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EU's herd immunity bottlenecks 2.0
by Manuel BrossardPosted on 16 March 2021 12 May 2022
Concerns surrounding the EU's COVID-19 vaccination campaign refuse to die down. With AstraZeneca now reporting a safety scare – after already acknowledging supply constraints, export controls and (varying) issues for other vaccine-makers seem to have (further) stalled the EU's vaccination momentum. Overall, this isn't good news for the region's herd immunity ambitions.
After a bumpy start, the EU's COVID-19 vaccination campaign has picked up pace, with >11 doses being administered per hundred people (at present) vs. only two doses at the end of January 2021 – for more details, refer our Latest titled "EU's herd immunity bottlenecks" dated 28 January 2021.
However, when compared to other developed countries, the EU is still a laggard, having administered c.50m doses, which is less than half the doses administered by the US (c.109m). Moreover, in terms of doses administered per 100 people, the bloc is far behind its neighbour, the UK, which has administered at least one dose to c.40% of its population.
Vaccination program details
Vaccine approval: (potential) timelines
Brewing concerns
So far, the EU has approved four vaccines – which account for c.70% of its supply contracts. While these volumes (illustrated below) may seem sufficient to inoculate the region's total population of 450m, persistent supply delays by most vaccine-makers have only compounded the problems.
EU's vaccine contracts
Vaccine nationalism
In January 2021, after Pfizer (c.23% of total supply) and Astra (c.15%) reported supply cuts, it was expected that the situation would have normalised by now. However, Astra has again cut its Q1 21 supply target to c.30m doses vs. c.40m doses (original plan: c.80m doses) – agreed last month, after a bitter stand-off with the EU member states, as it failed to move vaccine supplies across its various manufacturing sites. Vaccine export controls (mainly by the US) have been cited as the main reason for the latest supply cuts. Even though Astra's vaccine is currently not approved in the US, the country is not allowing exports of vaccines manufactured locally under US Defence Production Act, citing concerns of future supply constraints. The British pharma giant's hands seem tied in this situation as it accepted $1.2bn of funding from the US government for the COVID-19 vaccine development under Operation Warf Speed. What is worse, Astra has 'again' acknowledged supply cuts in Q2 21, and is expected to supply only 70m doses vs. original target of 180m doses.
Conversely, vaccine exports from the EU are continuing uninterrupted, with only one request for the export of Astra's c.250k doses to Australia being denied by Italy. As of 11 March 2021, c.34m doses have been exported from the EU, which includes c.9m to UK and c.1m to the US. Remember, under the EU's export control authorisation mechanism, it mandates the authorisation of vaccine exports outside the EU for companies with which it has signed Advance Purchase Agreements.
Astra's run of safety concerns
Concerns surrounding the safety profile of Astra's vaccine have re-surfaced after cases of blood clotting / bleeding have been reported in patients receiving vaccine shots and this has resulted in a host of European countries, including Germany, Italy and France, (temporarily) suspending some or complete use of Astra's vaccine. In its defence, Astra has clarified, after a review of c.17m people, who were administered the vaccine in EU and UK, that it has found no evidence of increased risk of blood clotting or bleeding due to the vaccine. Also, the group has garnered support from the UK's regulator (MHRA), which has stated that the number of cases of blood clotting that have been reported post vaccination are no greater than what would have occurred naturally. Assuming that this claim is true, the EU nations' decision so far seems to have been more driven by fear and to avoid a political/social crisis.
Remember, scepticism with respect to Astra's COVID-19 vaccine has been around since the late-stage trial results were reported in November 2020. Considering the way trials were handled, including lack of explanation for two dosing regimens and the limited (c.12%) share of elderly in trials, the EU always seemed hesitant to approve the jab for the elderly. Also, the large presence of anti-vaxxers in the EU (vs. UK and US) and lower efficacy of Astra's vaccine (vs. mRNA-based vaccines of Pfizer and Moderna) have resulted in lower acceptance for the jab. For instance, even before news concerning the blood clot risk came to fore, >50% of Astra's jabs were lying unused in various EU countries (including >60% in France) vs. c.15% for Pfizer's vaccine. Moreover, with French President Emmanuel Macron, in the past, having raised doubts over Astra's vaccine, various factors have compounded anti-Astra rhetoric in the EU.
Bloc's weaker unity exposed
The row over Astra's vaccine seems to have further exposed the weaker links within the EU members. Remember, six member states, including Austria and Bulgaria have complained to the European Commission about unfair vaccine distribution. While the EU has a pro-rata population-based allocation system in place, it has also allowed individual members to buy more or less each vaccine they wanted. With perceived benefits associated with Astra's vaccine candidate – less stringent temperature requirements and being cost-effective, a number of EU countries were inclined more towards the British vaccine. But, now with supply and safety concerns coming to fore, some EU members are even lagging behind the region's overall slower roll-out and have instead resorted to Russia's vaccine – approved despite no proper trails, to expedite herd immunisation.
Problems with other vaccines as well
Even after approving Johson &Johnson's single dose vaccine, the EU is not expected to receive the delivery of J&J's jab anytime soon – at least not before the second half of April 2021. The US giant has informed EU officials that it is under stress to deliver c.55m doses promised for Q2 21 (2021 target of 200m doses) and has acknowledged bottlenecks at production sites in the Netherlands. Also, like Astra, J&J's request to loan US stockpiles to the EU have been denied by the Biden administration. Moreover, according to leaked EMA documents, the regulator in November 2020 had flagged concerns that some of the early commercial batches of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine carried lower than expected levels of intact mRNA, which could have severe implications on the performance and/or safety of the vaccine. While these issues seem resolved, as the jab secured approval in December 2020, it raises serious questions on the stability of vaccines as they move globally through complex supply chain networks.
New virus variants adding to struggles
Like all viruses, coronavirus also constantly mutates into novel variants and, while most of the mutations are of little/no significance, some could be even more dreadful than the original virus itself. In the case of COVID-19, its variant first surfaced in South Africa, i.e. 501.V2 (also known as B.1.351) and has been found to spread more rapidly. Moreover, ineffectiveness of the currently approved vaccines to counter this mutation further adds to the woes. Apart from South Africa, this variant has also surfaced in >20 other countries, including the UK, Austria, Norway and Japan. Also, the limited virus sequencing globally has so far resulted in the discovery of only a handful of newer mutations and it is possible that a more threatening mutation is already spreading unnoticed.
Though some remedial measures are underway
The EU has announced that it is planning to reduce dependency on global supply chains for sourcing crucial vaccine raw materials as 'vaccine nationalism' gathers momentum. The European Commission has particularly identified:
disposable plastic bags – used in bioreactors, which mix the vaccine ingredients
vaccine vials and lipid nanoparticle – for manufacturing mRNA vaccines
low dead space syringes – which help extract doses from vials, as some of the critical items
This is an important step since the US has already put export controls on these inputs, with the Serum Institute of India – the world's largest vaccine maker and Astra's manufacturing partner in India – already acknowledging problems in sourcing key inputs from the US.
While the EU's vaccination campaign was already running behind other developed countries, the recent spree of negative news has resulted in further inevitable delays in herd immunisation. Factoring in these developments, the EU's herd-immunity timeline is likely to be pushed to late Q4 21 vs. our prior estimate of late Q3 21.
AlphaValue's Big Pharma coverage: Glaxosmithkline, Novartis, Sanofi, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Novo Nordisk, Merck, UCB, Grifols, Vifor Pharma, H Lundbeck, Hikma, Ipsen, Faes Farma.
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This is a blog about my experiences at Primerica and my opinions about this great fantastic company. Primerica does what is right for their clients 100% of the time. I'm an agent and I feel positive and good about what I do for families. Payoneer understands that this is vital information. Disclaimer: The postings on this blog does not represent Primerica Financial Services as a whole, but as a matter of opinion and information based by me.
That so to change to the decoration of your house every year. The one that today cheers in a classic atmosphere and tomorrow in a modern atmosphere draws attention to you. Then renting the furniture of your house is the solution. Renting furniture is better for the people they need than it per short periods time. This can include people with transitory works or that is changed frequently, Shootings commercial, or simply people whom they like to vary their surroundings regularly.
You need if it for today you need and it by short time, the cost benefit will be greater if you rent your furniture. You would end up paying less by all the household of your house and at the end of this time you will not have preocuparte what to do however, you give back simply it and ready. With the service of rent you also obtain a great variety of services eg: consultant's office in decoration, cleaning of the furniture, transports, option of changes, and retapizado. What it will do the easy life to you but. According to Maria Wake Corral, representative of Sales of Arrienco, Ecuadorian company of furniture rent: – The cost of renting all the furniture for a house of 3 dormitories without elements of serious decoration of around 800 usd monthly (following the furniture style).
– The common terms but of leasings for furniture are of 1 month and 1 year. – The guarantee by the furniture will have to be of the value of the furniture and this will be given back the moment of the total return, this can be given or with credit card or check. – It is possible to be rented from complete games of room to complete lamps, Electric home appliances, Dormitories and elements of decoration for all the pleasures. – It is possible to be found several styles of furniture, from contemporary to classic, everything what you need to make of your department the best atmosphere to develop your life. Renting furniture is a very valid option, Is an option that there is to take into account the moment for realising our budget to amoblar the department. Perhaps everything is not necessary buying nor either to rent everything. A very good balance for the interested people can exist and this balance can generate economy. Source: Departments of vacations in Ecuador Original author and source of the article.
In such sense, having itself promulgated the regulation of the DL N 1057 it is important to make commentaries totally defined to this special normative body, for thus within dogmatic a congruent one being able to avisorar future scenes as well as to be able to demonstrate the labor rights that they emerge from his devices in favor of the mass worker. II. Analysis: 1. Of the Definition: We have declared that the Legislative Decree N 1057 establishes in its article 3, that Administrative Contract of Services constitutes an own of the Administrative Right and privative special modality of the State, that is not subject to the Law of Bases of the Administrative Race, to the labor regime of the private activity nor to other forms that regulate special administrative races and that are not applied to contracts of benefit of services of consultancy or of consultant's office, whenever they are developed of independent form, outside the premises or centers of work of the organization. The Regulation adds in its article 1 that in addition this one contract is an administrative and privative contractual modality of the State, that ties to a public organization with a natural person who serves of nonindependent way; being in force in addition by norms to public right and it confers to the parts solely the benefits and the obligations that establish the Legislative Decree N 1057 as well as the benefits shaped in their corpus iuris. 2. Of the responsibilities of the subject servants to the RECAS: Article 7 of the DL establishes that the civil servants or servants public who carry out hiring of people who serve nonindependent outside the rules of the present regime, incur administrative lack and, consequently, they are responsible civilians by the damages and damages that originate to the State to him.
Konosuke Matsushita considers on the other hand, that the management always must develop with a policy of " direction abierta" , to that it describes of the following way: " The open direction means confidence in the employees, easy communication within the company, moral discharge of the workers and, mainly, enterprise solidarity. Indira Dordelly on the matter comments, that the educative management is a fundamental tool for the profit and effective operation of the organizational structure therefore can be said, that the educative management is the organization process and use of resources to achieve the pre-established objectives through an efficient organization where the educative manager must direct his equipment towards the profit of the objectives of the organization but during a continuous motivation where she stimulates she inspects east and she awards the developed work constantly simultaneously to execute the action and function to manage, by such reason it is possible to be said that there is not no educative management when the planning is normative, because of the rigidity of this type of planning exists management either educative when the organization works centralized although his design is decentralized, it does not exist the educative management when it is delegated or is leadership deficiency. The educational manager as of classroom realises the process of planning, direction and control of the activities of learnings implicit in a curricular design. Consequently, educational as classroom manager is going to exert the administrative functions relating them to the education resources learning of way like the significant learning is obtained. In the public universities it is pronounced in some authorities, a deficiency accentuated in the handling, suitable direction of the educative management according to the exigencies of the modern times. Many of the authorities that are in charge of the universities, do not count on the basic foundations, tools that the education in the present demand and requires to guarantee cnsonos professionals to the needs demands of the surroundings.
But the calmness will not last much. They will place shackles to us oxidized in the hands and the feet. They will force to us to walk with metallic spheres striking our heels and ankles. There will be a deposit of high walls. The doors will be of riveted metal. Inside scent will float dulzn of tinkles and its calidez will cover the ateridos fingers.
We will enter pushes again. Tied we will fall. When between the leader of the group with its lantern to see our bloody faces, we will notice ourselves of the presence of other prisoners. The door will be closed. The dark and cold. Nobody will speak. Moaned jadeos will be listened to and.
A skylight in the high thing will allow us to know that the night is high and secret. The constellations will watch to us indifferent. Attractive stars will do winks to us. On my right hand, the one of the dislocated finger, it will promote a small lizard. Perhaps he is that or a blood thread. Somebody side, without name nor voice, will resoplar with such intensity that its breath will flood my sense of smell. Frequently, a man will enter and he will bathe to us with frozen water. Other two will bring macanas and they will strike to us. One of the canes will have a nail in the end. It will tear my back. For that moment, our God will have left to us. We will hardly see the flight of its mantle when qudam makes us leave the stay. They will loosen the shackles and we will see drag almost to five until a wall in ruins. They will place them with the bandaged eyes. Some, indifferent of pain and humiliation, will want to see the face of the death in the vertex of the projectile. We will venture the hope of the farce.
The LEADERSHIP IN the PRESENT FAMILY If the families are the base of the present society, if we like medullary part of the societies, have allowed that the values that instilled to us our ancestors are disappearing more and more, to consequence of it, that are every time are higher the indices of divorces in our country, but even separated, disintegrated homes, which they only generate in the future children homes equally disintegrated, parents of family that do not cover the spiritual needs, morals and economic that needs its family. The good leadership in the family is being lost to the degree to confuse it like: who is strongest in the home or that she folds to who, but I consider that is not leadership. To be leader of the family is: To see by the well-being of the members of the family, to preach with the example towards the children, to draw up objectives that are to the benefit of all, to maintain labor, personal, familiar, emotional and spiritual the balance, to be always kind to the small great details towards its spouse. It is for this reason, that many pairs fail from the engagement, since they do not have that vision to see one on the other, each works in different objectives, but what it happens? . every time they are except the men who want commitments, those that want to load with a family, which want to forge the men the morning! As a result of this, every time, exists more single woman mothers, than they feel better to be total leaders of its children, who fight by a better future for their small ones, which they work arduously so that they do not need anything. And that gives everything it by their family in exchange for anything. My invitation in this article, is stops: The marriages: So that the wife helps to the husband and father of family to that he is a good leader, fights but by objectives common with its wife, who is humble to recognize their errors and at any moment allows to be supported by her. .


