemoaned the fact that despite showing no symptoms of infection, she shouldn’t hug or even shake her hand of people she meets.
On the spur of the moment, I simply said: ‘I’ll shake your hand,’ and I did. It felt like a common courtesy to someone I had just been asking questions of.
It was a brief handshake, nothing memorable, something I have done thousands of times before. She had a firm grip. She looked me briefly in the eye and thanked me.
I turned to leave her property as she and Wilbur went back inside. One local Maine journalist told me he had thought about doing the same but I got there first.
Medical experts say the chances of Hickox falling ill from Ebola are now extremely remote and the risk of transmitting the virus while she is healthy are so slight as to be virtually non-existent – particularly to someone like me who touched her hand so briefly.
President Obama on Wednesday tried to reassure the public that it is safe to touch healthcare workers returning from Ebola ‘hot zones’ when he did the same and shook the hands of doctors and nurses in the 21-day risk period at the White House.
The one question I have been asked repeatedly since is: ‘Did I wash my hands afterwards?’.
Hickox said that she had not spoken to her lawyers about the ride and it was her decision to go out and get exercise after a day of being cooped up in her house.
The state trooper who followed them by car said he was just monitoring Miss Hickox’s actions and had no intention of arresting her.
The nurse did not say whether she would venture outside again on Thursday, adding that she had to return home to prepare for her daily temperature check for Ebola symptoms from the state’s Center for Disease Control.
Hickox contends there is no need for quarantine because she’s showing no symptoms.
She’s also tested negative for the deadly disease.
Maine Governor Paul LePage told ABC on Thursday that he would give up on the state’s demand to keep the nurse under quarantine if she agrees to take a blood test.
Lawyers for the state of Maine went to court today to ask a judge to order Hickox to take a blood test.
LePage told ABC: ‘This could be resolved today. She has been exposed and she’s not cooperative, so force her to take a test. It’s so simple.’
However, according to Ebola experts, a blood test for Ebola would only be positive if Hickox was displaying symptoms of the virus – which she says she is not.
The Ebola virus is only detectable in the blood if the disease has significantly progressed.
Miss Hickcox has not made it clear whether she would or would not be agree to taking a blood test.
LePage later added that the nurse was causing a lot of tension and worry in the community of Fort Kent.
‘I don’t want her within three feet of anyone,’ LePage told NBC.
On Wednesday night, Miss Hickox left the home she has been ordered to stay inside for 21 days in order to speak with the press about her ‘frustrating’ situation.
Standing in front of her boyfriend’s house, as the police tasked with watching her looked on from across the street, Miss Hickox told the waiting media contingent that she will continue to fight her quarantine orders, even if she is charged for breaking them.
‘We have been in negotiations all day with the state of Maine and tried to resolve this amicably, but they are not allowing me to leave my house and interact with the public even though I am completely healthy and symptom free,’ Miss Hickox said, according to The Press Herald.
‘I am frustrated by this fact, and I have been told that it is the Attorney General’s intention to file legal action against me. And if this does occur, I will challenge the legal actions.’
Hickox shook the hand of MailOnline’s reporter at the scene and said: ‘You could hug me. You could shake my hand. I would not give you Ebola’.
The Doctors Without Borders nurse believes she flew into New Jersey from treating dying Ebola patients in West Africa on ‘the wrong day’.
She claimed that many other aid workers have entered the country and continue to do so without having to go through what she had.
Hickox said she remains healthy and has not shown any Ebola symptoms and that the measures she’s being forced to comply with are over-the-top.
However residents of Fort Kent, a small rural, logging community, where she is staying have said that ’21 days (of quarantine) is better is better than 21 deaths’ and that it is a necessary precaution.
‘I’m upset that Chris Christie ever let her go from New Jersey,’ said resident Anne Dugal. ‘He should have kept her there longer.
‘She says she only had a temperature of 101 because she got upset. No-one shows a temperature because they’re upset. She should stay inside.’
Ted Wilbur, Miss Hickox’s boyfriend, had walked over to the police parked across the street from their house on Wednesday to check Hickox would not be arrested for leaving the house.
She did not go any further than the driveway and police remained across the street for the press conference.
MailOnline reporter Martin Gould (pictured right) shakes the hand of nurse Kaci Hickox (left) outside her home in Fort Kent, Maine on Wednesday after she stepped outside to defy the state’s Ebola quarantine
Nurse Kaci Hickox (left) and her boyfriend Ted Wilbur speak to the media on Wednesday. MailOnline reporter Martin Gould (center) shook Miss Hickox’s hand following the impromptu press conference
The nurse made a point of going out on an early morning bike ride on Thursday after describing the decision to keep her under quarantine in Maine as ‘appalling’
Miss Hickox returned to her home on Thursday morning trailed by reporters after she made the decision to break her Ebola quarantine
‘Don’t bully me’ Maine nurse who refuses to be quarantined
Defiant: Kaci Hickox and her boyfriend Ted Wilbur held a press conference outside their Fort Kent, Maine, home at 7pm on Wednesday night, despite orders by the state to stay indoors
State police troopers were stationed outside the Fort Kent, Maine, home of Kaci Hickox on Wednesday after she threatened to break Maine quarantine guidelines – however they are voluntary at the moment so it is unclear whether they would have the authority to arrest her without a court order
Attacks on Hickox have come thick and fast after she told both NBC’s ‘Today’ show and ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’ that she planned to stay in her home on the outskirts of Fort Kent only for one day after being driven back from New Jersey.
Maine Governor Paul LePage stationed state troopers outside the house that Hickox, 33, shares with her boyfriend Ted Wilbur, setting the stage for a showdown should she decide to leave.
The governor’s office did not say whether the nurse would be arrested if she tried to leave, but said state police were stationed outside the home ‘for both her protection and the health of the community’.
The state’s guidelines are voluntary but Governor LePage wants to make it mandatory and enforceable with a court order.
State Health Commissioner Mary Mayhew told reporters in the capital Augusta: ‘When it is made clear by an individual in this risk category that they do not intend to voluntarily stay at home for the remaining 21 days, we will immediately seek a court order.’
According to NBC the hearing is not likely to be held until Monday – the day before LePage faces re-election and four days after Hickox has vowed to leave her home.
‘If I saw her in the street I wouldn’t go near her,’ said Dugal. ‘Twenty one days is not that long a time.’
Novelist Cathie Pelletier, sitting at the next table to Dugal, agreed. ‘It’s not a case that she can say sorry if she is wrong and dozens of people get infected,’ she said. ‘I can’t understand why she can’t just stay at home those extra few days.’
But both the town’s chief of police, Tom Pelletier — Cathie’s third cousin — and Dr. Michael Sullivan, the chief medical officer at Fort Kent’s hospital the Northern Maine Medical Center, said they wanted to shake Hickox’s hand and thank her for the work she has been doing helping the sick.
The conflicting views go to the heart of the confusion surrounding the approach taken by the federal government, the CDC, and individual states to the Ebola crisis and quarantine rules.
They came as many took to Facebook to slam Hickox for refusing to lock herself away for three weeks – and at the medical center where panicked patients are canceling appointments – even though Hickox has gone nowhere near it, the hospital’s boss said.
Hickox and Wilbur returned to their three-bedroom home on the outskirts of Fort Kent under cover of darkness on Tuesday night after a stopover at his uncle’s house in Freeport, Maine.
‘Twenty one days is better than 21 deaths,’ said Anne Dugal (left) as she ate lunch with her mother Dolores in the Swamp Buck Restaurant in Fort Kent on Wednesday. Novelist Cathie Pelletier (right) said: ‘It’s not a case that she can say sorry if she is wrong and dozens of people get infected’
They had driven nearly 500 miles from Newark, New Jersey where she had been held in quarantine following her arrival in the U.S. from Africa.
Hickox, 33, had been treating Ebola sufferers in Sierra Leone with the medical charity Doctors Without Borders.
She has shown no signs of the disease but a forehead thermometer showed she had a slight temperature when she arrived at Newark Liberty International airport, which she has put down to being flustered or a faulty thermometer.
I don’t plan on sticking to the (Maine’s) guidelines. I am not going to sit around and be bullied by politicians and forced to stay in my home when I am not a risk to the American public
– Kaci Hickox
Governor Chris Christie departed from national policy and had tried to confine her to a tent inside a hospital for 21 days.
But after she threatened legal action and the White House intervened, she was allowed to travel on the understanding that she would put herself in voluntary isolation in accordance with Maine state guidelines.
Hickox has since declared that she will not be bullied by ‘appalling’ confinement rules and plans to fight for her freedom if restrictions are not lifted by Maine officials on Thursday.
Hickox has said she would abide by all the self-monitoring requirements of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This does not stop people from traveling outside their home, but instead advises them not to go to large gatherings. It also calls on them to take a series of tests twice a day to monitor whether they are developing symptoms.
Doctors insist that the virus is not contagious until symptoms develop.
On Wednesday morning, Hickox, 33, told Today: ‘I don’t plan on sticking to the (Maine’s) guidelines. I am not going to sit around and be bullied by politicians and forced to stay in my home when I am not a risk to the American public.’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2814208/Quarantined-Ebola-nurse-defies-orders-stay-home-goes-bike-ride-boyfriend.html
Obama May Cut Deportations
Length of Time in U.S., Family Ties to Others in Country Are Expected Criteria
The Obama administration is considering how to decide which illegal immigrants would receive protections, such as those from deportation. WSJ’s Laura Meckler reports. Photo: Getty
By LAURA MECKLER
WASHINGTON—The White House is considering two central requirements in deciding which of the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants would gain protections through an expected executive action: a minimum length of time in the U.S., and a person’s family ties to others in the country, said people familiar with the administration’s thinking.
Those requirements, depending on how broadly they are drawn, could offer protection to between one million and four million people in the country illegally.
The deliberations follow President Barack Obama ’s promise to act to change the immigration system, after legislation overhauling immigration law died in Congress.
Republicans have protested that Mr. Obama would overstep his authority by acting alone. Several Democratic candidates in tight races also have complained, and last month the president canceled plans to announce the changes before the election.
Mr. Obama, who has been criticized by immigrant-rights advocates for the delay, wants to grant new protections—such as safe harbor from deportation and work permits—to many people who are in the U.S. illegally but have significant ties to the country, said three people familiar with White House thinking.
Such protections would be temporary since the president lacks authority to give people permanent legal status.
Demonstrators protest President Obama’s immigration policies in Washington earlier this month. AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
One person said officials are leaning toward granting protections to people in the country illegally for 10 years and who meet other criteria, though that could be broadened to include more recent arrivals.
Parents of U.S. citizens are likely to qualify, people familiar with discussions said, as long as they meet other criteria. But it is unclear whether the policy would include parents of so-called Dreamers—people brought to the U.S. illegally as children, and who were given a temporary legal status in 2012.
Also unclear is whether other family ties, such as being married to a U.S. citizen, would qualify somebody for new protections. Illegal immigrants cannot win legal status by marriage unless they return to their home country for a period of years.
The answers to those questions will determine whether up to four million people or as few as just over one million gain protections, according to estimates prepared by the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute, which the White House has consulted.
White House spokeswoman Katherine Vargas said the president hasn’t made a decision or even received recommendations from his cabinet secretaries. “It is premature to speculate about the specific details,” she said. Still, a mid-December announcement of the change is expected by many immigration experts.
Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R., Fla.), who tried to move immigration legislation through the House this year, said executive action would amplify distrust among Republicans in Mr. Obama and make legislating harder. “The right’s going to fly off the rails,” he said. “How do you trust someone who says he does not have the legal authority to do something and then does it anyway?” Mr. Obama previously said that his ability to change immigration law on his own was limited.
White House officials also are considering allowing more young people into the 2012 “Dreamer’’ program that grants temporary legal status and work permits to those who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children, according to two people familiar with discussions. Some 580,000 people were enrolled in the program as of June.
No matter how the White House draws the criteria, the number gaining new protections is certain to be less than the eight million or so who would have benefited from legislation that the Senate passed last year, but that died amid GOP opposition in the House.
Any package along these lines is sure to be attacked by Republicans and possibly some Democrats as presidential overreach. Administration officials say they are working to make sure that whatever they do is legally and politically defensible.
One person people familiar with the process said the White House is trying to craft a plan that survives Mr. Obama’s presidency and isn’t so unpopular that a future Republican president could easily reverse it. “It has to be politically sustainable,” this person said.
One of the most politically sensitive questions is whether to include parents of young people in the Dreamer program, known formally as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. These people are among the most politically active in the immigration debate and are demanding that their parents not be left out.
The president “must be inclusive, and he must be broad, to protect as many people as possible,” said Cristina Jimenez, managing director of the group United We Dream. “Any package of administrative reform must include our parents.”
Republicans have said that broad executive action would kill any chance for immigration legislation next year. Democrats reply that chances already are low that the two parties could come to agreement on a bill. Immigration activists are pressing Mr. Obama to take the most sweeping action possible.
The White House also is expected to change criteria used in deciding who is a priority for deportation. It may, for instance, say a traffic violation doesn’t make someone a priority, though other convictions do. The legal rationale is that the administration lacks the capacity to deport all illegal immigrants and has discretion to set priorities.
Other changes are expected to benefit businesses that use large numbers of legal immigrants, such as technology companies. One change under consideration would “recapture” unused visas from previous years in order to make more visas available to such companies, according to one person familiar with the deliberations. This person said that a second change that companies have requested—changing the way visas are counted so that a family unit counts as only one spot toward the limit—is less likely.
This person said the administration is also considering a change that would make it easier for foreign students to stay in the U.S. after graduation while they await employment-based visas.
White House officials are inclined to wait to announce the new policy until after a must-pass spending bill has cleared Congress, to avoid tangling that legislation with any GOP effort to roll back the immigration policy.
Further, the Louisiana Senate race may not be decided until a Dec. 6 runoff, and White House officials want to avoid injecting immigration into any re-election fight by Sen. Mary Landrieu , a Democrat.
It also is possible that the Georgia Senate race will remain unsolved until an early January runoff, but a senior administration official said there is no thought to pushing the announcement into next year. Mr. Obama has repeatedly vowed to act by year’s end.
http://online.wsj.com/articles/obama-may-cut-deportations-1414626089
Listen To Pronk Pops Podcast or DownloadShow 202-210
The Pronk Pops Show 359, October 29, 2014, Story 1: State Department Considers Importing Ebola Patients From Other Countries At A Cost Exceeding $500,000 Per Patient — Keep Infected Ebola Aliens, Legal and Illegal, Out of The United States — People’s Common Sense Vs. Elitist Arrogant Nonsense — When will America Be Ebola and Obama Free — Friday, 20 January 2017, Noon in Washington DC — Videos
Posted on October 29, 2014. Filed under: American History, Blogroll, Budgetary Policy, Business, Center for Disease Control, College, Communications, Constitutional Law, Culture, Disasters, Diseases, Drugs, Ebola, Ebola, Ebola, Economics, Education, Employment, Federal Government, Fiscal Policy, Government, Government Spending, Health Care, Health Care Insurance, History, Housing, Illegal Immigration, Immigration, Impeachment, Insurance, Law, Legal Drugs, Media, Medicine, Networking, Philosophy, Photos, Politics, Radio, Regulation, Religion, Resources, Scandals, Science, Tax Policy, Videos, Violence, War, Wealth, Wisdom | Tags: Christie, Cuomo, Department of State, Doctors, Ebola Free 42 Days with no new cases, Ebola Virus, Guinea, Health Care Hero, Health Care Heroes, Incubation Period is 21 Days, Liberia, Mandatory Quarantine, Nurses, President Barack Obama, Public Health, Sierra Leone, States with Quarantine, United States, West Africa |
Story 1: State Department Considers Importing Ebola Patients From Other Countries At A Cost Exceeding $500,000 Per Patient — Keep Infected Ebola Aliens, Legal and Illegal, Out of The United States — People’s Common Sense Vs. Elitist Arrogant Nonsense — When will America Be Ebola and Obama Free — Friday, 20 January 2017, Noon in Washington DC — Videos
Ebola death toll reaches 5,000: actual figure could be triple this, WHO reports
Countdown Clock To Ebola and Obama Free
Nigeria declared Ebola-free – Global preparedness at peak
WHO Declares Nigeria Free Of Ebola Virus Disease
How is the end of an Ebola outbreak decided and declared?
Information note – October 2014
Who decides the date?
The WHO Ebola outbreak response team is responsible for establishing the date of the end of the outbreak in collaboration with the affected country’s subcommittee for surveillance, epidemiology and laboratory.
How is the date determined?
An Ebola virus disease outbreak in a country can be declared over once 42 days have passed and no new cases have been detected. The 42 days represents twice the maximum incubation period for Ebola (21 days). This 42-day period starts from the last day that any person in the country had contact with a confirmed or probable Ebola case.
This includes health care workers who have been exposed to patients with Ebola virus disease, even if the health worker was wearing personal protective equipment and followed infection control procedures since such a person could be exposed accidentally without realizing it. In the setting of an Ebola treatment centre, the date of the last infectious contact is defined as the day when the last patient in the treatment centre tested negative for Ebola virus disease, using a real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test.
If no new case has been detected at the end of this 42-day period, the risk of a further case is very low, and the outbreak is declared over.
The maximum incubation period for Ebola virus disease is 21 days. The 42-day period set by WHO (twice the maximum incubation period) provides a margin of security to cover any possible missed cases, uncertainty in reporting dates or hidden chains of transmission. (*)
During the 42-day period, the surveillance system should be fully functional, so that all contacts of the last patient are followed to detect possible chains of transmission.
What is the procedure to make the declaration?
The WHO Ebola outbreak response team in collaboration with the affected country’s subcommittee for surveillance, epidemiology and laboratory determines the date of the end of the epidemic. The government of the affected country, in collaboration with WHO and international partners, makes an official declaration of the end of the epidemic.
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/ebola/declaration-ebola-end/en/
Are the Ebola outbreaks in Nigeria and Senegal over?
Ebola situation assessment – 14 October 2014
Not quite yet.
If the active surveillance for new cases that is currently in place continues, and no new cases are detected, WHO will declare the end of the outbreak of Ebola virus disease in Senegal on Friday 17 October. Likewise, Nigeria is expected to have passed through the requisite 42 days, with active surveillance for new cases in place and none detected, on Monday 20 October.
For Nigeria, WHO confirms that tracing of people known to have contact with an Ebola patient reached 100% in Lagos and 98% in Port Harcourt. In a piece of world-class epidemiological detective work, all confirmed cases in Nigeria were eventually linked back to the Liberian air traveller who introduced the virus into the country on 20 July.
The anticipated declaration by WHO that the outbreaks in these 2 countries are over will give the world some welcome news in an epidemic that elsewhere remains out of control in 3 West African nations.
In Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, new cases continue to explode in areas that looked like they were coming under control. An unusual characteristic of this epidemic is a persistent cyclical pattern of gradual dips in the number of new cases, followed by sudden flare-ups. WHO epidemiologists see no signs that the outbreaks in any of these 3 countries are coming under control.
How does WHO declare the end of an Ebola outbreak?
A WHO subcommittee on surveillance, epidemiology, and laboratory testing is responsible for establishing the date of the end of an Ebola outbreak.
The date is fixed according to rigorous epidemiological criteria based on the last day that any person in the country had contact with a confirmed or probable Ebola case.*
According to WHO recommendations, health care workers who have attended patients or cleaned their rooms should be considered as “close contacts” and monitored for 21 days after the last exposure, even if their contact with a patient occurred when they were fully protected by wearing personal protective equipment.
For health care workers, the date of the “last infectious contact” is the day when the last patient in a health facility tests negative using a real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test.
For WHO to declare an Ebola outbreak over, a country must pass through 42 days, with active surveillance demonstrably in place, supported by good diagnostic capacity, and with no new cases detected. Active surveillance is essential to detect chains of transmission that might otherwise remain hidden.
The period of 42 days, with active case-finding in place, is twice the maximum incubation period for Ebola virus disease and is considered by WHO as sufficient to generate confidence in a declaration that an Ebola outbreak has ended.
Recent studies conducted in West Africa have demonstrated that 95% of confirmed cases have an incubation period in the range of 1 to 21 days; 98% have an incubation period that falls within the 1 to 42 day interval. WHO is therefore confident that detection of no new cases, with active surveillance in place, throughout this 42-day period means that an Ebola outbreak is indeed over.
The announcement that the outbreaks are over, in line with the dates fixed by the subcommittee on surveillance, epidemiology, and laboratory testing, is made by the governments of the affected countries in close collaboration with WHO and its international partners.
Official announcements for the 2 countries will be made on the WHO website.
WHO recommendations for testing for Ebola virus disease and confirming a case
WHO is alarmed by media reports of suspected Ebola cases imported into new countries that are said, by government officials or ministries of health, to be discarded as “negative” within hours after the suspected case enters the country.
Such rapid determination of infection status is impossible, casting grave doubts on some of the official information that is being communicated to the public and the media.
For early detection of Ebola virus in suspected or probable cases, detection of viral ribonucleic acid (RNA) or viral antigen are the recommended tests.
Laboratory-confirmed cases must test positive for the presence of the Ebola virus, either by detection of viral RNA by RT-PCR, and/or by detection of Ebola antigen by a specific Antigen detection test, and/or by detection of immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibodies directed against Ebola.
Two negative RT-PCR test results, at least 48 hours apart, are required for a clinically asymptomatic patient to be discharged from hospital, or for a suspected Ebola case to be discarded as testing negative for the virus.
Laboratory results should be communicated to WHO as quickly as possible, in addition to reporting under the requirements and within the timelines set out in the International Health Regulations, which are administered by WHO.
WHO recommends that the first 25 positive cases and 50 negative specimens detected by a country without a recognized national reference viral haemorrhagic fever laboratory should be sent for secondary confirmatory testing to a WHO collaborating centre, designed as specialized in the safe detection (at biosafety level IV) of viral haemorrhagic fevers.
Similarly, for countries with a national reference laboratory for viral haemorrhagic fevers, the initial positive cases should also be sent to a WHO collaborating centre for confirmation.
If results are concordant, laboratory results reported from the national reference laboratory would be accepted by WHO.
For more information read WHO recommendations on laboratory guidance for the diagnosis of Ebola virus disease
Non-American Ebola patients treated in US Minimum 500,000$ per Ebola.
GOP Rep’s Unverified Ebola Claim Shows How Quickly Fox Converts Allegations to Facts
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Ebola survivor lives with tragedy
EBOLA in New york – What do AMERICANS Know About EBOLA? – Watters World Ebola Edition O’Reilly
Jon Stewart Hilariously Mocks Ebola Hype, Rips Chris Christie For Being a ‘D*ck About Everything’
Shows: Jon Stewart blasts Chris Christie for Ebola response (10/28/2014)
Poll: 80 percent want Ebola quarantines
By Aaron Blake
President Obama is doing reasonably well on this whole Ebola thing — at least on the public relations front — but another new poll suggests Americans want him to take actions that he has resisted so far.
The poll, from CBS News, shows a whopping 80 percent of people want American citizens and legal residents returning from West Africa to be quarantined until it is determined that they are Ebola-free. Another 17 percent think they should be allowed to enter the country if they are symptom-free at the time.
The poll, notably, did not specify just how long such people would need to be quarantined — about 21 days — or where they would be quarantined. (Such specifics could conceivably reduce support.)
The poll echoes a Washington Post-ABC News poll from earlier this week that showed support for restricting entry from those same countries at 70 percent.
The White House struck a defiant tone on this issue on Wednesday, with Obama saying, “We don’t just react based on our fears. We react based on facts and judgment and making smart decisions.”
That seemed a clear — if indirect — shot at governors of both parties who have instituted quarantines in their states. One of them, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), released an American nurse from quarantine after the nurse publicly fought against it. The nurse, Kaci Hickox, had returned from treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone, and Christie said she was ill and they needed to rule out Ebola. She has since reportedly said she will not abide by the government’s quarantine in her home state of Maine.
The White House has stressed repeatedly that such travel restrictions and quarantines would be counter-productive, especially by discouraging medical professionals from traveling to West Africa to fight the disease at its source.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/10/29/poll-80-percent-want-ebola-quarantines/
Do Americans believe there should be a quarantine to deal with Ebola?
By Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Anthony Salvanto and Fred Backus
A new CBS News poll finds that Americans overwhelmingly support quarantine for travelers arriving from West Africa. Eighty percent think U.S. citizens and legal residents returning from West Africa should be quarantined upon their arrival in the U.S. until it is certain they don’t have Ebola. Just 17 percent think they should be allowed to enter as long as they do not show symptoms of Ebola.
Polling began on the evening of Oct. 23, the night Dr. Craig Spencer became the first U.S. citizen to be diagnosed with Ebola inside the United States after contracting the disease in West Africa.
Americans are even more stringent when it comes to foreign visitors from West Africa. Just 14 percent think foreign visitors should be allowed to enter the U.S. as long as they show no symptoms of Ebola. Most–56 percent–think they should be quarantined upon arrival, while just over a quarter (27 percent) don’t think they should be allowed to enter the U.S. at all until the Ebola epidemic in West Africa is over.
Americans continue to show concern that the federal government is not adequately prepared to deal with an outbreak of Ebola in the United States. Fifty-six percent do not think the federal government is adequately prepared, and 66 percent feel the same way about their own local hospital.
Sixty-one percent of Americans are at least somewhat concerned that there will be a large outbreak of Ebola inside the United States within the next twelve months. Still, the percentage of Americans who are very concerned has dropped eight points, from 40 percent at the beginning of the month to 32 percent now.
And few Americans believe they or their family are directly at risk. Eighty-three percent of Americans don’t think it is likely that they or a member of their family will get Ebola, including 52 percent who say it is not likely at all.
This poll was conducted by telephone October 23-27, 2014 among 1,269 adults nationwide. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus three percentage points. The error for subgroups may be higher. Data collection was conducted on behalf of CBS News by SSRS of Media, PA. Phone numbers were dialed from samples of both standard land-line and cell phones. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish. This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/do-americans-believe-there-should-be-a-quarantine-to-deal-with-ebola/
State Department plans to bring foreign Ebola patients to U.S.
The State Department has quietly made plans to bring Ebola-infected doctors and medical aides to the U.S. for treatment, according to an internal department document that argued the only way to get other countries to send medical teams to West Africa is to promise that the U.S. will be the world’s medical backstop.
Some countries “are implicitly or explicitly waiting for medevac assurances” before they will agree to send their own medical teams to join U.S. and U.N. aid workers on the ground, the State Department argues in the undated four-page memo, which was reviewed by The Washington Times.
“The United States needs to show leadership and act as we are asking others to act by admitting certain non-citizens into the country for medical treatment for Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) during the Ebola crisis,” says the four-page memo, which lists as its author Robert Sorenson, deputy director of the office of international health and biodefense.
More than 10,000 people have become infected with Ebola in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, and the U.S. has taken a lead role in arguing that the outbreak must be stopped in West Africa. President Obama has committed thousands of U.S. troops and has deployed American medical personnel, but other countries have been slow to follow.
In the memo, officials say their preference is for patients go to Europe, but there are some cases in which the U.S. is “the logical treatment destination for non-citizens.”
The document has been shared with Congress, where lawmakers already are nervous about the administration’s handling of the Ebola outbreak. The memo even details the expected price per patient, with transportation costs at $200,000 and treatment at $300,000.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/oct/28/state-department-plans-to-bring-foreign-ebola-pati/
Nurse Kaci Hickox says she won’t obey Maine’s Ebola quarantine: I won’t be ‘bullied by politicians’
Eun Kyung
Nurse Kaci Hickox — who remains symptom-free after spending three days in a New Jersey isolation tent after flying home from Ebola-stricken West Africa — remains under quarantine at home in Maine, but for only another day, she tells TODAY’s Matt Lauer.
“I don’t plan on sticking to the guidelines. I remain appalled by these home quarantine policies that have been forced upon me, even though I am in perfectly good health and feeling strong and have been this entire time completely symptom free,” said Hickox, who wouldn’t emerge from Maine’s 21-day voluntary quarantine until Nov. 10.
“I truly believe this policy is not scientifically nor constitutionally just, and so I’m not going to sit around and be bullied around by politicians and be forced to stay in my home when I am not a risk to the American public.”
Hickox, who pointed out that top health officials believe a quarantine is unnecessary unless someone develops symptoms, also said:
She will pursue legal action if Maine forces her into continued isolation: “If the restrictions placed on me by the state of Maine are not lifted by Thursday morning, I will go to court to fight for my freedom.”
She plans to return to Africa to help Ebola patients: “My work in Sierra Leone for four weeks was amazing and I feel privileged to have been able to fight this battle and I do plan on going back. It’s not just will I, it’s more of a when.”
State officials should maintain health guidelines but New Jersey officials demonstrated a lack of scientific rationale: Hickox said policies need to be based on evidence, but what she saw at Newark airport showed no such basis. “I saw complete disorganization. I saw no leadership, and if you’re going to put a policy like that in place, that impedes on my civil rights, then you need to have the administrative details worked out before you start detaining me in an airport for no reason.”
http://www.today.com/health/nurse-kaci-hickox-says-she-wont-obey-maines-ebola-quarantine-1D80251330
Maine Governor Seeks to Make Nurse Abide by Quarantine
By Michelle Kaske
Governor Paul LePage said he would try to force nurse Kaci Hickox to abide by Maine’s Ebola quarantine, escalating the confrontation between the previously little-known aid worker and the political leaders of two states.
Hickox, who has shown no symptoms since a brief fever, was kept in a tent at a New Jersey hospital after returning from treating patients in Sierra Leonebefore being released by Governor Chris Christie. She said today she wouldn’t follow isolation orders in Maine, where she lives. LePage, a 66-year-old Republican facing a re-election fight Nov. 4, said he would try to make her.
“Upon learning the healthcare worker intends to defy the protocols, the Office of the Governor has been working collaboratively with the State health officials within the Department of Health and Human Services to seek legal authority to enforce the quarantine,” he said a statement. “While we certainly respect the rights of one individual, we must be vigilant in protecting 1.3 million Mainers.”
Government officials are struggling to calm fears of contagion while not penalizing aid workers who venture to countries at the center of the still-raging epidemic. In West Africa, the virus has infected about 10,000 people and killed about half, according to the World Health Organization. In the U.S., one man who traveled from Liberia died.
Nurse’s Revolt
Hickox, a 33-year-old volunteer for Doctors Without Borders, said this morning that Maine’s orders were unjust.
“I remain appalled by these home quarantine policies that have been forced upon me, even though I am in perfectly good health and feeling strong and have been this entire time completely symptom free,” Hickox said today in an interview on NBC’s “Today” show.
If the state were to force Hickox to stay home through a court order, she would fight such a move, said Steven Hyman, one of her lawyers.
“If they attempt to get one, Kaci will contest it,” Hyman, a partner in New York at McLaughlin & Stern LLP, said in a telephone interview.
Doctors Without Borders “strongly disagrees with blanket forced quarantine for health care workers returning from Ebola affected countries,” the group said in an e-mailed statement.
Tent Escape
Hickox, who Oct. 26 criticized Christie for her detention, is staying in Fort Kent near the Canadian border. She wouldn’t have emerged from Maine’s 21-day quarantine until Nov. 10.
Hickox was detained for Ebola monitoring at Newark Liberty International Airport after returning from Africa. The nurse was taken to University Hospital in Newark on Oct. 24. She said the fever she registered upon arrival was due to anger.
Christie later allowed her to travel to Maine after she remained asymptomatic.
“I could care less that she hired a lawyer,” Christie said today at a press event in Little Ferry. “I hope that for the public good and for her own good that she decides to comply with the quarantine that they’ve requested in Maine. I think that’s fair to the public and it’s common sense.”
Her home, population 4,090, marks the beginning of 2,328-mile (3,746 kilometer) U.S. Route 1. Fort Kent is at the top of the state’s the northernmost county, Aroostook, across the St. John River fromCanada.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-29/nurse-kaci-hickox-says-she-won-t-follow-maine-s-ebola-quarantine.html
NURSE WHO TREATED EBOLA PATIENTS IN WEST AFRICA RETURNS TO TEXAS, WILL SELF-QUARANTINE
Early Wednesday morning, a nurse who had been treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone returned to her home in Texas. The nurse, whose name is being withheld for privacy reasons, showed no signs of the disease, but CDC protocols placed her at “some” risk due to her contact with the patients. She has agreed to voluntarily self-quarantine at her home while she waits for the Ebola incubation period to pass.
Texas Governor Rick Perry’s office released a statement Wednesday calling the nurse a “health care hero,” and mentioning that Perry had spoken to her on the phone after her flight landed “to personally thank her for her heroic and selfless work on the front lines of fighting Ebola.”
“In Texas, we have a great tradition of welcoming our heroes back home and this heroic individual deserves our appreciation, our compassion, and our utmost respect,” added Perry. “The tremendous work that she and so many other health care workers are doing in West Africa is making life better for those in afflicted countries and helps protect the rest of the world from the spread of this terrible disease; they are doing vitally important work that makes us all proud.”
The nurse arrived at Austin-Bergstrom Airport, where she was greeted by Dr. David Lakey, the Commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) and a member of the Texas Task Force on Infectious Disease Preparedness and Response, which was formed earlier this month by Perry to address the Ebola crisis in Texas. The task force’s initial recommendations included better screening processes for health care workers who may have been exposed to Ebola and taking swift action to isolate such people until they can be sure they have a clean bill of health. Accordingly, at Perry’s request, the nurse agreed to self-quarantine at home, where DSHS will monitor her for fever and other symptoms of Ebola twice a day.
