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Project chugging along to open Bishop's Castle railway heritage centre next year
By Charlotte BentleyBishop's CastleAttractionsPublished: Dec 26, 2020 Last Updated: Dec 26, 2020
Volunteers have completed the exterior renovation of an old railway building that will be transformed into a heritage centre.
From left, Roger Dalton, Mike Boyd, Lin Dalton and David O'Neill
Members of Bishop's Castle Railway Society have been working tirelessly to get the project off the ground, complete the renovation work and hopefully open the building one day so visitors can learn more about the town's historic railway.
Despite a difficult year filled with the challenges, the society said a "tremendous" amount of work has been achieved.
David O'Neill
Lin Dalton, of the society, said: "At the beginning of the year the goal for 2020 was for the building to be watertight by winter. New replica windows and doors have been fitted; a rainwater drainage system installed, followed by the interior walls and ceiling being plastered and electricity connected to the building."
Ms Dalton said fundraising for the year had "exceeded expectations" with several grants and donations being received, and in September a National Heritage Open Day was successful.
She added: "The first ever Bishop`s Castle Railway Heritage Calendar proved very popular and was sold out by mid-November. None of this would have been possible without a dedicated group of volunteers and the support and generosity of the local community.
Mike Boyd adjusting the weight on the weighbridge
"Looking to 2021, with the building now having lighting and heating and following the latest government guidelines, work can continue during the winter months. The interior decorating and installation of a small kitchen area are the next projects, followed by some outside landscaping once the weather permits.
"By early summer 2021 there will be a really useable heritage building for locals and tourists to enjoy."
The group hopes to hold a series of events starting at Easter and continuing throughout the year. There is a large outdoor area that can be utilised for vehicle displays and exhibitions.
Bishop's Castle Weighbridge Project
The team would like to hear from anyone involved in vehicle clubs or outdoor exhibits who would be interested in displaying during one of the open days.
Contact Lin Dalton on 07553010196 or email: socialmedia@bcrailway.co.uk. Follow the group on Facebook at facebook.com/Bishops-Castle-Railway-Society-268066073598393
South Shropshire entertainment
South Shropshire
By Charlotte Bentley
Community Reporter@CharlotteB_Star
Community Reporter at the Shropshire Star, helping under-represented communities to find a voice in Shropshire and Mid Wales. Contact me at charlotte.bentley@shropshirestar.co.uk.
An over-arching achievement as £1.2 million Severn Valley Railway viaduct work is completed
Bridgnorth | Jan 16, 2021
Mid Wales | 1 hour ago
World News | 1 hour ago


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Aiswarya Rajeev
21 Mar 1995 Malayalam
Aiswarya Rajeev is an Indian television actress who mainly works in the Malayalam industry. She is well known for her role in the serials such as Bhagyalakshmi and Ilam Thennal Pole telecasted on Surya TV. Aiswarya was born on March 24th in Kottayam. Her father Rajiv Kumar is a businessman based in Kottayam, and her mother, Preeta Rajeev, is a homemaker. Aiswarya has a brother. She did her schooling at Mount Carmel Girls High School and completed her graduation at Baselius College, Kottayam. She started her acting career at the age of three and a half. She first appeared as a child artist in the serial, Chembarathi directed by Sudhakar Mangalodaya. She went on to appear in more than forty serials as a supporting and lead actress. While pursuing her under-graduation, she parallelly appeared in four soap operas. She was quite engaged in Comedy Stars Season 2, a humor program aired in Asianet Channel. Aiswarya gathered audience attention with the show Tamar Padar aired on Flowers TV. Aiswarya has also acted in feature films such as Alice: A True Story, Teens, and Thinkal Muthal Velli Vare. She was part of Malayalam remake of the Tamil movie Jannal Oram, which starred actor R. Parthiepan in the lead. Aiswarya Rajeev :Movies, Biography, News, Age & Photos
Abhinaya
Hannah Reji Koshy
Farnaz shetty
Catherine Tresa Alexander
Maya S Krishnan
Viranika Shetty
Ridhima Tiwari
Shivani Rangole
Lavanya Tripathi
Mirnalini Ravi
Nyla Usha
Meghali Meenakshi
Neha Deshpande
Raksha holla
Sharaf U Dheen
Amith Chakalakkal
Indrans
Prithviraj Sukumaran

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Fields: quantum gravity, quantum foundations
In general relativity, time plays a different role than in classical and quantum mechanics, or quantum field theory on a Minkowski background. General covariance dispenses with a preferred choice of time and introduces instead a dynamical notion of time which depends on solutions to the Einstein field equations. In the canonical approach to quantum gravity this leads to the infamous problem of time. Its most well-known facet is that, due to the constraints of the theory, quantum states of spacetime (and any matter contained in it) do not at first sight appear to undergo any time evolution, in seeming contradiction with everyday experience.
The resolution comes from one of the key insights of general relativity: any physical notion of time is relational, the degrees of freedom of the Universe evolve relative to one another. This insight has led to three main relational approaches to the problem of time, each of which seeks to extract a notion of time from within the quantum degrees of freedom, relative to which the others evolve:
a Dirac quantization scheme, wherein relational observables are constructed that encode correlations between evolving and clock degrees of,
the Page-Wootters formalism, which defines a relational dynamics in terms of conditional probabilities for clock and evolving degrees of freedom, and
classical or quantum deparametrizations, which result in a reduced quantum theory that only treats the evolving degrees of freedom as quantum.
These three approaches have been pursued largely independently with the relation between them previously unknown.
We have worked on all three of these approaches and have, in fact, recently shown that they are equivalent in a wide class of models by constructing explicit maps between them. This unification permitted us to resolve a number of criticisms and shortcomings of the various approaches in the literature.
Some of our work on relational quantum dynamics overlaps with the work on quantum reference systems and quantum general covariance. In particular, we have developed a systematic method for changing temporal reference systems in the full quantum theory. In other words, the method permits one to change from the evolution relative to one quantum clock to one relative to another. The classical analog of this is straightforward, but the quantum version is non-trivial and becomes especially interesting when clocks are fluctuating or are in superposition relative to one another. This leads to striking temporal non-locality effects and clock synchronizations that depend on the choice of temporal frame.
Schematic representation of changing from the dynamics relative to clock C1 to the one relative to clock C2.
A particularly challenging topic for relational quantum dynamics is non-integrability or more drastically chaos. On account of the complex dynamics there are great difficulties in constructing objects that encode some set of degrees of freedom evolves relative to another set, chosen as the temporal reference system. This becomes particularly hard in the quantum theory. Nevertheless, as we have shown, one can come up with a consistent quantum description, provided one adapts the method of quantization to the algebra of relational observables. This will generally change the topology underlying the quantization procedure, however, is well motivated as quantization is about finding a consistent quantum representation of observables.
Typical dynamical trajectory in the chaotic closed Friedman-Robertson-Walker model universe with massive (homogeneous) scalar field.
P. A. H öhn, A. Smith and M. Lock 2021, "Equivalence of approaches to relational quantum dynamics
in relativistic settings", Front. Phys. 9:587083, invited contribution to special issue "Qubits and Spacetime"
P. A. H öhn, A. Smith and M. Lock 2021, "The trinity of relational quantum dynamics", Phys. Rev. D 104 066011, Preprint arXiv:1912.00033
Christophe Goeller, Philipp A. Höhn and Josh Kirklin, "Diffeomorphism-invariant observables and dynamical frames in gravity: reconciling bulk locality with general covariance", arXiv:2206.01193
P. A. H öhn 2019, "Switching internal times and a new perspective on the wave function of the Universe", Universe 5(5) 116, https://doi.org/10.3390/universe5050116
(Universe Cover Story, https://www.mdpi.com/2218-1997/5/5, Preprint arXiv:1811.00611)
P. A. H öhn and A. Vanrietvelde 2020, "How to switch between relational quantum clocks", New J. Phys. 22 123048 (Preprint: arxiv:1810.04153)
B. Dittrich, P. A. H öhn, T. A. Koslowski and M. I. Nelson 2017, "Can chaos be observed in quantum gravity?", Phys. Lett. B769 554, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2017.02.038 (Preprint arXiv:1602.03237)
B. Dittrich, P. A. H öhn, T. A. Koslowski and M. I. Nelson 2015, "Chaos, Dirac observables and
constraint quantization", Preprint arXiv:1508.01947 https://arxiv.org/abs/1508.01947
P. A. H öhn, E. Kubalov a and A. Tsobanjan 2012, "Effective relational dynamics of a nonintegrable cosmological model", Phys. Rev. D 86 065014, https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.86.065014 (Preprint arXiv:1111.5193)
M. Bojowald, P. A. H öhn and A. Tsobanjan 2011, "Effective approach to the problem of time: general features and examples", Phys. Rev. D 83 125023, https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.83.125023 (Preprint arXiv:1011.3040)
M. Bojowald, P. A. H öhn and A. Tsobanjan 2011, "An effective approach to the problem of time", Class. Quant. Grav. 28 035006, https://doi.org/10.1088/0264-9381/28/3/035006 (Preprint arXiv:1009.5953)


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Expanding the Circle 2016
About Expanding the Circle
Schedule and Presentation Descriptions
Expanding the Circle Conference
Molly Merryman
Documentary Filmmaker, Author and an Associate Professor of Sociology at Kent State University
Molly Merryman, Ph.D., is a documentary filmmaker, author and an associate professor of Sociology at Kent State University, where she directs LGBTQ Studies and Women's Studies and is the director of developing the university's emerging Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality.