Our Reighton Sands Holiday Park is the perfect destination for adventurers, explorers and those who want to have fun. This park may be small, but it certainly makes up for it by the sheer number of activities and facilities on offer and five miles of beautiful golden sands. We have an indoor pool with outdoor lazy river just waiting for you to jump into and a 9-hole golf course set in 140 acres with some pretty magnificent sea views. At Reighton Sands you'll have a break that will leave you feeling refreshed and energised in no time.


The technology used to generate the required sounds for simulation and training applications has improved greatly in the last 20 years. The technology has transitioned from simple analog electronic circuits generating tones and noise signals, through crude digital sample replay, to sophisticated digital samplers borrowed from the music industry, capable of triggering many sounds simultaneously. Leading finally to today's state-of-the-art technology, represented by the ASTi Telestra architecture, with a dedicated Linux™ realtime audio framework running on one core of a dual core processor, with the other core handling non-realtime support tasking, results in an audio processing system that allows previously unobtainable levels of capability.
Perhaps more importantly, the effort to create a simulation model utilizing these new features is easier and more intuitive than any previous method provided in a sound system fielded to the simulation and training industry.
One area that has not changed significantly in the simulation and training field is how these sounds are delivered to the trainee, and more importantly how direction is imparted to the sound. Somewhat obviously, amplifiers and loudspeakers are used to generate the sound waves that reach the listener, and this continues to be true, but only passing interest has been paid to where the sound is perceived to be coming from in terms of direction and the mechanisms used to impart direction.
Conventionally, two approaches have been used to implement sound directionality; the simplest is placing a loudspeaker in the apparent source direction of the sound and outputting the sound only through this one loudspeaker, hence implementing a point source for the sound. Or more conventionally, placing a number of loudspeakers around the simulated area in some regular pattern and allowing all the sounds to replay through several (or all) of the loudspeakers at once, and adjusting the gain of each sound for each loudspeaker channel to impart position. This latter technique is known as gain-panning.
The point source approach will provide realistic directionality, however it is very unlikely that enough loudspeakers can be driven as point sources in a practical system. Other issues are likely to make this impractical since we can hardly locate a speaker 20 feet off the left rear of the simulator to represent the left engine. Therefore, the majority of simulators are fitted with what is best described as a gain-panned system. Although gain-panning does result in a sense of sound position, there are a significant number of shortcomings on the underlying premises of the basis of this technique.
What makes SFRC so significant, and why change what has apparently worked for years?
The answer is, as in most areas of advancement in the simulation industry, because the customer has a requirement, and technology has advanced to provide the capability to allow this to happen.
The principal customer requirement is derived from a number of training scenarios that place operators in a virtual environment representing a position on a battlefield with a requirement to immerse the training in a full 360 degree soundfield, to augment a 360 degree half dome visual display. In many of these scenarios, the direction of a sound cue is the first indication of the arrival of what may be friend or foe; with the enemy forces most often appearing from the front! What is perhaps not so apparent is that in these situations sound is a 3D entity, requiring a much better representation of the elevation of the sound source. Almost any other sound simulation or training requirement is some subset of this requirement, and therefore equally applicable to conventional flight simulator applications and similar.