The nurse’s willingness to comply with the Governor’s self-quarantine request stands in sharp contrast to the situation regarding nurse Kaci Hickox, who was ordered into quarantine by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, and, instead of complying, hired an attorney to fight the order, claiming that her “basic human rights have been violated.” Christie backed down and Hickox returned to her home in Maine, issuing a statement through her attorney that she will not agree to stay confined in her house more than two days.
Perry had additional words of praise for the Texas nurse’s decision to agree to the quarantine request. “This health care hero has made a great sacrifice in traveling abroad to minister to those who are suffering,” he said. “Even now home in Texas, she continues to demonstrate her selflessness by agreeing to quarantine herself and further protect her fellow Texans.”
Ebola virus disease
Fact sheet N°103
Updated September 2014
Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, is a severe, often fatal illness in humans.
The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission.
The average EVD case fatality rate is around 50%. Case fatality rates have varied from 25% to 90% in past outbreaks.
The first EVD outbreaks occurred in remote villages in Central Africa, near tropical rainforests, but the most recent outbreak in west Africa has involved major urban as well as rural areas.
Community engagement is key to successfully controlling outbreaks. Good outbreak control relies on applying a package of interventions, namely case management, surveillance and contact tracing, a good laboratory service, safe burials and social mobilisation.
Early supportive care with rehydration, symptomatic treatment improves survival. There is as yet no licensed treatment proven to neutralise the virus but a range of blood, immunological and drug therapies are under development.
There are currently no licensed Ebola vaccines but 2 potential candidates are undergoing evaluation.
The Ebola virus causes an acute, serious illness which is often fatal if untreated. Ebola virus disease (EVD) first appeared in 1976 in 2 simultaneous outbreaks, one in Nzara, Sudan, and the other in Yambuku, Democratic Republic of Congo. The latter occurred in a village near the Ebola River, from which the disease takes its name.
The current outbreak in west Africa, (first cases notified in March 2014), is the largest and most complex Ebola outbreak since the Ebola virus was first discovered in 1976. There have been more cases and deaths in this outbreak than all others combined. It has also spread between countries starting in Guinea then spreading across land borders to Sierra Leone and Liberia, by air (1 traveller only) to Nigeria, and by land (1 traveller) to Senegal.
The most severely affected countries, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia have very weak health systems, lacking human and infrastructural resources, having only recently emerged from long periods of conflict and instability. On August 8, the WHO Director-General declared this outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.
A separate, unrelated Ebola outbreak began in Boende, Equateur, an isolated part of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The virus family Filoviridae includes 3 genera: Cuevavirus, Marburgvirus, and Ebolavirus. There are 5 species that have been identified: Zaire, Bundibugyo, Sudan, Reston and Taï Forest. The first 3, Bundibugyo ebolavirus, Zaire ebolavirus, and Sudan ebolavirus have been associated with large outbreaks in Africa. The virus causing the 2014 west African outbreak belongs to the Zaire species.
It is thought that fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family are natural Ebola virus hosts. Ebola is introduced into the human population through close contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected animals such as chimpanzees, gorillas, fruit bats, monkeys, forest antelope and porcupines found ill or dead or in the rainforest.
Ebola then spreads through human-to-human transmission via direct contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes) with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people, and with surfaces and materials (e.g. bedding, clothing) contaminated with these fluids.
Health-care workers have frequently been infected while treating patients with suspected or confirmed EVD. This has occurred through close contact with patients when infection control precautions are not strictly practiced.
Burial ceremonies in which mourners have direct contact with the body of the deceased person can also play a role in the transmission of Ebola.
People remain infectious as long as their blood and body fluids, including semen and breast milk, contain the virus. Men who have recovered from the disease can still transmit the virus through their semen for up to 7 weeks after recovery from illness.
Symptoms of Ebola virus disease
The incubation period, that is, the time interval from infection with the virus to onset of symptoms is 2 to 21 days. Humans are not infectious until they develop symptoms. First symptoms are the sudden onset of fever fatigue, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. This is followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash, symptoms of impaired kidney and liver function, and in some cases, both internal and external bleeding (e.g. oozing from the gums, blood in the stools). Laboratory findings include low white blood cell and platelet counts and elevated liver enzymes.
It can be difficult to distinguish EVD from other infectious diseases such as malaria, typhoid fever and meningitis. Confirmation that symptoms are caused by Ebola virus infection are made using the following investigations:
antibody-capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)
antigen-capture detection tests
serum neutralization test
reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay
virus isolation by cell culture.
Samples from patients are an extreme biohazard risk; laboratory testing on non-inactivated samples should be conducted under maximum biological containment conditions.
Treatment and vaccines
Supportive care-rehydration with oral or intravenous fluids- and treatment of specific symptoms, improves survival. There is as yet no proven treatment available for EVD. However, a range of potential treatments including blood products, immune therapies and drug therapies are currently being evaluated. No licensed vaccines are available yet, but 2 potential vaccines are undergoing human safety testing.
Good outbreak control relies on applying a package of interventions, namely case management, surveillance and contact tracing, a good laboratory service, safe burials and social mobilisation. Community engagement is key to successfully controlling outbreaks. Raising awareness of risk factors for Ebola infection and protective measures that individuals can take is an effective way to reduce human transmission. Risk reduction messaging should focus on several factors:
Reducing the risk of wildlife-to-human transmission from contact with infected fruit bats or monkeys/apes and the consumption of their raw meat. Animals should be handled with gloves and other appropriate protective clothing. Animal products (blood and meat) should be thoroughly cooked before consumption.
Reducing the risk of human-to-human transmission from direct or close contact with people with Ebola symptoms, particularly with their bodily fluids. Gloves and appropriate personal protective equipment should be worn when taking care of ill patients at home. Regular hand washing is required after visiting patients in hospital, as well as after taking care of patients at home.
Outbreak containment measures including prompt and safe burial of the dead, identifying people who may have been in contact with someone infected with Ebola, monitoring the health of contacts for 21 days, the importance of separating the healthy from the sick to prevent further spread, the importance of good hygiene and maintaining a clean environment.
Controlling infection in health-care settings:
Health-care workers should always take standard precautions when caring for patients, regardless of their presumed diagnosis. These include basic hand hygiene, respiratory hygiene, use of personal protective equipment (to block splashes or other contact with infected materials), safe injection practices and safe burial practices.
Health-care workers caring for patients with suspected or confirmed Ebola virus should apply extra infection control measures to prevent contact with the patient’s blood and body fluids and contaminated surfaces or materials such as clothing and bedding. When in close contact (within 1 metre) of patients with EBV, health-care workers should wear face protection (a face shield or a medical mask and goggles), a clean, non-sterile long-sleeved gown, and gloves (sterile gloves for some procedures).
Laboratory workers are also at risk. Samples taken from humans and animals for investigation of Ebola infection should be handled by trained staff and processed in suitably equipped laboratories.
WHO response
WHO aims to prevent Ebola outbreaks by maintaining surveillance for Ebola virus disease and supporting at-risk countries to developed preparedness plans. The document provides overall guidance for control of Ebola and Marburg virus outbreaks:
Ebola and Marburg virus disease epidemics: preparedness, alert, control, and evaluation
When an outbreak is detected WHO responds by supporting surveillance, community engagement, case management, laboratory services, contact tracing, infection control, logistical support and training and assistance with safe burial practices.
WHO has developed detailed advice on Ebola infection prevention and control:
Infection prevention and control guidance for care of patients with suspected or confirmed Filovirus haemorrhagic fever in health-care settings, with focus on Ebola
Table: Chronology of previous Ebola virus disease outbreaks
Year Country Ebolavirus species Cases Deaths Case fatality
2012 Democratic Republic of Congo Bundibugyo 57 29 51%
2012 Uganda Sudan 7 4 57%
2012 Uganda Sudan 24 17 71%
2011 Uganda Sudan 1 1 100%
2008 Democratic Republic of Congo Zaire 32 14 44%
2007 Uganda Bundibugyo 149 37 25%
2007 Democratic Republic of Congo Zaire 264 187 71%
2005 Congo Zaire 12 10 83%
2004 Sudan Sudan 17 7 41%
2003 (Nov-Dec) Congo Zaire 35 29 83%
2003 (Jan-Apr) Congo Zaire 143 128 90%
2001-2002 Congo Zaire 59 44 75%
2001-2002 Gabon Zaire 65 53 82%
2000 Uganda Sudan 425 224 53%
1996 South Africa (ex-Gabon) Zaire 1 1 100%
1996 (Jul-Dec) Gabon Zaire 60 45 75%
1996 (Jan-Apr) Gabon Zaire 31 21 68%
1994 Cote d’Ivoire Taï Forest 1 0 0%
1994 Gabon Zaire 52 31 60%
1979 Sudan Sudan 34 22 65%
1977 Democratic Republic of Congo Zaire 1 1 100%
1976 Sudan Sudan 284 151 53%
WHO Media centre
E-mail: mediainquiries@who.int
The Pronk Pops Show 357, October 27, 2014, Story 1: All Fifty States Should Institute A Mandatory 21-Day Quarantine For American Citizens Coming From Ebola Infected Countries and Isolation in A Hospital If You Have Any of Ebola Symptoms and Stop Issuing Visas and Ban Travelers From Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone — Send In The Clowns — Hillary Clinton Big Government Collectivist On Minimum Wages and Job Creation — Videos
Posted on October 27, 2014. Filed under: American History, Banking System, Biology, Blogroll, Books, Budgetary Policy, Business, Center for Disease Control, Chemistry, College, Communications, Constitutional Law, Disasters, Diseases, Drugs, Ebola, Ebola, Ebola, Economics, Education, Employment, European History, Federal Government, Fiscal Policy, Foreign Policy, Government, Government Dependency, Government Spending, Health Care, History, Illegal Immigration, Illegal Immigration, Immigration, Law, Media, Medical, Medicine, Nixon, Obama, Philosophy, Photos, Politics, Radio, Regulation, Scandals, Science, Security, Social Networking, Social Science, Success, Tax Policy, Technology, Terror, Terrorism, Unemployment, United States Constitution, Videos, Violence, War, Wealth, Wisdom | Tags: Capitalism, CDC, Collectivism, Communism, Ebola, Economics, Escape from Collectivism, G. Edward Griffin, Hillary Clinton, History, Ignorance, Individualism, Isolation, Judy Collins, Law and Order, Milton Friedman, Peace and Prosperity Economy, Quarantine, Reality, Rule of Law, Rule of Men, Send in the clowns, Socialism, Warfare and Welfare State, Welfare State |
Story 1: All Fifty States Should Institute A Mandatory 21-Day Quarantine For American Citizens Coming From Ebola Infected Countries and Isolation in A Hospital If You Have Any of Ebola Symptoms and Stop Issuing Visas and Ban Travelers From Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone — Send In The Clowns — Hillary Clinton Big Government Collectivist On Minimum Wages and Job Creation — Videos
Hillary Clinton: Corporations and Businesses Dont Create Jobs
Good Intentions 2 of 3 Minimum Wage, Licensing, and Labor Laws with Walter Williams
Milton Friedman on Minimum Wage
Milton Friedman ~ The Escape From Collectivism
Milton Friedman vs Bill Clinton (1999)
G. Edward Griffin – The Collectivist Conspiracy
Santa Monica Tea Party – Yaron Brook – Reclaiming the Moral High Ground
Understand Quarantine and Isolation
People can be infected with dangerous diseases in a number of ways. Some germs, like those causing malaria, are passed to humans by animals. Other germs, like those that cause botulism, are carried to people by contaminated food or water. Still others, like the ones causing measles, are passed directly from person to person. These diseases are called “contagious”.
Contagious diseases that pose a health risk to people have always existed. While the spread of many of these diseases has been controlled through vaccination and other public health efforts, avian influenza (“bird flu”) and terrorist acts worldwide have raised concerns about the possibility of a disease risk. That makes it important for people to understand what can and would be done to protect the public from the spread of dangerous contagious diseases.
The CDC applies the term “quarantine” to more than just people. It also refers to any situation in which a building, conveyance, cargo, or animal might be thought to have been exposed to a dangerous contagious disease agent and is closed off or kept apart from others to prevent disease spread.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the U.S. government agency responsible for identifying, tracking, and controlling the spread of disease. With the help of the CDC, state and local health departments have created emergency preparedness and response plans. In addition to early detection, rapid diagnosis, and treatment with antibiotics or antivirals, these plans use two main traditional strategies —quarantine and isolation— to contain the spread of illness. These are common health care practices to control the spread of a contagious disease by limiting people’s exposure to it.
The difference between quarantine and isolation can be summed up like this:
Isolation applies to persons who are known to be ill with a contagious disease.
Quarantine applies to those who have been exposed to a contagious disease but who may or may not become ill.
Infectious disease: a disease caused by a microorganism and therefore potentially infinitely transferable to new individuals. May or may not be communicable. Example of non communicable is disease caused by toxins from food poisoning or infection caused by toxins in the environment, such as tetanus.
Quarantine and Isolation – Questions & Answers
Quarantine and Isolation – Facts Sheet
http://www.bt.cdc.gov/preparedness/quarantine/
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Understand Quarantine and Isolation: Questions & Answers
When someone is known to be ill with a contagious disease, they are placed in isolation and receive special care, with precautions taken to protect uninfected people from exposure to the disease.
When someone has been exposed to a contagious disease and it is not yet known if they have caught it, they may be quarantined or separated from others who have not been exposed to the disease. For example, they may be asked to remain at home to prevent further potential spread of the illness. They also receive special care and observation for any early signs of the illness.
How long can quarantine and isolation last? What is done to help the people who experience isolation or quarantine?
The list of diseases for which quarantine or isolation is authorized is specified in an Executive Order of the President. This list currently includes cholera, diphtheria, infectious tuberculosis, plague, smallpox, yellow fever, viral hemorrhagic fevers (Lassa, Marburg, Ebola, Crimean-Congo, South American, and others not yet isolated or named), Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), and influenza caused by novel or reemergent influenza viruses that are causing, or have the potential to cause, a pandemic.
Isolation would last for the period of communicability of the illness, which varies by disease and the availability of specific treatment. Usually it occurs at a hospital or other health care facility or in the person’s home. Typically, the ill person will have his or her own room and those who care for him or her will wear protective clothing and take other precautions, depending on the level of personal protection needed for the specific illness.
In most cases, isolation is voluntary; however, federal, state and local governments have the authority to require isolation of sick people to protect the public.
Modern quarantine lasts only as long as necessary to protect the public by (1) providing public health care (such as immunization or drug treatment, as required) and (2) ensuring that quarantined persons do not infect others if they have been exposed to a contagious disease.
Modern quarantine is more likely to involve limited numbers of exposed persons in small areas than to involve large numbers of persons in whole neighborhoods or cities.
Quarantined individuals will be sheltered, fed, and cared for at home, in a designated emergency facility, or in a specialized hospital, depending on the disease and the available resources. They will also be among the first to receive all available medical interventions to prevent and control disease, including:
Vaccination.
Antibiotics.
Early and rapid diagnostic testing and symptom monitoring.
Early treatment if symptoms appear.
The duration and scope of quarantine measures would vary, depending on their purpose and what is known about the incubation period (how long it takes for symptoms to develop after exposure) of the disease-causing agent.
A few hours for assessment. Passengers on airplanes, trains or boats believed to be infected with or exposed to a dangerous contagious disease might be delayed for a few hours while health authorities determine the risk they pose to public health. Some passengers may be asked to provide contact information and then released while others who are ill are transported to where they can receive medical attention. There have been a few instances where state and local public health authorities have imposed a brief quarantine at a public gathering, such as a shelter, while investigating if one or more people may be ill.
Enough time to provide preventive treatment or other intervention. If public health authorities determine that a passenger or passengers on airplanes, trains or boats are sick with a dangerous contagious disease, the other passengers may be quarantined in a designated facility where they may receive preventive treatment and have their health monitored.
For the duration of the incubation period. If public health officials determine that one or more passenger on airplanes, trains or boats are infected with a contagious disease and that passengers sitting nearby may have had close contact with the infected passenger(s), those at risk might be quarantined in a designated facility, observed for signs of illness and cared for under isolation conditions if they become ill.
When would quarantine and isolation be used and by whom?
If people in a certain area were potentially exposed to a contagious disease, this is what would happen: State and local health authorities would let people know that they may have been exposed and would direct them to get medical attention, undergo diagnostic tests, and stay at home, limiting their contact with people who have not been exposed to the disease. Only rarely would federal, state, or local health authorities issue an “order” for quarantine and isolation.
However, both quarantine and isolation may be compelled on a mandatory basis through legal authority as well as conducted on a voluntary basis.
States have the authority to declare and enforce quarantine and isolation within their borders. This authority varies widely, depending on state laws. It derives from the authority of state governments granted by the U.S. Constitution to enact laws and promote regulations to safeguard the health and welfare of people within state borders.
Further, at the national level, the CDC may detain, medically examine or conditionally release persons suspected of having certain contagious diseases. This authority applies to individuals arriving from foreign countries, including Canada and Mexico, on airplanes, trains, automobiles, boats or by foot. It also applies to individuals traveling from one state to another or in the event of “inadequate local control.”
The CDC regularly uses its authority to monitor passengers arriving in the United States for contagious diseases. In modern times, most quarantine measures have been imposed on a small scale, typically involving small numbers of travelers (airline or cruise ship passengers) who have curable diseases, such as infectious tuberculosis or cholera. No instances of large-scale quarantine have occurred in the U.S. since the “Spanish Flu” pandemic of 1918-1919.
Based on years of experience working with state and local partners, the CDC anticipates that the need to use its federal authority to involuntarily quarantine a person would occur only in rare situations—for example, if a person posed a threat to public health and refused to cooperate with a voluntary request.
For more information, see the CDC’s “Fact Sheet on Legal Authorities for Isolation/Quarantine”.
http://www.bt.cdc.gov/preparedness/quarantine/qa.asp
White House Pushes Back on State Ebola Quarantines
COLLEEN MCCAIN NELSON,
MELANIE GRAYCE WEST and
BETSY MCKAY
The White House pushed back against the governors of New York, New Jersey, Illinois and other states that instituted procedures to forcibly quarantine medical workers returning from West Africa, deepening an emotional debate brought on by recent Ebola cases in the U.S.
A senior administration official said Sunday that new federal guidelines under development would protect Americans from imported cases of the disease but not interfere with the flow of U.S. health workers to and from West Africa to fight the epidemic there.
“We have let the governors of New York, New Jersey and other states know that we have concerns with the unintended consequences… [that quarantine] policies not grounded in science may have on efforts to combat Ebola at its source,” the official said.
Betsy McKay joins the News Hub with the latest on the spread of the Ebola virus and efforts to contain it in the U.S. Photo: University of Texas at Arlington/AP.
It wasn’t clear what action the Obama administration could take to end the quarantines.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Sunday night gave the first new details about how his state’s quarantine would work, noting that individuals would be allowed to stay in their homes for 21 days. State and local health-care workers would check on quarantined people twice a day to monitor for Ebola symptoms. Those with symptoms would be taken to a hospital. People whose jobs won’t compensate them during their quarantine would be paid by the state.
Travelers who have had no direct contact with Ebola patients wouldn’t be subject to confinement at home, but they would be consulted twice-daily by health officials over the three-week period.
New York officials said the new protocols still went further than those recommended by the federal government.
“My personal practice is to err on the side of caution,” said Mr. Cuomo. Asked if he got White House pressure to shape the policy, Mr. Cuomo said: “I have had none.”
The New York quarantine policy appears designed to strike a different tone from New Jersey, where Kaci Hickox, a 33-year-old Doctors Without Borders nurse, has been held in a tent in a Newark hospital for three days under conditions that she said Sunday were “really inhumane.”
New Jersey state officials said late Sunday night that they wouldn’t change their protocols, which allowed for home quarantine. A New Jersey resident who has no symptoms but has come into contact with someone with Ebola would be quarantined at home. Non-residents would be transported to their homes if feasible, or quarantined in New Jersey if not.
Ms. Hickox, who lives in Maine, has retained lawyers to challenge her quarantine. One of those lawyers, Norman Siegel, a prominent civil rights attorney, said the quarantine policy infringed on her constitutional rights.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie held firm on his decision to quarantine returning health-care workers. “I absolutely have no second thoughts about it,” he said on Fox News.
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Mr. Cuomo’s announcement on Sunday was made with New York Mayor Bill de Blasio , who had criticized how Ms. Hickox was treated. “State governments have the right to make decisions. But this hero coming back from the front, having done the right thing, was treated with disrespect,” Mr. de Blasio told reporters.
Mr. Christie said Saturday that “I’m sorry if in any way she was inconvenienced, but inconvenience that could occur from having folks that are symptomatic and ill out amongst the public is a much, much greater concern of mine. So certainly nothing was done intentionally to try to inconvenience her or try to make her uncomfortable.”
Although Mr. Cuomo’s policy appears different from New Jersey’s handling of a quarantine case, the White House declined to comment on the New York measures beyond reiterating the principles guiding its own decision-making.
Ebola has killed nearly 5,000 people in West Africa. Nine people have been treated for the virus in the U.S., four of whom either became ill or were infected here. One died.
President Barack Obama convened a meeting of top public health and national security advisers on Sunday to discuss the issue.
Federal, state and local officials are grappling with ways to quell anxiety and protect the public. The different approaches they are taking reflect the layered public health system in the U.S. State and local authorities hold most quarantine powers, while the federal government’s power is more limited, according to legal experts.
The federal government technically could find an argument for challenging state decisions to impose quarantines, said Polly Price, professor at Emory University School of Law. “I could see an argument that there are interstate ramifications,” she said, such as economic disruption. But she said she thought it unlikely, given the political environment and public anxiety over Ebola.
In most cases, the federal government can’t override state quarantines. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has powers at ports of entry to the U.S., and can quarantine people who are traveling between states and have infectious diseases such as tuberculosis. Ebola, which can’t be spread through the air, isn’t considered as infectious.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, left, and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie announced a mandatory quarantine for “high risk” people returning to the U.S. through airports in New York and New Jersey. ASSOCIATED PRESS
Craig Spencer, a New York doctor diagnosed Thursday with Ebola after his return from West Africa, appeared to have played a part in the quarantine moves by New Jersey and New York. He was reported in serious but stable condition Sunday at Bellevue Hospital Center in Manhattan.
The Christie administration believes it would win any legal challenge because state law is clear on the government’s ability to quarantine people in public-health emergencies, said a New Jersey state official familiar with the new policy.
During a campaign stop in Florida Sunday, Mr. Christie said that no federal officials had reached out to him about revising the mandatory quarantine.
Christie administration officials knew that public-health experts would disagree with their decision but decided they wanted a broad, tough policy that would calm people’s fears, a Christie official said.
Mr. Cuomo said last week that he consulted with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before launching the mandatory-quarantine policy, but Christie administration officials didn’t, a Christie spokesman said.
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, said Sunday that the administration is considering a risk-based monitoring system that would elevate the required supervision of health-care workers returning from West African nations.
But he said the protocols would stop short of a mandatory, 21-day isolation of health-care workers that several states have imposed, which risks deterring volunteers heading to Africa to fight the disease.
Ebola is a highly contagious virus, but only if you come into contact with certain bodily fluids of those infected. What do scientists know about how it’s transmitted? WSJ’s Jason Bellini has #TheShortAnswer.
“You fashion what you do with them according to the risk,” Dr. Fauci said Sunday morning on NBC. “One of the ways you can mitigate against this issue is by…different types of monitoring.”
Supervision would ratchet up from passive monitoring—individuals regularly taking their temperatures—to “direct active” monitoring, where those who are deemed high-risk are checked by medical workers, he said on NBC.
Scientists say that people who aren’t showing symptoms of Ebola don’t transmit the disease, and Dr. Fauci said other steps besides a mandatory quarantine could ensure public safety. Telling health-care workers that upon returning from West Africa “you still have 21 days out of your life where you can’t move, I think, will have unintended negative consequences,” he said.
Legal experts disagreed on Ms. Hickox’s ability to successfully challenge her quarantine.
Lawrence Gostin, a Georgetown University professor who leads the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, and is offering help to Ms. Hickox, said she has two main ways to contest her quarantine. The policy in New Jersey applies to a class of people and there “was no individualized assessment of her individual risk,” he said.
The second possible avenue is to argue she wasn’t quarantined in a humane health environment.
“Because this is not a prison sentence, the person has not been convicted. It’s civil and so you’re not supposed to punish them,” said Mr. Gostin.
Mr. Gostin said this was the first time in his memory where such a quarantine was implemented.
But Michael C. Dorf, a professor at Cornell University Law School, said there may not be a sound legal case to challenge a quarantine. The state laws used to implement mandatory quarantines in New York, New Jersey and Illinois are clear and “there is no serious doubt about the affirmative power of either the states and the federal government to quarantine,” Mr. Dorf said
http://online.wsj.com/articles/christie-defends-mandatory-ebola-quarantine-for-health-care-workers-1414335046?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_health
Army major general, troops quarantined after Ebola aid trip
By Barbara Starr,
Army Major General Darryl A. Williams, commander of U.S. Army Africa, and approximately 10 other personnel are now in “controlled monitoring” in Italy after returning there from West Africa over the weekend, according to multiple U.S. military officials.
The American personnel are effectively under quarantine, but Pentagon officials declined to use that terminology.
Williams’ plane was met on the ground by Italian authorities “in full CDC gear,” the official said, referring to the type of protective equipment worn by U.S. health care workers.
There is no indication at this time any of the team have symptoms of Ebola.
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They will be monitored for 21 days at a “separate location” at the U.S. military installation at Vicenza Italy, according to U.S. military officials. Senior Pentagon officials say it is not a “quarantine,” but rather “controlled monitoring.” However, the troops are being housed in an access controlled location on base, and are not allowed to go home for the 21 day period while they undergo twice daily temperature checks.
It is not clear yet if they will be allowed visits from family members.
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Williams and his team have been in West Africa for 30 days, to set up the initial U.S. military assistance there and have traveled extensively around Liberia. The team was in treatment and testing areas during their travels.
Speaking to reporters two weeks ago while he was still overseas in Liberia, Williams spoke of the extensive monitoring that he was given.
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“We measure, while we’re here — twice a day, are monitoring as required by the recent guidance that was put out while we’re here in Liberia. I — yesterday, I had my temperature taken, I think, eight times, before I got on and off aircraft, before I went in and out of the embassy, before I went out of my place where I’m staying,” William said during the October 16 press conference.
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“As long as you exercise basic sanitation and cleanliness sort of protocols using the chlorine wash on your hands and your feet, get your temperature taken, limiting the exposure, the — no handshaking, those sorts of protocols, I think the risk is relatively low.”
Officials could not explain why the group was being put under into controlled monitoring, which is counter to the Pentagon policy. The current DOD policy on monitoring returning troops says “as long as individuals remain asymptomatic, they may return to work and routine daily activities with family members.”
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Monday that the Defense Department “has not issued a policy related to their workers that have spent time in West Africa.”
“I know that there was this decision that was made by one commanding officer in the Department of Defense, but it does not reflect a department-wide policy that I understand is still under development,” Earnest said.
The Pentagon has, though, published plans that detail how it will handle troops who are deployed to the region — including potential quarantines.
Jessica L. Wright, the undersecretary of Defense for personnel and readiness, issued an Oct. 10 memo that said troops who have faced an elevated risk of exposure to Ebola will be quarantined for 21 days — and that those who haven’t faced any known exposure will be monitored for three weeks.
Wright’s memo also lays out the Pentagon’s plans to train troops before they’re sent to West Africa and to monitor them during their deployment to the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak.
Pressed again during his briefing Monday, Earnest said it’s up to the Defense Department to announce its policies for troops that return from the region.
“We are seeing this administration put in place the policies that we believe are necessary to protect the American people and to protect the American troops,” he said. “And we’re going to let science drive that process. And as soon as we have a policy to announce on this, we’ll let you know.”
http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/27/politics/soldiers-monitored-ebola/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
The Pronk Pops Show 356, October 24, 2014, Story 1: Good News and Bad News Concerning Ebola — 2 Nurses Ebola Free and 1 Doctor Has Confirmed Case of Ebola in New York City — Ebola Infected Dr. Craig Spencer Took A-Train, L-Train and High-Line – Went Bowling — Contact Tracing Begins — Airborne Ebola Theme Song — If I can make it there, I can make it anywhere, New York, New York — Videos
Posted on October 24, 2014. Filed under: Airlines, American History, Biology, Blogroll, Business, Center for Disease Control, Chemistry, College, Communications, Constitutional Law, Culture, Disasters, Diseases, Drugs, Ebola, Ebola, Ebola, Elections, Employment, Federal Government, Foreign Policy, Government, Government Dependency, Government Spending, Health Care, Health Care Insurance, History, Housing, Illegal Immigration, Impeachment, Law, Legal Drugs, Media, Medical, Medicine, Philosophy, Photos, Politics, Radio, Scandals, Science, Security, Technology, Terror, Terrorism, Transportation, Unemployment, Videos, Violence, Wealth, Weapons, Weapons of Mass Destruction, Wisdom | Tags: Airborne Ebola Virus, America, Arrogance, Articles, Audio, Bioconatinment Unit, Biocontainment Spacesuit, Biosafety Level 4 Hospital Beds in USA, Breaking News, Broadcasting, Capitalism, Center for Disease Control (CDC), Charity, Chicago My Kind of Town, Citizenship, Clarity, Classical Liberalism, Collectivism, Commentary, Commitment, Communicate, Communication, Concise, Convincing, Courage, Culture, Current Affairs, Current Events, Ebola, Ebola Theme Song, Economic Growth, Economic Policy, Economics, Education, Evil, Experience, Faith, Family, First, Fiscal Policy, Frank Sinatra, Free Enterprise, Freedom, Freedom of Speech, Friends, Give It A Listen!, God, Good, Goodwill, Growth, Hope, Individualism, It Was A Very Good Year, Knowledge, Liberty, Life, Love, Lovers of Liberty, Monetary Policy, MPEG3, My Way, New York New York, News, Opinions, Peace, Photos, Podcasts, Political Philosophy, Politics, Poll, President Barack Obama, Prosperity, Radio, Raymond Thomas Pronk, Representative Republic, Republic, Resources, Respect, Rule of Law, Rule of Men, Show Notes, Talk Radio, The Pronk Pops Show, The Pronk Pops Show 356, Truth, Tyranny, U.S. Constitution, United States of America, Videos, Virtue, Virus, War, Wisdom |
Story 1: Good News and Bad News Concerning Ebola — 2 Nurses Ebola Free and 1 Doctor Has Confirmed Case of Ebola in New York City — Ebola Infected Dr. Craig Spencer Took A-Train, L-Train and High-Line – Went Bowling — Contact Tracing Begins — Airborne Ebola Theme Song — If I can make it there, I can make it anywhere, New York, New York — Videos
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New York City, Bellevue Hospital nurse Belkys Fortune, left, and Teressa Celia, Associate Director of Infection Prevention and Control, pose in protective suits in an isolation room, in the Emergency Room of Bellevue Hospital.
Note: They are not wearing a
(See above photos)
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Frank Sinatra-New York,New York
Frank Sinatra-New York,New York-Lyrics
Start spreadin’ the news, I’m leavin’ today
I want to be a part of it
These vagabond shoes, are longing to stray
Right through the very heart of it
New York, New YorkI want to wake up, in a city that never sleeps
And find I’m king of the hill
Top of the heapThese little town blues, are melting away
I’ll make a brand new start of it
In old New York
If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere
It’s up to you, New York..New YorkNew York…New York
I want to wake up, in a city that never sleeps
And find I’m A number one, top of the list
King of the hill, A number one….These little town blues, are melting away
It’s up to you, New York..New York New York!!!
Frank Sinatra – New York New York Song **Lyrics** [HD]
My Kind of Town (Chicago) – Frank Sinatra
“My Kind Of Town”
Now this could only happen to a guy like me
And only happen in a town like this
So may I say to each of you most gratef’lly
As I throw each one of you a kissThis is my kind of town, Chicago is
My kind of town, Chicago is
My kind of people, too
People who smile at youAnd each time I roam, Chicago is
Calling me home, Chicago is
Why I just grin like a clown
It’s my kind of town[brief instrumental]My kind of town, Chicago is
My kind of razzmatazz
And it has all that jazzAnd each time I leave, Chicago is
Tuggin’ my sleeve, Chicago is
The Wrigley Building, Chicago is
The Union Stockyard, Chicago is
One town that won’t let you down
It’s my kind of town
New York, New Jersey Set Up Mandatory Quarantine Requirement Amid Ebola Threat Christie: New Policy Has Already Been Used At Newark Liberty International Airport
In the wake of the first confirmed Ebola virus case in New York City, the states of New York and New Jersey have set up a new screening system that goes above and beyond the guidelines already set up by federal officials.
As CBS 2’s Alice Gainer reported, no other states have yet set up increased screening procedures for Ebola.
“We believe it’s appropriate to increase the current screening procedures from people coming from affected countries from the current (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention screening procedures),” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday afternoon. “We believe it within the State of New York and the State of New Jersey’s legal rights.”
Under the new rules, state officials will establish a risk level by considering the countries that people have visited and their level of possible exposure to Ebola.
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The patients with the highest level of possible exposure will be automatically quarantined for 21 days at a government-regulated facility. Those with a lower risk will be monitored for temperature and symptoms, Cuomo explained.
The New York and New Jersey health departments will determine their own specific procedures for hospitalization and quarantine, and will provide a daily recap to state officials on the status of screening, New York State Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker said at the news conference.
The new procedures already have been put into use at Newark Liberty International Airport.
On Friday, a health care worker landed at Newark after treating Ebola patients in West Africa, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said at the news conference. A legal quarantine was issued for the woman, who was not a New Jersey resident and was set to go on to New York afterward.