She is the author of Clipped Wings: The Rise and Fall of the Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War II (New York University Press, 1998), has written a number of academic journal articles and book chapters. She also has produced and directed documentaries that have screened internationally and been broadcast on regional PBS stations.
She was one of a group of faculty who, in 2001, started the first LGBT Studies program in Ohio, and she also played key roles in the development of Kent State University's LGBTQ Student Center, its new Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality, the university's diversity course requirements, and several student scholarships, including the LGBTQ Emergency Fund, which provides financial support to students who have been cut off from family support because of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity/gender expression. In 2016, Merryman was honored to receive Kent State's Diversity Trailblazer Award.


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HealthNational & WorldNews
Pregnant women gain new options under health law
Associated Press— May 14, 2014
WASHINGTON — The health care law has opened up an unusual opportunity for some mothers-to-be to save on medical bills for childbirth.
Lower-income women who signed up for a private policy in the new insurance exchanges will have access to additional coverage from their state's Medicaid program if they get pregnant. Some women could save hundreds of dollars on their share of hospital and doctor bills.
Medicaid already pays for nearly half of U.S. births, but this would create a way for the safety-net program to supplement private insurance for many expectant mothers.
Officials and advocates say the enhanced coverage will be available across the country, whether or not a state expands Medicaid under the health law. However, states have different income cutoffs for eligibility, ranging from near the poverty line to solid middle class.
The main roadblock right now seems to be logistical: reprogramming state and federal computer systems to recognize that certain pregnant women have a legal right to coverage both from Medicaid and private plans on the insurance exchange. Technically, they can pick one or the other, or a combination.
States and insurers will have to sort out who pays for what.
Another big challenge will be educating the public about this latest health law wrinkle. It's complicated for officials and policy experts, let alone the average consumer.
"This is an issue where women are going to have to figure out, 'I'm eligible for both, now how do I do that?'" said Matt Salo, executive director of the National Association of Medicaid Directors, which represents state programs. "But what a wonderful problem to have. This is a great problem to have from the consumer's perspective."
The cost impact for federal and state taxpayers is uncertain. Providing more generous coverage increases costs, but comprehensive prenatal care can save money by preventing premature births and birth defects.
Cynthia Pellegrini, head of the March of Dimes' Washington office, said many women might not have been thinking about maternity benefits when they signed up for coverage under the health law. After all, half of U.S. pregnancies are unplanned. Often consumers just focus on the monthly premium when they select a plan.
The cost of normal uncomplicated childbirth averages $5,000, said Pellegrini, and preterm births can cost more than 10 times that. Copayments and deductibles add up fast.
"A lot of women, particularly in a situation like childbirth, could end up with significant out-of-pocket costs," Pellegrini said. "If they are eligible for Medicaid, they could be protected from costs ranging from hundreds to thousands of dollars." Her group works to prevent birth defects by promoting healthy pregnancies.
Existing Medicaid policies, subsidized private coverage under President Barack Obama's law and an obscure Treasury Department ruling combined to produce the new options for pregnant women.
Medicaid is a federal-state program that covers low-income and disabled people. Before the health law, states offered special, time-limited coverage to uninsured pregnant women until their children were born. That coverage is not only for poor women; some states provide benefits to middle-class women as well.
Then came the Affordable Care Act, with federally subsidized private insurance for people who don't have a health plan on the job. The law, however, drew a line between Medicaid and coverage through the exchanges: If you're eligible for Medicaid you generally can't get government-subsidized private insurance.
That barrier fell away when the Treasury Department ruled that Medicaid's targeted insurance for pregnant women did not meet the definition of "minimum essential coverage" required by the health law. That's because the coverage is temporary and states can restrict the services the pay for.
The ruling last summer opened the possibility for pregnant women to tap both benefit programs, said Dipti Singh, an attorney with the National Health Law Program in Los Angeles.
"Usually you could only be in one or the other," said Singh. "This is different in that pregnant women are eligible for both."
But the ruling apparently came too late to program into the computers.
The option works differently depending on a woman's circumstances, Singh said.
Many women with low incomes would be better off sticking with Medicaid only because most states have opted to provide comprehensive services for expectant mothers.
But a woman in an exchange plan would be able to limit her cost-sharing and gain access to enhanced maternity benefits if she opted into Medicaid as well. She would not have to worry about her coverage running out after the baby is born, as Medicaid's maternity-only coverage does.
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Llangorse Big Swim and Triathlon 2015
The Crannog as we waited for the mist to rise
Wow, what a weekend. Thank you so much to all of you for racing with a smile, marshaling with a cheery shout and, to the Llangorse people, allowing us to use your beautiful home for two days. Without the Blackham family who own the lake, Llangorse Sailing Club, Llangorse Lake users's group, the community council, Brecon Beacons national park, Natural Resources Wales, Kirsty Williams who presented our prizes on Sunday and Ian Howie who presented our prizes on Saturday, it would not have been possible. A massive thank you to our marshal team, some of whom gave up two days to help. I hope you all enjoyed a well deserved beer!
There are so many highlights but here are just a few: the weather (once again we were blessed), the Blue Tits ladies swimming club and their wonderful costumes and joy for life, Andy who was our last swimmer out of the water after spending his birthday doing the 6km challenge, the first-timers who overcame their nerves and achieved what they didn't think was possible, the patience of the triathletes on Sunday as we waited for the mist to rise, our amazing water safety team with their camaraderie and banter, 4-year-old Flo who helped at the church aid station, The triple King family victory and the four Llangorse lads who were still smiling at the end.
Sport should be fun and it was. Thank you all and see you in 2016
URGENT: RACE START NOW 9AM
The triathlon will now start at 9am on Sunday as there is mist predicted early on the lake.
The race timings will now be:
7 to 8am Registration at Llangorse Sailing Club
7 to 8.30am Transition Open
8.45 Race Briefing at Llangorse Sailing Club
9am First wave starts
Please take care as you drive down to the lake as there is likely to be mist. Follow the yellow luminous signs for parking and there will be marshals to show you where to go (also in luminous yellow!)
See you on Sunday
Nicola and the Llangorse Team
Big Swim
September 26, 2015 llangorseswim 1 Comment
Thank you swimmers for making today such a wonderful day. You were committed, strong, speedy and not so speedy, quirky, funny and incredibly supportive. We know where we can improve for next year with better changing areas and more warm-up time. The results are here – Results
See you in 2015
Last Minute Information
We've been testing the water at Llangorse today and this morning it was 15 and 16 degrees but after the sun it had risen to 16 and 17 degrees at various points in the course. With the promised sun we're expecting it to be that temperature or slightly warmer this weekend. It was crystal clear and tasted great (Nicola swims with her mouth open!)
Wetsuits are optional for those of you doing the Saturday swim but please bring some warm clothes, a large towel etc. to change into once you've exited the water. Hot drinks and cake will be provided. On Saturday you can wear gloves, socks, bonnets etc. and you'll be given a thick neoprene race hat.
For the triathlon swim on Sunday, wetsuits will be mandatory if the temperature falls below 15 degrees (unlikely) but advisable. Gloves and socks are not allowed but you can wear a bonnet under your race hat. Please bring some warm clothes to wear in case the swim has to be postponed due to the mist and tailor your food intake accordingly.
We'll take the temperature once again on Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning.
See you all at Llangorse
Nicola and the team
Positively balmy……
We've been out on the lake testing the water and temperature and marking out the course ahead of next weekend and i'm pleased to tell you all that it's 18 and 19 degrees and crystal clear!
We've chosen a course which goes further into the centre of the lake where the water is deeper. This means we'll avoid the weed and you should get some amazing views of the Crannog, the new sailing club, the bird hide and the church.
You can choose between a 1.5km, 3km or 6km swim on Saturday 26th or the middle-distance or standard-distance triathlons on Sunday 27th.
For more info just go to the swim or triathlon pages and to enter just go to http://www.entrycentral.com and type Llangorse into the search engine.
See you next weekend!
Not long now!
It's just 2 weeks until the Llangorse Lake Big Swim and Triathlon Weekend 2015 and we're looking forward to welcoming you all to the Brecon Beacons. We'll be posting regular weather, lake temperature and course updates here so please keep checking the website.
On the Saturday afternoon we're hosting the Big Swim where you can choose between the 1.5km, 3km or 6km swim. You can choose to wear a wetsuit or go without and we're really pleased to be welcoming so many 'skins' swimmers this year.
The triathlons take place on Sunday morning and there's two distances this year – the standard(ish) Baby Afanc and the Big Daddy Afanc middle-distance. You can enter either as an individual or a relay team of two or three people.
You can enter the swim online here Llangorse Lake Swim
You can enter the triathlons online here Llangorse Lake Triathlon


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Browse: Home / PRESS RELEASES | NEWS / Thomas More University Athletic Field Named for Republic Bank
Thomas More University Athletic Field Named for Republic Bank
Lyna Kelley / October 14, 2021 / Leave a comment / PRESS RELEASES | NEWS
CRESTVIEW HILLS, Ky. (Oct. 12, 2021) — On Oct. 16, 2021, during the Saints 1:30 p.m. Homecoming football game, Thomas More University announces that the turf athletic field adjacent to Griffin Plaza will now be named Republic Bank Field, in recognition of an investment from Republic Bank & Trust Company and the Republic Bank Foundation to support the University's Second Century Campaign: It's Time for More.