text:
In With the New
Getting the best of both worlds in Cleburne, Texas, at its multi-use aquatics facility
There's always a tension of sorts when it comes time to renovate or replace an old pool. The tension exists between creating what is basically a family fun park and one that allows more traditional usage.
In Cleburne, Texas, parks and recreation seems to have reached that balance with a new two-acre aquatics center that's a citywide and regional waterpark attraction, and has the ability to host swim competitions and swimming and adaptive recreation programming.
The center opened on July 19, 2004, and includes an eight-lane, 25-yard competition lap pool with a full gutter system and two one-meter springboards, a zero-depth leisure pool with a large spray ground in front, a large play feature with small slides on it, a current channel, vortex pool, a horseshoe-shaped seating are and two large tube slides. The center also has two decks under large pecan trees, shade structures, full-service showers, a party pavilion and concessions.
It was built through improvement taxes designed for a number of community-wide projects, which also includes a 90-acre sports complex. The new aquatics facility would be first on the list of improvements.
Changing Guard
Dubbed Splash Station, the facility replaced the old swimming pool in the same spot, which sits in the city's historic Hulen Park.
"The old pool was losing water and was to a point that it was in need of major renovation. The community stepped up to the plate and said they wanted something more family-friendly, interactive and enjoyable for younger age groups," says Brandi Duncan, Aquatics Manager for the City of Cleburne, Parks & Recreation Division. "We did much better than expected, particularly since we didn't have a full winter season to build on; that was mostly summer revenue. We hope that this fiscal year will be even better, and we'll actually generate some revenue to expand our operations."
The more traditional aspects of the aquatics facility -- swim and special-needs recreation programming (see the sidebar on page xx for more information about special-needs plans at the facility), swim meets, lap swimming and scuba lessons -- will run this winter as the city purchased a large heated and regulated air dome.
"If someone wants a quick fix with something that is not as costly as a permanent structure to provide indoor swimming, it's a good alternative. We can adjust the temperature inside the dome to any level we want, and we plan to keep it up through the winter, probably until April," says Duncan. "It's quite fascinating. It weighs 6,500 lbs., and we get it all taken down and packed up on an 8' x 8' skid pretty quickly. It's about 35 feet high at its center point and is held up with positive air pressure, so it has a huge air handling system. It's made out of a blend of high-strength polyester fabric coated with PVC on both sides. We've had all kinds of things thrown at it -- eggs at Halloween, baseballs, golf balls and even BBs shot at it. It can withstand high winds and a fair amount of snow and ice; it's very reliable."
Duncan adds that it's lighted with sports-field lights and has its own generator in case they lose power so that they can safely deflate it, if necessary.
The focus at the park, says Duncan, has been on customer service. Beyond ensuring that everyone has a good time, a lot of it has to do with educating the community about the park rules as it's quite easy for patrons to misconstrue or misunderstand the rules.
"We will have more customer service personnel next summer, because we need someone at the front gate to deal with bag checks. A lot of people will bring in glass jars of baby food, for instance, so we have someone at the front before they get to the ticket area, to do the bag check and go over the pool rules, the amenities and safety gear available and so on. We found that we needed explain the rules and the reasoning behind them -- particularly the safety aspects -- that we got more flak about, which they understood when we explained the rules at the entrance," says Duncan. "We also made some changes at our large slides. We placed a person at the bottom of the stairs to the slide to make sure everyone was the required height and to make sure that certain types of jewelry were not allowed. We give them an option; we provide a baggie and allow them to put their jewelry in it and hold it as they go down the slide. That helped a lot. We also used medical tape to tape over the items, like wedding rings. That seemed to appease our patrons -- it met our needs, but kept them happy as well. That was a simple fix we created that worked."
Duncan adds that they placed an emphasis on areas where smaller children congregate. For instance, as more day-care traffic came through, they would shift the stand placement rotations to deal with the larger concentration of small children.
"We've looked at studies that show that most near-drownings occur with children under the age of six in less than four feet of water. We tried to take those studies to heart and learn from parks around us. We take what we can from other parks, and develop ours to implement what we can based on what they learned from their incidents," says Duncan. "We learned to be quite dynamic in how we approach it and to be as prepared as possible beforehand."
Duncan says they noticed more incidents at the play structure on the smaller slides that flow off of it. Most of the incidents involved children running over each other, with the requisite bumps and bruises. So it was decided to place a guard at the bottom of the small slides to regulate traffic and eliminate any problems, and it's worked.
Concessions & Chemicals
Duncan reports that concessions, which is run by the department instead of outsourced, has been going gangbusters, though they had to make some concessions to do it.
Given health department requirements and the typical age of those who work concessions, it had to be relatively simple -- no deep fryers, grills, ovens or cutting equipment. So it's mostly BBQ sandwiches, nachos, hot dogs, chili pies and snow cones, supplemented by pizza from Dominoes that's delivered and kept warm. Duncan says they sold about 6,300 orders of nachos last summer. The plans are to keep it simple, but try to expand the offerings based on the limited equipment they can use.
With heavy rental traffic (Cleburne rents out the pool, water park and associated space for private parties), and a large influx of local and regional traffic, pool chemistry is high on the list of priorities.
Cleburne went with an electronic chemical control system, and Duncan says the results have been outstanding, though they're careful to do regular testing anyway.
"It works very well to ensure that your required chemical levels are there, to ensure exact turnover rates and maximize the efficiency of your chemicals. We have our regular maintenance tech, but throughout the day we do at-the-pool tests with test strips to check the three components at the same time -- free Chlorine, pH and total alkalinity. It's a recirculation system, and the turnover rate is less than four hours," says Duncan.
With a pavilion that houses about 20 tables with chairs, seven large shade umbrellas and the two giant pecan trees, Cleburne has provided plenty of passive space for everyone. They also planted several cypress and live oak trees to help ensure future shade coverage.
"We have a lot of grandparents who bring their grandkids during the week to swim, so we like to have some place comfortable for them," says Duncan. "We really focused on the patrons and making them comfortable and safe, particularly keeping in mind that this is all for the community -- 60 percent of our patrons were Cleburne residents last season. It paid off, because word got around to surrounding communities. We did some advertising, and will do more this coming season."
AquaticsBryan Buchko January 2, 2006 Issues, January 2006, Parks and Rec Business, Regan DickinsonComment
Family Time Redux
Bryan Buchko January 4, 2006 Dr- Hugh Gibson, January 2006, Sports + Fitness + Recreation, Parks and Rec Business
Q&A 2005
Bryan Buchko December 25, 2005

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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						padding-top:5px;
					}
					.pulldown div ul {
						display: none;
						position: absolute;
						background: transparent url(images/black_60.png);
						list-style-type: none;
						z-index:20;
					}
					.pulldown li a{
						line-height:1.5;
		        		margin-left:0em;
						padding-right:25px;	/*space for the submenu marker*/
			       		display:block;
					}
					.pulldown ul li.show_left>a{ /* for submenus showing on the left*/
						line-height:1.5;
		        		margin-left:0em;
						padding-left:25px;	/*space for the submenu marker*/
		        		display:block;
					}
					.pulldown ul li:hover,
					.pulldown ul li:focus{ /*menu item background, dropdown panels, active*/
						background:transparent url(images/black_60.png);
					}
					.pulldown ul li:hover > ul{ /*show submenus on hover*/
						display: block;
					}

					.pulldown ul li:hover > a{
						color: #4f9ed3;
					}
					.pulldown li a.hasSub{ /* show submenu marker */
						background:transparent url(images/right.png) 100% 50% no-repeat;
					}
					.pulldown ul li.show_left > a.hasSub{ /* show submenu marker */
						background:transparent url(images/left.png) 0% 50% no-repeat;
					}
					.pulldown ul li > ul { /*submenus appear to the right*/
						left: 100%;
						margin-top:-18px; /* line-height times font-size*/
						margin-left:-7px;  /*should not overlap the submenu marker*/
					}
					.pulldown ul li > ul.show_left { /*show submenu on the left*/
						left:auto;
						right:100%;
						margin-right:-7px;
					}