“This woman, while her home residence is outside the area, said her next stop was going to be here in New York,” Christie said. “Governor Cuomo and I discussed it before we came out here, and a quarantine order will be issued.”
The woman will be quarantined in either New York or New Jersey, Christie said.
In discussing the new plan, Cuomo and Christie said a policy of voluntary quarantine simply does not go far enough.
“Voluntary quarantine – you know it’s almost an oxymoron. This is a very serious situation.” Cuomo said. “Voluntary quarantine – raise your right hand and promise you’re going to stay home for 21 days. We’ve seen what happens.”
The new rules were announced a day after Dr. Craig Spencer, a member of Doctors Without Borders, became New York City’s first Ebola patient.
He reported Thursday morning coming down with a fever and diarrhea and is being treated in an isolation ward at Bellevue Hospital, a designated Ebola center.
Spencer returned from West Africa last Friday after treating Ebola patients in Guinea with Doctors Without Borders. He arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport, passing the extensive CDC screening process.
“When he arrived in the United States, he was also well with no symptoms,” said New York City Health Commissioner Mary Travis Bassett.
Doctors Without Borders said per the guidelines it provides its staff members on their return from Ebola assignments, “the individual engaged in regular health monitoring and reported this development immediately.” But Spencer also took the subway, walked the High Line, and went bowling in Williamsburg, Brooklyn the day before he became sick.
“He was a doctor, and even he didn’t follow the guidelines,” Cuomo said.
With that in mind, the states have to lay down the law, the governors said.
“It’s too serious a situation to leave it to the honor system,” Cuomo said.
The CDC is reviewing its policy for health care workers returning from West Africa, but anyone flying into a Port Authority of New York and New Jersey airport will need to abide by the new procedures.
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/10/24/new-york-new-jersey-set-up-mandatory-quarantine-requirement-amid-ebola-threat/
Ebola Arrives in New York. How Prepared Is the City to Handle It?
Dr. Craig Spencer, the health care worker who recently returned from Guinea and tested positive for the Ebola virus, is now the first patient to be treated at New York’s Bellevue Hospital.
But the hospital, as well as city, state and federal officials, have been working for weeks or more to ensure the city is ready to identify and treat Ebola cases.
This preparation reflects the now-proven fact that the longer the outbreak rages on in West Africa, the more likely it was that a patient would wind up in Western cities, including New York.
On Oct. 15, the state designated Bellevue Hospital Center as the facility to receive Ebola patients from among the city’s 11 public hospitals, and to receive transferred patients from other hospitals as well, in the event that any Ebola cases occur in the city.
According to a statement from the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, the hospital has four single-bed rooms in its infectious disease ward to treat “high probability or confirmed Ebola cases.” This part of the hospital also has a new laboratory that can test for Ebola, separate from the rest of the hospital’s labs, to handle Ebola blood samples.
Because the virus can be spread through contact with an infected person’s bodily fluids, careful handling of blood and other samples is necessary.
According to the statement:
The hospital is particularly well suited due to its long history of being on the front lines of epidemics and emerging public health threats, and managing an isolation unit for diseases, such as TB, for many years with support from and collaboration with the City Health Department.
Three other hospitals in New York City have also been designated by the state to treat suspected and confirmed Ebola cases, including Mt. Sinai and New York Presbyterian in Manhattan and Montefiore in the Bronx, according to Governor Cuomo’s Ebola preparedness plan.
None of these hospitals, including Bellevue, has an isolated biocontainment unit like those that have treated patients at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, and Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska.
Those specially-designed units can only hold nine patients at the same time.
The American public may not have much faith in ordinary hospitals to treat Ebola, considering that the only non-specialized hospital to treat Ebola patients, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, allowed the virus to spread to two nurses who worked on the original patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, who died of Ebola on Oct. 8. Both of the nurses are now being treated in a biocontainment unit.
The probability of an Ebola case in New York was always considerably higher than it was for many other cities in the U.S., given that two of the city’s international airports — JFK and Newark — are key gateways for travelers to and from West Africa, via stops in Europe or elsewhere in Africa.
“New York City is a frequent port of entry for travelers from West Africa, a home to communities of West African immigrants who travel back to their home countries, and a home to health care workers who travel to West Africa to treat Ebola patients,” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a report on Oct. 17.
“Ongoing transmission of Ebola virus in West Africa could result in an infected person arriving in NYC,” the report said. However, the chance that a New Yorker who has not traveled to an Ebola hotspot would come down with the virus is “extremely slim,” since the disease is only spread through direct contact with an infectious person’s bodily fluids.
Ultimately, it was a doctor who lived in the city who would bring the virus home.
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In recent weeks, the New York Health Commissioner issued a “Commissioner’s Order” to all hospitals and ambulance services in the state, “requiring that they follow protocols for identification, isolation and medical evaluation of patients requiring care.”
The state has been conducting “unannounced drills” at hospitals and health care facilities to test preparedness for handling possible Ebola cases. The state has also involved the Metropalitan Transit Authority, which operates the city’s subways and buses, in training for encountering possible Ebola patients.
And a mass Ebola training for health care workers, which included demonstrations for putting on and taking off protective equipment, took place in the city on Oct. 21.
According to new guidelines the CDC issued on Monday, there are now 30 steps health care workers have to take every time they treat a patient with Ebola or Ebola-like symptoms.
At hospitals like Bellevue, actors have played the role of patients with Ebola symptoms have been part of the drills, and the city’s 911 operators have been told to ask people who call in with Ebola-like symptoms if they have recently traveled to West Africa, according to the Guardian.
As of Thursday, there have been nearly 10,000 cases of Ebola in West Africa, along with about 4,900 deaths. However, these figures are likely to be underestimates, since the lack of treatment facilities and other circumstances are causing many patients to go uncounted.
http://mashable.com/2014/10/23/new-york-city-ebola-preparations/
Doctor in New York City Is Sick With Ebola
By MARC SANTORA
A doctor in New York City who recently returned from treating Ebola patients in Guinea became the first person in the city to test positive for the virus Thursday, setting off a search for anyone who might have come into contact with him.
The doctor, Craig Spencer, was rushed to Bellevue Hospital Center and placed in isolation at the same time as investigators sought to retrace every step he had taken over the past several days.
At least three people he had contact with in recent days have been placed in isolation. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which dispatched a team to New York, is conducting its own test to confirm the positive test on Thursday, which was performed by a city lab.
While officials have said they expected isolated cases of the disease to arrive in New York eventually, and had been preparing for this moment for months, the first case highlighted the challenges involved in containing the virus, especially in a crowded metropolis. Dr. Spencer, 33, had traveled on the A and L subway lines Wednesday night, visited a bowling alley in Williamsburg, and then took a taxi back to Manhattan.
Police officers stood outside the apartment of Dr. Craig Spencer on West 147th Street in Harlem on Thursday. CreditJennifer S. Altman for The New York Times
The next morning, he reported having a fever, raising questions about his health while he was out in public. The authorities have interviewed Dr. Spencer several times and are also looking at information from his credit cards and MetroCard to determine his movements.
Health officials initially said that Dr. Spencer had a 103-degree fever when he reported his symptoms to authorities at around 11 a.m. on Thursday. But on Friday, health officials said that was incorrect and that Dr. Spencer reported having a 100.3-degree fever. They said the mistake was because of a transcription error.
People infected with Ebola cannot spread the disease until they begin to display symptoms, and it cannot be spread through the air. As people become sicker, the viral load in the body builds, and they become increasingly contagious.
Mayor Bill de Blasio, speaking at a news conference at Bellevue on Thursday night, sought to reassure New Yorkers that there was no reason to be alarmed.
“Being on the same subway car or living near a person with Ebola does not in itself put someone at risk,” he said.
Dr. Spencer’s work in Africa and the timing of the onset of his symptoms led health officials to dispatch disease detectives, who “immediately began to actively trace all of the patient’s contacts to identify anyone who may be at potential risk,” according to a statement released by the health department.
Bellevue Hospital Center, where the first person in the city to test positive for Ebola has been quarantined. CreditJoshua Bright for The New York Times
Dr. Spencer’s fiancée has also been quarantined at Bellevue. Two other friends, who had contact with him on Tuesday and Wednesday, have been told by the authorities that they too will be quarantined but whether they will isolate themselves in their homes or be relocated was still under discussion, according to a person briefed on the investigation. None of the three were showing signs of illness.
The driver of the taxi, arranged through the online service Uber, did not have direct contact with Dr. Spencer and was not considered to be at risk, officials said.
Speaking at the news conference, city officials said that while they were still investigating, they did not believe Dr. Spencer was symptomatic while he traveled around the city on Wednesday and therefore had not posed a risk to the public.
“He did not have a stage of disease that creates a risk of contagiousness on the subway,” Dr. Mary Bassett, the city health commissioner, said. “We consider it extremely unlikely, the probability being close to nil, that there will be any problem related to his taking the subway system.”
Still, out of an abundance of caution, officials said, the bowling alley in Williamsburg that he visited, the Gutter, was closed on Thursday night, and a scheduled concert there, part of the CMJ music festival, was canceled. Health workers were scheduled to visit the alley on Friday.
At Dr. Spencer’s apartment building, his home was sealed off and workers distributed informational fliers about the disease.
What the New York City Ebola Patient Was Doing Before He Was Hospitalized
Locations visited by Craig Spencer, a Manhattan doctor who has tested positive for Ebola.
OPEN GRAPHIC
Dr. Spencer had been working with Doctors Without Borders in Guinea treating Ebola patients, and completed his work on Oct. 12, Dr. Bassett said. He flew out of the country on Oct. 14, traveling via Europe, and arrived in New York on Oct. 17.
Since returning, he had been taking his temperature twice a day, Dr. Bassett said.
He told the authorities that he did not believe the protective gear he wore while working with Ebola patients had been breached but had been monitoring his own health.
Doctors Without Borders, in a statement, said it provides guidelines for its staff members to follow when they return from Ebola assignments, but did not elaborate on the protocols.
“The individual engaged in regular health monitoring and reported this development immediately,” the group said in a statement.
Dr. Spencer began to feel sluggish on Tuesday but did not develop a feveruntil Thursday morning, he told the authorities. At 11 a.m., he found that he had a 100.3-degree temperature and alerted the staff of Doctors Without Borders, according to the official.
Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo spoke during a press conference at Bellevue Hospital in New York on Thursday.CreditJoshua Bright for The New York Times
The staff called the city’s health department, which in turn called the Fire Department.
Emergency medical workers, wearing full personal protective gear, rushed to Dr. Spencer’s apartment, on West 147th Street. He was transported to Bellevue and arrived shortly after 1 p.m.
He was placed in a special isolation unit and is being seen by the designated medical critical care team. Team members wear personal protective equipment with undergarment air ventilation systems.
Bellevue doctors have been preparing to deal with an Ebola patient with numerous drills and tests as well as actual treatment of suspected cases that turned out to be false alarms.
A health care worker at the hospital said that Dr. Spencer seemed very sick, and it was unclear to the medical staff why he had not gone to the hospital earlier, since his fever was high.
Dr. Spencer is a fellow of international emergency medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, and an instructor in clinical medicine at Columbia University.
A photograph of Dr. Spencer on his LinkedIn page.
“He is a committed and responsible physician who always puts his patients first,” the hospital said in a statement. “He has not been to work at our hospital and has not seen any patients at our hospital since his return from overseas.”
Before Thursday, more than 30 people had gone to city hospitals and raised suspicions of Ebola, but in all those cases health workers were able to rule out the virus without performing blood tests.
While the city has stepped up its laboratory capacity so it can get test results within four to six hours, the precautions required when drawing blood and treating a person possibly sick with Ebola meant that it took until late in the evening to confirm Dr. Spencer’s diagnosis.
Doctors said that even before the results came in, it seemed likely that he had been infected. Symptoms usually occur within eight to 10 days of infection. Dr. Spencer stopped working with Ebola patients 11 days ago and returned home six days ago.
Ebola is transmitted through bodily fluids and secretions, including blood, mucus, feces and vomit.
Because of its high mortality rate — Ebola kills more than half the people it infects — the disease spreads fear along with infection.
Ebola Facts: How Many Ebola Cases Are Outside of West Africa?
At least 18 cases have been treated outside of West Africa. Full Q. and A. »
Recovered In treatment Died
Nebraska Medical Center
N.I.H. Clinical Center
Emory University Hospital
Countries with Ebola outbreaks
The authorities have been on high alert ever since Thomas Eric Duncan traveled to the United States in September from Liberia, and was later given a diagnosis of Ebola.
Mr. Duncan died at a Dallas hospital this month.
Several days after his death, a nurse who helped care for Mr. Duncan learned she had Ebola. Two nurses who treated Mr. Duncan fell ill, but are recovering.
That single case led to hundreds of people being quarantined or being asked to remain isolated from the general public.
The missteps by both local and federal authorities in handling the nation’s first Ebola case raised questions about the ability of health care workers to safely treat those with the disease.
In the New York City region, hospitals and emergency workers have been preparing for the appearance of the virus for months.
Dr. Irwin Redlener, the director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University and a special adviser to Mayor de Blasio, said that the risk to the general public was minimal, but depended on the city moving swiftly.
“New York has mobilized not only a world-class health department, but has full engagement of many other agencies that need to be on the response team,” he said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/24/nyregion/craig-spencer-is-tested-for-ebola-virus-at-bellevue-hospital-in-new-york-city.html?_r=0
Republicans question federal response on Ebola
The new Ebola infection in New York City exposed flaws in the system and raised new concerns, lawmakers said Friday, as they criticised the U.S. government response to the outbreak and questioned top officials’ credibility.
“I can tell you it’s not working. All you need to do is look at Craig Spencer,” said Rep. John Mica, a Republican, naming the doctor in New York who was diagnosed with Ebola late Thursday a week after returning from Guinea. “He was tested there, it’s not working.”
Spencer, the fourth person diagnosed in the U.S., did not exhibit symptoms until Thursday and so the temperature screening in place at the five U.S. airports that receive passengers from Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, the three West African countries that have borne the worst of the outbreak, would not have caught him. Some lawmakers questioning administration officials at a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing said that just showed that a new approach was needed.
Less than two weeks before hard-fought elections, many lawmakers, especially Republicans, have called for a travel ban from the hot spots in West Africa where the deadly disease has infected roughly 10,000 people and killed about half of them. Others have suggested quarantining people for the 21-day incubation period once they arrive.
The Obama administration has resisted, saying such an approach could make things worse by limiting sorely needed supplies and medical workers to West Africa and encouraging travelers to hide their travel histories. Instead the administration has implemented new guidelines for screening all people arriving here from the hot zones and ensuring they’re all monitored by medical experts for 21 days.
Rep. Stephen Lynch, a Democrat, said Friday that anyone who travels here from West Africa should be quarantined for 21 days in their home country before even boarding a plane to the U.S.
“This can’t just be about ideology and happy talk,” Lynch said. “We need to be very deliberate (and) take it much more seriously than I’m hearing today.”
The committee’s chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa, a Republican, complained about wrong information and shifting standards coming from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about the first case diagnosed in the U.S., a man who traveled from Sierra Leone to Texas and later died. He infected two nurses who cared for him. As of Friday both nurses have been declared free of the virus.
“We said we were planning to deal with infectious diseases, prepare our health care system and our doctors and nurses,” Issa said. “And in fact it appears as though we trained them but not trained them to the level we should.”
Dr. Nicole Lurie, assistant HHS secretary for preparedness and response, defended the government’s response.
“I think our failures largely relate to the fact that we’re learning some new things about Ebola,” she said. “Ebola’s never been in this hemisphere before, and as we’re learning those things we’re tightening up our policies and procedures as quickly as possible.”
In her prepared testimony, Lurie assured lawmakers that a large-scale outbreak of Ebola is unlikely in this country. “There is an epidemic of fear, but not of Ebola, in the United States,” she said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11347856
Race on to decontaminate Ebola doctor’s NYC home
By Kevin Fasick and Chris Perez
New York City police officers enter the building where Dr. Craig Spencer (inset with fiancée Morgan Dixon) lives in New York on Oct. 24.Photo: Reuters/Mike Segar
Efforts are under way to decontaminate the apartment building of the Big Apple’s first Ebola patient.
Cops moved people back around 9:15 am as two officers with the Sanitation Department’s Environmental Police Unit arrived on the scene and entered the building through a side entrance.
They were later joined by several people in plain-clothes who exited out of a truck belonging to the Bio-Recovery Corporation — a full service crime scene cleanup and bio remediation company.
“Today we’re expecting a specialized crew [to] come in full protective gear and will clean and sterilize Dr. [Craig] Spencer’s apartment for signs of bodily fluid,” said City Council member Mark Levine, adding that officials would “confiscate material that might have come into contact with his body such as sheets and pillowcases and bath towels and toothbrushes.”
The 7th District councilman was on the scene Friday morning, giving updates specifically aimed at people in the community whose fears were heightened Thursday when Spencer, a Doctors Without Borders volunteer, tested positive for the Ebola virus.
“We’ve had neighbors understandably concerned that live right across the street, maybe they live down the hall, maybe they’ve seen him in the local bodega and they’re worried,” he told the crowd. “But the truth is and the facts they need to understand are they’re really not at risk.”
Police and health officials enter the New York apartment building of Dr. Craig Spencer, who has been diagnosed with the Ebola virus, on Oct. 24.
EPA/Andrew Gombert
Levine made it clear that while fear of catching the disease was high, the actual possibility that Spencer could have spread the illness before being hospitalized was minimal.
“If he was well enough to go for a run, then he was almost certainly not sick enough to be contagious,” he said. “Frankly, if he was well enough to go bowling, he was probably not sick enough to be contagious, so people should not worry.”
When Spencer first reported his elevated temperature to officials, firefighters worked quickly to make sure the risk of infection was extremely low.
“The first thing they did was seal off the apartment,” he said. “That happened immediately after Dr. Spencer was taken to the ambulance.”
The ambulance carrying Dr. Craig Spencer arrives at Bellevue Hospital.
David McGlynn
A neighbor who lives across from Spencer told The Post that four of his relatives panicked shortly after the Harlem doctor was picked up and eventually left the apartment.
“They’re gone, they weren’t moved by the authorities, they left on their own because of the scare, because they were frightened,” said Stan Malone, 45. “This really hits home … I believe it’s gonna get worse.”
Malone added that while he thought Spencer had only come in contact with a few people, he felt the city wasn’t doing enough to ensure the safety of New Yorkers.
“I think this whole building should be quarantined now,” he said. “What’s taking the city so long to do that?”
http://nypost.com/2014/10/24/race-to-decontaminate-ebola-docs-nyc-home/
Another doctor who treated Ebola came through JFK
By Philip Messing and Lorena Mongelli
A physician who treated dying Ebola patients in Liberia flew in to JFK on Thursday night — and stayed at an airport hotel, a source told The Post.
Colin Bucks, a clinical assistant professor at Stanford University’s medical school, arrived on a Royal Moroccan Air flight, sources said.
He spent the night at the Hilton Garden Inn in Jamaica, Queens, where Centers for Disease Control workers also stay, according to a source.
On Friday, he was cleared to travel home to Northern California, where he will “be monitored by CDC there,” the source said.
“He is asymptomatic and he’s being allowed to leave the hotel and fly home,” a source added.
Sources said that Bucks, who works with International Medical Corps, was told to self-quarantine at the hotel, but he told The Post he merely missed a connecting flight. He said he was screened at the airport in Africa and again upon arrival at Kennedy airport.
“If there had been a flight yesterday, I would’ve not spent the night here,” he said in a telephone interview.
Bucks is strictly following the CDC’s recommendations and self-monitoring, he said. The CDC is also keeping track of his whereabouts, as standard protocol dictates, he added.
“I worked for over a month with no national staff or ex-patriot staff showing any signs of illness,” he said. “In general I’m amazed by the national staff I was working with. I really want them to be viewed as the heroes of Ebola response.
Bucks didn’t know Spencer, but said, “It sounds like this is someone who’s cut from the same cloth as me who followed all the rules and has not put other people at risk.”
He’s confident that by following proper guidelines, health care workers can do life-saving work abroad and stay safe.
“I have every confidence that [by] following CDC return recommendations, nurses, doctors, lab technicians can go to West Africa and do what’s necessary to protect the rest of the world and not come back and be the ones that need protection.”
On Friday afternoon, the governors of New York and New Jersey announced extra measures that will require all at-risk passengers touching down at JFK and Newark Liberty airports from Ebola-stricken countries to be quarantined for 21 days.
http://nypost.com/2014/10/24/another-doctors-without-borders-physician-who-treated-ebola-came-through-jfk/
West Africa Ebola Outbreak (Infographic)[PDF – 1 page]
Facts About Ebola in the U.S. (Infographic)[PDF – 1 page]
Because the natural reservoir host of Ebola viruses has not yet been identified, the way in which the virus first appears in a human at the start of an outbreak is unknown. However, scientists believe that the first patient becomes infected through contact with an infected animal, such as a fruit bat or primate (apes and monkeys), which is called a spillover event. Person-to-person transmission follows and can lead to large numbers of affected people. In some past Ebola outbreaks, primates were also affected by Ebola, and multiple spillover events occurred when people touched or ate infected primates.
When an infection does occur in humans, the virus can be spread in several ways to others. Ebola is spread through direct contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes in, for example, the eyes, nose, or mouth) with
blood or body fluids (including but not limited to urine, saliva, sweat, feces, vomit, breast milk, and semen) of a person who is sick with Ebola
objects (like needles and syringes) that have been contaminated with the virus
infected fuit bats or primates (apes and monkeys)
Ebola is not spread through the air or by water, or in general, by food. However, in Africa, Ebola may be spread as a result of handling bushmeat (wild animals hunted for food) and contact with infected bats. There is no evidence that mosquitos or other insects can transmit Ebola virus. Only a few species of mammals (for example, humans, bats, monkeys, and apes) have shown the ability to become infected with and spread Ebola virus.
Healthcare providers caring for Ebola patients and the family and friends in close contact with Ebola patients are at the highest risk of getting sick because they may come in contact with infected blood or body fluids of sick patients.
During outbreaks of Ebola, the disease can spread quickly within healthcare settings (such as a clinic or hospital). Exposure to Ebola can occur in healthcare settings where hospital staff are not wearing appropriate protective equipment, including masks, gowns, and gloves and eye protection.
Dedicated medical equipment (preferable disposable, when possible) should be used by healthcare personnel providing patient care. Proper cleaning and disposal of instruments, such as needles and syringes, is also important. If instruments are not disposable, they must be sterilized before being used again. Without adequate sterilization of the instruments, virus transmission can continue and amplify an outbreak.
Once someone recovers from Ebola, they can no longer spread the virus. However, Ebola virus has been found in semen for up to 3 months. Abstinence from sex (including oral sex) is recommended for at least 3 months. If abstinence is not possible, condoms may help prevent the spread of disease.
http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/transmission/index.html?s_cid=cs_3923
Experts fear Ebola virus COULD spread through the air and not just through contact with bodily fluids
Public is being told that Ebola can only be transmitted by direct contact
Experts warn that the possibility it could become airborne can’t be ruled out
‘Assurances Ebola is not spread through the air are misleading’ – expert
Ebola has killed about 3,800 people in West Africa and infected at least 8,000
By TED THORNHILL FOR MAILONLINE
As the death toll from Ebola reaches 3,800, experts are warning that the virus could mutate and become airborne, meaning that it could be caught by breathing it in.
The public is being told by health officials that the virus that causes Ebola cannot be transmitted through the air and can only be spread through direct contact with bodily fluids – blood, sweat, vomit, feces, urine, saliva or semen – of an infected person who is showing symptoms.
However, several leading Ebola researchers claim that the virus mutating and spreading through the air should not be ruled out.
As the death toll from Ebola reaches 3,800, experts are warning that the virus could mutate and become airborne
Virus expert Charles L. Bailey, who in 1989 helped the American government tackle an outbreak of Ebola among rhesus monkeys being used for research, told the LA Times: ‘We know for a fact that the virus occurs in sputum and no one has ever done a study [disproving that] coughing or sneezing is a viable means of transmitting.
‘Unqualified assurances that Ebola is not spread through the air are “misleading”.’
Dr C J Peters, who has undertaken research into Ebola for America’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the paper: ‘We just don’t have the data to exclude it [becoming airborne].’
Meanwhile virologist Dr Philip K Russell, a former head of the U.S Army’s Medical Research and Development Command, told the paper: ‘I see the reasons to dampen down public fears. But scientifically, we’re in the middle of the first experiment of multiple, serial passages of Ebola virus in man…. God knows what this virus is going to look like. I don’t.’
In September, Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, writing in the New York Times, said experts who believe that Ebola could become airborne are loathed to discuss their concerns in public, for fear of whipping up hysteria.
Discussing the possible future course of the current outbreak, he said: ‘The second possibility is one that virologists are loath to discuss openly but are definitely considering in private: that an Ebola virus could mutate to become transmissible through the air.’
The public is being told by health officials that the virus that causes Ebola cannot be transmitted through the air and can only be spread through direct contact with bodily fluids
Defence Secretary won’t talk about UK airport Ebola screening
Dr Osterholm warns viruses similar to Ebola are notorious for replicating and reinventing themselves.
It means the virus that first broke out in Guinea in February may be very different to the one now invading other parts of West Africa.
Pointing to the example of the H1N1 influenza virus that saw bird flu sweep the globe in 2009, Dr Osterholm said: ‘If certain mutations occurred, it would mean that just breathing would put one at risk of contracting Ebola.’
Dr Osterholm said public health officials, while discussing the possibility in private, are reluctant to air their concerns.
Ebola virus: Five facts you didn’t know about the disease
Virus expert Charles L. Bailey said unqualified assurances that Ebola is not spread through the air are ‘misleading’
The suit that can save lives: British-made Ebola protection suits
‘They don’t want to be accused of screaming “Fire!” in a crowded theater – as I’m sure some will accuse me of doing.
‘But the risk is real, and until we consider it, the world will not be prepared to do what is necessary to end the epidemic.’
He called for the United Nations to mobilise medical, public health and humanitarian aid to ‘smother the epidemic’.
The chair of the UK’s Health Protection Agency, Professor David Heymann of the London School of Hygiene of Tropical Medicine, said it is impossible to predict how any virus will mutate.
He said scientists across the world do not know enough about genetics to be able to say how the Ebola virus will change over time.
He told MailOnline: ‘No one can predict what will happen with the mutation of the virus. I would like to see the evidence that this could become a respiratory virus.’
The first person diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S. died on Wednesday despite intense but delayed treatment, and the government announced it was expanding airport examinations to guard against the spread of the deadly disease.
The checks will include taking the temperatures of hundreds of travelers arriving from West Africa at five major American airports.
The new screenings will begin Saturday at New York’s JFK International Airport and then expand to Washington Dulles and the international airports in Atlanta, Chicago and Newark. An estimated 150 people per day will be checked, using high-tech thermometers that don’t touch the skin.
The White House said the fever checks would reach more than 9 of 10 travelers to the U.S. from the three heaviest-hit countries – Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
President Barack Obama called the measures ‘really just belt and suspenders’ to support protections already in place. Border Patrol agents now look for people who are obviously ill, as do flight crews, and in those cases the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is notified.
As of Wednesday, Ebola has killed about 3,800 people in West Africa and infected at least 8,000, according to the World Health Organization.
A medical official with the U.N. Mission in Liberia who tested positive for Ebola arrived in the German city of Leipzig on Thursday to be treated at a local clinic with specialist facilities, authorities said.
The unidentified medic infected in Liberia is the second member of the U.N. mission, known as UNMIL, to contract the virus. The first died on September 25. He is the third Ebola patient to arrive in Germany for treatment.
The virus has taken an especially devastating toll on health care workers, sickening or killing more than 370 of them in the hardest-hit countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone – places that already were short on doctors and nurses.
There are no approved medications for Ebola, so doctors have tried experimental treatments in some cases, including drugs and blood transfusions from others who have recovered from Ebola.
The survivor’s blood could carry antibodies for the disease that will help a patient fight off the virus.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2786297/Experts-fear-Ebola-virus-COULD-spread-air-not-just-contact-bodily-fluids.html
Experts raise specter of more-contagious Ebola virus
Osterholm mentioned the risk of Ebola migrating to developing-world megacities like Nairobi, Kenya.
Amid fears that West Africa’s Ebola epidemic may spiral out of control, two experts are using the pages of leading newspapers to raise the specter of a mutant Ebola virus that could become airborne, and appealing for massive interventions to preclude that nightmare scenario.
Michael T. Osterholm, PhD, MPH, wrote in a New York Times commentary today that the scale of the epidemic is offering the virus unprecedented opportunities to evolve toward greater transmissibility, which could give it the capability to spread worldwide. He is director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, publisher of CIDRAP News.
Richard E. Besser, MD, chief health editor at ABC News and a former acting director at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), wrote in the Washington Post last night that a more-contagious Ebola virus could threaten the United States and said the crisis warrants the deployment of thousands of American troops to the affected countries.
What virologists don’t like to talk about
The possibility of an airborne-transmissible Ebola virus is one “that virologists are loath to discuss openly but are definitely considering in private,” wrote Osterholm. In its current form, the virus spreads only through contact with bodily fluids, he noted, but with more human transmission in the past few months than probably occurred in the past 500 years, the virus is getting plenty of chances to evolve.
“Each new infection represents trillions of throws of the genetic dice,” he said.
“If certain mutations occurred, it would mean that just breathing would put one at risk of contracting Ebola. Infections could spread quickly to every part of the globe, as the H1N1 influenza virus did in 2009, after its birth in Mexico.”
Osterholm added that public officials are reluctant to talk about this risk because they fear being accused of screaming “Fire!” in a crowded theater. “But the risk is real, and until we consider it, the world will not be prepared to do what is necessary to end the epidemic.”
As evidence of the risk, he noted that Canadian researchers in 2012 showed that Ebola Zaire, the species in the West African epidemic, could spread by the respiratory route from pigs to monkeys.
Even without airborne Ebola contagion, there’s a risk of Ebola migrating to developing-world megacities such as Nairobi, Kinshasa, or Karachi, possibly touching off new epidemics, Osterholm wrote.
In the face of the grave risks, someone needs to exercise “command and control,” and the best candidate is the United Nations, he asserted.
The UN “is the only international organization that can direct the immense amount of medical, public health, and humanitarian aid that must come from many different countries and nongovernmental groups to smother this epidemic. Thus far it has played at best a collaborating role, and with everyone in charge, no one is in charge.”
Besser: US must take the lead
Besser, in appealing for a vastly greater Ebola response from the United States, sketched bleak scenes of sick people in Monrovia, Liberia, waiting to get into overcrowded treatment centers and burial teams trying to collect bodies from the homes of terrified people who deny that their loved ones died of Ebola.
Recalling the warning last week from current CDC Director Tom Frieden, MD, MPH, that the window of opportunity to stop the epidemic is closing, Besser wrote, “I don’t think the world is getting the message. The magnitude of the response needed for a deadly outbreak like this in a staggeringly poor country demands both dollars and people.”
He said his CDC experience taught him that “a military-style response during a major health crisis saves lives.” In foreign public health emergencies, the CDC usually provides technical support to governments, but “this crisis calls for much more.”
Noting that the epidemic is threatening the stability of the affected countries, Besser asserted that an expanded American response would improve both global security and health security.
“While one Ebola case in the United States is unlikely to spark an outbreak, things could change if the virus becomes more easily transmittable,” he added. “We already know it’s mutating.” He called the outbreak more disturbing than anything he witnessed in 13 years at the CDC.
Besser welcomed recent moves to scale up US aid to West Africa, including the Obama administration’s request for more funds, but he said much more is needed.
He called for large field hospitals staffed by Americans to treat Ebola patients, plus active US involvement in strengthening infection control, staffing burial teams, and detecting new cases.
“A few thousand U.S. troops could provide the support that is so desperately needed,” he added. “There could be casualties, but what military operation is ruled out solely because it is dangerous?”
“We know how to control Ebola. It’s time to step up and get the job done,” he concluded.
MSF president speaks out
Some similar points were made in another Washington Post commentary, this one from Joanne Liu, MD, president of Doctors without Borders (MSF), the leading private aid group fighting Ebola in West Africa.
Using words similar to those she used at a UN briefing last week, Liu described the grim situation in West Africa and said MSF has been “completely overwhelmed.”
“We need a large-scale deployment of highly trained personnel who know the protocols for protecting themselves against highly contagious diseases and who have the necessary logistical support to be immediately operational. Private aid groups simply cannot confront this alone,” she wrote.
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2014/09/experts-raise-specter-more-contagious-ebola-virus
What We’re Afraid to Say About Ebola
By MICHAEL T. OSTERHOLMSEPT. 11, 2014
THE Ebola epidemic in West Africa has the potential to alter history as much as any plague has ever done.
There have been more than 4,300 cases and 2,300 deaths over the past six months. Last week, theWorld Health Organization warned that, by early October, there may be thousands of new cases per week in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria. What is not getting said publicly, despite briefings and discussions in the inner circles of the world’s public health agencies, is that we are in totally uncharted waters and that Mother Nature is the only force in charge of the crisis at this time.
There are two possible future chapters to this story that should keep us up at night.
The first possibility is that the Ebola virus spreads from West Africa to megacities in other regions of the developing world. This outbreak is very different from the 19 that have occurred in Africa over the past 40 years. It is much easier to control Ebola infections in isolated villages. But there has been a 300 percent increase in Africa’s population over the last four decades, much of it in large city slums. What happens when an infected person yet to become ill travels by plane to Lagos, Nairobi, Kinshasa or Mogadishu — or even Karachi, Jakarta, Mexico City or Dhaka?