Republic Bank Field at Thomas More University
"We are grateful for our partnership with Republic Bank and for the generosity of the Republic Bank Foundation. Their generous investment in our students is emblematic of the bank's strong commitment to leadership, service, and education in the greater Cincinnati region," says Thomas More President Joseph L. Chillo, LP.D. Republic Bank Field is home to seven of the University's 28 intercollegiate athletic programs including football, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's lacrosse, men's and women's track & field, and rugby.
Learn more about Thomas More Athletics
Republic Bank has been the official bank of Thomas More University since 2016. The bank also sponsors the University's Institute for Career Development and Graduate School Planning, a signature program within the Thomas More Success Center. "As we have launched the most ambitious fundraising campaign in University history, it is an incredible feeling to know that we have such strong philanthropic support from one of our most trusted partners in Republic Bank," says Vice President for Institutional Advancement Kevin Reynolds, Ed.D.
"We are proud to continue to partner with Thomas More University with their long history of academic and athletic excellence," says Tom Saelinger, Market President for Northern Kentucky and Ohio for Republic Bank. Jason Payne, Managing Director of the Northern Kentucky Market for Republic Bank, and a 2015 graduate of the Thomas More Master of Business Administration program adds, "We couldn't be more excited to be affiliated with the Saints athletic program as they step into the next chapter. Republic Bank Field is a signature opportunity for us to support Thomas More!"
Thomas More University provides students with something much more than job training. Graduates are prepared for any career. But they leave prepared for much more.They are exposed to the very best thought, literature, art, and music. They learn to harness the power of human reason to solve problems and discover truth. Most importantly, they have the chance to begin to become the person they were created to be. This is the power of the liberal arts in the Catholic Intellectual Tradition at Thomas More University. Our students come here looking for more. And that's exactly what we offer. Here our students take that opportunity and…Make It More. Learn more at thomasmore.edu.
About Republic Bank: Republic Bancorp, Inc. ("Republic") is the parent company of Republic Bank. Republic Bank currently has 42 full-service banking centers throughout five states: twenty-eight banking centers in eight Kentucky communities – Covington, Crestview Hills, Florence, Georgetown, Lexington, Louisville, Shelbyville, and Shepherdsville; three banking centers in southern Indiana – Floyds Knobs, Jeffersonville, and New Albany; seven banking centers in six Florida communities (Tampa MSA) – Largo, New Port Richey, St. Petersburg, Seminole, Tampa, and Temple Terrace; two banking centers in two Tennessee communities (Nashville MSA) – Cool Springs and Green Hills; and two banking centers in two Ohio communities (Cincinnati MSA) – Norwood and West Chester. Republic Bank offers internet banking at www.republicbank.com. The Company has $6.2 billion in assets and is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky. The Company's Class A Common Stock is listed under the symbol "RBCAA" on the NASDAQ Global Select Market.
MEDIA CONTACT: Lyna Kelley director of communications and PR, kelleyl@thomasmore.edu, 859.344.3309
Tags: centennial, Division II, Football, GMAC, Great Midwest Athletic Conference, NCAA, Republic Bank, Saints, sports, Thomas More, university
← THOMAS MORE UNIVERSITY ANNOUNCES PRESIDENT'S FIVE-YEAR CONTRACT EXTENSION
Looking to the Future: Psychology Department Adds Fully-Online Accelerated Program →


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Cosmos » Health » Australia isn't funding vaccines against meningococcal strain B for all children
Australia isn't funding vaccines against meningococcal strain B for all children
By Caroline Zielinski
/ 6 January 2023
Unrecognizable doctor putting a patch on the little boy's shoulder after successful vaccination with Covid-19 vaccine. Little boy sitting in father´s lap and looking at the patch.
Experts consider risk, safety and cost effectiveness of drugs for government subsidies.
As cases and deaths of the dominant strain of meningococcal disease in Australia, meningococcal B, rise, experts are again questioning why a vaccine which can help prevent a majority of cases is not available free to all Australian children and adolescents.
The deaths highlight a thorny economic and ethical issue for the government: how much is a life worth?
The New South Wales state government has recently issued a health warning following the death of an 18-year-old woman, who died from meningococcal B after attending the Canberra music festival, Spilt Milk. She is the third in NSW to die from meningococcal disease this year (most of which have been caused by strain B) and the 29th known case of infection.
Four other cases were associated with the Splendour in the Grass music festival, which took place near Byron Bay in August. All were caused by the B-strain of the disease.
Victoria also issued a health alert in November after another teenager, an 18-year-old who recently returned from "Schoolies" in Maroochydore, Queensland, was diagnosed with meningococcal B in early December. Victoria reported 14 cases of meningococcal disease in 2022.
What is meningococcal disease, and how can you get it?
Meningococcal disease is caused by the bacterium Neisseria meningitidis, of which there are several strains. The bacteria live naturally in the back of the nose and throat in about 10% of the population (called carriers) without causing any illness.
There are five strains of meningococcal: A, B, C, W-135, and Y.
Meningococcal is transmitted by close, prolonged household and intimate contact. Infections arise when a particular strain of the bacteria is able to get through the lining of the throat and enter the bloodstream, which usually takes the form of a blood infection (septicaemia) or infection of the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord (meningitis).
The bacteria can only survive a few seconds outside the body so cannot be picked up from surfaces, swimming pools, buildings or animals.
After infection, it usually takes one to 10 days for symptoms to appear, which can include a sudden onset of fever, rash of red-purple pin pricks or bruises, headache, neck stiffness, photophobia, muscle aches, cold hands and feet, confusion, irritability, joint pain, nausea and vomiting.
The highest incidence of meningococcal occurs in two age groups: 0 to 4 years, and 15 to 25 years. Teenagers have the highest carriage rates, peaking in 19-year-olds, and so play an important role in transmission.
Before the start of a National Meningococcal C Vaccination Program in 2003 (which aimed to deliver free vaccinations to all children up to 19 years) most fatalities in Australia were caused by the group C strain. In 2016, strain W emerged as dominant, making up almost half of the Australian cases.
In 2017, B strain increased to levels similar to W and in 2018, following widespread meningococcal ACWY school vaccination programs, strain B became dominant.
While rare, meningococcal disease is extremely dangerous and can cause death in as little as 24 hours. Among vaccine preventable diseases, meningococcal has the second highest fatality rate after rabies, at a little above 10%, and up to 40% in the case of meningococcal septicaemia, which occurs when the bacteria enter the bloodstream and multiply, damaging the walls of the blood vessels.
For those who survive , up to a fifth exhibit permanent life-long disabilities, such as brain damage, deafness, kidney failure, and limb amputation.
For those who survive , up to a fifth exhibit permanent life-long disabilities, such as brain damage, deafness, kidney failure, and limb amputation. And while all age groups are susceptible to meningococcal disease, infants are 17 times more likely to be infected compared to the general population.
Meningococcal B is the only strain not covered by a free combination vaccine for all Australian children under the National Immunisation Program (NIP), costing families about $115 per shot, per child. Two doses are needed.
Meningitis Centre Australia CEO, Karen Quick, says the expense and time-consuming process is a deterrent to families who want to vaccinate their children.
"There are two doses needed, a doctor's script, pharmacy visit, doctor's visits – it is not easy," she tells Cosmos Weekly. And while it is difficult to find out exactly how many people are vaccinated against meningococcal B, Quick says the numbers are low.
Why isn't the vaccine free for all Australian children and teens?
In August 2013, a vaccine against a broad spectrum of meningococcal B strains, also known as Bexsero, was registered in Australia. Since August 2014, this vaccine has been available in Australia through private prescription, and the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) has recommended targeting at-risk age groups and populations.
(Bexsero is manufactured by Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK) and is currently free for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children aged up to 12 months, as well as for some immunocompromised people.)
Meningococcal B is the only strain not covered by a free combination vaccine for all Australian children under the National Immunisation Program.
Cosmos Weekly described in a two part series late last year how a drug gets on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). A new medicine first has to be approved by Australia's drug regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), before it is assessed by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC), an independent expert advisory body made up of clinicians, health economists, and consumer representatives, who make recommendations to the government about drug listings.
PBAC Chair since 2015, Professor Andrew Wilson, who oversaw the most recent submission by GSK, told Cosmos Weekly it is not surprising that meningococcal B is the dominant strain in Australia as the rest have been vaccinated against, and questioned whether "commercial considerations" stand in the way of B being part of the combination meningococcal ACWY vaccine.
In the company's first Bexsero submission in 2013, PBAC noted that GSK estimated that "over 4 million children would be vaccinated over the first 5 years of a full 4CMenB vaccination programme (including catch ups), at a net cost to the government of greater than $400 million".
PBAC wrote in its public decision statement: "This vaccination programme would prevent 224 cases of invasive meningococcal disease, 9 deaths due to meningococcal B disease, and 93 patients with sequelae after 5 years.".
It concluded that "the rarity of invasive meningococcal B disease compared to the large number of vaccinations that are required was the primary driver of the unfavourable incremental cost-effectiveness ratio, and that … given the clinical uncertainties of a population wide prevention, there was high financial risk to the government and reduced opportunity to fund other interventions which are acceptably cost-effective."