				/** submenu frame **/
					/* the frame consists in additional menu entries which are not links.
					   Instead I use a table with 3 columns and 1 row to put rounded
					   corners on the top and on the bottom of each submenu. The first
					   level dropdown menus get those only at the bottom.
					*/
					.no_corner{
						background: transparent url(images/black_60.png);
					}
					.upper_corners {
						margin-top:-5px;
						height:5px;
						width:100%;
						background:transparent none;
						float:none;
					}
					.lower_corners {
						margin-bottom:-5px;
						height:5px;
						width:100%;
						background:transparent none;
						float:none;
					}
					.upper_corners:hover,
					.lower_corners:hover { /*the corners are not supposed to interact with the cursor */
						background:transparent none !important;
					}
					.upper_corners table,
					.lower_corners table {
						width:100%;
						border-collapse:collapse;
						border-spacing:0px;
					}
					.upper_corners .c,
					.lower_corners .c {
						height:5px;
						background:transparent url(images/black_60.png);
					}
					.upper_corners .l {
						height:5px;
						width:5px;
						background:transparent url(images/black_ul.png);
					}
					.upper_corners .r {
						height:5px;
						width:5px;
						background:transparent url(images/black_ur.png);
					}
					.lower_corners .l {
						height:5px;
						width:5px;
						background:transparent url(images/black_ll.png);
					}
					.lower_corners .r {
						height:5px;
						width:5px;
						background:transparent url(images/black_lr.png);
					}
		/*** end main menu styles ***/

	/**** end menu styles****/
}
/*****END @MEDIA SCREEN *****/

/***** BEGIN MEDIA  ALL *****/
@media all{

	/**** Wozu ist das gut? rausscheissen? ****/
	.pathbar {
		display: none;
	}

	/**** Begin main content ****/
		#content {
			width:50%;
		}

		#maincontent h2 {
			margin: 0.25em 0 0.5em 0;
			font-size: 160%;
			font-weight: normal;
			font-family: impact, sans-serif;
		}

		#maincontent h3 {
			margin: 0.5em 0;
			font-size: 120%;
			font-weight: normal;
			text-decoration: underline;
		}

		#maincontent p {
			margin-bottom: 1em;
		}

		#maincontent ul {
			margin-left: 2em;
		}

		#maincontent .multiColumn {
			margin:1em 0px;
			width:100%;
		}

		#maincontent .multiColumn .first{
			width:49%;
			float:left;
			padding-right:1%;
		}

		#maincontent .multiColumn .second{
			width:49%;
			float:left;
			padding-left:1%;
		}
		#maincontent .multiColumn .terminateMultiColumn{
			clear:both;
			float:none;
			display:block;
			width:50%;
			margin:auto;
			padding-top:2em;
		}

		#maincontent ul{
			margin-bottom:1em;
		}

		#splash {
			margin-top:3em;
			text-align:center;
		}
		#splash td {
			width:33%;
			padding:2px;
			vertical-align:middle;
			text-align:center;
		}

		#splash input[type=submit]{
			font-size:200%;
			margin:3px;
			width:90%;
		}

		#splash input[type=text]{
			margin:0px;
			margin-top:5px;
			text-align:center;
			width:auto;
		}

		#splash textarea {
			margin:0px;
		}

		#splash .toolong {
			color:#c00;
			border: 2px solid #d00;
		}

		#splash table {
			display:inline;
		}

		#splash #messages {
			margin-top:35px;
			padding:10px 30%;
		}

		#splash #messages .entry{
			text-align:left;
			border-bottom: 1px dashed #000;
			padding:5px 7%;
		}

		#splash #messages .entry:first-line{
			font-weight:bold;
		}

		textarea#syslog {
			width: 98%;
			min-height: 500px;
			border: 3px solid #cccccc;
			padding: 5px;
			font-family: monospace;
		}

		/** Begin cbi section **/
		.cbi-section {
			margin-bottom: 0.5em;
			padding: 0.5em 1em;
			border: 1px dotted #555555;
			background-color: #f2f3f9;
		}

			.cbi-section legend {
				font-size: 110%;
				font-weight: bold;
				height: 1em;
				padding: 0 0.25em;
				color: #555555;
			}

			.cbi-section h2 {
				margin: 0em 0 0.5em -0.5em !important;
			}

			.cbi-section h3 {
				height:	1.5em;
				font-size: 90%;
				color: #555555;
			}

			.cbi-section-descr {
				margin-bottom: 0.5em;
				font-size: 95%;
			}

			.cbi-title-ref {
				color: inherit;
				text-decoration: none;
				padding-right: 18px;
				background: url('../resources/cbi/link.gif') no-repeat scroll right center;
				background-color: inherit;
			}
		/** End cbi section **/

		input[type=submit],
		input[type=reset],
		input[type=image],
		label {
			cursor: pointer;
		}

		select,
		input,
		textarea {
			background: #eeeeee;
			color: #000000;
			border-width: 1px;
			border-color: #000000;
		}

		input[type=image] {
			border: none;
		}

		input:focus,
		input:hover,
		select:focus,
		select:hover,
		textarea:focus,
		textarea:hover {
			background-color: #f2f3f9;
		}

		select,
		input[type=text],
		input[type=password] {
			width: 20em;
		}

		td select,
		td input[type=text],
		td input[type=password] {
			width: 99%;
		}

		input.cbi-input-user {
			background: url('../resources/cbi/user.gif') no-repeat scroll 1px center;
			background-color: inherit;
			padding-left: 17px;
		}

		input.cbi-input-password {
			background: url('../resources/cbi/key.gif') no-repeat scroll 1px center;
			background-color: inherit;
			padding-left: 17px;
		}

		input.cbi-input-find {
			background: url('../resources/cbi/find.gif') no-repeat scroll 1px center;
			background-color: inherit;
			padding-left: 17px;
		}

		input.cbi-input-reload {
			background: url('../resources/cbi/reload.gif') no-repeat scroll 1px center;
			background-color: inherit;
			padding-left: 17px;
		}

		input.cbi-input-add,
		input.cbi-button-add {
			background: url('../resources/cbi/add.gif') no-repeat scroll 1px center;
			background-color: inherit;
			padding-left: 17px;
			padding-right: 1px;
		}

		input.cbi-input-fieldadd,
		input.cbi-button-fieldadd {
			background: url(../resources/cbi/fieldadd.gif) no-repeat scroll 1px center;
			background-color: inherit;
			padding-left: 17px;
			padding-right: 1px;
		}

		input.cbi-input-reset,
		input.cbi-button-reset {
			background: url('../resources/cbi/reset.gif') no-repeat scroll 1px center;
			background-color: inherit;
			padding-left: 17px;
			padding-right: 1px;
		}

		input.cbi-input-save,
		input.cbi-button-save {
			background: url('../resources/cbi/save.gif') no-repeat scroll 1px center;
			background-color: inherit;
			padding-left: 17px;
			padding-right: 1px;
		}

		input.cbi-input-apply,
		input.cbi-button-apply {
			background: url('../resources/cbi/apply.gif') no-repeat scroll 1px center;
			background-color: inherit;
			padding-left: 17px;
			padding-right: 1px;
		}

		input.cbi-input-remove,
		div.cbi-section-remove input {
			background: url('../resources/cbi/remove.gif') no-repeat scroll 1px center;
			background-color: inherit;
			padding-left: 17px;
			padding-right: 1px;
		}

		div.cbi-section-remove input {
			border-bottom: none;
		}

		textarea {
			margin-left: -1px;
			margin-bottom: 0.5em;
		}

		form > div > input[type=submit],
		form > div > input[type=reset] {
			float: right;
			margin-left: 0.5em;
		}

		table.smalltext {
			background: #f5f5f5;
			border-top: 1px solid #666666;
			border-right: 1px solid #666666;
			border-bottom: 1px solid #666666;
			font-size: 90%;
			width: 80%;
			margin-left: auto;
			margin-right: auto;
			border-collapse: collapse;
		}

		table.smalltext tr:hover td {
			background-color: #bbddee;
		}

		table.smalltext tr th {
			padding: 0 0.25em;
			border-left: 1px solid #666666;
			text-align: left;
		}

		table.smalltext tr td {
			padding: 0 0.25em;
			border-top: 1px solid #666666;
			border-left: 1px solid #666666;
		}

		.cbi-rowstyle-1 {
			background-color: #eeeeff;
		}

		.cbi-rowstyle-2 {

		}

		div.cbi-value {
			clear: left;
			vertical-align: middle;
			padding-left: 0.25em;
			border-bottom: 1px dotted #bbbbbb;
		}

		div.cbi-value:hover {
			background: #f8f8f8;
		}

		div.cbi-value:last-child {
			border: none;
		}

		.cbi-value-title {
			float: left;
			width: 40%;
		}

		div.cbi-value-field {
			width: 58%;
			margin: 0.25em 0 0.25em 40%;
		}

		div.cbi-value-description {
			font-size: 90%;
		}

		div.cbi-section-create {
			clear: left;
			white-space: nowrap;
		}

		div.cbi-map-descr {
			margin-bottom: 1em;
		}

		div.cbi-optionals {
			margin: 0.5em 0;
			padding: 0 0.25em;
		}

		div.cbi-section-remove {
			float: right;
		}

		.cbi-section-node {
			clear: both;
			border: 1px dotted #bbbbbb;
			padding-bottom: 0;
		}