The second possibility is one that virologists are loath to discuss openly but are definitely considering in private: that an Ebola virus could mutate to become transmissible through the air. You can now get Ebola only through direct contact with bodily fluids. But viruses like Ebola are notoriously sloppy in replicating, meaning the virus entering one person may be genetically different from the virus entering the next. The current Ebola virus’s hyper-evolution is unprecedented; there has been more human-to-human transmission in the past four months than most likely occurred in the last 500 to 1,000 years. Each new infection represents trillions of throws of the genetic dice.
Why are public officials afraid to discuss this? They don’t want to be accused of screaming “Fire!” in a crowded theater — as I’m sure some will accuse me of doing. But the risk is real, and until we consider it, the world will not be prepared to do what is necessary to end the epidemic.
In 2012, a team of Canadian researchers proved that Ebola Zaire, the same virus that is causing the West Africa outbreak, could be transmitted by the respiratory route from pigs to monkeys, both of whose lungs are very similar to those of humans. Richard Preston’s 1994 best seller “The Hot Zone” chronicled a 1989 outbreak of a different strain, Ebola Reston virus, among monkeys at a quarantine station near Washington. The virus was transmitted through breathing, and the outbreak ended only when all the monkeys were euthanized. We must consider that such transmissions could happen between humans, if the virus mutates.
First, we need someone to take over the position of “command and control.” The United Nations is the only international organization that can direct the immense amount of medical, public health and humanitarian aid that must come from many different countries and nongovernmental groups to smother this epidemic. Thus far it has played at best a collaborating role, and with everyone in charge, no one is in charge.
A Security Council resolution could give the United Nations total responsibility for controlling the outbreak, while respecting West African nations’ sovereignty as much as possible. The United Nations could, for instance, secure aircraft and landing rights. Many private airlines are refusing to fly into the affected countries, making it very difficult to deploy critical supplies and personnel. The Group of 7 countries’ military air and ground support must be brought in to ensure supply chains for medical and infection-control products, as well as food and water for quarantined areas.
The United Nations should provide whatever number of beds are needed; the World Health Organization has recommended 1,500, but we may need thousands more. It should also coordinate the recruitment and training around the world of medical and nursing staff, in particular by bringing in local residents who have survived Ebola, and are no longer at risk of infection. Many countries are pledging medical resources, but donations will not result in an effective treatment system if no single group is responsible for coordinating them.
Finally, we have to remember that Ebola isn’t West Africa’s only problem. Tens of thousands die there each year from diseases like AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea have among the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. Because people are now too afraid of contracting Ebola to go to the hospital, very few are getting basic medical care. In addition, many health care workers have been infected with Ebola, and more than 120 have died. Liberia has only 250 doctors left, for a population of four million.
This is about humanitarianism and self-interest. If we wait for vaccines and new drugs to arrive to end the Ebola epidemic, instead of taking major action now, we risk the disease’s reaching from West Africa to our own backyards.
Michael T. Osterholm is the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/12/opinion/what-were-afraid-to-say-about-ebola.html?_r=0
The Pronk Pops Show 353, October 21, 2014, Story 1: Obama Spreads Suspected Ebola Travelers To 5 Large U.S. Cities– New York, Newark, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Chicago — Sanctuary Cities For Illegal Aliens From Ebola Infected Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea — Ebola Czar Ron Klain Says “Overpopulation” Top Concern — Spreading Ebola Virus Would Reduce World Population In Africa And USA Santuary Cities? — Eugenics Redux — Videos
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Story 1: Obama Spreads Suspected Ebola Travelers To 5 Large U.S. Cities– New York, Newark, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Chicago — Sanctuary Cities For Illegal Aliens From Ebola Infected Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea — Ebola Czar Ron Klain Says “Overpopulation” Top Concern — Spreading Ebola Virus Would Reduce World Population In Africa And USA Sanctuary Cities? — Eugenics Redux — Videos
Five U.S. airports begin screening for Ebola among travelers from West Africa
Stepped-up Ebola screening to start at New York’s JFK Airport – LoneWolf Sager
Gov. Perry Announces North Texas Infectious Disease Bio Containment Facility
Gov. Rick Perry today announced the creation of a state-of-the-art Ebola treatment and infectious disease bio containment facility in North Texas. Creation of such facilities was among the first recommendations made by the governor’s recently named Texas Task Force on Infectious Disease Preparedness and Response in order to better protect health care workers and the public from the spread of pandemic diseases.
CDC Cuts Dallas Quarantine Halfway Into Incubation Period
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Americans want flight restrictions from Ebola countries. And it’s not close.
Nearly two-thirds of Americans say they are concerned about an Ebola outbreak in the United States, and about the same amount say they want flight restrictions from the countries in West Africa where the disease has quickly spread.
A new poll from the Washington Post and ABC News shows 67 percent of people say they would support restricting entry to the United States from countries struggling with Ebola. Another 91 percent would like to see stricter screening procedures at U.S. airports in response to the disease’s spread.
Thus far, some countries in Europe have restricted flights from these countries in West Africa, and an increasing number of U.S. lawmakers are calling for similar bans. The White House has yet to increase restrictions, with federal officials saying such a move could actually increase the spread of the disease by hampering the movement of aid workers and supplies.
Concern about Ebola, at this point, is real but not pervasive. About two-thirds (65 percent) say they are concerned about an Ebola outbreak in the United States. But while people are broadly concerned about an outbreak, they are not necessarily worried about that potential outbreak directly affecting them. Just 43 percent of people are worried about themselves or someone in their family becoming infected – including 20 percent who are “very worried.”
That finding echoes a Pew poll from last week which showed just 11 percent were “very worried” about themselves or their families becoming infected. Since that survey, Dallas Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan died, and news that a nurse who provided care for him became infected broke on the final day of the Post-ABC poll.
By comparison, slightly more Americans said they were worried about the H1N1 virus – a.k.a. the swine flu – in October 2009 (52 percent). Concern about Ebola is about on-par with concern about Avian influenza – a.k.a. the bird flu – in 2006 (41 percent) and slightly higher than concern about Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003 (as high as 38 percent).
The support for increasing restrictions puts the White House in a tough spot. Given the moves by other countries and the American public’s stance, there is increasing pressure to act. And given the very real — but still somewhat muted — concerns about the disease, that’s significant, especially if the disease continues to expand.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/10/14/americans-want-flight-restrictions-from-ebola-countries-and-its-not-close/
West Africa travelers must go to 1 of 5 airports
The Department of Homeland Security announced Tuesday that all travelers from Ebola outbreak countries in West Africa will be funneled through one of five U.S. airports with enhanced screening starting Wednesday.
Customs and Border Protection within the department began enhanced screening — checking the traveler’s temperature and asking about possible exposure to Ebola — at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport on Oct. 11.
Enhanced screening for travelers from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea was expanded Oct. 16 to Washington Dulles, Chicago O’Hare, New Jersey’s Newark and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta international airports.
All travelers from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea in West Africa will be funneled through one of five U.S. airports with enhanced screening.(Photo: Janet Loehrke, USA TODAY)
Those airports were supposed to screen 94% of the average 150 people per day arriving from the three countries. Lawmakers from other states asked for enhanced screening at their airports, too.
Some lawmakers have called for more restrictions, such as suspending visas or denying entry at ports for citizens from the three countries.
Jeh Johnson, secretary of Homeland Security, announced that travelers from West Africa must arrive at one of the five airports starting Wednesday.
“We are working closely with the airlines to implement these restrictions with minimal travel disruption,” Johnson said. “If not already handled by the airlines, the few impacted travelers should contact the airlines for rebooking as needed.”
The enhanced screening will apply to anyone who traveled recently to, from or through the three outbreak countries, according to the department’s announcement to be published Thursday in the Federal Register. Customs and Border Protection will work with airlines to identify potential travelers before they board, but airlines will be obligated to comply with the rule for carrying to the USA any passengers who recently traveled through the region, according to the filing.
The restrictions should affect only about nine travelers per day who would have arrived at other airports. Katie Cody, a spokeswoman for American Airlines, which serves Europe from hubs such as Philadelphia and Charlotte, said the airline has no concerns about the change.
“We have been tracking that, and we don’t have any concerns because the numbers are so small,” Cody said.
British Airways, which serves a variety of U.S. destinations other than the five targeted airports, said it would comply with the measures.
“Customers affected will be offered a refund or will be rerouted if there is availability,” spokeswoman Michele Kropf said.
Republican lawmakers offered muted praise but pressed for stricter travel restrictions.
“In addition to requiring all travelers from at-risk countries to fly through airports with enhanced screening measures in place, I continue to call on the administration to suspend all visas from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea,” said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, the head of the House Homeland Security Committee.
The head of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said a “real solution” is to deny entry to anyone from the three countries under a provision of the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act.
“President Obama has a real solution at his disposal under current law and can use it at any time to temporarily ban foreign nationals from entering the United States from Ebola-ravaged countries,” Goodlatte said. “The vast majority of Americans strongly support such a travel moratorium, and I urge the president to take every step possible to protect the American people from danger.”
Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said steering travelers through the five airports is a sensible precaution.
“As agreed upon by experts in both the public health and transportation communities, issuing a blanket travel ban would not only be counterproductive, but it would also irresponsibly impede getting much-needed supplies and relief to the countries that need it most,” Conyers said.
Roger Dow, CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, a trade group for all aspects of travel, praised the move to calm travel concerns while avoiding a travel ban.
“The Obama administration continues to heed the counsel of an overwhelming consensus of health and security experts and resist calls for any sort of travel ban on the grounds that it will be counterproductive to efforts to contain Ebola,” Dow said.
A Liberian national, Thomas Eric Duncan, who became the first person diagnosed with the disease in the USA after arriving in Dallas on Sept. 20, had a temperature of 97.3 degrees but didn’t tell airport officials in Monrovia, Liberia, that he had cared for a pregnant woman suffering from Ebola. He died Oct. 8, and two nurses who treated him have become infected.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said the enhanced screening adds a layer of protection against Ebola entering the country.
“The Department of Homeland Security’s policy to funnel all passengers arriving from Ebola hot spots to one of these five equipped airports is a good and effective step towards tightening the net and further protecting our citizens,” Schumer said.
Obama and Johnson have said they will continue to monitor travel restrictions for possible changes.
“We are continually evaluating whether additional restrictions or added screening and precautionary measures are necessary to protect the American people and will act accordingly,” Johnson said.
http://www.wtsp.com/story/news/nation/2014/10/21/ebola-travel-restrictions-dhs-screening-jfk-dulles-ohare-newark-atlanta/17655889/
Gabbard Calls On CDC To Increase Incubation Period To Prevent Ebola Spread
By Chad Blair
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) has called on the Center for Disease Control to implement stricter incubation guidelines for people who have been in contact with patients “confirmed or suspected” to have the Ebola virus.
According to a press release from her office, Gabbard is calling on the CDC to increase the quarantine and restriction period from the 21-day standard to 42 days, “based on the latest scientific studies and the World Health Organization report that the incubation period for the deadly Ebola virus can extend as long as 42 days.”
On Friday, Gabbard called for the “immediate suspension” of visas for citizens of Ebola-stricken West African nations as well as flights from those countries into the United States.
“Recent mistakes have revealed that the U.S. public health system is clearly not fully prepared to combat Ebola and prevent its spread in the United States,” she said in a statement.
Democrats like Gabbard are among a growing number who are “beginning to sound more like Republicans when they talk about Ebola. And Republicans are moving into overdrive with their criticism of the government’s handling of the deadly virus,” according to The Washington Post.
“The sharpened rhetoric, strategists say, suggests Democrats fear President Obama’s response to Ebola in the United States could become a political liability in the midterm election and Republicans see an opportunity to tie increasing concerns about the disease to the public’s broader worries about Obama’s leadership.”
The Washington Post notes, however, that Gabbard is “a liberal Democrat who is not in any danger of losing reelection.” It also reports that a Washington Post-ABC News poll showed that “67 percent of Americans would support restricting entry to the United States from countries fighting dealing with an Ebola crisis.”
The Associated Press is also reporting that moderate Democrats are joining the callfor a flight ban, even ones not in tough re-election battles.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/20/gabbard-ebola-incubation-period_n_6017290.html
Reversal: Obama sets Ebola travel restrictions
BY PAUL BEDARD
The Obama administration has reversed course on putting travel restrictions on those coming from three West African nations tainted with Ebola and is putting in place demands that they enter only through five U.S. airports prepared to screen for the virus.
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said in a statement that the new rules will take effect Wednesday, bowing to demands from both parties that the U.S. do a better job so secure the border from Ebola.
“Today, as part of the Department of Homeland Security’s ongoing response to prevent the spread of Ebola to the United States, we are announcing travel restrictions in the form of additional screening and protective measures at our ports of entry for travelers from the three West African Ebola-affected countries,” said Johnson.
He said the rules require that anyone coming from Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea enter the U.S. only through the five airports where special Ebola screenings have been set up: New York’s John F. Kennedy, Newark Liberty, Washington Dulles, Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson and Chicago’s O’Hare.
“All passengers arriving in the United States whose travel originates in Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea will be required to fly into one of the five airports that have the enhanced screening and additional resources in place. We are working closely with the airlines to implement these restrictions with minimal travel disruption. If not already handled by the airlines, the few impacted travelers should contact the airlines for rebooking, as needed,” said the statement.
He said that passengers flying into those airports on flights originating in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea “are subject to secondary screening and added protocols, including having their temperature taken, before they can be admitted into the United States. These airports account for about 94 percent of travelers flying to the United States from these countries.”
There are no direct, non-stop commercial flights from Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea to the U.S.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/reversal-obama-sets-ebola-travel-restrictions/article/2555074
Gov. Perry Announces North Texas Ebola Treatment and Infectious Disease Bio Containment Facility
In addition to the North Texas facility, The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston has also been designated an Ebola treatment and infectious disease bio containment facility.
“In the event of another diagnosis this facility will allow us to act quickly to limit the virus’ reach and give patients the care they need in an environment where health care workers are specially trained and equipped to deal with the unique requirements of this disease,” said Gov. Perry. “We are fortunate to have such talented and dedicated leaders here in North Texas, and at UTMB Galveston, who are willing to step forward during a time of need.”
Three of the region’s leading health care providers, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Methodist Health System and Parkland Hospital System, will partner to set up and operate the North Texas facility. The facility and equipment are being provided by partner hospitals, and staffing will be moved to the facility on an as-needed basis if the unit is activated.
UT Southwestern Medical Center is contributing the expertise of physicians experienced in infectious disease, critical care and other specialties, and some nursing professionals as staffing requires.
Methodist Health System is allowing the use of an entire floor of the Methodist Campus for Continuing Care in Richardson, including an ICU wing well suited for the care of infectious disease patients. They will provide some modifications for the critical steps of decontamination, laboratory equipment and other dedicated personnel for IT and biomedical support. Ebola and/or other infectious disease patients can be safely isolated
Parkland Hospital has already begun transferring critical equipment such as personal protective equipment, IV fluids and laboratory supplies to the Methodist facility. In addition, Parkland will provide nurses, pharmacists, respiratory therapists and lab technicians.
“UT Southwestern is proud that its expert faculty physicians and nurses are ready to lead in providing the very best care possible while safeguarding the safety of staff and the public. UTSW is also committed to advancing the other important longer term goals identified by the Governor’s Task Force,” said Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky, President, UT Southwestern Medical Center Building on the foundations that have made it an academic medical center that is respected worldwide, UTSW is committed to the education and training of caregivers broadly and to promote research which will improve disease treatment and prevention. There is no mission greater than serving the public good.”
“Methodist Health System answered the call because it is the right thing to do,” said Stephen L. Mansfield, PhD, FACHE, president and CEO, Methodist Health System. “Like all North Texans, we wish we weren’t in this situation. But the reality is there remains a threat, and as long as it’s there, Methodist is obligated by our mission — to improve and save lives through compassionate, quality health care — to do all we can to help.”
“Parkland is proud to be a part of this team effort to protect Texans from infectious disease. Our health system has a long history of emergency preparedness and clinical innovation so we are a great fit for this strike force,” said Frederick P. Cerise, MD, MPH, president and CEO, Parkland Health System. “Every Parkland employee comes to work knowing we may face the most difficult of situations and I am confident that we possess the skills and expertise to deal with them. Parkland also appreciates the leadership of Governor Perry as well as state and local officials in putting this team together.”
“UTMB is prepared to help fight Ebola and other infectious diseases,” said Dr. David L. Callender, UTMB president. “I have every confidence in our abilities to provide the highest level of care and we are proud that the governor has placed this trust in us as well as UT Southwestern, Methodist and Parkland.”
http://www.methodisthealthsystem.org/body.cfm?id=93&action=detail&ref=1061
NIH unit treating Dallas nurse for Ebola is one of 4 special isolation facilities in U.S.
By Lena H. Sun
It has a specially designed air-flow system to prevent contaminated air from leaving the patient room. It requires anyone who enters to be buzzed in. Personnel who work there receive special training in infection control to prevent the spread of bioterror agents, natural or man-made. It also has a tiny gym.
Welcome to the Special Clinical Studies Unit at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. It is a 4,000-square-foot unit inside the NIH Clinical Center, the nation’s only hospital dedicated to research, which provides free state-of-the-art care to very sick patients from all over the world.
Now it’s home to its first confirmed Ebola patient, Nina Pham.
Pham is the first patient with a confirmed infectious disease to be cared for in the special seven-bed unit, center director John Gallin said in an interview Friday. Opened in 2010 for patients who need advanced isolation and extended stays, the unit was initially designed to take care of personnel working at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in case they were exposed to infectious agents. In more recent years, it has been used to house healthy volunteers participating in live vaccine trials. The volunteers need to be monitored in a place where they can be safely quarantined, Gallin said. To accommodate those healthy volunteers, the unit has a dining room and a “tiny fitness area,” he said.
Pham, the first nurse diagnosed with Ebola after caring for a patient in Dallas, is in fair and stable condition, officials said Friday morning.
What does an Ebola isolation ward look like?
“We are giving her the best possible care on a symptomatic and systemic basis,” Anthony Fauci, director of NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during a news conference.
Pham, 26, was transferred to the facility, one of four in the country with a special biocontainment unit, late Thursday. She was diagnosed with Ebola on Sunday, becoming the first person to contract the disease on U.S. soil. Pham had been part of the team that treated Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian man who flew to Dallas last month before being diagnosed with Ebola. Duncan died last week, four days before it was announced that Pham had contracted the disease.
“There is no specific therapy that has been proven to be effective against Ebola, and that’s why excellent medical care is critical,” Fauci said. He said Pham was “very, very tired” from her trip.
Patients infected with the Ebola virus require a large number of staffers to provide care around-the-clock. At NIH, that comes out to about 27 people a week — doctors, nurses, support staff — for one patient, Gallin said. With about 50 to 60 such personnel specially trained for infectious disease and critical care, NIH can only care for two Ebola patients at a time, he said.
The four facilities that provide such care were designed in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to protect against bioterrorism. Two of them, Emory University Hospital in Atlanta and the Nebraska Medical Center, are each treating one Ebola patient. The other facility is St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula, Mont.
They require staff to undergo more rigorous training in infection control, and staff must follow strict protocol for putting on and taking off personal protective equipment in a separate anteroom. Officials say meticulous attention to detail in following protocols is what sets them apart from other facilities.
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Emory has treated three Ebola patients, all of whom have recovered. The University of Nebraska treated one patient who recovered and is now caring for a freelance NBC cameraman. St. Patrick has not yet treated an Ebola patient. The hospital has received so many inquiries that it has set up a special hotline where they are transcribed and forwarded to the appropriate departments.
Bruce Ribner gives a tour of the Emory University Hospital isolation unit which has been used for treatment of patients infected with the Ebola virus. (Emory University via YouTube)
Unlike the Dallas hospital where Pham and another nurse were infected, which officials said most likely occurred because of a breach of protocol involving personal protective equipment, no health workers taking care of the Ebola patients at the special facilities have become infected.
“There is a step-by-step, checklisted procedure to putting on your personal protective equipment for when you go in to the patient’s room to perform your duties and when you come out,” said Mark Rupp, medical director of Nebraska Medical Center’s infection control department, which includes the special unit. “That’s the big difference with what goes on in our unit and what goes on in a regular intensive-care unit.”
The facilities have one person whose only job is to make sure health-care workers put on and take off their protective equipment correctly. At NIH, this person is dubbed “the Watson,” Gallin said, for the sidekick to Sherlock Holmes.
The Watson “has the authority to stop everything at any moment if someone looks like they’re breaking protocol,” Gallin said. The Watson has a checklist, like a pilot’s preflight checklist, and everything has to be done in that order. If not, the Watson can “scream at them and tell them to stop,” Gallin said, which apparently happened at least once Thursday night when doctors and staff were admitting Pham.
The protective gear that health-care workers take off is autoclaved (sanitized via pressurized steam) and then incinerated. Equipment that is not disposable is disinfected according to the manufacturer’s directions. The units also have negative air pressure to prevent germs from spreading beyond patient rooms. For Ebola patients, contaminated air is not such a concern because the disease is not transmitted through the air, but through contact with bodily fluids.
The seven-bed, 4,000-square-foot biocontainment unit at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda, Md., is a state-of-the-art facility built to keep the world’s scariest pathogens from escaping. The four U.S. facilities are all different — NIH’s even has a gym — but they contain many of the same things. This layout is based on the unit at Emory University in Atlanta.
http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/national/what-does-an-ebola-isolation-ward-look-like/1389/
The Pronk Pops Show 351, October 17, 2014, Story 1: Obama Recklessly Endangers The Health of The American People By Allowing West Africans From Ebola Infected Countries To Fly Into United States — Open Borders To Illegal Aliens Fleeing Ebola Pandemic — Obama Panics And Appoints New Ebola Czar — Another Political Elitist Establishment (PEE) Washington Insider With No Executive Leadership or Medical Experience — Videos
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Story 1: Obama Recklessly Endangers The Health of The American People By Allowing West Africans From Ebola Infected Countries To Fly Into United States — Open Borders To Illegal Aliens Fleeing Ebola Pandemic — Obama Panics And Appoints New Ebola Czar — Another Political Elitist Establishment (PEE) Washington Insider With No Executive Leadership or Medical Experience — Videos
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Fast Facts on US Hospitals
The American Hospital Association conducts an annual survey of hospitals in the United States. The data below, from the 2012 AHA Annual Survey, are a sample of what you will find in AHA Hospital Statistics, 2014 edition. The definitive source for aggregate hospital data and trend analysis, AHA Hospital Statistics includes current and historical data on utilization, personnel, revenue, expenses, managed care contracts, community health indicators, physician models, and much more.
AHA Hospital Statistics is published annually by Health Forum, an affiliate of the American Hospital Association. Additional details on AHA Hospital Statistics and other Health Forum data products are available at www.ahadataviewer.com. To order AHA Hospital Statistics, call (800) AHA-2626 or click on www.ahaonlinestore.com.
For further information or customized data and research, contact the AHA Resource Center at (312) 422-2050 or rc@aha.org.
Total Number of All U.S. Registered * Hospitals
Number of U.S. Community ** Hospitals
Number of Nongovernment Not-for-Profit Community Hospitals
Number of Investor-Owned (For-Profit) Community Hospitals
Number of State and Local Government Community Hospitals
Number of Federal Government Hospitals
Number of Nonfederal Psychiatric Hospitals
Number of Nonfederal Long Term Care Hospitals
Number of Hospital Units of Institutions
(Prison Hospitals, College Infirmaries, Etc.)
Total Staffed Beds in All U.S. Registered * Hospitals
Staffed Beds in Community** Hospitals
Total Admissions in All U.S. Registered * Hospitals
Admissions in Community** Hospitals
Total Expenses for All U.S. Registered * Hospitals
Expenses for Community** Hospitals
Number of Rural Community** Hospitals
Number of Urban Community** Hospitals
Number of Community Hospitals in a System ***
Number of Community Hospitals in a Network ****
*Registered hospitals are those hospitals that meet AHA’s criteria for registration as a hospital facility. Registered hospitals include AHA member hospitals as well as nonmember hospitals. For a complete listing of the criteria used for registration, please see Registration Requirements for Hospitals.
**Community hospitals are defined as all nonfederal, short-term general, and other special hospitals. Other special hospitals include obstetrics and gynecology; eye, ear, nose, and throat; rehabilitation; orthopedic; and other individually described specialty services. Community hospitals include academic medical centers or other teaching hospitals if they are nonfederal short-term hospitals. Excluded are hospitals not accessible by the general public, such as prison hospitals or college infirmaries.
***System is defined by AHA as either a multihospital or a diversified single hospital system. A multihospital system is two or more hospitals owned, leased, sponsored, or contract managed by a central organization. Single, freestanding hospitals may be categorized as a system by bringing into membership three or more, and at least 25 percent, of their owned or leased non-hospital preacute or postacute health care organizations. System affiliation does not preclude network participation.
**** Network is a group of hospitals, physicians, other providers, insurers and/or community agencies that work together to coordinate and deliver a broad spectrum of services to their community. Network participation does not preclude system affiliation.
http://www.aha.org/research/rc/stat-studies/fast-facts.shtml
Inside The Isolation Wards That Keep Americans Safe From Ebola
Ebola has officially made it to the US, but there is absolutely no reason to freak out. That’s in large part thanks to Emory University Hospital’s state-of-the-art isolation ward, which is better-equipped to field Ebola cases than any ordinary hospital in the country. Here’s a look at the tech that keeps doctors and nurses safe.
Emory is one of four high-level biocontainment patient care units in the US; the others are located at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland, Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Montana, and the University of Nebraska Medical Center. We spoke with Dr. Angela Hewlett, associate medical director at the Nebraska Biocontainment Patient Care Unit — the largest of the four facilities — about biocontainment suits, wearing three pairs of gloves, and custom air pressure systems.
Perhaps the most comfort Hewlett was able to provide is that none of the super-fancy tech that these four high-level isolation wards have at their disposal is even necessary for Ebola. “There’s a big fear factor with this illness but really, these types of patients can taken care of at any good healthcare facility,” says Dr. Hewlett.
That’s because the Ebola virus easily dies outside of the human body, so unless you’ve been handling a sick person’s blood or feces, you are almost certainly A-OK. Ebola is pretty darn hard to get compared to an airborne disease like SARS or even the regular old flu. But with a mortality rate of up to 90 per cent — and over 50 per cent with the strain in the current outbreak — we still need to keep doctors and nurses as safe as we can. Here’s how Nebraska Biocontainment Unit keeps diseases like Ebola — and much, much worse — from spreading in the hospital.
Negative air pressure. As with Emory in Atlanta, the isolation unit in Nebraska is isolated from the rest of the general hospital. It runs on its own air circulation system, and the air is passed through a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter before it is vented outside of the building. That’s the same kind of precautions that you would see in a biosafety level 4 lab (the highest) that works with deadly or highly contagious diseases.
In addition, the biocontainment unit has negative air pressure, which means that air pressure inside the isolation rooms is slightly lower than that outside. Essentially, air is gently sucked into the room, so particles from inside the room can’t float out when you open a door. As another line of protection, ultraviolet lights zap any viruses or bacteria in the air or on surfaces.
Full-body suits and THREE pairs of gloves. The Biocontainment Unit is equipped with gear that covers you head to toe, in some places three times over. That includes personal respirators, headgear, full-body suits and gloves. Healthcare workers wear three pairs, including one thick pair that protects against needle accidents, and then two pairs of ordinary gloves so they have an extra pair to work with patients.
Entering and exiting the room becomes an elaborate production because putting on and taking off all the gear can take more than 10 minutes each way. A second person assists to make sure every piece of equipment is put on right and there are no rips or tears in any of the protective gear. Afterwards, every piece of equipment is wiped down to kill the pathogen; in the case of Ebola, simple bleach is enough to do the trick. The full-body suit is discarded after each use.
Training and training and training. Having fancy technology is great but not if you don’t know how to use it properly. “They have to go through really extensive training,” says Hewlett of the the 30-person team that works in the unit. They get 80 hours of training before they can begin, followed by monthly meetings and quarterly drills, where the photos in this post were taken.
It’s worth reiterating that most of this equipment and these procedures go above and beyond protecting for Ebola. The air systems and full-body suits are really there to guard against possible airborne diseases, like smallpox or SARS or some highly contagious avian flu viruses that may emerge in the future.
In fact, the CDC’s current guidelines for treating Ebola in U.S. hospitals require only gloves, goggles, a facemask, and a gown in most situations. Even if someone inadvertently brings Ebola to other hospitals, it’s highly unlikely to spread in the U.S. The situation is different in Africa, where inadequate equipment and fear of healthcare workers has contributed to the worsening situation.
A State Department official did visit Nebraska to see whether the unit would be ready to accept any Ebola patients in the future, though the facility hasn’t yet been used despite being open for nine years. There hasn’t been a disease serious enough to merit it. “This is good thing,” says Dr. Hewlett, “However with world travel the way it is, it is inevitable these things are going to come eventually.” If and when Ebola does come to the U.S. again, we are definitely prepared, which is not something we can say about what else may be coming down the line.
Pictures: University of Nebraska Medical Center
Obama names Ron Klain as Ebola ‘czar’
President Obama tapped veteran government insider Ron Klain to coordinate his administration’s efforts to contain the Ebola virus Friday.
Klain, a former chief of staff to Vice Presidents Joe Biden and Al Gore, is well-known by Obama and White House aides. He was selected for his management experience and contacts throughout the government, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.
“He is the right person for the job,” Earnest said, particularly the challenge of “integrating the interagency response.”
Klain’s appointment marks a swift turnabout for Obama, who until Thursday had resisted calls to appoint a single official to run the government’s response to Ebola.
Asked Thursday about the prospect of an “Ebola czar,” Obama said, “It may make sense for us to have one person, in part just so that after this initial surge of activity, we can have a more regular process just to make sure that we’re crossing all the t’s and dotting all the i’s going forward.”
From recounts to stimulus to Ebola: Ron Klain’s resume
Obama did not mention Klain’s appointment during a speech Friday to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, but he said his administration is taking an “all-hands-on-deck” approach to fighting Ebola.
The administration has come under increased pressure to name an anti-Ebola coordinator in the wake of news that two nurses in Dallas contracted the deadly virus. Both had treated a man who died of Ebola.
Klain played a high-profile file in Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign. Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey portrayed him in an HBO movie on that year’s Florida recount.
The Ebola response includes efforts to screen travelers from West African nations where Ebola has reached epidemic proportions and killed more than 4,500 people. Klain will help coordinate the assistance the U.S. military provides in West Africa.
Some Republican lawmakers criticized Obama for entrusting the job to a former government manager rather than a professional.
Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., tweeted, “Worst ebola epidemic in world history and Pres. Obama puts a government bureaucrat with no healthcare experience in charge. Is he serious?”
Members of the public health community expressed surprise.
“When are they going to stop making mistakes?” said Robert Murphy, the director of the Center for Global Health at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. “We need a czar, but optimally a strong public health expert. I am so disappointed. This is not what we need.”
Physician Amesh Adalja, a spokesman for the Infectious Diseases Society of America, said, “It’s clear that there’s a desperate desire for an organized approach to dealing with this outbreak. I don’t necessarily think we need a disease-specific czar — we have one for HIV — but more of an emerging infectious diseases/biosecurity coordinator who reports to the president.”
The Ebola position is designed to be more managerial in nature, involving an array of government agencies ranging from the Pentagon to Health and Human Services.
“This is much broader than a medical response,” Earnest said.
As for Republican criticism, Earnest joked, “That’s a shocking development.” He noted that national elections are less than three weeks away.
Klain may weigh in on another question facing the administration: the prospect of a U.S. travel ban from West African nations where there have been Ebola outbreaks.
Obama and aides have disputed the need for a travel ban, questioning whether it would work and arguing that it might create unintended problems.
Thursday, Obama said experts in infectious diseases have told him “a travel ban is less effective than the measures that we are currently instituting that involve screening passengers who are coming from West Africa.”
Klain is likely to take a low key role publicly.
Earnest said Obama wasn’t looking for an Ebola expert but “an implementation expert.”
He confirmed Klain’s title: “Ebola response coordinator.”
Klain will report to two officials involved in the anti-Ebola effort: homeland security adviser Lisa Monaco and national security adviser Susan Rice.
Obama is pleased with the work of Monaco and Rice, but “given their management of other national and homeland security priorities, additional bandwidth will further enhance the government’s Ebola response,” a White House official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The president has long known Klain, who helped prepare him for debates with Mitt Romney during the 2012 presidential campaign.
Klain has been out of government since leaving Biden’s staff during Obama’s first term.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/10/17/obama-ebola-czar-ron-klain/17429121/
Who Do They Think We Are?
By PEGGY NOONAN
The administration’s Ebola evasions reveal its disdain for the American people.
The administration’s handling of the Ebola crisis continues to be marked by double talk, runaround and gobbledygook. And its logic is worse than its language. In many of its actions, especially its public pronouncements, the government is functioning not as a soother of public anxiety but the cause of it.
An example this week came in the dialogue between Megyn Kelly of Fox News andThomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control.
Their conversation focused largely on the government’s refusal to stop travel into the United States by citizens of plague nations. “Why not put a travel ban in place,” Ms. Kelly asked, while we shore up the U.S. public-health system?
Dr. Frieden replied that we now have screening at airports, and “we’ve already recommended that all nonessential travel to these countries be stopped for Americans.” He added: “We’re always looking at ways that we can better protect Americans.”
“But this is one,” Ms. Kelly responded.
Dr. Frieden implied a travel ban would be harmful: “If we do things that are going to make it harder to stop the epidemic there, it’s going to spread to other parts of—”
Ms. Kelly interjected, asking how keeping citizens from the affected regions out of America would make it harder to stop Ebola in Africa.