"This vaccination programme would prevent 224 cases of invasive meningococcal disease, 9 deaths due to meningococcal B disease, and 93 patients with sequelae after 5 years."
Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC)
In 2019, PBAC upheld its decision, despite noting that "over a period of years, the model predicted a total of 1,134 cases in the no vaccination scenario and 941 cases in the vaccinated scenario which led to approximately 193 cases and 6 deaths potentially avoided". It did, however, propose to the Government that it should make the vaccine free for at-risk groups.
In a table provided to Cosmos by the federal health department, in 2022 alone there have been 111 cases of meningococcal across Australia, 90 of them strain B.
Wilson says PBAC considers whether the proposed vaccine will protect individuals, and whether it will stop transmission and the benefits relative to the overall risk in the community "One hundred, 200 cases a year is important, nobody is denying that," says Wilson. "But when you have a disease at that rate, the risk of transmission in the community is low. Compare that to Covid, the flu or measles, which are highly infectious and spread quickly."
Wilson says meningococcal tends to appear in clusters, like the one we are seeing now. And while he stands by PBAC's most recent decision, he says the committee is open to changing circumstances or a new submission.
"So far, the company hasn't decided to come back with an application," he says. "Either that happens or the government may reconsider if cases go up."
Another way the vaccine can become more cost effective is if the company drops its prices or a competitor comes into the field, Wilson adds. PBAC could not reach a price agreement with GSK which would make the drug cost effective for a national immunisation program.
"There is another MenB vaccine that is marketed in the US that we haven't seen here — for some reason, it never comes to us," he says.
"Either way, it's difficult to weigh these things up — these are small numbers, how do you weigh up those benefits?
Advocates still fighting
That's not to say that advocates such as Meningitis Centre Australia, haven't tried to get the vaccine on the National Immunisation Program.
In 2019, GSK put forward a submission to include Bexsero in the National Immunisation Program (NIP) for all Australian infants under two years of age, as well as adolescents. The submission included detailed economic modelling showing how the "vaccine would represent a value for money investment in the Australian health system", a GSK spokeswoman says.
"Yet, despite four submissions to the Federal Government to date, GSK has been unsuccessful in securing access for all Australian children to our meningococcal B vaccine … because our health system uses a funding model that undervalues prevention," she adds.
"… our health system uses a funding model that undervalues prevention."
GSK spokeswoman
When Cosmos Weekly asked Health Minister Mark Butler to explain why Bexsero remains costly when it vaccinates against the most common strain of meningococcal in Australia, we were referred to a federal Health Department spokesperson.
For Meningitis Centre's Quick, change can't happen quickly enough — and she says state governments also have a role to play. South Australia is the only state in Australia to offer Bexsero to its infants for free, enacted as a response to higher local rates.
"What we need is for all state governments to step up and draw a line and say 'no more under my watch, we want to save lives and disability'," says Quick. "They need to make it clear that this is vaccine preventable disease, and make a commitment that no more children and teenagers in their state will be put at risk.
"This will make the federal government stand up and listen and consider placing on the NIP."
Originally published by Cosmos as Australia isn't funding vaccines against meningococcal strain B for all children
Caroline Zielinski
Caroline Zielinski is a freelance journalist based in Melbourne. She writes on health, science, social affairs and all issues related to women
Health, Australia, Body and Mind, Medicine, People, Society, Weekly
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Beijing's freezer brings Australia out of the cold
China's economic coercion is placing Australia at the epicentre of global geopolitical events, creating the new opportunities to work with our allies to help manage the challenge.
As we exclusively report today, Australia's trade officials are working hard behind the scenes at the World Trade Organisation to rally international support for ending Beijing's stonewalling and singling out Australian commodity exports for politicised trade sanctions.
As The Australian Financial Review has stressed, it is in Australia's national interest – and in the interests of Chinese consumers – to use the international umpire to try to pull Beijing back behind the rules-based global trade system that China officially supports and greatly benefits from.
Trade Minister Simon Birmingham also says Australia will proceed with a formal WTO protest against the anti-dumping tariffs imposed on barley exporters in May. The reality here, though, is that Australia's bilateral relationship with its major trading partner has deteriorated beyond simply a major, escalating, and economically damaging trade dispute.
For the first time in history, China's economic coercion is placing Australia at the epicentre of global geopolitical events. It's the global importance of our deteriorating China relations, however, that is also creating the new opportunities to work with our allies to help manage Australia's China challenge.
Simon Birmingham says the trashing of WTO rules and the terms of the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement are a "deliberate strategy" of using trade sanctions to politically punish Australia. Alex Ellinghausen
This has been brought more clearly out into the open following the responses from both sides to Beijing's latest move on Friday to hit Australia's high priced premium wine exports to China with punitive anti-dumping duties. Senator Birmingham said the trashing of WTO rules and the terms of the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement was a "deliberate strategy" of using trade sanctions to politically punish Australia.
That Beijing's motivations were geopolitical was confirmed when a spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry urged Australia "to face up to the problems, correct their own mistakes, [and] take seriously China's concerns instead of harming China's interests and moving further down the wrong path".
It may also be the case that China is now overplaying its geopolitical hand.
Under the authoritarian rule of President Xi Xinping, strategically assertive China has singled out Australia as a disobedient trouble maker to send a message to other countries throughout the Indo-Pacific and advance its great power ambition to be the regional hegemon.
China's decision to put the pursuit of geopolitical goals ahead of the mutually beneficial two-way trade relationship has left Australia with no option but to protect its sovereignty. This includes refusing to buckle to trade threats motivated by Beijing's displeasure over Australia's world-first ban on Huawei from the 5G network build, or Malcolm Turnbull's foreign interference laws, or the Morrison government's foreign relations bill.
Scott Morrison has stressed that Australia in no way seeks to contain – and in fact welcomes – the peaceful rise of its major trade partner and that it has no interest in going all the way with its major US alliance partner into a new cold war. But the Morrison government's attempt to manage Australia's strategic dilemma has been imperfect and kicked some own goals. The unilateral call for an inquiry into China's handling of the pandemic, and the ill-timed decision to overturn the approved sale of a strategically unimportant dairy company to Chinese buyers, has needlessly antagonised and created a pretext for China's trade retaliation.
The result is the bilateral standoff that Australia is attempting to end using the multilateral forum of the WTO to resolve the trade disputes. It may also be the case that China is now overplaying its geopolitical hand. China's strategic assertiveness has united the US, Japan, Australia and India in the Quad and the Malabar naval exercises. It has also linked Australia and Japan as major strategic partners in maintaining stability in the Indo-Pacific region.
As former foreign minister Alexander Downer writes on these pages, China's brutal economic coercion of Australia is strategically counter-productive, because this is uniting the liberal democracies of North America, Europe and the Indo-Pacific to balance Beijing's power.
As US correspondent Jacob Greber reported on Saturday, China's trade aggression against Australia is the talk of a Washington moving quickly to put Donald Trump's America First neo-isolationist era behind it. It is cited by outgoing Trump officials' belated push for a "joint retaliation plan" – a NATO of sorts for trade – that would see Western countries agree to collectively absorb and offset the cost of China's trade bullying. It is also reinforcing the incoming Biden administration's commitment to bring back diplomacy to US foreign policy and work with like-minded countries starting with France and Germany to influence China's strategic choices.
China is putting its relations with Australia into a deeper freeze. But this could also now be helping bring Australia out of the cold as part of a reinvigorated Western alliance.
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Screenplay: Andrew Stanton and Bob Peterson and David Reynolds (story by Andrew Stanton)
Voices: Albert Brooks (Marlin), Ellen DeGeneres (Dory), Alexander Gould (Nemo), Willem Dafoe (Gill), Brad Garrett (Bloat), Allison Janney (Peach), Austin Pendleton (Gurgle), Stephen Root (Bubbles), Vicki Lewis (Deb/Flo), Joe Ranft (Jacques), Geoffrey Rush (Nigel), Andrew Stanton (Crush), Elizabeth Perkins (Coral), Nicholas Bird (Squirt), Bob Peterson (Mr. Ray), Barry Humphries (Bruce), Eric Bana (Anchor), Bruce Spence (Chum), Bill Hunter (Dentist)
Year of Release: 2003 / 2012 (3D Re-release)
Seeing Finding Nemo on the big screen again (now in 3D!) is a pure shot of delight and a reminder of the strength of Pixar's cinematic vision at its finest. Released at the height of the studio's initial run of creative output (it followed Toy Story and Toy Story 2, A Bug's Life, and Monster's Inc.), it remains a strikingly beautiful, wonderfully comedic, and frequently moving testament to the twin powers of faith and family.
The story takes place almost entirely under the ocean, and its first pleasure is its astounding visuals. The depth, dimensionality, and texture of computer were brought to new heights in visualizing a complex underwater world filled with colorful plant and animal life that move and sway with the dexterity and detail of our most fantastic dreams (the addition of 3D is best when highlighting the depth of the watery environs). It's not so much real as it is hyper-real—the way those of us who have never been to the bottom of the ocean might imagine it to be, both beautiful and terrifying.