		.cbi-section-node div.cbi-section-table-row {
			margin: 0.25em;
		}

		table.cbi-section-table {
			width: 100%;
			font-size: 95%;
		}

		table.cbi-section-table th,
		table.cbi-section-table td {
			text-align: center;
		}

		tr.cbi-section-table-descr th {
			font-weight: normal;
			font-size: 90%;
		}

		td.cbi-section-table-optionals {
			text-align: left !important;
			padding-top: 1em;
		}

		.cbi-value-helpicon img {
			vertical-align: bottom;
		}

		div.cbi-error {
			font-size: 95%;
			font-weight: bold;
			color: #FF0000;
		}

		td.cbi-value-error {
			border-color: red !important;
		}

		.cbi-value-error input,
		.cbi-value-error select {
			color: red !important;
			background-color: #FFCCCC;
		}

		.cbi-section-error {
			color: red;
			font-size: 95%;
			border: 1px dotted red;
			margin: 3px;
			padding: 3px;
		}

		ul.cbi-apply {
			font-size: 90%;
		}

			/*** begin cbi tab menu  ***/
			ul.cbi-tabmenu {
				padding: 3px 0;
				margin-left: 0 !important;
				margin-bottom: -1px;
				list-style-type: none;
			}

				ul.cbi-tabmenu li.cbi-tab,
				ul.cbi-tabmenu li.cbi-tab-disabled {
					display: inline;
					margin: 0;
				}

				ul.cbi-tabmenu li.cbi-tab a,
				ul.cbi-tabmenu li.cbi-tab-disabled a {
					text-decoration: none;
					padding: 3px 7px;
					margin-right: 3px;
					border: 1px outset #000000;
					border-bottom: none;
					background-color: #EEEEEE;
					color: #BBBBBB;
				}

				ul.cbi-tabmenu li a:hover {
					color: #000000;
				}

				ul.cbi-tabmenu li.cbi-tab a {
					position: relative;
					top: 1px;
					padding-top: 4px;
					color: #000000;
					background-color: #FFFFFF;
				}

				div.cbi-tab-descr {
					background-image: url(/luci-static/resources/cbi/help.gif);
					background-position: 0.25em 50%;
					background-repeat: no-repeat;
					border-bottom: 1px solid #CCCCCC;
					margin: 0.25em 0.25em 2em;
					padding: 0.5em 0.5em 0.5em 2em;
				}
			/*** End cbi tab menu ***/

	/**** End main content ****/

	/*** Begin miscellaneous ****/
	.hsep {
		background-color:#000000;
		height:1px;
		margin:1em 1em;
	}

	code {
		font-family: monospace;
		white-space: pre;
	}

	.warning {
		color: red !important;
		font-weight: bold;
	}

	.clear {
		clear: both;
		height: 1px;
	}

	.hidden {
		display: none;
	}

	.error {
		color: #ff0000;
	}

	.right {
		text-align: right;
	}

	.luci {
		position: fixed;
		bottom: 0;
		left: 0;
		text-align: right;
	}

	.luci a {
		color: #666666;
		text-decoration: none;
		font-size: 70%;
	}

	.inline {
		display: inline;
	}

	.error500 {
		white-space: normal;
		border: 1px dotted #FF0000;
		background-color: #FFFFFF;
		padding: 0.5em;
	}

	#memorybar {
		width:200px;
		height:8px;
		border:1px solid #bbb;
		background-color:red
	}

	#memfree, #membuffers, #memcached {
		float:right;
		border:1px solid #bbb;
		height:6px;
	}

	#memfree {
		background-color:green;
	}

	#membuffers {
		background-color:yellow;
	}

	#memcached {
		background-color:orange;
	}
	/**** End miscellaneous ****/

/**** IE6 rausschmeissen?! ****/

/* obligatory IE6 Voodoo Code */
* html body {
	padding-left: 50% !important;
}

* html div#header {
	margin-left: -100% !important;
}

* html div#mainbar {
	margin-left: -100% !important;
	width: 200% !important;
}

* html div#maincontent {
	margin-left: -80% !important;
	width: 160% !important;
}

* html div#mainmenu div.hover ul,
* html div#mainmenu div li.hover ul,
* html div#mainmenu div li li.hover ul,
* html div#mainmenu div li li li.hover ul,
* html div#mainmenu div li li li li.hover ul {
	display: block !important;
	margin-left: 3em;
}

* html div#mainmenu div.hover ul {
	margin-left: 0;
}

* html div#mainmenu .hover ul ul,
* html div#mainmenu .hover ul ul ul,
* html div#mainmenu .hover ul ul ul ul,
* html div#mainmenu .hover ul ul ul ul ul {
	display: none !important;
}

* html div#mainmenu li {
	height: 1em !important;
	width: 10em !important;
}

* html #mainmenu {
	height: 1.8em;
}

* html div.cbi-value-description {
	margin-left: 40%;
}

}
/***** END @MEDIA ALL *****/

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
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The life of an area "Gentleman" and his family in the mid-1800s is interpreted at this community home museum. Located in a restored mansion circa 1869, the museum...
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Preserving and celebrating the collective memories of our community – stories, images & traces of the people and the land. Permanent Exhibits tell the story of Peterborough...
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text:
Home Columns Indie View INDIE VIEW: Rebecca Fox reveals 'How To Be Reasonable' and we really...
Indie View
INDIE VIEW: Rebecca Fox reveals 'How To Be Reasonable' and we really need that
'How To Be Reasonable' is the How-To book for the 21st Century
John Seven
How to be Reasonable (By Someone who Tried Everything Else)
By Rebecca Fox
Hypatia Press
More than a decade ago as a staff reporter on a daily newspaper, I realized that the method by which you gather information and report the news was a good one to apply to all aspects of your life. Done correctly, without shortcuts that cause you to miss facts and with the idea that you go where the evidence leads you, rather than ending up where you steer the evidence, it was a way to clearly disseminate — at least to the best of human ability — what was actually going on. And sometimes, what you thought was happening, what spurred you to follow a story, turned out to be not what you thought it was, and that's the hardest part of getting at the truth — accepting that your original idea was wrong and letting the facts be the standard of what you believe is the truth of the matter.
Rebecca Fox had a similar revelation and she put down her ideas and process in How To be Reasonable: By Someone Who Tried Everything Else. Originally released at the end of 2017, it seemed to me that this little-known comic deserved another look during the summer of 2019, a time where it feels like the country has reached peak unreasonableness. I'm sure it hasn't. I'm sure there's plenty more unreasonableness to come and that there's actually no peak possible, but I can let some hopefulness accidentally slip through every now and then, right?
Fox acknowledges that we all start out on the same page, with a mix of influences that include beliefs that may not be grounded in provable reality, and between us these influences may not all be compatible from person-to-person. But make no mistake, everyone of us has some form of them affecting us, and Fox starts with pointing out a few of them, ranging from our views on vaccines to our attitude about Slenderman.
The less a belief is based in reason and developed from evidence, the more the belief has the potential to do harm, Fox posits — financial, emotional, health, political. The idea is that the more beliefs not based in reason accrue in your life, the less your mind is trained to require logic and evidence in your decisionmaking and the higher your potential for self-harm.
It's this kind of realization that led Fox to look at herself and seek a way to examine her own beliefs — scientific skepticism as a process of thought and a way of living your life, a way of shielding yourself from the inevitable confusion born of, as Fox puts it, "the torrent of stuff and nonsense." More than dark matter, atoms, qi, or the spirit of Jesus, it's stuff and nonsense that seems to make up the universe.
I'd say the key thing that Fox points out in How To Be Reasonable, the central idea to what she lays out in this comic, is one of what she calls "the six principles" — humility. It's really the instigator of the other five — curiosity, questioning, introspection, extrospection, and action — because it requires the removal of ego, of shame, it wrests on the ability to admit being wrong or not knowing everything. It is the exact opposite of, say, Donald Trump. It is crucial to navigating the universe in a healthy and benign manner.
Under the advice of "don't believe everything you think," Fox leads the reader through concepts like confirmation bias and how probability works, but most importantly, she walks the reader through processes that help with the self-examining type of thinking she is advocating for. She's not just delivering a tirade about what she thinks you should be doing, but offering you the same tools that she has found to use for her own attempts to self-correct her brain.
In How To Be Reasonable Fox succeeds at delivering a lot of dry concepts in a personal way though her cartooning. She puts herself at the center and isn't afraid of appearing fallible, which helps with the typical pitfall of these kinds of work where the fear is that the author is trying to appear superior to the audience. I wouldn't say that's the case at all here, driven home by Fox's friendly, colloquial tone matched with her cartooning, which mixes straightforward delivery with some wild and absurd moments of concept visualization that bounce off each other nicely.
At a time when so many battles have become clashes of beliefs rather factual methods of dealing with problems, any manner in which this message can get out there is a valuable one. How To Be Reasonable is especially appropriate for teenagers as they navigate a time of life where it's important their passion and energy are matched by their reliance on actual evidence. There are forces on all points of the political spectrum that rely on emotional manipulation designed to wrap political action within ideology, which makes works like How To Be Reasonable crucial.
Indie Comics
non-fiction comics
Rebecca Fox
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http://johnseven.me
John Seven is a journalist and children's book writer living in North Adams, Massachusetts. His books include 'A Rule Is To Break: A Child's Guide To Anarchy,' 'Happy Punks 1-2-3,' 'Frankie Liked To Sing,' and others. He reviews comics for the Beat in his regular Indie Beat column. Find out about all his things at johnseven.me.
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SDCC '19: Cryptic Messages from MI6 tease new BOND series
Deanna Destito - 07/16/2019 8:30 am