“Because you can’t get people in and out.”
“Why can’t we have charter flights?”
“You know, charter flights don’t do the same thing commercial airliners do.”
“What do you mean? They fly in and fly out.”
Dr. Frieden replied that limiting travel between African nations would slow relief efforts. “If we isolate these countries, what’s not going to happen is disease staying there. It’s going to spread more all over Africa and we’ll be at higher risk.”
Later in the interview, Ms. Kelly noted that we still have airplanes coming into the U.S. from Liberia, with passengers expected to self-report Ebola exposure.
Dr. Frieden responded: “Ultimately the only way—and you may not like this—but the only way we will get our risk to zero here is to stop the outbreak in Africa.”
Ms. Kelly said yes, that’s why we’re sending troops. But why can’t we do that and have a travel ban?
“If it spreads more in Africa, it’s going to be more of a risk to us here. Our only goal is protecting Americans—that’s our mission. We do that by protecting people here and by stopping threats abroad. That protects Americans.”
Dr. Frieden’s logic was a bit of a heart-stopper. In fact his responses were more non sequiturs than answers. We cannot ban people at high risk of Ebola from entering the U.S. because people in West Africa have Ebola, and we don’t want it to spread. Huh?
In testimony before Congress Thursday, Dr. Frieden was not much more straightforward. His answers often sound like filibusters: long, rolling paragraphs of benign assertion, advertising slogans—“We know how to stop Ebola,” “Our focus is protecting people”—occasionally extraneous data, and testimony to the excellence of our health-care professionals.
It is my impression that everyone who speaks for the government on this issue has been instructed to imagine his audience as anxious children. It feels like how the pediatrician talks to the child, not the parents. It’s as if they’ve been told: “Talk, talk, talk, but don’t say anything. Clarity is the enemy.”
The language of government now is word-spew.
Dr. Frieden did not explain his or the government’s thinking on the reasons for opposition to a travel ban. On the other hand, he noted that the government will consider all options in stopping the virus from spreading here, so perhaps that marks the beginning of a possible concession.
It is one thing that Dr. Frieden, and those who are presumably making the big decisions, have been so far incapable of making a believable and compelling case for not instituting a ban. A separate issue is how poor a decision it is. To call it childish would be unfair to children. In fact, if you had a group of 11-year-olds, they would surely have a superior answer to the question: “Sick people are coming through the door of the house, and we are not sure how to make them well. Meanwhile they are starting to make us sick, too. What is the first thing to do?”
The children would reply: “Close the door.” One would add: “Just for a while, while you figure out how to treat everyone getting sick.” Another might say: “And keep going outside the door in protective clothing with medical help.” Eleven-year-olds would get this one right without a lot of struggle.
If we don’t momentarily close the door to citizens of the affected nations, it is certain that more cases will come into the U.S. It is hard to see how that helps anyone. Closing the door would be no guarantee of safety—nothing is guaranteed, and the world is porous. But it would reduce risk and likelihood, which itself is worthwhile.
Africa, by the way, seems to understand this. The Associated Press on Thursday reported the continent’s health-care officials had limited the threat to only five countries with the help of border controls, travel restrictions, and aggressive and sophisticated tracking.
All of which returns me to my thoughts the past few weeks. Back then I’d hear the official wordage that doesn’t amount to a logical thought, and the unspoken air of “We don’t want to panic you savages,” and I’d look at various public officials and muse: “Who do you think you are?”
Now I think, “Who do they think we are?”
Does the government think if America is made to feel safer, she will forget the needs of the Ebola nations? But Americans, more than anyone else, are the volunteers, altruists and in a few cases saints who go to the Ebola nations to help. And they were doing it long before the Western media was talking about the disease, and long before America was experiencing it.
At the Ebola hearings Thursday, Rep. Henry Waxman (D., Calif.) said, I guess to the American people: “Don’t panic.” No one’s panicking—except perhaps the administration, which might explain its decisions.
Is it always the most frightened people who run around telling others to calm down?
This week the president canceled a fundraiser and returned to the White House to deal with the crisis. He made a statement and came across as about three days behind the story—“rapid response teams” and so forth. It reminded some people of the statement in July, during another crisis, of the president’s communications director, who said that when a president rushes back to Washington, it “can have the unintended consequence of unduly alarming the American people.” Yes, we’re such sissies. Actually, when Mr. Obama eschews a fundraiser to go to his office to deal with a public problem we are not scared, only surprised.
But again, who do they think we are? You gather they see us as poor, panic-stricken people who want a travel ban because we’re beside ourselves with fear and loathing. Instead of practical, realistic people who are way ahead of our government.
http://online.wsj.com/articles/who-do-they-think-we-are-1413502475
Ron Klain
Not to be confused with Ron Klein.
Chief of Staff to the Vice President of the United States
January 20, 2009 – January 14, 2011
David Addington
Bruce Reed
Charles Burson
Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.
Ronald A. “Ron” Klain is an American lawyer and political operative best known for serving as Chief of Staff to two Vice Presidents – Al Gore (1995–1999) and Joseph Biden (2009–2011).[1][2] He is an influential Democratic Party insider. Earlier in his career, he was a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Byron “Whizzer” White during the Court’s 1987 and 1988 Terms and worked on Capitol Hill, where he was Chief Counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee during theClarence Thomas Supreme Court nomination. He was portrayed by Kevin Spacey in the HBO film Recount depicting the tumult of the 2000 presidential election. On October 17, 2014, President Obama named Klain the newly created “Ebola response coordinator” (or, less officially, Ebola “czar”).[3][4][5]
Klain was born on August 8, 1961 in Indianapolis, He is a member of the DayBreak Boys Band and grew up in a Jewish home.[6] He graduated from North Central High School[7] in 1979 and was on the school’s Brain Game team, which finished as season runner-up.[citation needed] He graduated summa cum laude from Georgetown University in 1983. In 1987, he graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School,[7] where he was one of several to win the Sears Prize for the highest grade point average in 1984–85. While at Harvard Law School, Klain was also an editor of the Harvard Law Review.
Capitol Hill career
Klain’s early experience on Capitol Hill included serving as Legislative Director for U.S. Representative Ed Markey. From 1989 to 1992, he served as Chief Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, overseeing the legal staff’s work on matters of constitutional law, criminal law, antitrust law, and Supreme Court nominations. In 1995, Senator Tom Daschle appointed him the Staff Director of the Senate Democratic Leadership Committee.
Clinton administration
Klain joined the Clinton-Gore campaign in 1992. He ultimately was involved in both of Bill Clinton‘s campaigns, oversaw Clinton’s judicial nominations, and was General Counsel to Al Gore’s recount committee in the 2000 election aftermath. Some published reports have given him credit for Clinton’s “100,000 cops” proposal during the 1992 campaign; at a minimum, he worked closely with Clinton aide Bruce Reed in formulating it. In the White House, he was Associate Counsel to the President, directing judicial selection efforts, and led the team that won confirmation of Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Klain left the judicial selection role in 1994 to become Chief of Staff and Counselor to Attorney General Janet Reno. In 1995, he became Assistant to the President, and Chief of Staff and Counselor to Al Gore.
Gore campaign
During Klain’s tenure as Gore’s Chief of Staff, Gore consolidated his position as the likely Democratic nominee in 2000. Still, Klain was seen as too loyal to Clinton by some longtime Gore advisors. Feuding broke out between Clinton and Gore loyalists in the White House in 1999, and Klain was ousted by Gore campaign chairmanTony Coelho in August of that year. In October 1999, he joined the Washington, D.C. office of the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers. A year later, Klain returned to the Gore campaign, once Coelho was replaced by William M. Daley. Daley hired Klain for a senior position in the Gore campaign and then named him General Counsel of Gore’s Recount Committee.
In 1994, Time named Klain one of the “50 most promising leaders in America” under the age of 40. In 1999, Washingtonian magazine named him the top lawyer in Washington under the age of 40, and the American Bar Association’s Barrister magazine named him one of the top 20 young lawyers nationwide. The National Law Journal named him one of its Lawyers of the Year for 2000.
Klain helped Fannie Mae overcome “regulatory issues”.[8]Lobbying on “regulatory issues concerning Fannie Mae” in 2004, as disclosure forms indicate Klain did, involved convincing Congress and Fannie Mae’s regulators that Fannie Mae wasn’t doing anything dangerous, and wasn’t exposing taxpayers to risk. In other words, Ron Klain got paid to help fuel the housing bubble up until a couple of years before it popped.
During the 2004 Presidential campaign, Klain worked as an adviser to Wesley Clark in the early primaries. Later, during the General Election, Klain was heavily involved behind the scenes in John Kerry‘s campaign and is widely credited for his role in preparing Senator Kerry for a strong performance in the debates against President George W. Bush, which gave Kerry a significant boost in the polls.[9] He then acted as an informal adviser to Evan Bayh, who is from Klain’s home state of Indiana. Klain has also commented on matters of law and policy on televised programs such as the Today Show, Good Morning America, Nightline, Capital Report,NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, and Crossfire.
In 2005, Klain left his partnership at O’Melveny & Myers to serve as Executive Vice President and General Counsel of a new investment firm, Revolution LLC, launched by AOL co-founder Steve Case.[citation needed]
On November 12, 2008, Roll Call announced that Klain had been chosen to serve as Chief of Staff to Vice President Joe Biden, the same role he served for Gore.[10]Klain had worked with Biden previously, having served as counsel to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary while Biden chaired that committee and assisted Biden’s speechwriting team during the 1988 presidential campaign.[11]
Klain was mentioned as a possible replacement for White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel,[12] but opted to leave the White House for a position in the private sector in January 2011.[2]
Klain apparently signed off on President Obama’s support of a $535 million loan guarantee for now-defunct solar-panel company Solyndra. Despite concerns about whether the company was viable, Klain approved an Obama visit, stating, “The reality is that if POTUS visited 10 such places over the next 10 months, probably a few will be belly-up by election day 2012.”[13]
On October 17, 2014, Klain was appointed the “Ebola response coordinator” (or, less officially, Ebola “czar”)[3] by President Obama, to help coordinate the nation’s response to the Ebola virus.[4][5][14]
Dr. Lurie is the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) at the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
The mission of her office is to lead the nation in preventing, responding to and recovering from the adverse health effects of public health emergencies and disasters, ranging from hurricanes to bioterrorism.
Dr. Lurie was previously Senior Natural Scientist and the Paul O’ Neill Alcoa Professor of Health Policy at the RAND Corporation. There she directed RAND’s public health and preparedness work as well as RAND’s Center for Population Health and Health Disparities. She also served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Health in the US Department of Health and Human Services; in state government, as Medical Advisor to the Commissioner at the Minnesota Department of Health; and in academia, as Professor in the University of Minnesota Schools of Medicine and Public Health. Dr. Lurie has a long history in the health services research field, primarily in the areas of access to and quality of care, mental health, prevention, public health infrastructure and preparedness and health disparities.
Dr. Lurie attended college and medical school at the University of Pennsylvania, and completed her residency and MSPH at UCLA, where she was also a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar. She is the recipient of numerous awards, and is a member of the Institute of Medicine.
Finally, Dr. Lurie continues to practice clinical medicine in the health care safety net in Washington, DC. She has three sons.
Nicole Lurie
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Nicole Lurie, M.D., M.S.P.H.
Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response
University of Pennsylvania: M.D.
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA): Residency and M.S.P.H.
Nicole Lurie, M.D., M.S.P.H., is the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).[1] Lurie is a Rear Admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service.
The Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response serves as the Secretary’s principal advisor on matters related to bioterrorism and other public health emergencies. The ASPR also coordinates interagency activities between HHS, other Federal departments, agencies, and offices, and State and local officials responsible for emergency preparedness and the protection of the civilian population from acts of bioterrorism and other public health emergencies.[2] The mission of her office is to lead the nation in preventing, responding to and recovering from the adverse health effects of public health emergencies and disasters. Dr. Lurie was nominated to the position by President Obama on May 12, 2009[3] and her confirmation by the U.S. Senate[4] was announced by HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on July 10, 2009.[5]
Led by The Federalist website her absence from the media has been noted with regards to the events of the Ebola virus disease affair.[6]
Dr. Lurie has served as the Senior Natural Scientist and the Paul O’ Neill Alcoa Professor of Health Policy at the RAND Corporation.[7] There she directed RAND’s public health and preparedness work as well as RAND’s Center for Population Health and Health Disparities. She has previously served in federal government, as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Health in the US Department of Health and Human Services; in state government, as Medical Advisor to the Commissioner at the Minnesota Department of Health; and in academia, as Professor in the University of Minnesota School of Medicine and the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. Dr. Lurie has a long history in the health services research field, primarily in the areas of access to and quality of care, managed care, mental health, prevention, public health infrastructure and preparedness and health disparities.
Lurie has served as the Senior Editor for Health Services Research and has served on editorial boards and as a reviewer for numerous journals. She has served on the council and was President of the Society of General Internal Medicine,[8] and on the board of directors for Academy Health, and has served on multiple other national committees.
Lurie attended college and medical school at the University of Pennsylvania, and completed her residency and Master of Science of Public Health (MSPH) at UCLA, where she was also a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar.
Professional awards
Lurie is the recipient of numerous awards, including the AHSR Young Investigator Award, the Nellie Westerman Prize for Research in Ethics, the Heroine in Health Care Award, the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine’s Distinguished Alumni Award, and is a member of the Institute of Medicine.
Jump up^ Biography of Dr. Lurie
Jump up^ Emergency Support Function #8. Public Health and Medical Services Annex. Federal Emergency Management Agency
Jump up^ President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts
Jump up^ Nominations Confirmed (Civilian) – United States Senate
Jump up^ HHS Secretary Sebelius Announces Senate Confirmation of Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Dr. Nicole Lurie
Jump up^ http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2014/10/15/editor-from-the-federalist-as-ebola-outbreak-surges-on-where-is-the-secretary-for-preparedness-and-response/
Jump up^ RAND Awards Paul O’ Neill Alcoa Chair to Dr. Nicole Lurie. RAND Corporation. January 3, 2002
Jump up^ Past Presidents. Society of General Internal Medicine.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nicole Lurie.
Interview with Dr. Lurie
Haiti: Overview by Dr. Lurie
H1N1 Influenza, Public Health Preparedness, and Health Care Reform
Health Care Volunteers and Disaster Response – First, Be Prepared
Biography of Dr. Nicole Lurie. UPMC Center for Biosecurity.
Dr. Nicole Luri Testifies on Children and Disasters before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Disaster Recovery. December 10, 2009
Dr. Nicole Lurie Testifies on Safeguarding our Nation: HHS Response to the H1N1 Outbreak before Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations and Subcommittee on Health, U.S. House of Representatives. November, 2009.
Nicole Lurie Testifies on Safeguarding our Nation: HHS Response to the H1N1 Outbreak before Committee on Homeland Security, Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, CyberSecurity, and Science Technology, United States House of Representatives. October, 2009.
Dr. Lurie Testifies on Focusing on Children in Disasters: Evacuation Planning and Mental Health Recovery before Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Disaster Recovery. August 4, 2009
HHS Secretary Sebelius Announces Senate Confirmation of Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response. AllBusiness. July 10, 2009
Testimony by Dr. Nicole Lurie presented before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Subcommittee on Bioterrorism and Public Health Preparedness on March 28, 2006.
Dr. Nicole Lurie testifies on Public Health Preparedness in California before the California Senate Committee on Health and Human Services on June 2, 2004.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicole_Lurie
The Pronk Pops Show 350, October 16, 2014, Story 1: Obama Claims Ebola Virus Not Airborne — Why are The Two Confirmed Cases of Ebola in Dallas Being Sent To a Bio-Safety Level 4 Hospital Bed in A Biocontainment Center — Dr. Nicole Lurie, “The Ebola Czar” Missing In Action — CDC Director Opposes Travel Ban On West African — Videos
Posted on October 16, 2014. Filed under: American History, Biology, Blogroll, Business, Center for Disease Control, Chemistry, College, Communications, Computers, Constitutional Law, Disasters, Diseases, Ebola, Ebola, Ebola, Economics, Education, Employment, Federal Government, Food, Government, Government Dependency, Health Care, History, Impeachment, Language, Law, Media, Medical, Medicine, National Security Agency, Philosophy, Photos, Politics, Radio, Resources, Scandals, Science, Security, Social Science, Technology, Terror, Transportation, Unemployment, Videos, Violence, War, Wealth, Weapons of Mass Destruction, Wisdom | Tags: 16 October 2014, Airborne Ebola Virus, America, Articles, Audio, Biosafety Level 4 Hospital Beds in USA, Breaking News, Broadcasting, Capitalism, Charity, Citizenship, Clarity, Classical Liberalism, Collectivism, Commentary, Commitment, Communicate, Communication, Concise, Convincing, Courage, Culture, Current Affairs, Current Events, Director for The Center for Disease Control, Dr. Nicole Lurie, Dr. Thomas Frieden, Ebola, Economic Growth, Economic Policy, Economics, Education, Evil, Experience, Faith, Family, First, Fiscal Policy, Free Enterprise, Freedom, Freedom of Speech, Friends, Give It A Listen!, God, Good, Goodwill, Growth, HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness & Response, Hope, Individualism, Knowledge, Liberty, Life, Love, Lovers of Liberty, Monetary Policy, MPEG3, News, Nurses, Opinions, Peace, Photos, Podcasts, Political Philosophy, Politics, President Obama, Prosperity, Radio, Raymond Thomas Pronk, Representative Republic, Republic, Resources, Respect, Rule of Law, Rule of Men, Show Notes, Talk Radio, The Pronk Pops Show, The Pronk Pops Show 350, Travel, Truth, Tyranny, U.S. Constitution, United States of America, Videos, Virtue, Visas, War, Wisdom |
Story 1: Obama Claims Ebola Virus Not Airborne — Why are The Two Confirmed Cases of Ebola in Dallas Being Sent To a Bio-Safety Level 4 Hospital Bed in A Biocontainment Center — Dr. Nicole Lurie, “The Ebola Czar” Missing In Action — CDC Director Opposes Travel Ban On West African — Videos
The United States Centers for Disease Control commissioned The Nebraska Medical Center biocontainment unit in 2005. It was designed to provide the first line of treatment for people affected by bio terrorism or extremely infectious naturally occurring diseases. It’s the only non-governmental facility of its kind in the U.S.
Ebola Update – The Nebraska Medical Center
Dr. Phil Smith and Dr. Mark Rupp discuss the improving condition of the patient being treated for the Ebola virus at The Nebraska Medical Center. They also answer questions about what may have happened to the health care worker in Dallas who now appears to have Ebola. This video is from a live Ustream broadcast October 12, 2014.
Dr. Sacra’s Tunnel Walk – The Nebraska Medical Center
Dr. Rick Sacra gets an official Nebraska sendoff from staff members who cared for him at The Nebraska Medical Center. Dr. Sacra spent three weeks in the hospital’s Biocontainment Unit being treated for the Ebola virus. He was the third American health care worker to be treated for the virus after contracting it treating patients in West Africa.
MWV Episode 68 – Threading the NEIDL: TWiV Goes Inside a BSL-4
The Hot Zone” author Richard Preston tells the story of a U.S. Army Lt. Colonel’s life-threatening experience while researching a strain of deadly Ebola virus.
Richard Preston talks about Panic in Level 4: Canibals, Killer Viruses, and Other Journeys to the Edge of Science. These dramatic accounts, all updated since appearing in The New Yorker, are true tales, taking readers on a journey to military labs, hospitals, and jungles around the world, revealing frightening forces and constructive discoveries that are reordering our world – Book Passage
Richard Preston is the author of seven books, including The Hot Zone, The Cobra Event and The Demon in the Freezer, which are his “Dark Biology” series.
Preston is a regular contributor to The New Yorker. His books have been translated into more than 30 languages, and he has won numerous awards, including the American Institute of Physics Award and the National Magazine Award.
Preston is the only non-medical professional ever to receive the Centers for Disease Control’s Champion of Prevention Award for public health.
Beating the world’s deadliest viral villains
Ebola : Inside the Deadly Outbreak (Documentary 2014)
Ebola: The world’s most dangerous Virus (full documentary)
WATCH: CDC Director Dr. Frieden Grilled over Travel Ban at House Ebola Hearing
WATCH: Megyn Kelly Goes Head to Head with CDC Director over Ebola in America
“I have responsibility for getting the nation prepared for public health emergencies—whether naturally occurring disasters or man-made, as well as for helping it respond and recover. It’s a pretty significant undertaking.”
Dr. Lurie is Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the US Department of Health and Human Services at HHS. Prior to that, she was Senior Natural Scientist and the Paul O Neill Alcoa Professor of Health Policy at the RAND Corporation. There she directed RANDs public health and preparedness work as well as RANDs Center for Population Health and Health Disparities.
John McCain: U.S. Needs an Ebola Czar
Ebola Czar pissed away a billion dollars on kick-backs — Dr. Nicole Lurie
Dr. Nicole Lurie’s Ebola death squads — urr — temporary morgues
Experts: Ebola Could Go Airborne, Kill Millions
Expert Doctor says CDC is lying about Ebola virus
Ebola strain appears to be different
The Structural Basis of Ebola Viral Pathogenesis
Obama administration failed to implement all of the CDC’s advice to prevent an Ebola outbreak
The Centers for Disease Control told the incoming Obama administration in 2008 that it should establish 18 regional disease detection centers around the world to adequately safeguard the U.S. from emerging health threats like Ebola, according to an agency memo.
But six years later, as the government struggles to contain the fallout from a deadly Ebola outbreak at home and abroad, the CDC still has only 10 centers — and none of them operates in the western Africa region hardest hit by the deadly virus.
“The existing centers have already proven their effectiveness and impact on detecting and responding to outbreaks including avian influenza, aflatoxin poisoning, Rift Valley fever, Ebola and Marburg virus outbreaks,” the CDC said in its memo to the Obama transition team, which The Washington Times obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.
At the time, the CDC had five centers set up, and has only added five more of the 13 the agency had proposed “to complete the network and properly protect the nation.”
The memo sheds new light on the problems dealing with the current Ebola crisis, which intensified with the revelations Wednesday that a second Texas nurse had tested positive for the disease and President Obama used a White House Cabinet meeting to promise a “more aggressive” federal response to the threat.
The CDC’s plan outlined in the transition memo was based on the notion that the U.S. shouldn’t wait for a disease to enter the country but rather monitor threats in hot spots overseas to try to help local public health authorities control outbreaks before then.
The CDC didn’t respond to messages seeking comment on its plans Wednesday.
On its Web page, the agency said it has eight regional centers running, with another two in development.
Aside from detecting and monitoring diseases, the centers also provide education to local public health authorities. Though the CDC operates three response centers in Africa — in Kenya, Egypt and South Africa — none of those are based in the western parts of the continent that have seen major Ebola outbreaks this year.
News on Wednesday that another patient in the U.S. — a second health care worker who treated an Ebola patient in Texas — may be infected prompted calls for tightened travel restrictions and at least a temporary travel ban for Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, including one from House Speaker John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican.
The administration has so far rejected those calls, with health officials saying they fear the bans could prevent them from getting aid workers and medical assistance to and from Africa.
Meanwhile, the fight over funding for anti-Ebola efforts has turned political.
Fights over funding
Five Democratic House members on Wednesday called for hearings into budget cuts at the National Institutes of Health and CDC.
The lawmakers said NIH has lost $1.2 billion in funding over the last four years and that a CDC program that supports public workers was slashed 16 percent during the past four years, while a hospital preparedness program lost 44 percent of its funding.
“The CDC and the NIH are already working to combat the spread of Ebola,” said Rep. Michael M. Honda, California Democrat. “In light of recent tragic developments in Texas, and in the interests of ensuring public safety and transparency, we need an update from these agencies so we can ensure they have the proper funding to protect patients, health care workers and the public at large.”
As the deadly virus continues to spread, the CDC has sent dozens of disease control experts into western Africa. In a recent budget document, the agency also has said it’s seeking an extra $45 million for global health security “to accelerate progress toward a world safe and secure from infectious disease threats.”
But the agency’s own memo to the president’s transition team highlighted the need for beefed-up infectious disease detection and other public health efforts overseas. It also reflects funding concerns during the George W. Bush administration.
“Our investment is modest,” the CDC memo stated, “but our capacity in most critical areas has been eroded by budget attrition and increases in the cost of science, travel and infrastructure support in recent years.”
The comments were included in the appendix to the agency’s 128-page briefing memo to the transition team. That same portion of the report had been sent in 2007 to a House appropriations subcommittee overseeing CDC funding, according to the transition memo.
The memo also stated that “core funding” for noninfluenza infectious diseases was lacking, “leaving us many millions behind where we were five years ago when adjusted for inflation.”
“Programs for rabies, rotavirus, food safety, special pathogens like Ebola virus and many others need immediate support if they are to sustain their baseline capabilities.”
The White House and CDC have both cited the regional response centers in recent weeks as an example of the administration’s Ebola response.
Neither the White House nor the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC, responded to messages about the recommendation for 18 regional centers.
Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Tom Harkin, Iowa Democrat, said in a recent floor speech that he’s worked for years to secure more funding for CDC disease detection centers overseas.
“We must stop chasing diseases after the fact and start building public health systems capable of detecting and stopping diseases before they cross borders,” Mr. Harkin said.
The transition memo sounded a similar warning to Mr. Obama’s team as the president prepared to take power in late 2008: “Our nation’s preparedness has greatly benefited from government investments in terrorism and pandemic influenza preparedness, but recent events illustrated that vulnerabilities remain.”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/oct/15/cdc-outbreak-prevention-advice-dismissed-by-obama-/?page=2
We Already Have An Ebola Czar – Dr. Nicole Lurie – The Obama Administration Just Wants To Hide Her….
Posted on October 14, 2014 by sundance
(Via The Federalist) […] See, in 2004, Congress passed The Project Bioshield Act. The text of that legislation authorized up to $5,593,000,000 in new spending by NIH for the purpose of purchasing vaccines that would be used in the event of a bioterrorist attack. A major part of the plan was to allow stockpiling and distribution of vaccines.
Just two years later, Congress passed the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act, which created a new assistant secretary for preparedness and response to oversee medical efforts and called for a National Health Security Strategy. The Act established Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority as the focal point within HHS for medical efforts to protect the American civilian population against naturally occurring threats to public health. It specifically says this authority was established to give “an integrated, systematic approach to the development and purchase of the necessary vaccines, drugs, therapies, and diagnostic tools for public health medical emergencies.”
Last year, Congress passed the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Reauthorization Act of 2013 which keep the programs in effect for another five years.
If you look at any of the information about these pieces of legislation or the office and authorities that were created, this brand new expansion of the federal government was sold to us specifically as a means to fight public health threats like Ebola. That was the entire point of why the office and authorities were created.
In fact, when Sen. Bob Casey was asked if he agreed the U.S. needed an Ebola czar, which some legislators are demanding, he responded: “I don’t, because under the bill we have such a person in HHS already.”
[…] So, we have an office for public health threat preparedness and response. And one of HHS’ eight assistant secretaries is the assistant secretary for preparedness and response, whose job it is to “lead the nation in preventing, responding to and recovering from the adverse health effects of public health emergencies and disasters, ranging from hurricanes to bioterrorism.”
In the video below, the woman who heads that office, Dr. Nicole Lurie, explains that the responsibilities of her office are “to help our country prepare for, respond to and recover from public health threats.” She says her major priority is to help the country prepare for emergencies and to “have the countermeasures—the medicines or vaccines that people might need to use in a public health emergency. So a large part of my office also is responsible for developing those countermeasures.” (read more)
Or, as National Journal rather glowingly puts it, “Lurie’s job is to plan for the unthinkable. A global flu pandemic? She has a plan. A bioterror attack? She’s on it. Massive earthquake? Yep. Her responsibilities as assistant secretary span public health, global health, and homeland security.” A profile of Lurie quoted her as saying, “I have responsibility for getting the nation prepared for public health emergencies—whether naturally occurring disasters or man-made, as well as for helping it respond and recover. It’s a pretty significant undertaking.” Still another refers to her as “the highest-ranking federal official in charge of preparing the nation to face such health crises as earthquakes, hurricanes, terrorist attacks, and pandemic influenza.”
Now, you might be wondering why the person in charge of all this is a name you’re not familiar with. Apart from a discussion of Casey’s comments on how we don’t need an Ebola czar because we already have one, a Google News search for Lurie’s name at the time of writing brings up nothing in the last hour, the last 24 hours, not even the last week! You have to get back to mid-September for a few brief mentions of her name in minor publications. Not a single one of those links is confidence building.
So why has the top official for public health threats been sidelined in the midst of the Ebola crisis? Only the not-known-for-transparency Obama administration knows for sure. But maybe taxpayers and voters should force Congress to do a better job with its oversight rather than get away with the far easier passing of legislation that grants additional funds before finding out what we got for all that money we allocated to this task over the last decade. And then maybe taxpayers should begin to puzzle out whether their really bad return on tax investment dollars is related to some sort of inherent problem with the administrative state.
The Ron Perelman Scandal
There are a few interesting things about the scandal Lurie was embroiled in years ago. You can—and should—read all about it in the Los Angeles Times‘ excellent front-page expose from November 2011, headlined: “Cost, need questioned in $433-million smallpox drug deal: A company controlled by a longtime political donor gets a no-bid contract to supply an experimental remedy for a threat that may not exist.” This Forbespiece is also interesting.
The donor is billionaire Ron Perelman, who was controlling shareholder of Siga. He’s a huge Democratic donor but he also gets Republicans to play for his team, of course. Siga was under scrutiny even back in October 2010 when The Huffington Post reported that it had named labor leader Andy Stern to its board and “compensated him with stock options that would become dramatically more valuable if the company managed to win the contract it sought with HHS—an agency where Stern has deep connections, having helped lead the year-plus fight for health care reform as then head of the Service Employees International Union.”
The award was controversial from almost every angle—including disputes about need, efficacy, and extremely high costs. There were also complaints about awarding a company of its size and structure a small business award as well as the negotiations involved in granting the award. It was so controversial that even Democrats in tight election races were calling for investigations.
Last month, Siga filed for bankruptcy after it was found liable for breaching a licensing contract. The drug it’s been trying to develop, which was projected to have limited utility, has not really panned out—yet the feds have continued to give valuable funds to the company even though the law would permit them to recoup some of their costs or to simply stop any further funding.
The Los Angeles Times revealed that, during the fight over the grant, Lurie wrote to Siga’s chief executive, Dr. Eric A. Rose, to tell him that someone new would be taking over the negotiations with the company. She wrote, “I trust this will be satisfactory to you.” Later she denied that she’d had any contact with Rose regarding the contract, saying such contact would have been inappropriate.
The company that most fought the peculiar sole-source contract award to Siga was Chimerix, which argued that its drug had far more promise than Siga’s. And, in fact, Chimerix’s Brincidofovir is an antiviral medication being developed for treatment of smallpox but also Ebola and adenovirus. In animal trials, it’s shown some success against adenoviruses, smallpox, and herpes—and preliminary tests show some promise against Ebola. On Oct. 6, the FDA authorized its use for some Ebola patients.
It was given to Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, who died, and Ashoka Mukpo, who doctors said had improved. Mukpo even tweeted that he was on the road to recovery.
Back to that Budget
Consider again how The Huffington Post parroted Collins’ claims:
Money, or rather the lack of it, is a big part of the problem. NIH’s purchasing power is down 23 percent from what it was a decade ago, and its budget has remained almost static. In fiscal year 2004, the agency’s budget was $28.03 billion. In FY 2013, it was $29.31 billion—barely a change, even before adjusting for inflation.
Of course, between the fiscal years 2000 and 2004, NIH’s budget jumped a whopping 58 percent. HHS’s 70,000 workers will spend a total of $958 billion this year, or about $7,789 for every U.S. household. A 2012 report on federal spending including the following nuggets about how NIH spends its supposedly tight funds:
a $702,558 grant for the study of the impact of televisions and gas generators on villages in Vietnam.
$175,587 to the University of Kentucky to study the impact of cocaine on the sex drive of Japanese quail.
$55,382 to study hookah smoking in Jordan.
$592,527 to study why chimpanzees throw objects.
Last year there were news reports about a $509,840 grant from NIH to pay for a study that will send text messages in “gay lingo” to meth-heads. There are many other shake-your-head examples of misguided spending that are easy to find.
And we’re not even getting into the problems at the CDC or the confusing mixed messages on Ebola from the administration. CDC director Tom Frieden noted:
Indeed. The Progressive belief that a powerful government can stop all calamity is misguided. In the last 10 years we passed multiple pieces of legislation to create funding streams, offices, and management authorities precisely for this moment. That we have nothing to show for it is not good reason to put even more faith in government without learning anything from our repeated mistakes. Responding to the missing Ebola Czar and her office’s corruption by throwing still more money, more management changes, and more bureaucratic complexity in her general direction is madness.
http://theconservativetreehouse.com/2014/10/14/we-already-have-an-ebola-czar-dr-nicole-lurie-the-obama-administration-just-wants-to-hide-her/
Tracking a Serial Killer: Could Ebola Mutate to Become More Deadly?
Why we need to terminate Ebola 2014 before the virus learns too much about us.
bY David Quammen
Forty years ago, Ebola was just the name of a river. It was a small waterway of no particularly sinister character that flowed through northern Zaire, not far from the village hospital where the first known outbreak of a new viral disease had been centered. That river gave its name to the new virus, and now “Ebola” is a global byword for ugly death, misery, and fear of contagion.
The 2014 epidemic of Ebola virus disease in West Africa is unprecedented in scope, and much attention has been focused, rightly, on how it has gotten so badly out of control.