The movie opens on a colorful and bustling warm water shelf near Australia, where Marlin (Albert Brooks), a clownfish, loses his wife and 399 of his 400 yet-to-be-hatched eggs to a barracuda. (It's quite a shocking way to open the movie, and its ripples of sadness resonate throughout the story, intensifying it.) The one remaining egg hatches into little Nemo (Alexander Gould), who Marlin overprotects as a way of compensating for his previous loss (it doesn't help that Nemo also has a gimp fin, which Marlin uses as an excuse to keep him from doing anything out of his sight).
When Marlin finally allows Nemo to go to school, the little guy is snagged by a scuba diver and finds himself in a fish tank in a dentist's office that has a tantalizing view of the harbor in Sydney. Marlin, wracked with guilt as only a character with Albert Brooks' voice can be, is determined to rescue his lost son. He inadvertently teams up with a dotty, short-term-memory-challenged blue tang fish named Dory (voiced to absolute perfection by Ellen DeGeneres, who makes the character so funny-sad that you want to swim out into the ocean, find her, and give her a big hug), and off they go to find Nemo.
Finding Nemo, of course, involves a series of adventures and challenges for Marlin to overcome, which is all the more difficult because he is so afraid of everything. He and Dory first cross paths with a group of sharks who, lucky for them, have banded together to form an AA-type group for sharks who want to resist eating fish ("I am a nice, friendly shark. Not a fish-eating monster. Fish are our friends, not food," they recite). They later hook a ride on the East Australian Current with a group of sea turtles (the leader is voiced by director and co-writer Andrew Stanton) who are envisioned as a group of adrenaline-junkie surfers. Their travels also include a run-in with a wicked-looking angler fish in the black depths near the bottom of the ocean, tricky navigation through a swarm of jellyfish, and a detour in a whale's mouth.
Meanwhile, Nemo finds comfort in the dentist's fish tank with the other captive fish, all of whom were bought at pet stores and yearn for their freedom in the "big blue." Their leader, Gill (Willem Dafoe), has an elaborate plan to spring them from the tank, which involves Nemo plugging up the tank's filter. Nemo is in a particular hurry to escape because he knows that, within a few days, he will be given to the dentist's niece, a horrifying little girl named Darla, whose last pet fish never made it out of the plastic bag because she shook it so hard.
Like the best of Pixar's films, Finding Nemo works so beautifully because it effortlessly combines humor, feeling, and an important life lesson (in this case, that parents have to trust their children if they are ever to grow up) in such a way that all of the components are in harmony. The jokes are just as important as the emotions, and they often reinforce each other, particularly in developing the relationship between the uptight Marlin and the goofy, free-wheeling Dory. The dialogue by screenwriters Andrew Stanton (who had worked on the scripts for all of Pixar's previous features), Bob Peterson, and David Reynolds (The Emperor's New Groove) is fresh and funny, ripe with one-liners and memorable quotes (one wonders, though, how much of Dory's hilarious dialogue was improvised by DeGeneres).
And, of course, there's the movie's look, which is consistently astounding to the point that you want to see it again and again just to marvel at the details. From the play of sunlight on the ocean waves, to the thousands of saw-like notches on the teeth of the Great White Shark Bruce (the name of whom is a little nod to Jaws' mechanical monster), to the perky freckles that dot Dory's nose, each frame of Finding Nemo is a visual delight. Along those same lines, credit must be given to the animators for the way they bring such detailed emotions to their characters, especially given the fact that fish have to be among the most inexpressive of all Earth's creatures. The little arcs of an eyebrow, the turn of a mouth, the slightest movement of a fin all convey a range of recognizable human emotions, which draws us that much deeper into the underwater realm Finding Nemo so exactingly creates.
Copyright ©2012 James Kendrick
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All images copyright © Pixar Studios and Walt Disney Studios
Overall Rating: (4)
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America Can't Wait for More Covid-19 Relief
Karl W. Smith
Jul 14 2020, 6:00 PM Jul 14 2020, 10:18 PM July 14 2020, 6:00 PM July 14 2020, 10:18 PM
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- The next economic relief package from Congress was always going to be important for a strong recovery from the pandemic-induced recession. But the recent surge in Covid-19 deaths means it is now absolutely essential — and the calendar will be set by the coronavirus, not by Congress.
Congress has a limited window to act. It's not quite now or never, but it is as about as close as it gets in Washington.
When the crisis first hit in the spring, some projections suggested that the worst of it would be over by midsummer. There was even some hope that by the end of June, Congress could turn its attention toward the recovery phase. For that reason many initial provisions, including loans under the Paycheck Protection Program and the boost to unemployment insurance, were scheduled to expire by the end of July.
As recently as a few weeks ago, that general thinking still seemed valid. Applications for PPP loans had fallen off, and the economy was adding jobs at a breakneck pace. The concern was how to turn a nascent recovery into a full-fledged rebound.
Now, however, there is the real possibility that economy will be looking at a second downturn and businesses will be facing another liquidity crunch. True, states may be hesitant to impose the same harsh lockdown measures they used last spring. But the effect on the economy could be just as severe.
Real-time measures of economic activity, such as restaurant reservations, were in free fall before the lockdowns began. Those same measures show that economic activity peaked in late June in hard-hit states such as Arizona and Texas. Overall, restaurant bookings have been flat in the U.S. for nearly a month — and that is before this latest uptick in deaths. As it becomes increasingly clear that this new round of infections is leading to a second wave of deaths, those trends are likely to intensify.
Now consider the congressional calendar. Lawmakers are expected to pass another round of relief in the next two weeks, then take a recess until after Labor Day. If there isn't a second liquidity program for businesses, or a deal on extending the unemployment insurance boost, a second shock to the economy will be under way before Congress returns to Washington.
One way to navigate this extreme uncertainty is for Congress to focus on relief that doesn't create any roadblocks to recovery. Rather than concentrate on forgiveness the way the original PPP did, for example, Congress could extend low-interest, long-term loans to any business, up to its 2019 revenues.
If the economic crisis reaches the levels of last spring, such a program would provide blanket liquidity and stem unnecessary layoffs. If, on the other hand, the U.S. gets lucky and deaths begin to decline again, then businesses would have the funds to reopen or even expand.
Redesigning the unemployment benefit so that it neither runs out in the middle of a downturn nor stifles a recovery will be harder. One possibility is to create a kind of "back to work" bonus that gives people a portion of their remaining unemployment bonus if they are rehired. (To make this work, the number of weeks workers can cash out would have to be capped at some multiple of the number of weeks they were on unemployment — otherwise, they will have an incentive to go on unemployment to get their back-to-work bonus.)
These are the kinds of details Congress should be discussing over the next few weeks. And whatever it does, it should recognize that there will be unintended consequences — and therefore a need to make adjustments. That's yet another reason for Congress to act now instead of waiting until September.
Karl W. Smith, a former assistant professor of economics at the University of North Carolina and founder of the blog Modeled Behavior, is vice president for federal policy at the Tax Foundation.
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"Keystone Kops": Major pipeline spills raise serious questions about safety of Keystone XL project
In Main, Regulation, Safety
For a lot of American environmentalists, the Keystone XL pipeline project was a major wakeup call about the rising, out-of-control power of Big Oil in this country, stretching all the way to the corridors of power in Washington. The proposal called for a 2,147-mile pipeline that would run from the booming oil-sands region of western Canada and ultimately connect all the way to the Gulf Coast. Supporters claim that the project would boost the energy industry in North America and create 20,000 American jobs. But the critics — and there are many — say the jobs numbers are grossly inflated and don't outweigh the major threats to the environmental that are posed by the Keystone project. For one thing, the oil that is pulled from the Canadian tar sands is an expensive, dirty fuel that will contribute to global warming.
But an even more powerful argument against the Keystone XL plan is the issue of pipeline safety. The initial plan calls for the pipeline to cross the Sandhills in Nebraska, a critical wetlands, and the Ogallala Aquifer, which serves some two million people in eight states as well as many farms. So just one major accident would be catastrophic. Big Oil has tried to assure Congress, the Obama administration and the American people that the pipeline will be 100 percent safe, and that there's no risk of an accident. But if the industry's track record is any kind of guide, there's no reason believe that. Check out this report from Alberta, the heart of the Canadian oil belt:
TORONTO, Canada — Three oil spills in a month isn't the track record Alberta wanted while peddling a major tar sands pipeline to Americans.
The spills have the provincial government and the oil industry scrambling to control the damage to both the environment and their credibility.
As many as 400,000 gallons of oil have leaked in three separate incidents from the end of May to the end of June. The worst has been a pipeline rupture near Sundre in central Alberta in mid-June, when some 132,000 gallons spilled into the Red Deer River and tainted a reservoir that provides drinking water to thousands of people.
The spills come as the Alberta and federal governments are lobbying for US approval of the KeystoneXL pipeline, which would transport up to 900,000 more barrels of Alberta's tar sands oil a day to US refineries in the Gulf of Mexico. Both governments are also pushing to build the Northern Gateway pipeline. That would bring tar sands oil to a proposed supertanker port on the Pacific coast of British Columbia, and from there to markets in Asia and the United States. The pipeline would be built by Enbridge, which owns a pumping station where one of the Alberta spills occurred.