Teachers' Expectations Can Influence How Students Perform - How changing minds (expectations) can be achieved far more effectively through changing behaviours.
Teach the Teachers Well - Suzanne Bouffard, NY Times.
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This can be a coincidence. At the time when Facebook has been in the news for gathering its users' data, growing privacy concern. A recent report claims that a new app dubbed Chatwatch is reportedly tracking a user's chat activity on Facebook-owned WhatsApp.
This app lets people peep into a user's contact list using WhatsApp's online or offline status feature. The report asserts that it informs users how often their friends check the micro-blogging platform and can also estimate when they go to bed every day — potentially making it an invasive app.
In simpler terms, this new creepy app takes advantage of WhatsApp's public online/offline status, which lets your friends know when you're readily available to talk and if you have read the message, even if you have disabled read receipts and last seen.
"Using this data, the app can tell you how often your friends check WhatsApp. It can even estimate what time they go to sleep and wake up each day," tech website LifeHacker reported. This comes at a time when Facebook users are uninstalling apps they got connected with long ago via "Facebook log-in" after the social media platform, which also owns WhatsApp, was hit by a major data breach.
"It's a creepy new trick that the app's developers hope will bring more attention to how Facebook handles our data, along with how other companies access and analyse it," the report stated.
"It's also likely that WhatsApp will find a way to block 'Chatwatch' soon. So if you want to spy on your friends expose Facebook's privacy issues, you should try it soon," it added.
This app was originally launched on iOS devices but it was later taken off from the Apple App Store. 'Chatwatch' is currently available on Android platform and the developers are reportedly working on a web-based version as well, as per the report.
The question here raises is — is WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption working efficiently. The instant messaging service is encrypted end-to-end so that the messages cannot be read by any other person.