Behind that question are three others, less obvious, more complicated, and crucial to seeing Ebola in a broader context: Where did the virus come from? Where is it going? What’s next? We do well to consider these questions even as we react to the daily headlines, urge our leaders to take more deeply committed action, and support the organizations (such as Doctors Without Borders) that are fighting the epidemic so courageously in West Africa.
The outbreak began in early December, in a village called Meliandou, southeastern Guinea, not far from the borders with both Liberia and Sierra Leone. The first known case was a two-year-old child who died, after fever and vomiting and passing black stool, on December 6. The child’s mother died a week later, then a sister and a grandmother, all with symptoms that included fever, vomiting, and diarrhea. Then, by way of caregiving visits or attendance at funerals, the outbreak spread to other villages.
It wasn’t until March, three months later, that local officials alerted the Guinean Ministry of Health about these clusters of a strange, lethal disease in the countryside. By then, human-to-human transmission had started to multiply the case count. But tracing linked cases raises the question of ultimate origin. How did that first child get sick?
Ebola virus is a zoonosis, meaning an animal infection transmissible to humans. The animal in which a zoonosis lives its customary existence, discreetly, over the long term, and without causing symptoms, is called a reservoir host. The reservoir host of Ebola virus is still unknown—even after 38 years of efforts to identify it, since the original 1976 outbreak—although one or more kinds of fruit bat, including the hammer-headed bat, are suspects. There are hammer-headed bats in southeastern Guinea. It’s possible that somebody killed one for food and brought it to Meliandou, where the child became infected either by direct contact with the bat or by virus passed on the hands of an adult.
Why are these facts and suppositions significant? Because they remind us that Ebola virus abides endemically in the forests of equatorial Africa. It will never be eradicated as long as those forests exist, unless the reservoir host itself is eradicated (not recommended) or cured of the viral infection (not likely possible). The virus may retire into its hiding place for years at a time, but eventually it will return, as a result of some disruptive contact by humans with the reservoir host. Then it will spill over into us again. All thinking and planning about how to defend against Ebola virus disease in the future needs to take account of that reality.
Another puzzling fact about origins is that the West Africa epidemic involves a species of ebolavirus (that’s the label for the group, which includes five species) previously known only from outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and its close neighbors.
A different species has emerged in Ivory Coast, another West African country, just east of Guinea and Liberia. According to a study published in Science in late August by Stephen K. Gire of Harvard and a long list of co-authors, the virus in West Africa seems to have diverged from its lineage in Central Africa just within the past decade. It somehow leapfrogged over or around the Ivory Coast ebolavirus in order to situate itself in southeastern Guinea. That suggests the unnerving prospect that the Central African ebolavirus (the only one strictly known as Ebola virus) is expanding its range, either by infecting new populations of reservoir hosts or by migrations of those host animals.
One way or another, it has been on the move.
Fruit bats are sold at an outdoor market in Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of the Congo. The reservoir host of Ebola virus is still unknown, but one or more kinds of fruit bat are suspects.
Where Is It Going?
The virus has also traveled within living human bodies. We know that it went from Liberia to Dallas within the late Thomas Eric Duncan, from Liberia to Nigeria by way of the late Patrick Sawyer, and from Sierra Leone to Spain by way of two Spanish missionary priests, both also now deceased, who were evacuated for treatment.
And it has been carried to Omaha, Atlanta, London, Paris, Hamburg, Frankfurt, and Oslo within infected people, mostly health and aid workers brought home to be treated.
But just as worrisome as the virus’s geographic spread is its journey across the evolutionary landscape. Is it mutating in ways that could make it more dangerous to humans? Is there any chance that it might become transmissible through the air, like the flu, the SARS virus, or a common cold?
Although Ebola becoming airborne is the ultimate disease nightmare, that seems to be almost vanishingly improbable, for reasons well put in a recent article in the Washington Post by Laurie Garrett, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations. What is now a fluid-borne virus attaching itself to cells lining the circulatory system can’t easily change into one that targets the tiny air sacs in the lungs.
“That’s a genetic leap in the realm of science fiction,” Garrett wrote.
The virus probably will not go airborne, but it could conceivably increase its Darwinian fitness in other ways, becoming more subtle and elusive.
The genetic study by Gire and his colleagues (five of whom were dead of Ebola by the time their study appeared) found 341 mutations as of late August, some of which are significant enough to change the bug’s functional identity. The higher the case count in West Africa goes, the more chances for further mutations, and therefore the greater possibility that the virus might adapt somehow to become more transmissible-perhaps by becoming less pathogenic, sickening or killing its victims more slowly and thereby leaving them more time to infect others.
That’s why, the Gire group wrote, we need to stop this thing everywhere as soon as possible. Future spillovers of Ebola are bound to occur, but those freshly emerged strains of the virus, direct from the reservoir host, won’t contain any adaptive mutations that the West Africa strain is acquiring now.
We need to terminate Ebola 2014 before the virus learns too much about us.
Kumba Conde cries after her sister Marie, 14, died from Ebola in Koundony, Guinea, in July 2014. The current outbreak began in December 2013 in southeastern Guinea, not far from the borders with both Liberia and Sierra Leone.
No one knows, of course, how much worse the epidemic in West Africa will get. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a report, in late September, projecting that under the worst-case scenario there could be 1.4 million cases by early next year. The World Health Organization said Tuesday that new cases could rise to 10,000 per week by December, ten times the rate of the previous month. And the World Bank has warned that costs of the epidemic could reach $32.6 billion, which would be an economic catastrophe for the three West African countries that would compound their health catastrophes.
Will the epidemic spread more widely, igniting outbreaks in other parts of the world? We hope not. Will it turn up as additional cases, here and there, among people who have traveled from West Africa unaware, as Thomas Eric Duncan was reportedly unaware, that they were infected before boarding the airplane? Probably.
What’s the best way to limit such occurrences? Rigorous screening at airports, quarantine for travelers who test positive, travel restrictions, or perhaps total bans on commercial flights arriving from Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone-these measures should help. The most important and effective thing we can do, though, is to provide all possible assistance toward ending the outbreak where it began, in West Africa.
The world won’t be free of Ebola 2014 until West Africa is free of it. Even severe restrictions, barring entry to anyone traveling from West Africa, would not make it impossible for the virus to get into America, or Europe, or wherever. To understand why, consider what I call the Nairobi Tabletop Scenario.
Imagine a doctor who departs from Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, feeling fine, on a flight to Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, in East Africa. In transit he begins suffering a headache-nothing terrible yet, just discomfort, but it’s the first hint of Ebola. At the Nairobi airport, in a café, the Liberian doctor coughs onto a table. Five minutes later, an American businessman touches that table. He rubs his eye. He departs to Singapore and spends three days there, in good health, discussing finance for his project in Kenya. Then he flies home to Los Angeles. To the screeners at LAX, he is an American businessman arriving from Singapore, with no history of recent travel in West Africa. But he’s now infected with Ebola, carrying it into the United States.
How do you defend against the Nairobi Tabletop Scenario? By doing everything possible to end the epidemic in West Africa, and thereby to ensure that the Liberian doctor is healthy when he visits Nairobi.
Our safety against the menace of killer viruses can never be an absolute safety. There are too many of them, lurking within reservoir hosts amid distant forests or closer to home-viruses such as Nipah in Bangladesh, Marburg in Uganda, Lassa in West Africa, Sin Nombre virus in the American West, all the new influenzas coming out of southeastern Asia, plus many others that haven’t yet been identified and named.
And there are too many of us humans, sharing the landscape with the reservoir hosts and with one another. We are too interconnected by air travel and transport. Viruses are simple organisms but well-adapted to the modern world. This year it’s Ebola, devastating and scary. Next year it will be something else.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/10/141015-ebola-virus-outbreak-pandemic-zoonotic-contagion/
The Pronk Pops Show 349, October 15, 2014, Story 1: Breaking News — Third Confirmed Case of Ebola in Dallas, Texas, Airborne Ebola Spreading Through Tiny Aerosolized Droplets in Sneezes and Coughs — Time To Send Ebola Patients to A Biosafety Level 4 Safety Hospitals with A Total of 19 Beds — Videos
Posted on October 15, 2014. Filed under: American History, Blogroll, Business, Center for Disease Control, College, Communications, Constitutional Law, Disasters, Diseases, Ebola, Economics, Education, Employment, Federal Government, Foreign Policy, Government, Government Dependency, Government Spending, Health Care, History, Impeachment, Law, Media, Medicine, Philosophy, Photos, Politics, Radio, Wealth, Wisdom | Tags: 22 Biosafety Level 4 Hospital Beds in United States, Aerosolized Droplets, Airborne Ebola, Assumptions, Breaking News, CDC, Dallas Texas, Ebola, Lessons Not Learned, Premises, President Barack Obama, Third Case of Ebola in Dallas, Virus, Virus Basics, WHO |
Story 1: Breaking News — Third Confirmed Case of Ebola in Dallas, Texas, Airborne Ebola Spreading Through Tiny Aerosolized Droplets in Sneezes and Coughs — Time To Send Ebola Patients to A Biosafety Level 4 Safety Hospitals with A Total of 19 Beds — Videos
“We shall not grow wiser before we learn that much that we have done was very foolish.”
Obama Calls for CDC ‘SWAT’ Team for Ebola Virus
Response Team to Be Sent for Any Ebola Case: Obama
Second Health Care Worker Tests Positive For Ebola In Texas
Dallas Mayor: ‘It May Get Worse Before it Gets Better’
Texas officials confirm second healthcare worker has Ebola
CDC: Ebola patient flew on plane before diagnosis
CDC Set To Slow Large Ebola Outbreak by Placing Doctors At Risk
Why Do Viruses Kill
MicroKillers: Super Flu
The Influenza Pandemic of 1918
We Heard the Bells: The Influenza of 1918 (full documentary)
In 1918-1919, the worst flu in recorded history killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide. The U.S. death toll was 675,000 – five times the number of U.S. soldiers killed in World War I. Where did the 1918 flu come from? Why was it so lethal? What did we learn?
RED ALERT: TOP GENERAL WARNS EBOLA WILL NOT STAY IN WEST AFRICA!!!!
“There are two things that I harken back to this. The only way that we are going to beat this is person by person, moment by moment, detail by detail. We have those protocols in place, the city and county, working closely with the CDC and the hospital. The second is we want to minimize rumors and maximize facts. We want to deal with facts, not fear. And I continue to believe that while Dallas is anxious about this and with this news this morning, the anxiety level goes up a level, we are not fearful and I’m pleased and proud of the citizens that I talk to day in and day out knowing that there is hope if we take care and do what is right in these details. It may get worse before it gets better. But it will get better.”
The comments were given at a news conference in Dallas this morning announcing that another hospital worker in Dallas has been diagnosed with Ebola.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/dallas-mayor-it-may-get-worse-it-gets-better_816316.html
Nurses’ Union: Ebola Patient Left In Open Area Of ER For Hours
A Liberian Ebola patient was left in an open area of a Dallas emergency room for hours, and nurses treating him worked without proper protective gear and faced constantly changing protocols, according to a statement released by the nation’s largest nurses’ union.
Among those nurses was Nina Pham, 26, who has been hospitalized since Friday after catching Ebola while caring for Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed with the virus in the U.S. He died last week.
Public-health authorities announced Wednesday that a second Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital health care worker had tested positive for Ebola, raising more questions about whether American hospitals and their staffs are adequately prepared to contain the virus.
The CDC has said some breach of protocol probably sickened Pham, but National Nurses United contends the protocols were either non-existent or changed constantly after Duncan arrived in the emergency room by ambulance on Sept. 28.
Medical records provided to The Associated Press by Duncan’s family show that Pham helped care for him throughout his hospital stay, including the day he arrived in intensive care with diarrhea, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, and the day before he died.
When Pham’s mother learned she was caring for Duncan, she tried to reassure her that she would be safe.
Pham told her: “Mom, no. Don’t worry about me,” family friend Christina Tran told The Associated Press.
Duncan’s medical records make numerous mentions of protective gear worn by hospital staff, and Pham herself notes wearing the gear in visits to Duncan’s room. But there is no indication in the records of her first encounter with Duncan, on Sept. 29, that Pham donned any protective gear.
Deborah Burger of National Nurses United, who convened a conference call with reporters to relay what she said were concerns of nurses at the hospital, said they were forced to use medical tape to secure openings in their flimsy garments and worried that their necks and heads were exposed as they cared for Duncan.
RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of Nurses United, said the statement came from “several” and “a few” nurses, but she refused repeated inquiries to state how many. She said the organization had vetted the claims, and that the nurses cited were in a position to know what had occurred at the hospital. She did not specify whether they were among the nurses caring for Duncan.
The nurses allege that his lab samples were allowed to travel through the hospital’s pneumatic tubes, possibly risking contaminating of the specimen-delivery system. They also said that hazardous waste was allowed to pile up to the ceiling.
Wendell Watson, a Presbyterian spokesman, did not respond to specific claims by the nurses but said the hospital has not received similar complaints.
“Patient and employee safety is our greatest priority, and we take compliance very seriously,” he said in a statement. He said the hospital would “review and respond to any concerns raised by our nurses and all employees.”
The nurses’ statement said they had to “interact with Mr. Duncan with whatever protective equipment was available,” even as he produced “a lot of contagious fluids.” Duncan’s medical records underscore that concern. They also say nurses treating Duncan were also caring for other patients in the hospital and that, in the face of constantly shifting guidelines, they were allowed to follow whichever ones they chose.
When Ebola was suspected but unconfirmed, a doctor wrote that use of disposable shoe covers should also be considered. At that point, by all protocols, shoe covers should have been mandatory to prevent anyone from tracking contagious body fluids around the hospital.
A few days later, however, entries in the hospital charts suggest that protection was improving.
“RN entered room in Tyvek suits, triple gloves, triple boots, and respirator cap in place,” a nurse wrote.
The Presbyterian nurses are not represented by Nurses United or any other union. DeMoro and Burger said the nurses claimed they had been warned by the hospital not to speak to reporters or they would be fired.
The AP has attempted since last week to contact dozens of individuals involved in Duncan’s care. Those who responded to reporters’ inquiries have so far been unwilling to speak.
David R. Wright, deputy regional administrator for the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which monitors patient safety and has the authority to withhold federal funding, said his agency is going to want to get all of the information the nurses provided.
“We can’t talk about whether we’re going to investigate or not, but we’d be interested in hearing that information,” he said.
CDC officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Duncan first sought care at the hospital’s ER late on Sept. 25 and was sent home the next morning. He was rushed by ambulance back to the hospital on Sept. 28. Unlike his first visit, mention of his recent arrival from Liberia immediately roused suspicion of an Ebola risk, records show.
The CDC said 76 staff members at the hospital could have been exposed to Duncan after his second ER visit. Another 48 people who may have had contact with him before he was isolated are being monitored. Pham remained hospitalized Tuesday in good condition and said in a statement that she was doing well.
The Rev. Jim Khoi, pastor at Our Lady of Fatima Church in Fort Worth, which Pham’s family attends, said the 2010 Texas Christian University nursing school graduate appeared to be in good spirits when she spoke to her mother via video chat.
Pham’s mother, Ngoc Pham, is “calm,” Khoi said. “She trusts in God. And she asks for prayers.”
http://houston.cbslocal.com/2014/10/15/nurses-union-ebola-patient-left-in-open-area-of-er-for-hours/
CDC: Ebola Patient Traveled By Air With “Low-Grade” Fever
The CDC has announced that the second healthcare worker diagnosed with Ebola — now identified as Amber Joy Vinson of Dallas — traveled by air Oct. 13, with a low-grade fever, a day before she showed up at the hospital reporting symptoms.
The CDC is now reaching out to all passengers who flew on Frontier Airlines flight 1143 Cleveland to Dallas/Fort Worth. The flight landed at 8:16 p.m. CT.
All 132 passengers on the flight are being asked to call 1 800-CDC INFO (1 800 232-4636). Public health professionals will begin interviewing passengers about the flight Wednesday afternoon.
“Although she (Vinson) did not report any symptoms and she did not meet the fever threshold of 100.4, she did report at that time she took her temperature and found it to be 99.5,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden. Her temperature coupled with the fact that she had been exposed to the virus should have prevented her from getting on the plane, he said. “I don’t think that changes the level of risk of people around her. She did not vomit, she was not bleeding, so the level of risk of people around her would be extremely low.”
Vinson first reported a fever to the hospital on Tuesday (Oct. 14) and was isolated within 90 minutes, according to officials. She did not exhibit symptoms while on the Monday flight, according to crew members. However, the CDC says passenger notification is needed as an “extra level of safety” due to the proximity in time between the flight and the first reported symptoms.
“Those who have exposures to Ebola, she should not have traveled on a commercial airline,” said Dr. Frieden. “The CDC guidance in this setting outlines the need for controlled movement. That can include a charter plane; that can include a car; but it does not include public transport. We will from this moment forward ensure that no other individual who is being monitored for exposure undergoes travel in any way other than controlled movement.”
Frieden specifically noted that the remaining 75 healthcare workers who treated Thomas Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital will not be allowed to fly. The CDC will work with local and state officials to accomplish this.
Frontier Airlines is working closely with the CDC to identify and notify all passengers on the flight. The airline also says the plane has been thoroughly cleaned and was removed from service following CDC notification early Wednesday morning.
However, according to Flighttracker, the plane was used for five additional flights on Tuesday before it was removed from service. Those flights include a return flight to Cleveland, Cleveland to Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport (FLL), FLL to Cleveland, Cleveland to Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), and ATL to Cleveland.
While in Ohio, Vinson visited relatives, who are employees at Kent State University. The university is now asking Vinson’s three relatives stay off campus and self-monitor per CDC protocol for the next 21 days out of an “abundance of caution.”
“It’s important to note that the patient was not on the Kent State campus,” said Kent State President Beverly Warren. “She stayed with her family at their home in Summit County and did not step foot on our campus. We want to assure our university community that we are taking this information seriously, taking steps to communicate what we know,” said Dr. Angela DeJulius, director of University Health Services at Kent State.
Vinson is a Kent State graduate. She received degrees from there in 2006 and 2008.
Cleveland’s Public Health Director, Toinette Parrilla, said Vinson was visiting in preparation for her wedding. While there, she visited her mother and her fiance.
Complete Coverage Of Ebola In North Texas
The latest Ebola diagnosis was announced by the Texas Department of State Health Services early Wednesday morning.
Vinson is the second worker at Presbyterian Hospital to be diagnosed after providing health care to Duncan, the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States. He died last week.
Medical records provided to The Associated Press by Thomas Eric Duncan’s family show Amber Joy Vinson was actively engaged in caring for Duncan in the days before his death. The records show she inserted catheters, drew blood, and dealt with Duncan’s body fluids.
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings addressed the media on Wednesday, saying the patient lives alone and has no pets.
“It may get worse before it gets better,” Rawlings said, “but it will get better.”
Crews worked to decontaminate the common areas of Vinson’s Dallas apartment building Tuesday morning. The apartment unit will be decontaminated by contractors starting early Wednesday afternoon.
The CDC announced that Vinson will be transported to Emory Hospital in Atlanta for further treatment. Two previous American Ebola patients, Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, were treated at Emory and were the first Ebola patients to be treated in the United States. They were released in August.
Nina Pham was diagnosed with the virus over the weekend and remains isolated in good condition. Pham’s dog — a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel named Bentley — has been taken into custody and is being cared for at an undisclosed location.
Frontier Airlines released the following statement:
“At approximately 1:00 a.m. MT on October 15, Frontier was notified by the CDC that a customer traveling on Frontier Airlines flight 1143 Cleveland to Dallas/Fort Worth on Oct. 13 has since tested positive for the Ebola virus. The flight landed in Dallas/Fort Worth at 8:16 p.m. local and remained overnight at the airport having completed its flying for the day at which point the aircraft received a thorough cleaning per our normal procedures which is consistent with CDC guidelines prior to returning to service the next day. It was also cleaned again in Cleveland last night. Previously the customer had traveled from Dallas Fort Worth to Cleveland on Frontier flight 1142 on October 10.
Customer exhibited no symptoms or sign of illness while on flight 1143, according to the crew. Frontier responded immediately upon notification from the CDC by removing the aircraft from service and is working closely with CDC to identify and contact customers who may traveled on flight 1143.
Customers who may have traveled on either flight should contact CDC at 1 800 CDC-INFO.
The safety and security of our customers and employees is our primary concern. Frontier will continue to work closely with CDC and other governmental agencies to ensure proper protocols and procedures are being followed.”
http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2014/10/15/ebola-patient-traveled-day-before-diagnosis/
Frontier jet made 5 flights before taken out of service in Ebola scare
The Frontier Airlines jet that carried a Dallas healthcare worker diagnosed with Ebola made five additional flights after her trip before it was taken out of service, according to a flight-monitoring website.
Denver-based Frontier said in a statement that it grounded the plane immediately after the carrier was notified late Tuesday night by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about the Ebola patient.
Ebola patient flew day before symptoms surfaced
Amber Joy Vinson of Dallas, traveled by air on Oct. 13, the day before she first reported symptoms.
Flight 1143, on which the woman flew from Cleveland to Dallas/Fort Worth, was the last trip of the day Monday for the Airbus A320. But Tuesday morning the plane was flown back to Cleveland and then to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., back to Cleveland and then to Atlanta and finally back to Cleveland again, according to Daniel Baker, chief executive of the flight-monitoring site Flightaware.com.
He said his data did not include any passenger manifests, so he could not tell how many total passengers flew on the plane Tuesday.
The airline said it is working with the CDC to contact all 132 passengers on the Monday flight that carried the Ebola patient.
Frontier could not be reached to confirm the FlightAware data, and it was unclear if passengers on the additional flights were being contacted.
The passenger “exhibited no symptoms or sign of illness while on Flight 1143, according to the crew,” Frontier said.
The plane went through a routine but “thorough” cleaning Monday night, Frontier said. Airline industry experts said routine overnight cleaning includes wiping down tray tables, vacuuming carpet and disinfecting restrooms.
The healthcare worker also had flown to Cleveland from Dallas three days earlier on Frontier Flight 1142, the airline reported.
In response to the news that another Ebola patient flew on a commercial flight, the union that represents 60,000 flight attendants on 19 airlines is asking the CDC to monitor and care for the four flight attendants who were on flight from Cleveland to Dallas/Fort Worth.
cComments
whats it going to take to close the border to people from africa? 10 dead? 100 dead? 1000 dead? we know obumma doesnt give a flying fluke about the american citizens, but isn’t there someone in the government with an ounce of brains? or is this part of obumma’s scheme to declare martial law?…
The Assn. of Flight Attendants “will continue to press that crew members are regularly monitored and provided with any additional resources that may be required,” the group said.
The Ebola scare prompted the union last week to call for better measures to protect flight attendants from exposure to the deadly virus.
The group’s international president, Sara Nelson, suggested that flight attendants are being asked to do too much in the fight against Ebola.
“We are not, however, professional healthcare providers and our members have neither the extensive training nor the specialized personal protective equipment required for handling an Ebola patient,” she said in a statement.
Earlier this month, United Airlines was rushing to contact passengers who flew on two flights that carried a Liberian man infected with Ebola from Brussels to Washington, D.C., and then to Dallas.
The Ebola-stricken healthcare worker who flew on Frontier had been treating the Liberian man, Thomas Eric Duncan, who has since died.
Airline-industry stock prices have taken a beating in recent weeks, with some analysts blaming the Ebola scare.
On Wednesday, stocks of Delta Air Lines and American Airlines fell more than 6% in early trading before partially recovering. With less than 90 minutes remaining in the regular trading session, the two stocks were each down about 2% from Tuesday’s closes. Frontier is privately held.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-frontier-airline-ebola-patient-20141015-story.html
There are only 19 level 4 bio-containment beds in the whole of the United States…and four in the UK
Liz Bennett
The UK is well set for an Ebola outbreak (sarcasm alert) We have TWO isolation units, but one is getting ‘redeveloped’ so it’s not available right now. Called High Security Infectious Diseases Units there are two in the country, each capable of taking two patients. One is at The Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead North London, the other, the one getting a bit of a make-over, is at The Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle, up in the north-east of England.
Four level 4 bio-containment beds between 69,000,000 people
In the US there are 4 units geared up to handle Ebola. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center, Bethesda, Maryland, has 3 beds. Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, has 10 beds. Emory Hospital, Atlanta has 3 beds and St Patricks Hospital, Missoula has 3 beds (source)
19 level four biocontainment beds for 317,000,000 people
I think we just found out why the government(s) are under-playing the situation. They simply do not have the facilities to cope with even a small outbreak. They are, in fact in exactly the same position as the dirt-poor hospitals in West Africa…there are not enough facilities to stop the spread of the disease if it gets out. The quality of care is better, but the availability of containment most likely isn’t.
I am sure ‘regular’ isolation units will be pressed into use but they are not designed to handle level 4 biohazards, they are nowhere near as secure medically speaking, as biocontainment units.
A couple of days ago I explained how exponential spread works. You can read that article here if you like. As a quick recap. Once a disease is at the point where every carrier infects 2 more people,(exponential spread) it will continue until it:
A) runs out of hosts
B) is stopped by medical science or
C) mutates into something less harmful.
What follows will show you how woefully inadequately our governments have prepared for something as lethal as Ebola.
In the flu pandemic of 1918-1920 28% of Americans were infected with the disease…try to remember I am talking numbers here not HOW disease spreads or any medical similarities between diseases, 625,000 Americans lost their lives out of some 29,400,000 infections. The population of the United States at that time was 105,000,000 people. (source)
Fast forward to today. If that flu pandemic had hit the United States in 2014, when the population stands at 317,000,000 people 88,760,000 people would have been infected and 2,130,240 of them would have died.
Now, let’s try this with Ebola. I have picked Liberia just because it is in the news due to the Thomas Duncan case.
Liberia has a population of 4,290,000 people, as of the latest figures there have been 3692 cases of Ebola, this represents 0.0086% of the population.Of those infections, 1998 people have died that’s a fatality rate of 54%. (source)
If that same infection and death rate were applied to the United States Ebola would infect 269,000 people and of those 156,281 would die.
Now, if as doctors and scientists fear the basic reproduction rate rises to 2 in Liberia the numbers change very quickly. Using the mean average incubation time of 9 days it would take around 13 weeks for the entire population of Liberia to become infected. (10 doublings starting with 3692 = just under the population of Liberia. This multiplied by 9 days gives us 90 days which divided by 7 gives 12.85 weeks.) Of the 4,290,000 people infected 2,316,000 would lose their lives.
This is just Liberia, not the other affected countries in West Africa.
Translated to an equivalent outbreak in the United States, where the basic reproduction rate is also 2, the numbers are horrifying. Starting with patient zero it would take around 245 days, 35 weeks for every person in the United States to become infected. Of those 17,118,000 people would die. (27.17 doublings x 9 days = 245 days =35 weeks)
Please remember the figures for Liberia are pulled from the CDC website, the percentages are correct.
United States was based on exactly the same parameters as for Liberia…a like for like comparison.
The CDC could be spending their time educating people, advising people to stock up, get ready for the possibility of staying in their homes. Self imposed isolation, or if need be state imposed isolation, that may last for an extended time period may become a reality. They’re not doing it though are they? They are sprouting figures and applying them to West Africa, and they can’t even get that right. They are saying that there could be 1.4 deaths in West Africa in a worst case scenario. When actually applying the figures they supplied with some simple mathematics we can see that 1.4 million deaths is a gross understatement.
Even a basic reproduction rate of 1.7, the latest figure for Liberia it will only take around 30 weeks to get to the same point as the above scenario, over 2,000,000 dead.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that the UK government is any better, if anything they are worse, they don’t even try to do the maths. Most of them went to Eton (a very expensive school that churns out politicians) so it’s unlikely they would be capable of it even if they wanted to. You only have to look at our national finances to see they are no good at sums. They send out press briefings that there will be an emergency COBRA meeting, do you have any clue what that stands for? Let me enlighten you, Cabinet Office Briefing Room A. COBRA is not an emergency planning group, it’s an effing office.
Although I am loathed to say it, it’s time that our governments started worrying about the facilities at home rather than worrying about the facilities abroad. Stopping the disease in Africa does not mean we are out of the woods. There are so many unreported cases, people turned away from medica facilities in West Africa that nobody has the slightest idea how many cases of Ebola are actually out there. The porous borders of the region mean that people move around without the controls that are usually exercised in the west. There has to be a travel ban on non-US citizens entering the United States from these areas, the same applies from the UK.
Border control has to be improved in both countries if we have any hope of halting the spread of this terrible disease. The west is going to be the destination for anyone from Ebola hit areas that can afford to make their way from Africa. Many West Africans have contacts in the west who will help them get out, and shelter them when they arrive. As harsh as it seems this has to be stopped, it’s time for governments to put their own citizens first. Repatriation of your own is one thing, risking millions of lives at home because you won’t man up and prevent foreigners entering is quite another.
http://undergroundmedic.com/?p=6990#sthash.wfb8elnm.dpuf
The Ebola Outbreak in West Africa
Samuel Aranda for The New York Times
Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone have been struggling since March to stop what has become the largest Ebola outbreak ever recorded. The disease is causing widespread fear and disruption in West Africa, and shows no signs of being brought under control.