Indeed, the record shows there are hundreds of such pipeline failures in Alberta in a given year, although thankfully most are not as bad as these three recent ones. Nonetheless, the overall picture is that of a dangerous and poorly regulated industry. Meanwhile, if the name Enbridge sounds familiar, it may be because you've read of its pipeline catastrophe here in the United States. In 2010, more than 20,000 gallons of oil spilled from its pipeline into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan:
Deborah Hersman, chairman of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, said on Tuesday that Enbridge's employees "performed like Keystone Kops" after a complete breakdown in safety measures allowed the pipeline to spill crude unchecked for 17 hours.
You don't need to be a rocket scientist to get the double meaning of "Keystone Kops." Here's more of what the NTSB had to say about Enbridge's screwups:
The NTSB found that Enbridge failed to accurately assess the integrity of the pipeline, including analyzing cracks that required repair, and its employees failed to follow procedures.
"Following the first alarm, Enbridge controllers restarted Line 6B twice, pumping an additional 683,000 gallons of crude oil, or 81 percent of the total amount spilled, through the ruptured pipeline," the agency said.
The board said there was a "culture of deviance" at Enbridge where personnel were not adhering to approved procedures and protocols.
A culture of deviance, indeed. Look, folks, this is the typical M.O. of Big Oil. In the theoretical world, all of their pipelines, their drilling procedures and their disposal methods have a perfect, 100-percent safety record. But in the real world, its safety record and wanton disregard for the environment is appalling. This is, in fact, the culture of deviance that killed 11 people and destroyed the Gulf of Mexico with the Deepwater Horizon spill, that is poisoning the drinking water of the Marcellus Shale with its poor fracking techniques, and that used to put radioactive drilling pipe in kids' playgrounds. And now these "Keystone Kops" want to build a pipeline across one of America's most sensitive aquifers? I don't think so. You wouldn't buy a title to the Brooklyn Bridge off some guy in the street; don't buy Big Oil's bogus claims about the Keystone XL pipeline, either.
Here is the full report on the Alberta oil spills: http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/after-3-pipeline-spills-totaling-400000-gallons-albertas-reputation-tarnished
To read about the NTSB findings about the Enbridge spill in Michigan, go to: http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/07/11/enbridge-spill-idINL2E8IBE1Y20120711
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Altekar, A.S. (1944) Education in ancient India. [Publication]
Aykroyd, W.R. (1944) An early reference to night-blindness in India and its relation to diet deficiency. [Publication]
Ballintijn, G. (1944) Rumphius -- De blinde ziener van Ambon. [Publication]
Banerjee, Dhirendranath (1944) Medicine in India during the Buddhist period. [Publication]
Banerjee, Manmatha Nath (1944) Hindu family and Freudian theory. [Publication]
Banerji, M.N. (1944) Hindu family and Freudian theory. [Publication]
Basu, N.K. and J.S. Walia (1944) The chemical investigation of the leaves of Herpestis monniera. [Publication]
Bertho, A. (1944) Pharmakologische Prüfung der Extrakte und Alkaloide aus Holarrhena antidysenterica. [Publication]
Bhat, S.S. (1944) Classification of mangoes. [Publication]
Bhattacharya, B.K. and S.P. De (1944) Antibacterial agents in flowers. [Publication]
Bhattacharyya, Asutosh (1944) Cult of the goddess Sasthi of Bengal. [Publication]
Bose, A.B. (1944) Pharmacognostic study of Euphorbia pilulifera. [Publication]
Burkholder, P.R., A.W. Evans, I. McVeigh and H.K. Thornton (1944) Antibiotic activity of lichens. [Publication]
Cavallito, C.J. and J.H. Bailey (1944) Allicin, the anti-bacterial principle of Allium sativum. I. Isolation, physiological properties and anti-bacterial action. [Publication]
Clegg, E.L.C. (1944) Notes on tin and wolfram in Burma and India. [Publication]
Cooray, G.H. (1944) Observations on malignant disease in Ceylon based on a study of two thousand two hundred and ninety-five biopsies of malignant tumours. [Publication]
Copley, Alfred Lewin and Helen Boswell (1944) Aconite the love poison. [Publication]
Corbett, Jim (1944) Man-eaters of Kumaon. [Publication]
Cortesao, Armando (1944) The "Suma Oriental" of Tomé Pires. [Publication]
Datta, S.C. (1944) Pharmacognostical studies on the leaves of a few species of Rauwolfia. [Publication]
Datta, S.C. and S.N. Bal (1944) Pharmacognostic studies of Lobelia nicotianaefolia Heyne. [Publication]
Drabkin, I.E. (1944) On medical education in Greece and Rome. [Publication]
Elwin, Verrier (1944) Notes on a Kondh tour. [Publication]
Fuller, Mary (1944) Nag-Panchami. [Publication]
Gode, P.K. (1944) A contemporary manuscript of the Bhojana-kut\={u}hala of Raghun\={a}tha belonging to \'{S}\={a}mj\={\i} {N}\={a}yak Pu\d{n}\d{d}e -- Between A.D. 1650 and 1685. [Publication]
Gode, P.K. (1944) Chronological limits for the commentary of Indu on the A\d{s}\d{t}\={a}\.{n}gasa\.{m}graha of V\={a}gbha\d{t}a {I} -- Between A.D. 750 and 1050. [Publication]
Gode, P.K. (1944) God\={a}varami\'{s}ra, the R\={a}jaguru and mantri of Gajapati Prat\={a}parudradeva of Orissa, and his works -- Between A.D. 1497--1539. [Publication]
Gode, P.K. (1944) Migration of paper from China to India -- A.D. 105--1500. [Publication]
Gode, P.K. (1944) Some ancient medical observations on the importance of milk in general and of cow's milk in particular. [Publication]
Gode, P.K. (1944) Some notes on the history of Indian dietetics with special reference to the history of jaleb\={\i}. [Publication]
Gode, P.K. (1944) Studies in the history of Indian plants -- Antiquity of jaw\={a}r or jondh\d{l}\={a} (Holcus Sorghum) (From B.C. 2200 to A.D. 1850). [Publication]
Gode, P.K. (1944) Studies in the history of Indian plants -- The mah\={a}\'{s}\={a}li variety of rice in Magadha (Between A.D. 600 and 1100). [Publication]
Gode, P.K. (1944) Studies in the regional history of Indian paper industry -- The paper manufacture at Harihar on the bank of the Tungabhadr\={a} in A.D. 1790 as described by Capt. Edward Moor. [Publication]
Gode, P.K. (1944) The chronology of Brahmadeva's commentary on the Siddhayoga of V\d{r}nda -- Between c. A.D. 900 and 1100. [Publication]
Gode, P.K. (1944) The history of the fig (a\~{n}j\={\i}ra) from Homer to Bajirao II (1000 B.C. to A.D. 1800). [Publication]
Gode, P.K. (1944) The origin and antiquity of the caste-name of the Karah\={a}\d{t}aka or Karh\={a}\d{d}\={a} Brahmins. [Publication]
Gode, P.K. (1944) V.S. Sukthankar Memorial Edition, 1: Critical studies in the Mah\={a}bh\={a}rata. [Publication]
Gode, P.K. (1944) Works and authors mentioned by Candra\d{t}a in his medical compendium Yogaratna-samuccaya (c. A.D. 1000). [Publication]
Howard, Herbert (1944) Post-war forest policy for India. [Publication]
Inayatullah, Sh. (1944) Contribution to the historical study of hospitals in mediaeval Islam. [Publication]
Johnson, H. (1944) Tam\={a}la and vetra. [Publication]
Katre, Sadashiv L. (1944) The Vaidyavinoda of \'{S}a\.{n}kara: the author's patron -- R\={a}masi\d{m}ha of Amber and his date -- between 1668 and 1699 {A}.{C}.(!). [Publication]
Keller, J. and B. Görlich (1944) The action of madder on bladder stones -- Disintegration and elimination of bladder stones. [Publication]
Khanolkar, V.R. (1944) Oral cancer in Bombay, India -- A review of 1,000 consecutive cases. [Publication]
Khanolkar, V.R. (1944) The susceptibility of Indians to cancer. [Publication]
Koparkar, D.G. (1944) S\={u}kar-maddava. [Publication]
Lakshmi Pathi, A. and Girija Prasanna Mujumdar (1944) Vrikshaayurveda. [Publication]
Lakshmi Pathi, A. (1944) Civic administration in ancient India. [Publication]
Lakshmi Pathi, A. (1944) Right attitude. [Publication]
Lakshmi Pathi, A. (1944) The brief historical survey of Hindusthan. [Publication]
Mahendru, I.D. (1944) The kikar or babul (Acacia arabica Willd.). [Publication]
Mariadassou, P. (1944) Médecine populaire. [Publication]
Mehta, J.C. and D.N. Majumdar (1944) Indian medicinal plants, V. Mucuna pruriens. [Publication]
Mookerjee, Radhakumud (1944) Universities in ancient India with special reference to Ayurvedic studies. [Publication]
Mooss, Vayaskara N.S. (1944) Ayurvedic treatments of Kerala. [Publication]
Mukerjee, M.K. (1944) History of Ayurveda. [Publication]
Mullick, W.P. (1944) Honey and beekeeping in scriptures and after. [Publication]
Murti, G. Srinivas (1944) Presidential Address on Medical Education and Medical Relief in India at the Inaugural Meeting of the Academy of Indian Medicine. [Publication]
Pata, Raphael (1944) Jewish folk-cures for barrenness from the vegetable kingdom. [Publication]
Pires, Tomé (1944) The Suma Oriental of Tomé Pires. An account of the East from the Red Sea to Japan, written in Malacca and India in 1512--1515. Translated from the Portuguese MS in the Bibliothèque de la Chambre des Députés, Paris, and edited by Armando Cortesâo. [Publication]
Purewal, S.S. (1944) Vegetable gardening in the Punjab. Puri. [Publication]
Reddy, D.V.S. (1944) A century old classic on rheumatism in India; An uncatalogued Prize Essay of J.G. Malcolmson, with an introduction by D.V.S. Reddy. [Publication]
Reddy, D.V.S. (1944) Infancy and childhood (as described by Bana, a Sanskrit writer of the 7th century A.D.). [Publication]
Reddy, D.V.S. (1944) Medical education in India --A historical review. [Publication]
Reddy, D.V.S. (1944) Medical lore in Sanskrit dramas - Glimpses of medicine in the age of Bhasa. [Publication]