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Premium Home Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Transportation
Airline CEOs say it doesn't matter how well they protect passengers from COVID-19 — travel demand won't bounce back until the pandemic ends
David Slotnick
Airlines have upped their cleaning protocols, with Delta and United sanitizing aircraft between every flight. But it may not be enough to encourage a return to travel.
Airlines are doing virtually everything possible to keep passengers safe from the coronavirus during flights, and it seems to be working.
But air travel demand is still very low, because people will not return to traveling until they have safe, fully reopened places to go.
That won't be the case until a COVID-19 vaccine has been widely distributed.
Airlines have one glimmer of hope, but unfortunately, it's also the least lucrative market of traveler.
Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
A new study shows that there is virtually no real risk of catching COVID-19 on an airplane.
But while such results would seem great news for airlines that have been racked by decimated travel demand since the early months of the pandemic, those inside the industry say that safety inside their aircraft isn't nearly enough to bring back their customers.
The study, co-sponsored by the Department of Defense and United Airlines, found that when passengers are seated and wearing masks, only 0.003% of infected air particles could enter another passenger's breathing area, even when every seat is filled. It reinforces earlier evidence that transmission on board is rare and unlikely.
And it seems to give credence to efforts by US carriers to enhance safety on planes in an effort to boost passenger confidence. Airlines including United have vastly expanded their cleaning and sanitization practices, and some, like Delta and Southwest, have blocked middle seats to enable a degree of social distancing.
It's worth noting that the paper has come under scrutiny, first with some consumers questioning the findings given the obvious conflict of interest that comes with an airline's sponsorship, and later with experts suggesting flaws in both this study and another campaign undertaken by a coalition of planemakers and the International Air Transport Association, a global trade group.
Those concerns aren't what make the paper's findings nearly irrelevant to the industry's near-term prospects.
As travel demand holds steady at just 30% of 2019 levels, it's becoming increasingly obvious that the airlines' efforts will only make so much of a difference when it comes to bringing business-as-usual back on board.
Clean planes aren't enough
The real problem for the airlines is that there's just about nowhere to go.
COVID-19 cases are spiking around the US and the world, and a bunch of states have quarantine requirements for incoming travelers. Moreover, many destinations remain at least partially closed. Theaters in New York City will remain shuttered until at least mid-2021. The city's restaurants are operating at 25% capacity, and cold weather will presumably nix eating on sidewalks and patios. California's theme parks remain closed; Orlando's have limited capacity. The bars, shops, museums, and other attractions that lead people to travel for fun simply aren't available.
Most business travel, meanwhile — which typically makes up just 15-20% of the big three airlines' passenger loads, but 50% of their revenue — is on hold. Big events like conventions won't happen anytime soon, and companies are unwilling to risk their employees' health or the liability, not to mention the expense of business travel in a weakened economy.
And of course, international travel is all but nonexistent, with only essential workers and legal residents able to cross most countries' borders. Hope that travel corridors or extensive testing could facilitate a return of longhaul flying remains just that — hope.
This is why the folks running the airlines predict that travel demand will not return to 2019 levels until 2023 or 2024. And the conditions that will allow that bounce back are out of their control.
"Timing [of a recovery] has more to do with the state of the virus and the medical containment of it than it does any specific a strategy that we could deploy to make certain everybody stays safe," Delta CEO Ed Bastian on a call with investors last week. "Because the goal in this is that we want to eliminate quarantines."
United CEO Scott Kirby struck the same note. "Even if you're completely safe on an airplane, you have to have a reason to go," he said during his airline's call with investors. "Disneyland needs to be open or your clients need to be accepting visitors in the office before you can go. That's why we think demand isn't going to get back – won't get above 50% until there's a widely available vaccine."
Kirby also said he expects most that demand to be leisure-oriented, rather than business travel, although he holds out hope for the eventual return of business travel.
"We fully expect that business travel is going to get back on the road someday when the vaccine is out there and widely distributed," he said. "The first time someone loses a sale to a competitor who showed up in person is the last time they tried to make a sales call on Zoom ."
One bright spot as airlines try to get some demand back before this is all over
The one area of travel where there is some opportunity is a segment of leisure travel known as VFR, or "visiting friends and relatives".
People looking to travel and see their families and friends after months apart are less likely to care about restaurants being shuttered, and are more likely to tolerate quarantine requirements, especially if they can spend that time at a relative's home.
This sort of travel is likely to be the first international flying to resume, with some dual citizens or residents already making journeys to see loved ones.
United Airlines is among those betting on that demand, especially in the coming year as testing ideally helps loose restrictions. And it's making a play to capture as much of it as it can. "It's a different traveler than what you find flying to London Heathrow or Tokyo," the airline's head of international route planning, Patrick Quayle, told Business Insider in September. "There's a strong dynamic of people going home or people who live there coming to United States to visit relatives who are here."
Meanwhile, United added routes to Latin America and the Caribbean as countries including Mexico, Costa Rica, and Honduras begin to allow Americans to enter, primarily focused on the leisure market.
Delta, too, is adjusting based on leisure demand.
During last week's earnings call, airline president Glen Hauenstein said that the airline was "tactically managing" its network, "increasing capacity around the peak leisure holiday periods like Thanksgiving and Christmas, while reducing it during off-peak periods like Halloween and the election week."
Ultimately, a good indicator of exactly what kind of recovery airlines can expect is just a few weeks away. Although Thanksgiving-period bookings are down significantly from this time in 2019, travelers are expected to book fairly last minute based on the situation on the ground.
If bookings remain low and eager travelers do not fly to see family for the holiday, it will mean that even the one bright spot will remain dark — no matter how well airlines can clean the planes.
SEE ALSO: United's CEO argued it's not a problem that airlines will keep burning tens of millions of cash per day for months
NOW WATCH: What's next for dating during coronavirus, according to an anthropologist, pathogen expert, and love-life coach
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Andy Vélez, AIDS Warrior, Dead at 80
Posted on May 15, 2019 By Jay Blotcher
Andy Vélez, 1939-2019.|Andy Vélez (front) with three ACT UP New York comrades — Jim Aquino, Jay Blotcher, and Kevin Robert Frost — during their trip to the 1994 International Conference on AIDS in Yokohoma, Japan.|Andy Vélez during ACT UP's 1990 return to St. Patrick's Cathedral to commemorate the anniversary of its controversial protest there the year before.
BILL BYTSURA/ THE AIDS ACTIVIST PROJECT|BILL BYTSURA|SCREEN CAPTURE FROM A FILM BY SHRAGA LEV
Andy Vélez, an internationally prominent AIDS activist whose three decades of advocacy work resulted in improved drug access and civil rights for people living with HIV, especially in the Latinx community, died on May 14 at Mt. Sinai Beth Israel Hospital in Manhattan. He was 80.
His sons, Ben and Abe Vélez, said the cause of death was complications from a severe fall in his Greenwich Village building last month.
Despite other health challenges, Vélez had remained active in the AIDS and social justice communities until his recent accident, taking part in ACT UP and Rise and Resist protests. Vélez joined ACT UP in 1987, its first year of activity, and played a prominent role in its most noteworthy demonstrations over the past 32 years.
Vélez was born on March 9, 1939 in the Bronx to Ramon Vélez and the former Dorothy Solomon. The family soon relocated to Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, where they lived several years before returning to the Bronx. Graduating from high school at 16 in 1955, Vélez attended City College for a brief time, but interrupted his studies when he left home. Years later, after attending night school, he earned his bachelor's degree.
Vélez went on to receive a master's degree in psychoanalysis in 1976 and worked with the Center for Modern Psychoanalytic Studies under Dr. Phyllis Meadow in the Village. He maintained his own therapy practice for two decades. Vélez had initially explored psychoanalysis for personal reasons, suspecting that he was gay. In 1964, he was entrapped by an undercover policeman in a Park Avenue South bar. Vélez spent the night in the Tombs in Lower Manhattan, a traumatizing experience that would provide the impetus for his activism. The arrest, which resulted in a suspended sentence of six months, caused him to lose his job at the Housing Authority. With the assistance of a progressive attorney, however, Vélez had his conviction overturned.
Psychotherapy was only one of Vélez's professional pursuits. He had initially hoped to become an actor, and he appeared in several Off-Broadway productions in the late 1950s and early '60s. During 16 years in book publishing beginning in 1969, he worked his way up to become president of the prominent Frederick Ungar Publishing, managing the company until it was sold in 1985. Notable among his literary projects was a 1984 collaboration with Marlene Dietrich in updating her 1962 bestseller "Marlene Dietrich's ABC."
After a marriage to a woman that ended in divorce, Vélez began to make active connections within the LGBTQ community. For three years in the mid-1980s, he served as a leader for the Gay Circles Consciousness Raising Group. One evening in 1987, after his group's meeting ended, Vélez walked through the first gathering of what became the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power at the LGBT Community Center. He was intrigued by what he witnessed and quickly became involved in several ACT UP committees, including the Media Committee and Actions Committee. In high-profile demonstrations and civil disobedience actions, Vélez threw himself into the group's signature street theater activism — at one point, chaining himself in the office of a pharmaceutical company; at another, covering himself in fake blood to symbolize the lives lost to AIDS because of government negligence.
Vélez especially found his niche with the ACT UP's Latino Caucus, which focused on the raging but neglected epidemic in the Latinx community. He and his colleagues traveled to Puerto Rico to help organize a local ACT UP chapter there.
Andy Vélez (front) with three ACT UP New York comrades — Jim Aquino, Jay Blotcher, and Kevin Robert Frost — during their trip to the 1994 International Conference on AIDS in Yokohoma, Japan.
BILL BYTSURA
In 1990, he was also a founding member of Queer Nation in New York.
Vélez was involved in many AIDS educational and service organizations over the years, serving as an administrator and bilingual educator for AIDSMEDS.com for more than a decade. He also wrote about the epidemic for numerous community publications, including POZ, Body Positive, and SIDA Ahora, and for 10 years he moderated the POZ Forum. With the Treatment Action Group, Vélez took part in aggressive and effective drug access efforts, and he worked in an HIV clinical trial unit, alerting affected communities to their vulnerability to tuberculosis.
Vélez was a prominent advocate on the international AIDS scene for more than two decades, working with the organizers of International Conferences on AIDS to guarantee the active participation of people with HIV and serving as the official liaison to the activist community. He was also a consultant to the Latino Commission on AIDS and did guest speaking on HIV/ AIDS at high schools and colleges across America.
From the 1990s through the 2010s, Vélez returned to his first love of theater by covering that scene for several LGBTQ magazines, as well as by conducting interviews with musical greats for All About Jazz and the New York City Jazz Record. He also penned liner notes for the CD reissues of several Broadway musical classics, such as "Finian's Rainbow," "The Pajama Game," and "Saratoga," as well as for vocal collections by legends such as Doris Day, Fred Astaire, Ella Fitzgerald, and Artie Shaw. In courses on musical theater that he taught at the New School in the 1990s, he hosted in-class guests including Barbara Cook, Sheldon Harnick, Elaine Stritch, and John Kander and Fred Ebb.
Years ago, when asked how he would like to be remembered, Vélez replied, "As someone who was able to help."
In addition to his sons Ben and Abe, both of Brooklyn, Vélez is survived by his daughter-in-law Sarah, his granddaughter, his younger brother Gene of Alamo, California, as well as thousands of comrades in the global AIDS and LGBTQ activist communities.
Funeral services will be private. A public memorial service will be held this summer. Donations in Vélez's memory may be made to ACT UP New York, Broadway Cares/ Equity Fights AIDS, and the Latino Commission on AIDS.
Andy Vélez, presente y pa'lante!
Andy Vélez during ACT UP's 1990 return to St. Patrick's Cathedral to commemorate the anniversary of its controversial protest there the year before.
SCREEN CAPTURE FROM A FILM BY SHRAGA LEV
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Hopping over to Cornwall's north coast isn't something I do very often. I promised myself that I'd make time to explore some much forgotten corners of Cornwall this year. With that in mind, I headed over to Port Quin for a Sunday stroll. Afterwards, I decided to drive a little further north and reacquaint myself with the much loved village of Port Isaac.
It was a beautiful Sunday and my little adventure offered me a much needed reprieve from the demands of everyday life.
Port Quin is rugged, unspoilt and remote. It's nestled between Polzeath and Port Isaac on the north Cornish coast. It's so small, if you blinked, you'd be forgiven for missing it. I guess the few properties there are probably holiday homes. If you're wanting peace, quiet and tranquility, Port Quin is for you. There's no disputing its natural beauty. You almost feel like you've stepped back in time. I get the feeling that not much has changed in Port Quin over the decades.
The cove at Port Quin stretches out in length but not necessarily in width. I visited when it was low tide and the sea looked miles away. I'd recommend wellies or walking boots, there are many rocks to navigate if you want to avoid the little streams of water making their journey to the sea. It's a cove that's perfect for rock pooling and exploring with children. You won't find anywhere to buy food or drink in Port Quin though, so make a day of it and pack a flask and a picnic.
I've seen photos of Port Quin at high tide and it looks truly breathtaking. Low tide brings its own allure. The cove is framed by a scattering of cottages, my favourite being the yellow door house on the coast path. The golden rocks and chiselled indents of the cove spring out at you. These, in turn, offset the carpet of grey and marled pebbles that stretch out towards the sea, which gently eek out to a sandier shore. Bright green seaweed tops off some of the rocks, making Port Quin pop with rich colour.
When I visited Port Quin, Reeves rather cute 3 wheeler ice cream van was adjacent to the carpark. This is the ice cream van of Instagram dreams, by the way. Ice creams are £2.50 and she had some delicious flavours on offer. I was intent on having one but discovered I left my purse at home. I've made a mental note of the lemon meringue ice cream for another time though. Don't worry, if you miss her at Port Quin, she regularly pops up on the sea front at Port Isaac which is where I went next.
Who hasn't heard of Port Isaac, or at least seen it on TV? It's the location for Doc Martin and remains the home of Cornish shanty group, The Fisherman's Friends. My last visit to Port Isaac was in the height of winter. While not much has changed over those few years, I looked forward to experiencing Port Isaac in the spring sunshine. I went on a mission to explore the hidden alleys and woven residential back roads of Port Isaac as well as the beach and sea front.
As you wander down the hill from the car park, there are a few small art galleries, a coffee and ice cream place, the Golden Lion pub and the Old School House restaurant dotted between traditional, bijou fisherman cottages (what I'd give to have a nose inside those). Around the corner from the pub is a little gift shop selling local tees, cups and other coastal goods. On the left is Wavehunters. I very nearly bought one of their tasteful, fitted tees, and kind of wish I had now. It's a good excuse to go back though. I'd also suggest having a look in Kiln, a sweet homeware shop, tucked away off the seafront. Cards, wrap, candles (these smelt so good!), cushions, throws and other lovely things are up for grabs.
I can only describe Port Isaac beach as mesmerising, whether the tide's in or out. Resting boats idly slump on the shore, giving way to a view of the harbour wall. The sea on the north coast seems to forever be a translucent turquoise that continued to transfix me throughout my visit. The beach is quite generous in size, meaning there's space for everyone. Kids will enjoy the rocks on either side for climbing and ambling, while adults can walk, relax, or both. I just enjoyed strolling along the beach, camera in hand, embracing the slower pace, wishing it would last forever.
Aside from the beach, I traversed my way though the little roads, streets and alleys behind Port Isaac's shops. Little nooks presented themselves where house upon house had been built over the years, giving no thought to where the next one would go (it seems). I like the higgledy piggledy nature of Port Isaac. It reminds me of the Roseland village of Portloe, albeit on a bigger scale. The traditional cottages have been nursed over the years, thankfully with their character being retained. Walking up the hill on the other side offered a wonderful roof top view of Port Isaac. It made steep climb worthwhile.
Along the other side of the cove, where Doc Martin's house is, there's a bit more to explore. I didn't have to time to properly investigate on this occasion but on the left is the Chapel Cafe. Yes, it's a tearoom but it sells local pottery too. It also happens to be the place where The Fishermen's friends practice, when they're not fishing, building and doing their day jobs, of course.
I love all of Cornwall, but this patch of the north Cornish coast has got to be one of my favourites. I can't wait for my running to become established so I can run some of the coast path later in the year. It'll be running selfie central! If you plan on visiting either Port Isaac or Port Quin, do remember your camera. I came home with nearly 100 photos, that's how pretty it is.
Have you ever been to Port Isaac or Port Quin? What did you like the most?
HI Sue, thanks for reading! It was fairly busy last week, not packed. I think they're filming down there too at the moment. I think definitely once the height of summer's out of the way, it's a better time to go.
Thanks for sharing this. I'm visiting Cornwall from South Africa in June and Port Isaac is definitely on the list!
HI Jessica, that sounds amazing and you're coming from South Africa too. Port Isaac is definitely worth a visit.