CHRONOLOGY OF COVERAGE
Spain’s ad hoc, improvisational response to citizens infected by Ebola virus and brought back to the country underscores holes in West’s readiness to confront wider outbreak; cases of Ebola in Spain have raised urgent questions about risks of disease spreading even in developed countries, particularly among health care workers. MORE
Doctors Without Borders criticizes lack of reliable evacuation systems from West Africa, saying that more would volunteer to fight Ebola in region if it were not so difficult to leave in case of emergency; cites fact that it took 50 hours to evacuate French nurse to Paris after she tested positive for virus. MORE
Bellevue Hospital is designated as center for treatment of the Ebola virus should it emerge in New York City; announcement comes amid widespread concerns that disease may not be so easily contained by every hospital that has an isolation unit. MORE
World Health Organization warns new cases of Ebola virus could reach 10,000 a week in West Africa by December, nearly 10 times the current rate; reports none of the three most heavily affected countries, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, are adequately prepared for epidemic; comments come in report before the United Nations Security Council, which voices fear that epidemic could renew the risk of political instability in a region barely recovering from civil war.MORE
Dr Thomas R Frieden, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director, acknowledges for first time that quicker and more concerted action on agency’s part might have kept Dallas nurse from contracting Ebola virus; says agency plans a more robust response to any future Ebola cases in American hospitals. MORE
Frank Bruni Op-Ed column contends other, more common ailments deserve more concern and attention in United States than Ebola; points out influenza kills between 3,000 and 50,000 Americans per year, and skin cancer kills 10,000 per year; lists other common, and much-researched, illnesses that Americans should vaccinate and protect themselves against. MORE
Jere Longman On Soccer column examines plight of SIerra Leone’s national soccer team, caught amid self-destructive feud between nation’s soccer federation and sports ministry; observes that team was already exhausted from playing road-only games due to Ebola outbreak. MORE
Transmission of Ebola virus to Dallas nurse Nina Pham forces Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to reconsider its approach to containing the disease; state and federal officials are re-examining whether equipment and procedures are adequate or too loosely followed, and whether more decontamination steps are necessary when health workers leave isolation units. MORE
Experience of Emory University Hospital in Atlanta in caring for three Ebola patients calls into question oft repeated assurances from federal health officials that most American hospitals can safely treat disease; transmission of virus to Dallas nurse Nina Pham has also raised questions about general level of preparedness in hospitals around the country; medical experts have begun to suggest it may be better to transfer patients to designated centers with expertise in treating Ebola. MORE
Public health concerns about Ebola virus have spread to both political parties, which are engaged in finger-pointing debate that could jar midterm elections; Republicans blame the Obama administration for failing to protect the United States, and Democrats are saying it is GOP budget cutting that has put Americans at risk. MORE
Experts rule out notion that Ebola virus has become a super-pathogen and raise doubts that it will evolve into one; say virus is not fundamentally different from those in previous outbreaks dating back to 1976, and it is highly unlikely that natural selection will give it ability to spread more easily, particularly by becoming airborne. MORE
Friends of Dallas nurse Nina Pham describe the 26-year-old, part of the team that treated Thomas Eric Duncan, as conscientious and caring, and from a very private family. MORE
Editorial warns effort to combat the Ebola virus in Western Africa is lagging dangerously behind; contends the international community must dramatically step up aid if epidemic is to be controlled; holds obligation is particularly strong for the United Sates as it faces first case of patient who contracted the virus domestically. MORE
Sierra Leone’s national soccer team is enduring a series of demeaning and discouraging indignities since outbreak of Ebola in West Africa; team is barred from playing in its own stricken country and it must play every match on the road as it struggles to qualify for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, continent’s biennial championship. MORE
World Bank president Dr Jim Yong Kim, frustrated with slow global response to Ebola outbreak, has made fighting epidemic his mission, driving bank to act on Ebola with uncharacteristic speed; bank has committed $400 million to fighting disease. MORE
The topic everyone on Wall Street is discussing urgently but quietly isn’t the volatile stock market. It is Ebola. MORE
News that a nurse at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital has contracted Ebola virus transforms part of Dallas into scene of concern and contamination; residents in victim’s neighborhood are filled with anxiety, while hazardous-materials crews scramble to clean her apartment building. MORE
Nurse at Texas Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas becomes first person to contract Ebola within United States; development prompts local, state and federal officials to scramble to determine how she became infected, despite wearing protective gear, and to monitor others potentially at risk; news further stokes fears among health care workers across country. MORE
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say agency will take new steps to help hospital workers protect themselves, providing more training and urging hospitals to practice dealing with potential Ebola patients. MORE
Op-Ed article by Prof Siddhartha Mukherjee contends Ebola case of Thomas Eric Duncan in Dallas shows that medical community must rethink concept of quarantine, in light of the absence of any established anti-viral treatment; calls for development of pilot program for rapid-testing quarantine. MORE
Liberian Army has suddenly become linchpin in fight against Ebola virus rampaging the country; for decades, Liberians viewed the armed forces with fear due to atrocities committed during civil war. MORE
Doctors Without Borders, first to respond to Ebola crisis in West Africa, remains primary international medical aid group battling disease there; strained and overworked charity has erected six treatment centers in West Africa, with plans for more, and has treated the majority of patients, just as they have in previous Ebola outbreaks and some other epidemics in the developing world. MORE
Health workers at International Medical Corps treatment center in Liberia face dilemma of how to care for newborn whose mother may have died of Ebola; many health workers have contracted Ebola while attending to births and being exposed to blood and other body fluids, provoking fears of providing maternity care; doctors speculate that Ebola can be transmitted from mother to baby (Series: The Ebola Ward). MORE
Britain says it will introduce measures at airports and rail terminals to screen passengers from affected countries as concerns over Ebola grow in Europe. MORE
Presidents of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, nations most affected by the Ebola outbreak, implore world leaders to increase their support to fight the disease; speak at meeting of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in Washington. MORE
Nebraska Biocontainment Patient Care Unit in Omaha, with arrival of two Ebola patients in last six weeks, is at forefront of the nation’s response to the disease; unit’s 10 beds sat empty for years. MORE
Dallas officials say Sgt Michael Monnig, local shefiff’s deputy examined for possible infection with Ebola virus, has tested negative and is sent home from hospital; many in city remain uneasy. MORE
Thomas Eric Duncan dies of Ebola in Dallas, renewing questions about whether delay in receiving treatment could have played a role in his death and what role it played in the possibility of his spreading the disease to others; it remains unclear why, and how, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital did not initially view the Liberian man as a potential Ebola case; nearly 50 people who came into contact with Duncan when he was experiencing active symptoms are being monitored. MORE
Federal health officials will require temperature checks for the first time at five major American airports for people arriving from three West African countries hardest hit by Ebola epidemic; however, health experts say measures are more likely to calm worried public than to prevent people with Ebola from entering country; move comes after death of Thomas Eric Duncan, Liberian man who was the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States. MORE
Bellevue Hospital Center in Manhattan shows off its isolation rooms and its leave-no-skin-cell-uncovered precautions in an attempt to reassure New Yorkers that should the Ebola virus arrive in the city, its premier public hospital could handle it. MORE
European leaders are scrambling to upgrade their response to Ebola crisis after Pres Obama’s announcement that he will send 3,000 troops to West Africa to build hospitals and otherwise help in fight against the disease. MORE
Spanish health officials explain how auxiliary nurse Maria Teresa Romero Ramos became the first Ebola case in Western Europe, saying that it was likely she became infected when she touched her face with the gloves she had worn while tending to a Spanish missionary with Ebola at a Madrid hospital. MORE
Dog named Excalibur who belonged to Ebola-infected nurse Maria Teresa Romero Ramos is destroyed by Spanish health officials, even as protesters and animal rights activists surround Madrid home of the nurse and her husband; online petition calling for dog’s life to be spared drew hundreds of thousands of signatures. MORE
Editorial notes new screening procedures directed at travelers entering United States from Guinea, Liberia or Sierra Leone, center of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa; holds screenings, while burdensome and possibly of little practical value, may ease public anxieties about keeping virus out of country and assure people that risks are being minimized. MORE
Schedule for a single day at newly opened Ebola treatment center in Suakoko, Liberia, run by International Medical Corps charity, offers portrait of efforts to halt spread of virus; center is both ordinary and otherwordly, where health workers tend to those infected and those quarantined while awaiting test results (Series: The Ebola Ward).MORE
Spain’s government comes under heavy criticism for its handling of Western Europe’s first Ebola case, as health care workers argue that they have not been given proper training or equipment to handle the disease; government quarantines three more people and monitors dozens who had come into contact with infected nurse. MORE
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scrambles to address concerns from health workers nationwide as anxiety mounts over Ebola virus; agency has scheduled two nationwide conference calls, but has so far not changed its recommendations on protective gear.MORE
Doctors report first positive signs in recovery of Thomas Eric Duncan, Liberian man battling Ebola virus in Dallas hospital; Duncan’s temperature and blood pressure have normalized, though he remains on a ventilator and is still receiving kidney dialysis. MORE
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials promise additional measures to screen airline passengers arriving in United States for Ebola virus; remain opposed to draconian travel restrictions such as outright bans, saying that they would cause more problems than they would solve. MORE
Nurse in Spain becomes first health worker to be infected with Ebola virus outside West Africa, raising serious concerns about how prepared Western nations are to safely treat people with the deadly illness; nurse contracted the illness while treating a Spanish missionary who was infected in Sierra Leone and flown to Madrid, where he died; infection exposes weak spots in Spain’s highly praised health care defense systems. MORE
Adel Faqih, Saudi Arabia’s acting health minister, says this year’s hajj has been free of Ebola and other contagious diseases like Middle East Respiratory Syndrome because of measures taken to protect more than two million Muslim pilgrims. MORE
Pres Obama says screening for Ebola virus at airports both in the United States and West Africa will increase, but does not offer specifics; Dallas residents remain on edge as they await to learn if those who came into contact with Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan became infected. MORE
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/e/ebola/index.html
The Pronk Pops Show 348, October 14, 2014, Story 1: Stop The Ebola Illegal Alien Invasion/Pandemic — Secure The U.S./Mexican Border — Videos
Posted on October 14, 2014. Filed under: Addiction, American History, Biology, Blogroll, Chemistry, College, Communications, Constitutional Law, Crime, Disasters, Diseases, Drugs, Ebola, Ebola, Ebola, Economics, Education, Employment, Federal Government, Food, Foreign Policy, Gangs, Government, Government Dependency, Government Spending, Health Care, History, Housing, Illegal Drugs, Illegal Immigration, Immigration, Impeachment, Law, Legal Drugs, Media, Medical, Medicine, National Security Agency, Philosophy, Photos, Politics, Private Sector Unions, Public Sector Unions, Radio, Regulation, Resources, Scandals, Science, Security, Success, Taxes, Technology, Terror, Unemployment, Unions, Videos, Violence, War, Wealth, Weapons, Weapons of Mass Destruction, Wisdom | Tags: 30-50 Million Illegal Aliens in United States, Airborne Ebola Virus, Ebola, Ebola Dallas Strain, Illegal Aliens, Judge Jeanine Pirro, Legal Immigration, Marine General Kelly, Pandemic, Spreading Disease Across America |
Story 1: Stop The Ebola Illegal Alien Invasion/Pandemic — Secure The U.S./Mexican Border — Videos
USA Invaded by Central America….
After Armageddon (when deadly virus strikes)
SOMETHING ‘NEVER SEEN BEFORE’ IS COMING TO AMERICA (GLOBAL PANDEMIC)
Judge Jeanine Pirro – Hidden Danger? – Could Illegal Immigrant Kids Bring Diseases To U.S.?
Obama Triggers a Massive Surge of Illegal Immigrant Children(90,000!)
Reporters Confront U.S. Border Patrol Over Illegal Immigration Stand-Down
Pestilence : Illegal Aliens bringing serious diseases across the U.S. Border (Aug 01, 2014)
immigrants bring in serious, contagious diseases
PJTV – Illegal Immigrants Being Illegally Dumped in Arizona…Illegally
Gen. Kelly at University of South Florida
The Pronk Pops Show 346, October 9, 2014, Story 1: Airborne Ebola Dallas Strain Spreading — Pandemic Starts — Close United States Borders To All Travelers From Ebola Infected Epidemic Countries — Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Nigeria — Quarantine Suspected Cases in BioSafety Level 4 Containment Unit Hospital Bed — Videos
Posted on October 9, 2014. Filed under: American History, Blogroll, Business, Constitutional Law, Disasters, Drugs, Ebola, Ebola, Employment, Foreign Policy, Genocide, Government Dependency, Government Spending, Health Care, Health Care Insurance, History, Housing, Illegal Immigration, Immigration, Impeachment, Insurance, Law, Media, Medicine, Philosophy, Photos, Politics, Scandals, Social Science, Technology, Terror, Unemployment, Videos, Violence, Wealth | Tags: 22 Biosafety Level 4 Hospital Beds in United States, 9 October 2014, Airborne Ebola, Biolevel 4 Hospital Beds, Center for Disease Control (CDC), Credibility, Ebola, Lies, Nebraska Medical Center Biocontainment Unit, Pandemic, Propaganda, Public Health, Safety, True, Trust |
Story 1: Airborne Ebola Dallas Strain Spreading — Pandemic Starts — Close United States Borders To All Travelers From Ebola Infected Epidemic Countries — Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Nigeria — Quarantine Suspected Cases in BioSafety Level 4 Containment Unit Hospital Bed — Videos
Story 1: Airborne Ebola Dallas Strain Spreading — Pandemic Starts — Close United States To All Travelers From Ebola Infected Epidemic Countries — Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Nigeria — Quarantine Suspected Cases in BioSafety Level 4 Hospital Bed Only Videos
News Wrap: CDC announces new Ebola screening procedures
Airborne Ebola Has Been Here Since The 80’s
U.S. General: Troops Fighting Ebola Will Be Safe
Pandemic Influenza Preparedness and Response Policy: Combating H1N1 – M G Philip K. Russell
Major General Philip K. Russell, (USA, Ret.), MD, served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps from 1959 to 1990, pursuing a career in infectious disease and tropical medicine research. Following his training in internal medicine, he assumed a succession of research assignments at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and overseas laboratories in Pakistan, Thailand, and Vietnam. He conducted laboratory and clinical research on a variety of viral and parasitic infectious diseases, including dengue, malaria, hepatitis, and respiratory viruses. As commander of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command, he spearheaded a major effort to increase the capability of the armed forces to defend against biological agents. Russell has served on numerous advisory boards of national and international agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control, the Institute of Medicine, the International Vaccine Institute, and the Albert B. Sabin Vaccine Institute. Following the anthrax attacks in 2001, Russell led a Department of Health and Human Services effort to develop and stockpile vaccines and other medical countermeasures against bioterrorism agents.
Health Alert! Ebola Victims Without Symptoms Can Still Be Contagious!
Hospital officials announce Neb. Med Center will treat Ebola patient
At a news conference Thursday, Nebraska Medical Center officials said the Omaha facility will be treating an American doctor who has contracted the Ebola virus. Subscribe to KETV on YouTube now for more: http://bit.ly/1emyaD5
CDC Expects to MEDEVAC 3 Ebola Scientists per Month
Top 5: Facts you didn’t know about the Ebola virus
The Fight Against Ebola (Part 1/3)
PBS Frontline 2014 – Ebola Outbreak ( Documentaries Full Length )
What’s the worst-case scenario if Ebola can’t be slowed?
Ebola virus disease (full documentary)
Ebola virus disease (EVD) or Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF) is the human disease caused by the Ebola virus. Symptoms typically start two days to three weeks after contracting the virus, with a fever, sore throat, muscle pains, and headaches. Typically nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea follow, along with decreased functioning of the liver and kidneys. At this point, some people begin to have bleeding problems.[1]
The virus may be acquired upon contact with blood or bodily fluids of an infected animal (commonly monkeys or fruit bats).[1] Spread through the air has not been documented in the natural environment.[2] Fruit bats are believed to carry and spread the virus without being affected. Once human infection occurs, the disease may spread between people as well. Male survivors may be able to transmit the disease via semen for nearly two months. In order to make the diagnosis, typically other diseases with similar symptoms such as malaria, cholera and other viral hemorrhagic fevers are first excluded. To confirm the diagnosis blood samples are tested for viral antibodies, viral RNA, or the virus itself.[1]
Prevention includes decreasing the spread of disease from infected monkeys and pigs to humans. This may be done by checking such animals for infection and killing and properly disposing of the bodies if the disease is discovered. Properly cooking meat and wearing protective clothing when handling meat may also be helpful, as are wearing protective clothing and washing hands when around a person with the disease. Samples of bodily fluids and tissues from people with the disease should be handled with special caution.[1]
There is no specific treatment for the disease; efforts to help persons who are infected include giving either oral rehydration therapy (slightly sweet and salty water to drink) or intravenous fluids.[1] The disease has high mortality rate: often killing between 50% and 90% of those infected with the virus.[1][3] EVD was first identified in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The disease typically occurs in outbreaks in tropical regions of Sub-Saharan Africa.[1] From 1976 (when it was first identified) through 2013, fewer than 1,000 people per year have been infected.[1][4] The largest outbreak to date is the ongoing 2014 West Africa Ebola outbreak, which is affecting Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria.[5][6] As of August 2014 more than 1750 suspected cases have been reported.[7] Efforts are ongoing to develop a vaccine; however, none yet exists.[
Mathematical Model Shows How Ebola Will Spread: “Worse Case Scenario… An Extinction Event”
Ebola Rolls Out Exactly As Predicted
Rev Jesse Jackson in Dallas to help Ebola patient
The Secret Ebola Open Border Connection Revealed: Special Report
Guns, Germs, and Steel: Out of Eden | National Geographics Documentary
Jared Diamond – Guns, Germs, & Steel | London Real
How Would A Global Pandemic Really Happen?
Fighting To Contain Sierra Leone’s Ebola Epidemic
South Park “Gluten Free Ebola!” (Full Episode) Season 18 Episode 2
Please remember the figures for Liberia are pulled from the CDC website, the percentages are correct. The scenario for the United States was based on exactly the same parameters as for Liberia…a like for like comparison.
Biocontainment Unit
The United States Centers for Disease Control commissioned the Nebraska Biocontainment Patient Care Unit in 2005. It is a joint project involving The Nebraska Medical Center, Nebraska Health and Human Services, and the University of Nebraska Medical Center. It was designed to provide the first line of treatment for people affected by bio terrorism or extremely infectious naturally occurring diseases. It’s the largest facility of its kind in the U.S. The unit is equipped to safely care for anyone exposed to a highly contagious and dangerous disease. Early isolation of an infected patient is essential – buying time for public health officials and providing the chance to either stop an outbreak – or help to contain one. The unit’s location, on the same campus as Nebraska’s Bio-Safety Level-3 laboratory, allows for timely diagnosis and immediate treatment of patients.
The Nebraska Biocontainment Patient Care Unit has ten beds and can receive patients from anywhere in the country, and is equipped with many safety features. Examples include special air handling systems to ensure that micro-organisms do not spread beyond the patient rooms, with high level filtration and ultraviolet light for additional protection. A dunk tank for laboratory specimens and a pass-through autoclave help assure that hazardous infections are contained. Hepa-filtered individual isolation units, sometimes called biopods are available for safe transport and transfer of an infected patient to the unit.
The staff all receives specialized training and participates in numerous drills throughout the year. The entire unit is specially isolated from the rest of the hospital, using its own ventilation system and security access.
Headed by Medical Director Philip Smith, MD, an infectious diseases specialist, the Biocontainment Unit is staffed with registered nurses, respiratory therapists and patient care technicians who are on-call 24 hours a day. Highly contagious and deadly infectious conditions the unit can handle include: SARS, smallpox, tularemia, plague, Ebola virus and other viral hemorrhagic fevers, monkeypox, vancomycin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (VRSA) and multidrug resistant tuberculosis.
The unit is equipped with special air-handling systems to ensure that germs do not spread beyond the patient rooms. Ultraviolet light, a dunk tank for lab specimens and a sterilizer for laundry are just some of the safety measures being taken to keep germs inside the unit and people safe on the outside.
http://www.nebraskamed.com/biocontainment-unit
Biosafety and Biocontainment FAQs
What is biosafety (general)?
A general definition of “biosafety” encompasses the practices, procedures, and use of equipment needed to ensure adequate safety conditions in all facilities that work with potentially infectious microorganisms and other biological hazards. These include health care settings, clinical and diagnostic laboratories that handle human clinical samples, veterinary facilities that work with animal tissue samples, biological research laboratories, and teaching laboratories. All of these facilities must seek to reduce the risks associated with handling potential biological hazards by employing a continuous process of hazard recognition, risk assessment, and hazard mitigation.
What is laboratory biosafety?
“Laboratory biosafety” refers to the application of combinations of laboratory practices and procedures, laboratory facilities, safety equipment, and appropriate occupational health programs to mitigate the risks associated with handling potentially infectious microorganisms and other biological hazards (biohazards). [1] The key principles of laboratory biosafety are hazard recognition, risk assessment, and hazard mitigation, including appropriate biocontainment.
What is laboratory biocontainment?
“Laboratory biocontainment” [2] refers to the primary and secondary physical containment barriers in a facility such as contained dressing and shower rooms, sealed service penetrations, specialized doors, entry and exit avenues to prevent cross-contamination, specialized air handling systems for contamination control, personal protective equipment, biosafety cabinets, etc. Current biosafety and biocontainment practices and procedures are designed to reduce the exposure of laboratory personnel, the public, agriculture, and the environment to potentially hazardous biological agents.
What are biohazards?
Biohazards (biological hazards) are infectious agents or other hazardous biologic materials that present a risk or potential risk to the health of humans, animals, or the environment. The risk can be direct through infection or indirect through damage to the environment. Biohazards include certain types of recombinant DNA; organisms and viruses infectious to humans, animals, or plants (e.g., parasites, viruses, bacteria, fungi, prions, and rickettsia); and biologically active agents (e.g., toxins, allergens, and venoms) that can cause disease in other living organisms or cause significant impact to the environment or community.[3]
What are biosafety levels?
“Biosafety levels” (BSLs) are designations of laboratories in ascending order based on the degree of risk associated with the work being conducted. The designations BSL-1, BSL-2, BSL-3, and BSL-4 [4] are for work with human and zoonotic pathogens (disease-causing organisms that arise in animals but can be transmitted to humans), and are based on the utilization of combinations of engineering controls, facility design, safe work practices, and safety equipment. Each combination is specifically appropriate for the operations performed, the documented or suspected routes of transmission of the infectious agents, and the laboratory function or activity. The assignment of a BSL to a particular work process or research protocol is made through protocol-driven risk assessment so that potential hazards specific to the work can be identified and mitigated effectively. (The “BSL” term for laboratory designation does not apply to plant pathogens. However, plant pathogens are typically contained in laboratories and greenhouse facilities with containment features similar to those described for BSL-1, BSL-2 and BSL-3 laboratories).
Why are biocontainment laboratories that work with biohazards important?
The need for strategies and products to protect public health and agriculture in the event of a natural emergency, man-made biological incident, or act of bioterrorism has resulted in the growth of federally funded research programs to protect public health and agriculture. Products developed to protect human health are called medical countermeasures; they include diagnostics, treatments, and vaccines.[5] Critical to the increased need for research on medical countermeasures is the necessity of developing a nationwide system of infrastructure that supports the research enterprise. Important components of this infrastructure are research laboratories that can safely work with biohazards under the appropriate BSL designation.
What do the terms high and maximum containment mean?
“High and maximum containment” is a term used to describe BSL-3 and BSL-4 laboratories and equivalent containment facilities, i.e., animal facility/vivarium ABSL-3 and ABSL-4, and biosafety level-3 agricultural (BSL-3-Ag) facilities. More specifically, “high containment” refers to BSL-3 and equivalent containment facilities, whereas “maximum containment” refers to BSL-4 and equivalent containment facilities. The research activities that occur in high and maximum containment facilities include studies of hazardous pathogens that infect humans, zoonotic agents, toxins, and a range of agricultural pathogens, which include foreign and emerging agricultural agents that can infect livestock and crops. Some documents use the term “high containment” to refer to both BSL-3 and BSL-4 facilities.
What is biorisk?
“Biorisk” is the combination of the likelihood of the occurrence of an adverse event involving exposure to biological agents and toxins, and the consequence (in terms of accidental infection, toxicity or allergy or unauthorized access, loss, theft, misuse, diversion or release of biological agents) of such an exposure.
What is a laboratory biorisk management system?
A “laboratory biorisk management system” is a comprehensive strategy used to develop and implement an organization’s biorisk policy and manage its biorisks. It includes objectives for achieving an effective set of biosafety, biocontainment, and biosecurity policies; a set of interrelated elements used to establish those policies; and mechanisms to implement the policies (including for example, risk assessment, and identifying responsibilities, practices, procedures, processes, and resources).
How do laboratory biosafety and biocontainment relate to biorisk management?
Biosafety, biocontainment, and biosecurity are interrelated and necessary components of an effective laboratory biorisk management system. The term “biosecurity” denotes the protection of hazardous biological agents, including toxins, from loss, theft, diversion, or intentional misuse (see Biosecurity FAQ). Good biosafety and biocontainment practices contribute to effective laboratory biosecurity, and the disciplines of biosafety, biocontainment, and biosecurity are complementary in many aspects.
What is meant by a culture of safety and responsibility in the laboratory?
A culture of safety and responsibility in the laboratory helps ensure safe, responsible behaviors and practices. Individual and organizational attitudes about safety and responsibility will influence all aspects of laboratory practice, including the willingness to report concerns, response to incidents, and communication of risk. Every organization should strive to develop a culture of safety and responsibility that is open and non-punitive, encourages questions, and is willing to be self-critical. Persons and organizations must be committed to safety and responsibility, be aware of risks, behave in ways that enhance safety, and be adaptable. Scientists understand that laboratory practices should be refined as observations are made, hypotheses tested, findings published, and technical progress achieved. As laboratory workers gain more knowledge about how to recognize and control biohazards, the level of risk that is considered acceptable should become smaller, with the goal of moving continuously to eliminate or reduce risk to the lowest reasonably achievable level.
Laboratory workers have the responsibility to report concerns to management and the right to express concerns without fear of reprisal. Similarly, management has the responsibility to address concerns that are raised. A continuous process of biohazard recognition, risk assessment, and biohazard mitigation practices ensures that management and laboratory workers are aware of risks, and work together to maintain the highest standard of safety and responsibility.[6]
What Federal Government entities are responsible for oversight of laboratory biosafety and biocontainment?
The Federal entities that have primary regulatory oversight responsibility for facilities that possess, use, or transfer biohazards are:
Department of Labor (DOL), Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
HHS Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS; see Animal Health). USDA/APHIS works in a variety of ways to oversee, protect, and improve the health, quality, and marketability of animals (including various wildlife), animal products, and veterinary biologics.
USDA/APHIS Plant Protection and Quarantine (USDA/APHIS/PPQ; see Plant Health). USDA/APHIS/PPQ
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» Survey on Information and Communication Technology
2015 Survey on Information and Communication Technology - Non-Core ICT Industries - Final Results
This Special Release presents the final results of the 2015 Survey on Information and Communication Technology (SICT) for the non-core ICT industries. All sectors under the 2009 Philippine Standard Industrial Classification (PSIC) were classified as non-core ICT industries, except information and communication sector, and some industries in manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, and other service activities, which are classified under the core ICT industries.
The final results of the 2015 SICT conducted in 2016, showed that there were 34,065 establishments in the non-core ICT industries. This was slightly higher by 0.6 percent from the 33,852 establishments reported in 2013.
Ninety-six percent of establishments use computer and other hardware; nine in ten establishments report internet access through computer
Of the total establishments in the non-core ICT industries, 96.1 percent used computer and other hardware in their business operations. This was 0.4 percentage points higher than the 95.7 percent reported usage in 2013.
All the establishments under the following sectors reported to have used computers and other hardware in their business operations:
Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply
Water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities
However, those engaged in agriculture, forestry and fishing had the lowest usage of computers and other hardware at 84.2 percent.
Nine in every ten establishments in the non-core ICT industries (93.4%) reported having internet access in 2015.
Furthermore, all establishments belonged to sectors with 100.0 percent usage of computers and other hardware had internet access in 2015, except education (98.5%). Agriculture, forestry and fishing also reported the least percentage of establishments with internet access (69.2%).
Forty-two percent of employees use computer routinely at work while 34.0 percent routinely use computer with internet connection at work
At the national level, 42.0 percent of the total employees in the non-core ICT industries used computer routinely at work in 2015. This was 6.6 percentage points higher compared with the 35.4 percent reported in 2013. Among non-core ICT sectors, financial and insurance activities had the highest percentage of employees routinely using computer at work (77.2%). Agriculture, forestry and fishing had the lowest percentage at 13.1 percent.
Moreover, 34.5 percent of the total employees in the non-core ICT industries used computer with internet access routinely at work, higher by 6.0 percentage points compared with the 28.5 percent recorded in 2013. Of the 17 sectors, only two reported less than 10.0 percent of employees using computer with internet access routinely at work. These were arts, entertainment and recreation (9.1%), and agriculture, forestry and fishing (8.6%).
About one-third of establishments maintain website
Presence of a website was reported by 32.8 percent of the total establishments in the non-core ICT industries. Among the sectors, water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities had the highest percentage of establishments with website at 73.7 percent. Agriculture, forestry and fishing reported the lowest (5.9%).
More than 14 percent of establishments utilize the internet for business
E-commerce is the process of buying or selling of goods and services through internet protocol-based network. E-commerce via the internet was reported by 14.2 percent of the total establishments, slightly lower than 14.4 percent reported in 2013.
By sector, water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities had the highest percentage of establishments with e-commerce transaction via internet at 33.6 percent. This was followed by human health and social work activities, and accommodation and food service at 25.3 percent and 25.1 percent, respectively. On the other hand, education and other service activities had no e-commerce transaction via internet in 2015.
E-commerce can also be undertaken through computer networks other than the internet. Use of this medium was 4.9 percent in 2015, 1.6 percentage points lower than the reported usage of 6.5 percent in 2013. Water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities had the highest percentage of establishments with e-commerce transactions through computer networks other than the internet at 13.3 percent. This was followed by administrative and support service activities, and professional, scientific and technical activities at 8.7 percent and 7.8 percent, respectively. On the contrary, the following sectors did not report any e-commerce transactions via computer networks other than the internet:
Figure 1 shows the percentage of establishments in the non-core ICT industries with e-commerce transactions via the internet and other computer networks.
One in every four establishments does business through mobile phone
Cellular mobile phone is another medium that can be used in doing business. About 24.2 percent of the total establishments in the non-core ICT industries used mobile phones in their business transactions. By sector, mining and quarrying registered the highest percentage at 37.8 percent while education reported the least at 7.0 percent.
About 47.0 percent of establishments used internet to share or distribute information within the establishment
The internet was also used by establishments in the non-core ICT industries for the following activities:
Sharing or distribution of information within the establishment (46.9%)
Finance accounting and auditing (44.3%)
Obtaining information from other organizations (44.1%)
Sharing or distribution of information with other organization (37.2%)
Internal or external recruitment (38.2%)
Staff training (29.2%)
Internet is used extensively in transacting with government organizations
Establishments also used the internet in transacting with government agencies. About 81.0 percent of the total establishments in the non-core ICT industries used the internet to obtain information from government organizations in 2015. The following sectors reported more than 90.0 percent usage of internet in obtaining information from government organizations:
Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply (99.6%)
Water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities (97.7%)
Mining and quarrying (95.9%)
Transportation and storage (94.1%)
Education (93.4%)
Approximately 81.3 percent of the establishments used the internet for downloading or requesting government forms. Among the sectors, only establishments engaged in water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities reported 100.0 percent utilization of internet for downloading or requesting government forms. On the other hand, other service activities registered the lowest percentage at 62.7 percent.
Completing forms on-line or sending completed forms (71.0%) was the third activity mostly done by establishments with internet access. Sector-wise, electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply had the highest percentage of 88.9 percent. This was followed by water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities at 87.3 percent. Meanwhile, three sectors reported less than 60.0 percent usage of internet for this type of activity, these were:
Arts, entertainment and recreation (58.3%)
Other service activities (57.9%)
Accommodation and food service (57.1%)
The percentage of establishments which used internet for making on-line payments to government corporations was 55.3 percent. Across sectors, construction (74.0%) registered the highest percentage, followed by mining and quarrying (69.8%), and professional, scientific and technical activities (68.8%).
The 2015 Survey on Information and Communication Technology (SICT) is the sixth in the series of SICT conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). It is a rider to the 2015 Annual Survey of Philippine Business and Industry (ASPBI) conducted in 2016.
Objective of the Survey
The 2015 SICT aims to collect and generate information on the availability, distribution and access/utilization of ICT among establishments in the country.
Specifically, the survey aims to measure the following:
component of ICT resources and their utilization by establishments
diffusion of ICT into establishments from various sources
e-commerce transactions from data on e-commerce sales/revenue and purchases
cellular mobile phone business transactions from data on sales/revenue
estimate of the number of ICT workers in establishments
methods of disposal of ICT equipment
Uses of the ICT Data
The results of the survey will be used in:
assessing the use of ICT resources by establishments and the available infrastructure
determining how establishments use the internet, including the activities for which it is used
determining web presence in establishments
determining the revenue generated through e-commerce transactions, and through cellular mobile phones
determining the methods of disposal of ICT equipment
Sampling Frame of Establishments
The sampling frame for the 2015 SICT, which was used to draw the sample establishments for the survey, was extracted from the 2015 List of Establishments (LE). Included in the sampling frame for SICT survey were those establishments confined to the formal sector. The formal sector comprised the following:
Corporations and partnerships
Cooperatives and foundations
Single proprietorship with employment of 10 and over
Single proprietorship with branches
The initial estimate of the 2015 LE showed that there were 909,726 establishments in operation in the country for the year. Of the total establishments in the formal sector, 223,821 establishments (86%) comprised the sampling frame for the 2015 SICT.
Unit of Enumeration
The unit of enumeration of the survey is the establishment. Establishment is an economic unit under a single ownership or control, i.e., under a single legal entity, engaged in one or predominantly one kind of activity at a single fixed location.
Scope and Coverage
The 2015 SICT is undertaken nationwide and covers all industries in the 2015 ASPBI. For the purpose of the survey, these industries are classified as core ICT industries and non-core ICT Industries.
All sectors under the 2009 PSIC are classified as non-core ICT industries except information and communication sector and some industries in manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, and other service activities, which are classified under the core ICT industries.
Sampling Design
The 2015 SICT utilized a stratified systematic sampling design with five-digit PSIC serving as first stratification variable (industry strata/domain) and employment size (Total Employment, TE) as the second stratification variable (employment strata).
There are only two employment strata used for the survey: Stratum 1 - TE of 20 and over, and Stratum 2 - TE of less than 20. For non-core ICT industries, only establishments under the first stratum is covered, except those establishments classified as Business Process Management (BPM) industries under the administrative and support service activities sector,which are completely covered, regardless of employment size.
Sample size and selection
The establishments classified in the non-core ICT industries and with total employment of 20 and over are covered on a 20 percent sampling basis for each of the industry domain at the national level. The minimum sample size is set to three establishments and maximum of 10 establishments per cell (industry domain). However, when the total number of establishments (N) in the cell is less than the set minimum sample size, all establishments in that cell are taken as samples.
A total of 3,886 samples were selected for the non-core ICT industries.
Geographic Domain
For 2015 SICT, the geographic domains for the core ICT and BPM industries are the regions; while the non-core ICT industries is at the national level.
Some indicators to be generated from the survey are as follows:
proportion of establishments using computer
proportion of employees using computers
proportion of establishments with internet connection
proportion of employees using the internet at work
proportion of establishments with Web presence
proportion of establishments with Intranet
proportion of establishments placing and receiving orders over the internet
proportion of establishments using the Internet by type of access and activity
proportion of establishments with LAN and Extranet
All information collected in the 2015 SICT refers to calendar year 2015, except for employment which is as of 15 November 2015.
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as defined by the Commission on Information and Communication Technology (CICT) is "the totality of electronic means to collect, store, process and present information to end-users in support of their activities". It consists, among others, of computer systems, office systems and consumer electronics, as well as network information infrastructure, the components of which include the telephone system, the Internet, fax machines and computers.
ICT Resources are equipment, knowledge and human resources used to support electronic business/manufacturing processes and the conduct of electronic commerce transactions. It includes computer and peripheral equipment, systems and application software, network channels, telecommunication equipment, routers, satellite and other ICT hardware used in electronic business and commerce transactions, ICT support services and ICT workers.
Network channel is a collection of computers connected to each other that allows them to communicate with each other, and share resources and information. All networks are made up of basic hardware building blocks to interconnect network nodes, such as Network Interface Cards (NICs), Bridges, Hubs, Switches, and Routers.
Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that interchange data by packet switching using the standardized Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP). It is a "network of networks" that consists of millions of private and public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope that are linked by copper wires, fiber-optic cables, wireless connections, and other technologies. The Internet carries various information resources and services, such as electronic mail, online chat, file transfer and file sharing, online gaming, and the inter-linked hypertext documents and other resources of the World Wide Web (WWW).
Intranet is a set of networks, using the Internet Protocol and IP-based tools such as web browsers and file transfer applications, that is, under the control of a single administrative entity. That administrative entity closes the intranet to all but specific, authorized users. Most commonly, an intranet is the internal network of an organization.
Extranet is a network or internetwork that is limited in scope to a single organization or entity but which also has limited connections to the networks of one or more other usually, but not necessarily, trusted organizations or entities (e.g. a company's customers may be given access to some part of its intranet creating in this way an extranet, while at the same time the customers may not be considered 'trusted' from a security standpoint).
Wide Area Network (WAN) is a computer network that covers a broad area (i.e., any network whose communications links cross metropolitan, regional, or national boundaries. Less formally, a WAN is a network that uses routers and public communications links. The largest and most well-known example of a WAN is the Internet. A WAN is a data communications network that covers a relatively broad geographic area (i.e. one city to another and one country to another country) and that often uses transmission facilities provided by common carriers, such as telephone companies.