Reddy, D.V.S. (1944) Sidelights on medico-legal problems of the Mouryan era (based on the Arthashastra of Kautilya). [Publication]
Reddy, D.V.S. (1944) Sterility in woman (beliefs and rituals for relief in ancient India). [Publication]
Reddy, D.V.S. (1944) Surgical curiosities from the Ramayana. [Publication]
Sengupta, P.C. (1944) Kala-azar in Bengal, its incidence and trends. [Publication]
Sharma, P.V. (1944) Oj k\={a} svar\={u}p I and II. [Publication]
Sharma, P.V. (1944) Pa\d{n}\d{d}it Brajbih\={a}r\={\i} Caturved\={\i} k\={a} sm\={a}rak. [Publication]
Simham, R.D.N. (1944) Town planning in ancient India. [Publication]
Srinivasan, M, (1944) Vitamin C in plants -- Indian gooseberry (Phyllanthus emblica). [Publication]
Sternbach, Ludwik (1944) Legal protection of plants in ancient India. [Publication]
Sundara Ramaiah, G. (1944) A reconstruction of the doctrines of Lok\={a}yata from Buddhist sources. [Publication]
Thimaya, K.S. (1944) Peculiarities of Terminalia chebula. [Publication]
Townend, B.R. (1944) The story of the tooth-worm. [Publication]
Velankar, Hari Damodar (1944) Jinaratnako\'{s}a -- An alphabetical register of Jain works and authors, vol. I -- Works. [Publication]
Wijesekera, O. H. de A. (1944) Upanishadic terms for sense-function. [Publication]
Wijesekera, O.H. de A. (1944) Upanishadic terms for sense-function. [Publication]
Youngken, H.W. (1944) Studies on Indian rhubarb, I. [Publication]


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StreamSquid Allows You to Stream for Free, Import Old Grooveshark Playlists
Chris Kissel
Ian Waldie, Getty Images
If you were one of the countless Grooveshark users who used the service to meticulously build playlists, you probably thought all was lost when the service was shut down for good.
But a new service called StreamSquid allows users to type in their Grooveshark usernames and watch their old playlists come back to life.
(The zombie service that originally popped up in Grooveshark's place, Grooveshark.io, appears to have since been taken down.)
When Grooveshark was shut down, the site's operators left one of its backup servers operating. StreamSquid's founders told TorrentFreak they were then able to access and revive the files that stored all the user playlists.
"It was devastating at first as we thought that we'd lost our personal music hub. The huge effort that took many years to build and collect songs and playlists was gone in a single court decision," StreamSquid co-founder Ofir Yosef told TorrentFreak.
StreamSquid
The service feels a lot like Grooveshark, but doesn't host the music it streams on its own servers. Instead, it accesses YouTube and SoundCloud and streams the music (legally) from there, while keeping users on its site. When a user clicks to listen to a song, the YouTube version of the song -- including the official music video, if available -- plays in the upper righthand corner of the screen.
Additionally, tracks are organized into albums and playlists by the service thanks to a partnership with Last.fm. The site's founders say they're working to allow users to view their listening history and build song queues.
New Streaming App Only Plays Music on NYC's Williamsburg Bridge
Categories: Music, News, Tech


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Opening the Doors to Opportunity for All
Nearly a century ago, John Dewey reflected on the nature of change in his book Human Nature and Conduct:
We may desire abolition of war, industrial justice, and greater opportunity for all. But no amount of preaching good will or the golden rule or cultivation of sentiments of love and equity will accomplish the results. There must be change in objective arrangements and institutions.
Today America's school system needs a major overhaul. Our educational problems are neither fleeting nor amenable to superficial reforms. They go bone deep—right to the very structure of schooling.
We get an inkling of how deep our problem goes when we learn that American students consistently underperform on international tests. We are disturbed when we learn that the dropout rate in Washington D.C. public schools is 36%. We fret when we learn that many teachers are unprepared to teach today's students.
But these indicators of a struggling system are really only symptoms of a structural problem that will not be fixed through cosmetic reform, tinkering around the edges, or wishful thinking and good intentions.
The Equity Project at AIR is dedicated to uncovering the structural limitations inherent in the current structure of schools and demonstrating through research that there are realistic alternatives that will open the doors of opportunity for all.
With this objective in mind, The Equity Project held its first Research Roundtable in late April at AIR's Georgetown offices. Participants included some the country's top researchers and policymakers including James Banks of the University of Washington, Wade Boykin of Howard University, Michael Feuer of George Washington University, David Grusky of Stanford University, Janice Jackson of the National Equity Project, Katherine Marshall of Georgetown University, Hugh Mehan of the University of California, Jeannie Oakes of the Ford Foundation, Lois Weis of the State University of New York and Jorge Ruiz de Velasco of Stanford University.
The Roundtable was the first of four, scheduled for 2014 and 2015, which will establish an empirically-based vision of public education that is inclusive, demanding, and creative. This new model of education reform will be based on social mobility and shared opportunity for low income and minority students. This transformative goal will not be achieved without new thinking. At bottom, this means getting away from the current social reproduction model of change that reproduces inequality based on race and class and blocks upward mobility. Our new model will build on the principles of inclusion, shared excellence, and access to opportunity.
The Equity Project is a laboratory for experimentation, developing approaches to educational innovation that are grounded in theory, supported with data, scalable and sustainable. With these thoughts in mind, this first Roundtable was organized to develop lines of research will form the intellectual grid for a new educational reform agenda. Based on this work, The Equity Project will produce a volume of commissioned papers, post short papers on its website, and undertake a concerted public engagement campaign to inform policy and public discourse about the new vision of public education.
We can fix this problem. We can open the doors to opportunity for all. The Equity Project intends to be part of this grand undertaking of reclaiming educational opportunity for all. It is time, in the words of John Dewey "to be serious without being fanatical, aspiring without sentimentality, adapted to reality without convention, sensible without taking the form of calculation of profits, idealistic without being romantic."


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Get Ready to Sacrifice 120,000 of your Sons
US News & Politics
skull May 28, 2019, 1:37pm #1
fd8040ff49b2c65214411292aec3bb280c943ac1ae063abb7e861cc4a9c151cb.jpg1366×768 238 KB
NYT: Pentagon presented plan to deploy 120,000 troops in case of Iran escalation
At the direction of national security adviser John Bolton, acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan last week presented top White House national security officials with a plan to send up to 120,000 troops to the Middle East in the event that Iran "attack American forces or accelerate work on nuclear weapons," the New York Times reports.
The plan was reportedly ordered by White House national security adviser John Bolton.
Topic after topic that are anti Israeli tirades
Call_me_Ishmael May 14, 2019, 11:26am #2
Pretty sure we are going at the request of some Arab countries. Maybe you should read more.
LouMan May 14, 2019, 12:18pm #3
So you would sit back and watch Iran toast the middle east and kill millions of people???
Israel sits on nuclear weapons and if Iran were stupid enough to attack, they would certainly defend themselves. Ready for a retaliation by Israel? They would certainly hit all their favorite places including the terrorist next door.
tt53 May 14, 2019, 12:19pm #4
Didn't Obama and the CHIN hand over billions of US tax dollars for Iran to act nice and play fair ??? Where is Mueller and HIS Logan Act now ???
Call_me_Ishmael May 14, 2019, 12:28pm #5
Iran is just implementing the Kerry Plan now.
John_Kerry_Speaks_With_Hossein_Fereydoun_and_Javad_Zarif_before_Press_conference_in_Vienna_19663913956_cropped.jpg1000×718 127 KB
TWR May 14, 2019, 2:43pm #6
Somewhere in excess of 165 Bn Dollars.
What a load. Learn something about the region before spouting Jew hating bullshit for a change.
Says the guy who presents himself by displaying a picture of an American flag being overtaken by an Israeli flag.
Try harder to refute my post instead of shilling your pro-Israel bullshit.
TWR:
Learn something about the region
Netanyahu Says He Plans To Annex Settlements In West Bank
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he plans to formally annex Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.
We must control our destiny," the premier said.
'''After boasting that he was responsible for U.S. President Donald Trump's declaration recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, Netanyahu told the program "Meet the Press": "Will we move ahead to the next stage? Yes.'''
News Punch – 6 Apr 19
Netanyahu's late pre-election promise will enrage Palestinians and the Arab world.
Israel and the U.S. are simultaneously stepping up repression in the form of travel restrictions against critics of the apartheid state.