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Now the Special English program American Stories. Today's story is called the Lost Phoebe. It was written by Theodore Dricer. Here is Sharp O'Neal to tell you the story.
Old Henry Wright sighter? and his wife Phoebe loved one another the way people do who have lived together a long long time. They were simple farm people. Their world was their fruit trees, corn field and backyard with its pigs and chickens. The rest of their world was faraway like stars in the sky.
Sometimes Henry worried about death. During his worries, he would raise his old voice and say "Phoebe, where is my corn pipe? You are always taking things that belong to me". "Now you hush, Henry," his wife would say, "If you keep talking my bad, I will go away. And then what would you do? There is nobody to look after you. You can't find it on the table where you put it." Old Henry knew his wife would never leave him. The only leaving he felt was death. He often wondered how he could live without Phoebe. In the evening, when he went to the door to see that there was safely shut-in, it warmed his heart to know Phoebe was there with him. When Henry moved during the night, she always spoke to him "Now, Henry, be quiet. You are as jumpy as a chicken." "Well, I cannot sleep, Phoebe". "If you stop rolling around so much, you will sleep. Then I can get some rest too." Knowing she was there, beside him in the dark made Henry quiet again.
When she wanted him to get a pillow or water, Henry liked to say "Do this, do that.Always asking me to do something. Women are never satisfied". Phoebe would smile. She could see the inner happiness shining in his eyes. Henry talked sharply, but he never forgot to get water and wood for the fire. In this way, they lived happily in their simple world.
One day, in the early spring, Phoebe became sick and died. Old Henry watched them put her body in the earth. Neighbors asked Henry to come and live with them. But he would not live. He wanted to be near the place where his Phoebe lay in the earth. He tried to work around the farm, but it was difficult to return to an empty house at night. At night he read the newspaper, but most of the time, he just sat, looking at the floor, wondering where Phoebe was and how soon he would die.
For five months, he lived like this. Then there was a change. It happened one night after he had gone to bed. There was a bright moon in the sky, its silver light fell on the old chair and table in the bedroom. The moonlight on the chair and the half open door made a shadow, the shadow looked like Phoebe. She was sitting by the table, the way she had done so many times before.
"Phoebe," he called in a weak voice, "have you come back?" The shadow in the chair did not move. Henry got up and slowly walked toward it. When he came near the table, he saw that there was nothing on the chair but his old coat. Another night, he thought he saw her again. He felt a soft wind blow in the room. When the wind blew away, the shadow of Phoebe went away too. A third night, when he was sleeping, she came to the bed and put her hand on his head. "Oh, my Henry," she said gently, "I am sorry you are alone". He awoke and was sure he saw her leave the room. Phoebe had come back.
Night after night he waited. Then one morning he awoke with a surpring new thought. Perhaps she was not dead, perhaps Phoebe had just gone away. They had argued about the corn in wild and she had left the house. Yes, that was it. She was always making jokes about leaving him. This time she had really gone.
That morning, he started to walk to the nearest neighbors. "Why, hello, Henry," said farmer Dodge, he was taking grain to market. "Where are you going this morning?" "Have you seen Phoebe?" asked Henry. "Phoebe who?" Farmer Dodge knew Henry's Phoebe was dead.
"My Phoebe", Henry said "Whom do you think I mean?"
"You must be joking", said farmer Dodge. "You cannot be talking about your Phoebe. She is dead."
"Dead? Not my Phoebe. She left me this morning while I was sleeping. We argued about my corn ?fight last night, and that is why she left. But I can find her. She went over to Martild Rayce's farm. Yes, that is where she is." Henry started to walk fast down the road.
"The poor old man is sick in his mind", Dodge said to himself. "He has been leaving alone too long". Henry met no one until he reached Martild's farm. His Phoebe and Martihild Rayce had been good friends. Phoebe must be here. He opened the gate and walked to the house. Martild opened the door. "Why, Henry,?? . What a surprise!"
"Is Phoebe here?", Henry asked.
"Phoebe? Which Phoebe?"
"Why, my Phoebe of course." Henry smiled a little. "You do not have to keep it a secret. She is here, isn't she?" he looked inside the house.
"Well," Martild Rayce said "You poor old man, come in and sit down. I like to get you some coffee and food. I will take you to Phoebe. I know where she is. While Martild was working in the kitchen, she talked to Henry. But he was not listening. He was thinking about Phoebe. He decided she was not there. "I will go now", he said, getting up, "I think she went over to the Mary Farm". Then he was out on the road again.
It was like this for many weeks. Every night he returned to his house to see if Phoebe had come back, soon everyone in the area knew old Henry and answered his questions. "I have not seeing her", they would say, or "No, Henry, she has not been here today."
For several years Henry walked in the sun and rain, looking for Phoebe. His white hair grew longer and longer. His black hat was the brown color of the earth and his clothes were dusty and torn.
It was in the seventh year of looking when Henry came to ??? . It was late at night and he was tired and sleepy. Years of walking and very little food had made him thin. Each passing year seemed to bring him closer to Phoebe. Tonight he felt that Phoebe was nearer than she had ever been before. After a while, he fell asleep with his head resting on his knees. When he awoke, it was still dark. The moon shone brightly through the trees. Henry saw a light move across the road, it danced through the woods. Was it Phoebe? He jumped up, he was sure he could see her in that light. Yes, there she was, the young Phoebe he had known many years ago. Suddenly he remembered her young beauty, her warm friendly smile, the blue dress she had worn the day he first met her.
"Phoebe", he called "have you really come? Have you really answered me?" He began to feel young and strong again. He went to follow the moving light. Then a soft wind blew through the leaves and she was gone. "Phoebe", he cried, "Do not leave me, please, please stay with me!" He went as fast as his old legs would go. When he came to the top of the hill, he looked down into the valley of shadows below. Tears of happiness came into his eyes when he saw Phoebe again. Yes, there she was, down in the valley, smiling up at him. She was in the same blue dress. She waved her hand and seemed to say "Come, come with me."
Henry felt the strong pull of the new world where he and Phoebe were always be-together, he gave a happy cry "Wait, Phoebe, wait. I am coming".
The next day, some farmer boys found Henry at the bottom of the hill. His body was broken. There was a soft happy smile on his face, the same smile he had known when Phoebe was alive.
You have just heard the Lost Phoebe written by Theodore Dricer. It was published by World Publishing Company in 1947 in the book Best Short Stories of Theodore Dricer. Your story teller was Sharp O'Neal. This story is copyrighted. All rights reserved for VOA Special English. This is Shirelly Greefeik.


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