Local Area Network (LAN) is a computer network covering a small physical area, like a home, office, or small group of buildings, such as a school, or an airport. Current LANs are most likely to be based on Ethernet technology. Each workgroup can get to its local printer. Note that the printers are not accessible from outside their workgroup.
E-commerce or electronic commerce refers to the sale of goods and services where an order is placed by the buyer, price and terms of sale are negotiated over the Internet Protocol-based networks, an extranet, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) network, or other on-line system.
Web site is a collection of Web pages, images, videos or other digital assets that is hosted on one or more web servers, usually accessible via the Internet. All publicly accessible websites are seen collectively as constituting the "World Wide Web". The pages of a website can usually be accessed from a common root URL called the homepage, and usually reside on the same physical server.
Table 1 Information and Communication Technology Indicators for Non-Core ICT Industries by Sector: Philippines, 2015 and 2013
Survey on Information and Communication Technology
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Home > Opinions > Call v. State Bar
Call v. State Bar
Call v. State Bar , 45 Cal.2d 104
[S. F. No. 19151. In Bank. Sept. 20, 1955.]
HARRISON W. CALL, Petitioner, v. STATE BAR OF CALIFORNIA, Respondent.
Harrison W. Call, in pro. per., and Anthony J. Kennedy, for Petitioner.
Jerome R. Lewis and Garrett H. Elmore for Respondent.
By this proceeding, petitioner seeks review of a recommendation of the Board of Governors of The State Bar that he be suspended from the practice of law for the period of one year.
Petitioner was admitted to practice law in this state in 1930. About the middle of May 1951 he was consulted by Lorenzo Crounse regarding the feasibility of contesting the will of Crounse's father, who had died in 1950 leaving an estate worth several hundred thousand dollars. The will bequeathed $10,000 to Crounse, the testator's only child, and contained a disinheritance clause under which any legatee or devisee who filed a contest was to receive $1.00 in lieu of his bequest or devise.
Crounse believed that his father had been subjected to duress and undue influence, and he employed petitioner about June 4, 1951, to undertake an investigation to determine whether or not the will should be contested. Crounse advanced $1,250 for this purpose, and he testified that he told petitioner at their first meeting that the will had been admitted to probate on January 12, 1951, and that he understood that a contest had to be filed within six months of that date, but petitioner replied that an heir could file at any time before distribution. Petitioner denied that Crounse ever mentioned such a limitation, and he testified that he made the "major blunder" of assuming that a contest could be filed at any time before distribution of the estate.
The six months' period for contesting the will (Prob. Code, § 380) expired on July 12, 1951, without a contest having been filed, and petitioner first discovered his error in March 1952. He then notified Crounse that it was too [45 Cal.2d 106] late to file a petition, apologized for his error and offered to reimburse Crounse for the moneys expended. Thereafter he refunded the $1,250 advanced for investigation and also paid the amount which Crounse estimated he had incurred for traveling and other expenses.
At the time petitioner was first consulted by Crounse he was attorney for a trade association, and his duties took him out of the state during most of 1951. On June 19, 1951, petitioner's secretary wrote to Crounse acknowledging receipt of two checks and stating that petitioner was expected to return from the East in about a week and that "In the meantime, the investigation is proceeding in your matter." Subsequently Crounse tried unsuccessfully to telephone petitioner and talked to the secretary, who, under date of August 20, sent Crounse a letter stating that petitioner had asked her to write outlining the status of the case, that he had been to Omaha, where the decedent had previously lived, and expected to return there, that they had not located a male nurse whose testimony they hoped to get and that "We have delayed filing until the search has been completed, as there is no haste necessary at present."
In October Crounse received a letter from petitioner's secretary saying that petitioner was away and that "everything was proceeding along O.K., and the investigation was going along as best as could be expected." When Crounse called in November, he found that the telephone had been disconnected, and in December he received a telegram from petitioner to the effect that petitioner had been ill and in Washington most of the summer, that he had hoped to accomplish a negotiated settlement and it "may yet be possible," that the investigator's report was "promising but not yet complete" and that the contest would be filed as "soon as investigator files complete report."
Crounse testified that on December 31 he sent petitioner a letter stating that he wanted to know the time limitation for contesting and also the progress which had been made on the case. He did not hear anything from petitioner until about the middle of January when he went to petitioner's office and was told that petitioner had an investigator, a former FBI man, working on the case who was just about to turn in his full report, that petitioner was going to make up the complaint and that Crounse should come back the next day to sign it. The complaint was not ready on the following day, and petitioner said he would mail it, but he [45 Cal.2d 107] did not do so. Under date of February 8, 1952, petitioner wrote Crounse to the effect that he was waiting "from day to day" for a final report from the investigator before filing the petition and that if it was not forthcoming within the next few days petitioner would forward the petition for signature but that he would like to have the report before making the filing. Not having received the petition by March 12, 1952, Crounse telephoned petitioner and was informed that petitioner had discovered his error as to the statute of limitations and that it was then too late to file a contest.
At the time Crounse first came to his office, petitioner had recently returned to practice after having been ill for three years with a heart disorder. Petitioner, who was then about to leave for Washington, D.C., discussed the matter with his secretary, gave her the names of certain investigators and instructed her to keep in touch with two attorneys who obtained for him a copy of the noncontest clause. He told her to deal with their office and to see if an investigator could be procured who would be willing to handle the investigation and give it proper time. Petitioner had these attorneys give him some information, and they made a "check" of the matter for him. Petitioner contacted the attorneys handling the probate to obtain information about the extent of the estate, the terms of the will and the contest clause, and to discover whether there was any likelihood of an offer of settlement. He had two or three talks with the attorney who drew the will to secure information about the estate and see if there was any basis for suspecting the testator's competency, and he was informed by this attorney that the testator had been competent and mentally capable.
A former member of the Highway Patrol was hired by petitioner as an investigator, and his reports to petitioner were made orally and mainly by telephone. The investigator learned that a doctor who treated the testator said that the testator was competent, and the investigator also talked to some relatives who furnished no support for a claim of incompetency. He went to a hospital and talked to a nurse, and he also talked at a bank and with some other people, but no evidence was located which would justify a contest. Petitioner was billed by the investigator, paid him a small amount and still owed the balance.
Petitioner made repeated efforts to reach the male nurse who had attended the testator and checked nurses lists and hospital lists but was unable to locate him. On two occasions [45 Cal.2d 108] while on trips to the East petitioner stopped briefly in Omaha seeking information about the testator, who had formerly lived in that city, and he made other inquiries but he was unable to find anything on which to base a case for incompetency or undue influence.
Concerning petitioner's error regarding the time for filing a contest, he testified that when he was first consulted by Crounse his library had not been unpacked after moving and he did not even have a code in the office, so he just relied on his belief. He stated that this was the "biggest blunder" he had ever made but that he assumed and was of the honest belief that he could file a contest at any time prior to distribution. He testified that he prepared a draft of a contest, but apparently it was not completed until shortly before he discovered that the time for filing had expired.
The local administrative committee recommended a public reprimand after concluding that petitioner had not discharged the duties of an attorney at law to the best of his ability and that he was guilty of gross negligence and carelessness amounting to moral turpitude. The Board of Governors adopted the findings of the local committee and recommended a suspension of one year. One of the findings was that the following representations made by petitioner to Crounse were untrue: That "the investigation is proceeding in your matter," that the "investigator's report is promising but not yet complete," that "he had an investigator, former FBI man, working on the case," who "was just about to turn in his full report," and that petitioner was "waiting from day to day for a final report from the investigator" before filing a petition. The committee further found that very little investigative work was done, that no report was ever made and that no charge was made by an investigator for services.
The record establishes without dispute that petitioner employed an investigator, that considerable investigative work was done, that reports were made from time to time and that a charge was made by the investigator for his services. The evidence is in conflict with respect to whether petitioner stated that the investigator was a former FBI man, as testified by Crounse, or whether petitioner told Crounse that the investigator was a former member of the Highway Patrol, but the discrepancy is immaterial. While there is nothing in the record which would support a representation that the "investigator's report is promising," it may be that petitioner received some information from the investigator which [45 Cal.2d 109] he then thought was "promising." In our opinion, the record will not support a finding that any material misrepresentation was made by petitioner to Crounse.
As we have seen, the board also concluded that petitioner was guilty of gross negligence and carelessness amounting to moral turpitude and that he had not discharged the duties of an attorney to the best of his ability. Since it has not been shown that petitioner was guilty of either intentional misrepresentation or wilful misconduct, the next question is whether discipline is warranted on the theory that petitioner's conduct amounted to negligence or gross negligence. Section 6106 of the Business and Professions Code provides that "The commission of any act involving moral turpitude, dishonesty or corruption ... constitutes a cause for disbarment or suspension." Section 6067 provides that every person on his admission to practice shall take an oath that he will faithfully discharge the duties of an attorney at law "to the best of his knowledge and ability," and section 6103 specifies as a ground for discipline "any violation of the oath taken by him, or of his duties as such attorney." [1] Negligence and gross negligence are not specified in these sections and apparently they do not come within the grounds stated unless the conduct involves moral turpitude or amounts to a violation of the attorney's oath or of his duties as an attorney. (See Friday v. State Bar, 23 Cal.2d 501, 505 [144 P.2d 564]; 1 Witkin, California Procedure (1954), 95 et seq.)
[2] The term moral turpitude includes fraud and has been said to mean dishonesty and conduct not in accordance with good morals; being based on moral guilt, it implies an intentional breach of the duty owed to a client as distinguished from an unintended failure to discharge his duties to the best of his ability. (In re Hallinan, 43 Cal.2d 243, 247-248 [272 P.2d 768]; Fall v. State Bar, 25 Cal.2d 149, 160 [153 P.2d 1]; Herron v. State Bar, 24 Cal.2d 53, 59-60 [147 P.2d 543]; In re Hatch, 10 Cal.2d 147, 151 [73 P.2d 885]; Lantz v. State Bar, 212 Cal. 213, 218-219 [298 P. 497]; Marsh v. State Bar, 210 Cal. 303, 307 [291 P. 583].) [3] Some cases have said that gross negligence involves moral turpitude in that such conduct is a breach of his fiduciary duty, but in each instance there was misrepresentation or other improper action, and the statements must be read in the light of the additional facts. (Stephens v. State Bar, 19 Cal.2d 580, 582-583 [122 P.2d 549] [false representations]; Trusty v. [45 Cal.2d 110] State Bar, 16 Cal.2d 550, 553-554 [107 P.2d 10] [misrepresentations]; Waterman v. State Bar, 8 Cal.2d 17, 20 [63 P.2d 1133] [habitual neglect and violation of Rules of Professional Conduct]; cf. Marsh v. State Bar, 210 Cal. 303, 306-307 [291 P. 583] [separate acts of negligence, together with some misrepresentation; suspension for one year].) The more recent cases have omitted reference to moral turpitude in discussing gross negligence but have held that such conduct warrants disciplinary action on the theory that the attorney has violated his oath. (Lowe v. State Bar, 40 Cal.2d 564, 570 [254 P.2d 506]; Clark v. State Bar, 39 Cal.2d 161, 174 [246 P.2d 1].)
In other cases discipline has been imposed where there was negligent conduct which was not declared to be gross negligence, but in most, if not all, instances there was also misrepresentation or other improper conduct. (Herron v. State Bar, 24 Cal.2d 53, 60-62 [147 P.2d 543] [disbarment where failure to make oral argument on appeal, failure to protect client's interest in quiet title action and practice while under suspension in a prior proceeding]; Eschwig v. State Bar, 24 Cal.2d 70 [147 P.2d 529] [reprimand where several months' failure to attend to litigation and failure, despite repeated requests, to return contract on which action was based or advise client of its disappearance]; Trusty v. State Bar, 16 Cal.2d 550, 554 [107 P.2d 10] [suspension for 30 days where neglect to secure judgment for six years after entry of minute order granting divorce and conduct involved active misrepresentation]; Farrar v. State Bar, 1 Cal.2d 359 [34 P.2d 1024] [one year suspension where failure to establish birth for eight months, failure to act in probate for several years after issuance of letters and apparently false intimation that proceedings had been brought]; Rehart v. State Bar, 217 Cal. 57 [16 P.2d 993] [suspension for three months where attorney, given money for surety bond premium and fee for probate, failed to pay premium or complete probate].) [4] The cases cited above are in accord with the rule in other jurisdictions where it has been held that inattention to duty which has been wilful or has been accompanied by an element of deceit is ground for discipline. (See 69 A.L.R. 705, 707.)
[5] An attorney may be disciplined for a violation of his oath to discharge his duties to the best of his knowledge and ability, but mere ignorance of the law in conducting the affairs of a client in good faith is not cause for discipline. [45 Cal.2d 111] (Bus. & Prof. Code, §§ 6067 and 6103; see Friday v. State Bar, 23 Cal.2d 501, 505 [144 P.2d 564].) [6] The good faith of an attorney is a matter to be considered in determining whether discipline should be imposed for acts done through ignorance or mistake. (See In re Kling, 44 Cal.App. 267, 271 [186 P. 152].)
[7] All that is established here is that petitioner mistakenly believed in good faith that he had ample time to file a contest on behalf of his client and that because of this mistake he failed to act in time. The imposition of discipline is therefore not warranted.
The proceeding is dismissed.
CARTER, J.
I concur in the result reached by the court. I agree with the opinion insofar as it expresses the rule that negligence of an attorney is not a proper ground for disciplinary action. I do not, however, approve of the holding of the majority in the following cases cited in the opinion for the reasons stated in the concurring or dissenting opinions thereto. (See Trusty v. State Bar, 16 Cal.2d 550 [107 P.2d 10], dissenting opinion at p. 554; In re McKenna, 16 Cal.2d 610 [107 P.2d 258], dissenting opinion at p. 612; Stephens v. State Bar, 19 Cal.2d 580 [122 P.2d 549], concurring opinion at p. 584; Herron v. State Bar, 24 Cal.2d 53 [147 P.2d 543], dissenting opinion at p. 68; Clark v. State Bar, 39 Cal.2d 161 [246 P.2d 1], dissenting opinion at p. 175; Lowe v. State Bar, 40 Cal.2d 564 [254 P.2d 506], dissenting opinion at p. 571.) The holding of the majority in the case at bar appears to be in accord with the views expressed by me in my concurring and dissenting opinions in the above cited cases, with which view I am still in accord.
Tue, 09/20/1955 45 Cal.2d 104 Review - Criminal Appeal Opinion issued
1 HARRISON W. CALL, Petitioner, v. STATE BAR OF CALIFORNIA (Respondent)
2 HARRISON W. CALL (Petitioner)
3 STATE BAR OF CALIFORNIA (Respondent)
Sep 20 1955 Guilty
SCOCAL, Call v. State Bar , 45 Cal.2d 104 available at: (https://scocal.stanford.edu/opinion/call-v-state-bar-29657) (last visited Tuesday July 16, 2019).
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Chapter 216 - The unfaithful steward.
216,1. Simon Judah said: “O Lord and Master, absolutely no more as far as this is concerned, but there are still two other things that are not completely clear to me, but I hope that by Your love and mercy, also these two little things will in a certain way be resolved by itself.”
216,2. I said: “Name at least those two little things.”
216,3. Simon Judah said: “O Lord and Master, this is actually not worthed, but since You want it. It is concerning Your praise about the unfaithful steward and the rejection of the guest at the dinner because he had no festive clothing. For in this, there are two things that cannot be understood. Firstly, how and where were the guests provided with the required festive clothing after they were picked up at the fences and alleys by the servants of the host and were pushed inside to partake of the guest meal? And secondly why that one poor devil, who was also urged to the guest meal by the servants of the host, had to be thrown out because he had no festive clothing? Look, o Lord and Master, that man who was thrown out and Your praise about the unfaithful steward are for me still two uneven lines which I was not yet able to put straight.”
216,4. I said: “Did I not say to you at that time: ‘Be like the unfaithful steward and gather friends by the unrighteous mammon. Then later, if you were still to be without home, they will accept you into their heavenly homes?’
216,5. But so that you, Simon Judah, would well understand this, you should listen to Me, but with your two ears at the same time, so that the one ear would not let out what the other ear has picked up and will then stay behind in your heart. Look, every earthly rich person who possesses much more goods and money than he needs for his earthly livelihood, is compared to Me more or less an unrighteous steward because I am the only true owner of the goods, and the goods that he calls his own are all together unrighteous mammon.
216,6. If he then will at least generously remember the poor when the nature of his sicknesses, which are My messengers, will very clearly say to him: ‘The Lord of these goods has many things against you regarding your unrighteous way of doing, and from now on you will be no more steward’, then he will make friends by giving generously to the many poor, and when he soon after that will leave, naked and deserted, and will go to them in My Kingdom, they will take care of him and generously reward him for his good work.
216,7. Look, when I created the Earth I did not put border stones, I did not measure the Earth with a rope and I thus did also not say: ‘Look, this part belongs to him, the other to another’, but I made the whole Earth as a common possession for all human beings. Only in the course of time the miserliness, greed and lust for power of men began to measure the Earth and with force they determined: ‘This big piece of land belongs to me, and whoever wants to serve me and work for me, will in a certain way receive a little piece of land by renting it, but despite that, I remain lord over the whole big piece of land.’
216,8. And look, that was the first so-called patriarchic statute among the people, and no matter how unrighteous it was in itself, it was nevertheless the best and most righteous one, for when the patriarch was as usual a good and God-fearing man, then his citizens or small renters were also doing well at his side, for he took care of the general welfare of the big piece of land.
216,9. Although he possessed for himself and his house many thousands of times more than he needed, and he was thus also an unrighteous steward, but he used his unrighteous mammon for only good purposes that were pleasing to Me, and by that he made many big friends among his citizens according to My will and satisfaction, and I also had to show him My pleasure and praise.
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June 4, 2019 | by Generation Zero | in News |
How it Works: On the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill
Generation Zero is a grassroots, youth-led, non-partisan climate activist group who decided in 2016 that there had been enough talk; it was time for action. Since then, we’ve been campaigning for Aotearoa to implement a Zero Carbon Act. On the May 8, 2019, this momentous Bill was announced under the name of Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill, and on May 21, the Bill passed its first reading 119–1.
Currently, Aotearoa’s greenhouse gas emissions are forecast to continue rising, with no plan to stop. Last year, the IPCC gave us all a massive shock when they said we have just over a decade to limit warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial era levels.
There are four main aspects to the Bill:
Net Zero by 2050:
Commits Aotearoa NZ to net zero carbon emissions by 2050. A split gases approach will be taken, so that gases which tend to stay in the atmosphere longer, like carbon and nitrous oxide, will have separate reduction targets to shorter-lived gases like methane.
Carbon Budgets:
To ensure this transition to zero carbon is a smooth one, the Bill requires the government to meet five-year interim targets called “carbon budgets”. These are like stepping stones to the 2050 target and are legally binding.
The targets will only apply to Aotearoa’s domestic emissions, not our international carbon trading. The Ministry for the Environment says that this will make it easier to monitor our own progress and verify that our transition is on track.
Policy Plans:
The government is to develop two policy plans:
A plan to reduce emissions to achieve the carbon budgets and 2050 target.
A plan to address the impacts of climate change such as storms, droughts, floods, and sea level rise. Plans regarding adaptation are really important—the Ministry for the Environment says that “preparedness is crucial to minimising the cost and grief of extreme climate events”.
Climate Commission:
Creates an independent Climate Commission, composed of seven parliament-appointed experts to advise and hold the government to account on targets, policies, and climate risks.
So here’s a quick rundown on the positives and negatives of the Bill:
Positives:
The Bill is written in reference to the 2018 IPCC report that states 1.5 degrees of warming as being our absolute max. (However, in order to fully align with this target, the government will need to create a mitigation plan that would halve Aotearoa’s carbon emissions by 2030).
Treating methane as separate from other greenhouse gases is awesome. Not all gases are equal, so we shouldn’t treat them all the same.
The targets are ‘kinda’ legally binding. Let’s say that in 20 years, the government has failed to meet the set carbon budgets or the overall net-zero target. The courts are able to review those failures and make a declaration of that, if they think it’s appropriate. This calls the government out, but is otherwise pretty ineffective. The court can also “award costs” for any breach. But that’s pretty much it.
Negatives:
We need a Bill that ensures a transition to a net-zero economy that does not disproportionately affect vulnerable communities. Despite this, the Bill doesn’t address how such communities will be protected.
Although there is a clause concerning the Treaty of Waitangi, it’s extremely weak. Under the Treaty, Māori are supposed to be partners in governance with the Crown. The Treaty section of the Bill does not provide for partnership—it’s all about consultation, and “giving consideration” to Māori, which doesn’t come anywhere close. The Treaty of Waitangi should be embedded in the Bill, not sidelined in one paragraph as an afterthought.
The methane reduction target should be higher, and be given an exact value. The target set in the Bill is a 24–47% reduction by 2050. This large range creates unwanted uncertainty, especially for those in the agriculture sector. Transitioning to a more sustainable agriculture sector will also be beneficial to Aotearoa’s biodiversity and waterways.
Overall, the proposed Bill is good, but there’s definitely room for improvement. If we want a piece of legislation that will be effective, enduring, and fair, we all need to submit to the Select Committee about the parts of the Bill we are and aren’t so keen on. And because climate change is the ultimate intergenerational issue, support across the political spectrum is vital.
So what the HECK is the Select Committee?
If you’re not too clued up on the legislative process/didn’t take LAWS 121/took LAWS 121 but didn’t pay attention—don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.
A Select Committee consists of MPs from all political parties, and is arguably one of the most important parts of the legislative journey. It’s the point at which the public can submit their opinion on the Bill. If the Bill passes through after the first reading, a specialised committee (the Select Committee) accepts oral and written submissions and recommends amendments to the House based on these submissions. The committee usually has six months to hear submissions and issue their report. Once the committee has presented their report, the Bill will progress to its second reading, where the main debate occurs.
The Select Committee process opened for submissions on the May 23 and closes on July 16. The Select Committee will report back to Parliament on October 21, 2019.
At the Select Committee stage
Your voice is important! The biggest obstacle to the Bill standing the test of time is lack of cross-party support. Some say the methane target is too high (despite it being a science-based approach), and that this Bill would be detrimental to the economy and GDP (despite the effects of climate change being MUCH more costly than the cost of implementing the Bill).
The ZCB is inherently public; it will affect society in many different ways and impact on future generations massively, so the Bill needs to reflect all communities. Submissions can be made individually, or through an organisation, like Generation Zero.
Elbow your Elders campaign
The voting demographic of the main opponents to the Bill are much older than us, and thus quite dissonant from us. To help fix this, Gen Zero launched a campaign last Friday called ‘Elbow your Elders’. It’s a youth movement that asks us younger people to pester the older people in our lives to care about climate change, to care about this Bill, and to do something about it, so they can help secure our future.
So that’s our short-but-sweet guide to the Zero Carbon Bill. Hopefully, it’s cleared up any confusion you may have surrounding the Bill and what you can do to help shape it. Visit Generation Zero’s Facebook page to keep updated on the Bill, ask any questions, and find out more about what we’ve mentioned above!
Generation Zero Submissions
Email Generation Zero at generationzeroatvic@gmail.com.
There will also be a submission party on June 4, 4–6 p.m. in the Hub, where submissions can be made.
← Is Vic Books Missing Out on the Living Wage Campaign?
Your silent cries left unheard →
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Tag: duke energy
Midwest BigWind energy IS TOO expensive for company to purchase
You won’t hear about this in the mainstream media. We have blogged for years, that BigWind energy is TOO expensive to ever be a sustainable energy source. Here is ‘quiet proof’. Duke Energy has been an avid proponent of BigWind, but they have now ‘quietly abandoned’ plans to actually purchase it…..kuddos to Duke Energy for NOT passing these rate increases on to their ratepayers!!!…..
Duke Energy Carolinas has quietly abandoned plans for purchasing up to 500 megawatts worth of wind power capacity for the Carolinas by 2022 after finding the initial bids from producers “not economically attractive.”
Eleven months ago, Duke issued a request for proposals on wind power, expected to come from outside of North Carolina. It proposed offering power-purchase agreements of up to 20 years to buy wind power from projects, likely in the Midwest, that could be brought into the state.
“As we looked at the proposals, they were not economically attractive enough to go forward,” says Duke spokesman Randy Wheeless….
Duke Energy article
Ohio legislators, are you listening? Wisconsin declares BigWind a HEALTH HAZARD!
Is Ohio’s 1300 ft setback enough? On Monday night, the Brown County Board of Health in Wisconsin voted to declare the Shirley Wind Project to be a human health hazard. The approved motion states:
“To declare the Industrial Wind Turbines at Shirley Wind Project in the Town of Glenmore, Brown County, WI. A Human Health Hazard for all people (residents, workers, visitors, and sensitive passersby) who are exposed to Infrasound/Low Frequency Noise and other emissions potentially harmful to human health.”
This is an important step forward in the debate about industrial wind setbacks and the effects of low frequency noise. The study of LFN by four acousticians was underway at Shirley when Union Neighbors United intervened in Everpower’s Buckeye Wind II before the Ohio Power Siting Board. One of the researchers working on the Shirley Wind study was Everpower’s noise expert, David Hessler. On the witness stand at OPSB in November, 2012, Hessler responded to a question from UNU’s attorney about LFN as follows:
Q: Low-frequency noise cannot be ruled out as a potential problem at wind farms, can it?
A: Yeah, up until recently my belief was that it could essentially be ruled out, but I’m changing my mind on that a little bit.
Hessler was changing his mind because of what he was learning at the Shirley Wind project.
The OPSB hearings closed on December 6, 2012. On December 12th , the Shirley Wind study was concluded and on December 24th the report was issued. That report concluded two important points.
Ø “An important finding on this survey was that the cooperation of the wind farm operator is absolutely essential. Wind turbines must be measured both ON and OFF on request to obtain data under nearly identical wind and power conditions to quantify the wind turbine impact which could not be done due to Duke Energy’s lack of cooperation.”
Ø “A most interesting study in 1986 by the Navy reveals that physical vibration of pilots in flight simulators induced motion sickness when the vibration frequency was in the range of 0.05 to 0.9 Hz with the maximum (worst) effect being at about 0.2 Hz, not too far from the blade passing frequency of future large wind turbines. If one makes the leap from physical vibration of the body to physical vibration of the media the body is in, it suggests adverse response to wind turbines is an acceleration or vibration problem in the very low frequency region. The four investigating firms are of the opinion that enough evidence and hypotheses have been given herein to classify LFN and infrasound as a serious issue, possibly affecting the future of the industry. It should be addressed beyond the present practice of showing that wind turbine levels are magnitudes below the threshold of hearing at low frequencies.”
On January 17, 2013, UNU requested that the record in Buckeye Wind II be reopened to allow inclusion of the Shirley Wind Report. (See attached Motion) Everpower objected and the OPSB denied the request. Now the Health Department in Brown County, Wisconsin has determined the Shirley Wind project is a health hazard to “residents, workers, visitors, and sensitive passersby.” The Health Department’s decision was made public on a local radio talk program. We have provided the link to the radio program.
The radio program makes several important points. First, the State of Wisconsin controls the siting of industrial wind turbines and local governments are unable to put restrictions on them unless they are deemed a health hazard. The mere designation of health hazard will not shut down the turbines. However, it will force the debate and the wind industry will have to present evidence that LFN does not cause adverse health impacts. It is believed they will not be able to refuse to cooperate as Duke Energy did previously. That will be a tall order. The radio program host asserts that the wind industry “can no longer put smarmy editorials in newspapers around the state that obfuscate the real issue which is what the wind lobby has done again and again and again.” “They are not going to be able to do that this time.” …
Brown County Board of Health votes Shirley Wind farm a health risk….audio at site: via Brown County Board of Health votes Shirley Wind farm a health risk. – Podcasts – WTAQ News Talk 97.5FM and 1360AM.
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(Redirected from List of census-designated places in Louisiana)
État de Louisiane (French)
Flag Seal
Nickname(s):
Bayou State • Creole State • Pelican State (official)
Sportsman's Paradise • The Boot
Motto(s): Union, Justice, Confidence
State song(s): ""Give Me Louisiana"
"You Are My Sunshine"
"State March Song"
"Gifts of the Earth""
No official language
As of 2010[1]
English 91.26%
French 3.45% (incl. Cajun and Creole)
Spanish 3.30%
Vietnamese 0.59%
Louisianian (French: Louisianais)
New Orleans[2][3][4]
Largest metro
Greater New Orleans
Ranked 31st
52,378.13 sq mi
(135,382 km2)
• Width
130 miles (210 km)
• % water
• Latitude
28° 56′ N to 33° 01′ N
• Longitude
88° 49′ W to 94° 03′ W
4,684,333 (2017 est.)[5]
93.6/sq mi (34.6/km2)
• Median household income
• Highest point
Driskill Mountain[7][8]
535 ft (163 m)
• Mean
• Lowest point
New Orleans[7][8]
−8 ft (−2.5 m)
Before statehood
Territory of Orleans
Admission to Union
April 30, 1812 (18th)
John Bel Edwards (D)
Billy Nungesser (R)
• Upper house
• Lower house
Bill Cassidy (R)
John Kennedy (R)
U.S. House delegation
5 Republicans
1 Democrat (list)
Central: UTC −6/−5
US-LA
LA, La.
louisiana.gov
Louisiana state symbols
The Flag of Louisiana
The Seal of Louisiana
Living insignia
Inanimate insignia
Petrified palmwood
Diatonic accordion
State route marker
State quarter
Lists of United States state symbols
Louisiana (pronounced /lōō-ē'zē-ăn'ə/)[9] is a state in the Southern United States of America. It had a population of about 4,533,372 people in 2010. The state has a total area of about 51,885 sq mi (134,382 km2). Louisiana is the 25th largest state by population and the 31th largest state by area. Louisiana is also known by its nickname, The Pelican State. The land that would become Louisiana was bought in the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Louisiana became a state on April 30, 1812. It was the 18th state to become part of the United States. The people who live in the state are known as Louisianans.[10] The state's capital is Baton Rouge, and its largest city is New Orleans.
Louisiana has coastal plains, marshs, and low ridges. All of the state is in the Sun Belt. Louisiana is in a sub tropical region, and has a diverse ecosystem. The climate of Louisiana Louisiana has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen climate classification Cfa). It has long, hot, humid summers and short, mild winters.
One third of the adults in Louisiana are obese. This is the highest rate in the United States.[11]
Louisiana was settled by France and the influence of French culture is still a big part of Louisiana today. The French Quarter in New Orleans is one of the best known attractions in the state. It is known today for its special culture, unique food, as well as the holiday Mardi Gras which is most famous in New Orleans.
Louisiana was very badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Much of the New Orleans area lies below sea level making flooding a serious problem.
Cities[change | change source]
1 New Orleans Orleans 391,495
2 Baton Rouge East Baton Rouge 227,715
3 Shreveport Caddo 194,920
4 Lafayette Lafayette 127,626
5 Lake Charles Calcasieu 76,848
6 Bossier City Bossier 68,485
7 Kenner Jefferson 67,089
8 Monroe Ouachita 49,297
9 Alexandria Rapides 47,832
10 Houma Terrebonne 34,024
Colleges and universities in Louisiana
List of municipalities in Louisiana
List of parishes in Louisiana
List of rivers of Louisiana
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Louisiana.
↑ "United States". Modern Language Association. Retrieved June 14, 2017.
↑ "New Orleans a 'ghost town' after thousands flee Gustav: mayor", AFP, August 31, 2008, archived from the original on May 16, 2013
↑ "Expert: N.O. population at 273,000". WWL-TV. August 7, 2007. Archived from the original on September 26, 2007. Retrieved August 14, 2007.
↑ "Relocation". Baton rouge. Connecting U.S. Cities. May 3, 2007. Archived from the original on February 9, 2014.
↑ "Louisiana: Population estimates". U.S. Census Bureau. July 1, 2017. Retrieved May 6, 2017.
↑ "Median Annual Household Income". The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Retrieved December 9, 2016.
↑ 7.0 7.1 "Elevations and Distances in the United States". United States Geological Survey. 2001. Archived from the original on October 15, 2011. Retrieved October 21, 2011.
↑ 8.0 8.1 Elevation adjusted to North American Vertical Datum of 1988.
↑ The Tormont Webster's Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary. United States of America: Tormont Publications Inc. 1990. p. 998. ISBN 2921171325. Retrieved February 26, 2011.
↑ "WordNet Search - 3.0". wordnetweb.princeton.edu. 2011 [last update]. Retrieved February 26, 2011. Check date values in: |year= (help)
↑ "Obesity and Overweight for Professionals: Data and Statistics: U.S. Obesity Trends | DNPAO | CDC". cdc.gov. 2011 [last update]. Retrieved February 27, 2011. Check date values in: |year= (help)
Baton Rouge (capital)
Louisianians
Lieutenant Governors
Secretaries of State
Congressional districts
Seal of Louisiana
Ark-La-Tex
Central Louisiana
Florida Parishes
North Louisiana
Smallest cities
Shreveport–Bossier City
Houma–Bayou Cane–Thibodaux
See: List of parishes in Louisiana
Political divisions of the United States
Federal district
Baker Island
Howland Island
Jarvis Island
Johnston Atoll
Kingman Reef
Midway Atoll
Navassa Island
Palmyra Atoll
This short article about a place or feature in the United States can be made longer. You can help Wikipedia by adding to it.
Retrieved from "https://simple.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Louisiana&oldid=6400402"
1812 establishments in the United States
CS1 errors: dates
United States geography stubs
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