'''Last week, the U.S. banned a founder of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, one Omar Barghouti, from entering its soil.'''
MintPress News – 19 Apr 19
Thought Police: US, Israel Increasingly Banning & Deporting Ideological...
Israel and the US are simultaneously stepping up repression in the form of travel restrictions against their critics.
On April 15, the administration of President Donald Trump designated Iran's military wing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a "terrorist" organization.
Instagram has banned several top Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, from its photo-sharing platform.
Instagram: "We work with the appropriate government authorities"
'''The Israeli government gloated after Instagram's ban of the top Iranian officials.'''
The Grayzone – 18 Apr 19
Instagram Acts as Arm of US Govt, Bans Top Iranian Officials After IRGC...
Top Iranian government officials were suspended from Facebook-owned Instagram just hours after Trump dubbed the IRGC a "terrorist" organization. By Ben Norton A curious decision by Instagram, which is owned by social media giant Facebook, has...
Rand Paul to Mike Pompeo: You don't have Congress' "permission" to go to war with Iran
Amid escalating tensions between the United States and Iran, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, pressed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on whether the administration's recent decision to designate Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization was a way to justify possible future military action in Iran.
In light of the resolution, Pompeo later testified that the connection between Iran and Al Qaeda was undeniable.
'''There is no question there is a connection between the Islamic republic of Iran and AL Qaeda. Full stop," said Pompeo, noting that the IRGC has "killed 600 Americans."'
Rand Paul to Mike Pompeo: You don't have Congress' "permission" to go to war...
"Only congress can declare war. You do not have our permission to go to war with Iran," Paul warned the secretary
Leaked Netanyahu Tape: We Made Trump Cancel The Iran Deal
Netanyahu brags he is the one who convinced Trump to end the Iran Deal
"We convinced the US president and I had to stand up against the whole world and come out against this agreement" - leaked video
Trump sends a carrier battle group to Iran
Obvious signs that a false flag is being setup:
"Saudi Arabia says 2 oil tankers damaged by sabotage attacks"
SFGate – 14 May 19
Tankers reported damaged off UAE on major oil trade route
FUJAIRAH, United Arab Emirates (AP) - As many as four oil tankers anchored in the Mideast were damaged in what Gulf officials described Monday as a "sabotage" attack off the coast of the United Arab Emirates. While details of the incident remained...
US And Israel Form "Working Group" To Overthrow Iran Government
We knew in advanced that this was planned
US And Israel Form "Working Group" To Overthrow Iran Government
Covert plans to "encourage protests" and "raise internal pressure" under John 'Bomb Iran' Bolton
Meanwhile back at home…
Official Reveals 168,000 Illegal Immigrants Have Been Released into US Communities This Year
Conservative Fighters – 10 May 19
Official Reveals 168,000 Illegal Immigrants Have Been Released into US...
Two of America's top officials trying to hold the line along America's southern border on Wednesday painted a dismal picture of a rapidly deteriorating system being overwhelmed by unprecedented illegal immigration from Central America to the United...
Trump's 'deal of the century' will give Israel control over West Bank settlements – report
The US peace deal for the Middle East includes establishing Israeli law over the Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, an Israeli TV channel has reported. The condition has been a no-go for Palestine.
More than two years in the making and bogged down by delays, the Trump administration's "peace deal" for Israel and Palestine is finally expected to be unveiled next month. With that day approaching, parts of the draft, shrouded in a thick veil of secrecy, have been leaked to media, confirming the general expectations of it being heavily skewed in Israel's favor.
RT International
Trump's 'deal of the century' will give Israel control over West Bank...
So, Trump pulls out of Syria, recognizes Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights, moves the embassy to Jerusalem and now Israel gets Syria's oil and is moving Jewish settlements into the West Bank.
At the same time, Israel and the US are banning BDS members.
Meanwhile Trump declares Iran's Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization, Pompeo is making connections between Al Qaeda and Iran, and social media is censoring the issue on behalf of the US gov't.
At the same time, Qresearch constantly posts photos at top of board demonstrating support for overthrow of Iran.
Meanwhile, Mexican cartels aren't declared a terrorist organization, conservatives are also banned from social media, murder and human trafficking aren't used as pretext for war against Mexico, US citizens lose 1st amendment right to protest Israel, Congress is filled with dual-citizens, hearings on 'white nationalist' fabricated hate crimes.
Call_me_Ishmael May 14, 2019, 3:27pm #9
Trump is doing what we voted him into office to do.
Bigly May 14, 2019, 3:48pm #10
I'm a Trump supporter and Trump voter. We did not vote him into office to get involved in more foreign wars. That was a big part of his campaign, if you recall.
TWR May 14, 2019, 4:06pm #11
Iran has been killing Americans for more than 40 years, what's new is the US actually doing something about it.
We backed out of Obama's idiotic nuclear deal because all it did was give Iran a decade and hundreds of billions of dollars to develop their nuclear program in peace without further sanctions.
A couple of sentences is all it takes.
Iran has been expanding it's influence throughout the gulf since 2009. They are directly responsible for over 70% of our casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan having provided the materials and training along with direct support for the insurgents IED's.
Iran has taken control of Iraq and much of Syria now as well.
If we don't stabilize things there in the region we're soon going to see a new ME oil crisis and closure of the straits of Hormuz along with an allout war between Iran and the Saudis.
The end result would be to overnight crash the economies of all the western powers including our own putting the world into a deep recession that would take years to recover from.
Like I said, learn something for a change before spouting your ignrant anti Israel Bullshit.
Call_me_Ishmael May 14, 2019, 4:18pm #13
Bigly:
You conflate his action regarding Iran with those regarding Israel. Your post makes no sense. I support our alliance with Israel. Our nation supports it too.
Stop believing the lies about Israel being the cause of every problem.
tt53 May 14, 2019, 9:10pm #14
Well Trump would NEVER allow our soldiers to kneel to some F-ing terrorist pigs and never order them to stand down . Obama was a disgrace to all our brave military and to our Country . The worst 8 years in American history he weaponize the DOJ , FBI ,CIA and the IRS !
I think you are grossly overstating Iran's threat to the US. The sequence of events that @skull laid out above is accurate. To me this appears like Bolton, is being his usual hawkish self, and we are potentially about to get into yet another conflict in the Middle East over issues that have absolutely no impact on US citizens.
Again, we didn't elect Trump into office for this. When Trump first appointed Bolton he joked about him not starting any new wars on his watch. It's not like it's a secret that Bolton likes to start wars.
I agree with Trump pulling out of the Iran deal because it was half baked and completely lop sided in favor of Iran.
I don't agree with getting into a conflict with Iran over issues that will unilaterally benefit Israel if they are brought to bear.
That doesn't make me an anti-semite or anti-Trumper. We are allowed to disagree with the president, especially when he's doing something that he campaigned that he wouldn't do. Trump campaigned to put America first.
Why have all of you forgotten about that? If all of you were actually Trump supporters from the beginning this would piss you off.
FattyMcButterpants May 14, 2019, 11:00pm #16
This is because those of us who supported Trump when he came down the escalator aren't getting the same Trump that we backed (at the expense of many personal relationships) and got shit all over by establishment conservatives. Trump has gone full establishment and is surrounded by Bush-era neocons. That's why these people won't question Trump now…and have the gall to talk shit about us when we get pissed that Trump moved away from the principles of putting America first.
DMK May 14, 2019, 11:19pm #17
FattyMcButterpants:
Trump moved away from the principles of putting America first.
I don't think Trump has lost sight at all of putting America first which includes all matters that may adversely affect this country happening overseas.
He also has a hell of a lot of more information at this fingertips than you or I have.
FattyMcButterpants May 15, 2019, 12:59am #18
Agree on access to info. Trump has the Situation Room where everyone comes to brief him on everything. We have the MSM and alternative news.
It would be nice to see how going to war with Iran, something that Bolton has wanted for decades, somehow helps the average American and puts America first. If someone here could explain it I'd be glad to listen.
REKT May 15, 2019, 1:10am #19
You have the answer here…
Trump has gone full establishment and is surrounded by Bush-era neocons. That's why these people won't question Trump now…and have the gall to talk shit about us when we get pissed that Trump moved away from the principles of putting America first.
As long as Trump keeps putting Israel first, shills and cuckservatives like @TWR will be happy.
As long as cuckservatives like @TWR are happy, less informed cuckservatives like @DMK and @FlameHeart will be happy.
The rest of us who actually put Trump into office will continue to be pissed while cuckservatives and neocons continue to sell out America to the lowest bidder…while they jump up and down waving the Israeli flag like the cucks they are. They are probably disgusted to even handle an American flag. Traitors.
DMK May 15, 2019, 1:13am #20
I'm not so sure this is about what Bolton has wanted for decades rather the threat that Iran may pose.
U.S. President Donald Trump also has increased economic pressure on Iran, moving to cut off all its oil exports, to try to get Tehran to curb its nuclear and missile programs as well as end support for proxies in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen.
"In the event that Iran decided to come after an American interest - whether that be in Iraq or Afghanistan or Yemen or any place in the Middle East - we are prepared to respond in an appropriate way," he said, adding that "our aim is not war." https://taskandpurpose.com/iran-command-us-military-persian-gulf-target-threat
So, we shall see what evolves. In the meantime, I do believe Trump is putting the interests of America first