Question: While I am participating with Medicare Part B, I am non-par with Medicaid. If I see a patient with Medicare primary insurance and Medicaid as a secondary, can I balance bill the patient for the 20 percent that Medicare doesn't cover?
Answer: Even when non-par, patients who have Medicaid cannot be balance billed. Typically, these claims cross over to Medicaid automatically and any payment comes to the practice, never to the patient.


text:
Drama > Period Film
War > War Adventure
Thriller > Political Thriller
Historical Film > Period Film
Fantasy > Sword-and-Sorcery
directed by Theodore Melfi
featuring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe, Jim Parsons, Kirsten Dunst
directed by Tom McCarthy
featuring Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber
directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu
featuring Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, Zach Galifianakis, Andrea Riseborough, Lindsay Duncan
directed by David O. Russell
featuring Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Jennifer Lawrence
Used Blu-Ray, 2014
Argo (2012)
directed by Ben Affleck
featuring Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, John Goodman, Taylor Schilling, Victor Garber, Tate Donovan, Clea DuVall, Scoot McNairy, Rory Cochrane
The Help (2011)
directed by Tate Taylor
featuring Viola Davis, Emma Stone, Bryce Dallas Howard, Octavia Spencer, Jessica Chastain
The King's Speech (2010)
directed by Tom Hooper
featuring Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter, Guy Pearce, Timothy Spall, Derek Jacobi, Jennifer Ehle, Michael Gambon
directed by Quentin Tarantino
featuring Brad Pitt, Mélanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz, Eli Roth, Michael Fassbender, Diane Kruger
directed by Paul Haggis
featuring Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, Jennifer Esposito, Shaun Toub, Brendan Fraser
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
directed by Peter Jackson
featuring Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Orlando Bloom

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Titanic Alert! The Iceberg Problem and the Blueprints for Proximal Volitional Regulators
Posted on October 28, 2019 by Robin
"When we do indeed decide to pushback against our evolved nature" would have been the rest of the title, but that would have been too long. Moreover, when a book linked to here https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-10-07-what-we-need-to-unlearn-and-relearn-to-thrive-in-the-future contrasts its intentions for social reengineering at a biological level with what Stalin and Mao tried to do, I think we should pay attention on whether the distinctions are valid. First, though, let me quote from a 2019 book being talked about all over the world Second Nature: How Parents can use Neuroscience to Help Kids Develop Empathy, Creativity, and Self-Control, even though for some reason my copy of the book said it had already been discarded by the Phoenix Public Library. Perhaps before any parent could make the connection between language in Arizona's ubiquitous charter schools and what Erin Clabough lays out to get the desired neural rewiring in place?
This is from the concluding chapter called "Parents Shape Future Free Will," which sounds lovely, except if learning standards, school charters, mission statements, or Portrait of a Graduate require those same practices, then the effect is the same. Suddenly, math, science, or history are not about the transmission of knowledge. It is instead:
…this is why the way experience crafts our neurons is so important…If a person's actions are governed by neural pathways that aren't accessible by consciousness, then that person's choices and actions may not be governed by true free will. And the most compelling part of this for parents is that as neuroscience research pushes toward mapping the way neurons are connected, we're learning that if we can trace brain circuits, we can also predict behavior with nearly 100% accuracy…
kids are born with a vast network of synaptic connections–a wealth of possible connections that are then eliminated one by one as they lie unused. And in exchange, the pathways that have been activated–one to learn the letter g, another to recognize the smell of an oatmeal cookie, and yet another to understand it's not okay to hit a playmate–are strengthened and remain, since neuronal pathways get stronger when used…Freedom of decision is possible, though it's governed by neuroanatomy that can't change instantaneously. We are defined by our neural circuits, and those circuits are defined by use…
if what we call free will is a natural biological process, then not only can neuroscientists track it, but parents are placed in a unique position to craft it. As parents, we have this miraculous opportunity to lay down those critical brain pathways for our children simply by deciding what they practice. When repeated practice makes something a habit, neurophysiology changes, and future behavior choices narrow.
That was a longer than usual quote because the self-regulation that comes from the brain's planned neuroanatomy in this vision of what learning experiences can do showed up in several recent papers for our schools. Professor Clabough footnoted to a January 1993 paper called "Mechanisms of Self-Regulation: A Systems View" by Paul Karoly that made it crystal clear that references to 'standards-based education' in the 1990s, or now, are simply goal-based education where the desired results are neural structures that become Habits of Mind to guide perception, the interpretation of daily experiences, and the motivation to act. So reports like this https://www.inacol.org/resource/aligning-education-policy-with-the-science-of-learning-and-development/ or this https://all4ed.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/05-SAL-What-Educators-Need-to-Know-About-Adolescent-Development_FINAL.pdf , both pushed last week, need to be read in light of the planned neuroanatomical changes.
Also last week, we had this paper that I found to be rather curious https://www.aei.org/research-products/report/overcoming-the-challenges-facing-innovative-learning-models-in-k-12-education-lessons-from-teach-to-one/ , especially since the author had never written for AEI before. He also had the same last name as the Harvard prof who created the Mind, Brain, Education template. Joel Rose turned out to be tied to something called the New Classroom Innovation Partners, which had Tom VanderArk as an Advisory Board member and his Getting Smart was pushing those two reports above. Also on the Board was the former district superintendent of the school system where I live that my children attended. Many of the insights that would ultimately become Credentialed to Destroy came from listening to his deliberate misrepresentations to parents and school board members as to what terms meant and what the curriculum changes actually intended to accomplish.
Neuroanatomical changes to students' brains are not an effect, in other words, but the entire purpose of these education reforms. When the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Joel Roses's group is tied to the global evidence-based policymaking template and last week's winners of the Nobel Economics Prize, we have our ties to the 'evidence-base' in education being changes to the neuroanatomy of the brain in planned, hoped-for ways. The group had recently put out this report https://www.icebergproblem.org/ that was supposedly about math deficits in certain students. Anyone who has read Karoly's paper though (and it has been translated into other languages), would recognize that what is really missing are "deficits in memory, attention, or knowledge [that] compromise the effectiveness of the proximal volitional regulators." Translating that quote into slightly less stilted language would mean that a student is missing a neural pathway needed for him or her to perceive and act as desired.
When New Classroom Innovation Partners writes that "Our hope is for a new perspective on accountability that preserves rigor, transparency, and equity, while also creating the space for new approaches to learning that have the potential to achieve better results for all students," that lofty language actually pushes practices that have as their purpose neuroanatomical changes to the brain. The opening quote came from Nicholas Christakis' 2019 book Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society (which had also been discarded by the Jefferson County, Colorado system that has also been home to so many education reforms). Among the funders was the Gates Foundation that underwrote so much of the curriculum created for the Common Core learning standards and the related progressions (detailed in CtD) and the Templeton Foundation whose Conscious Cultural Evolution, Positive Neoroscience, and Jubilee Center work we have covered recently on this blog. It had blurbs from Angela Duckworth of Grit, the Character Lab, and National Growth Mindset Network fame, as well as from Jonathan Haidt who will be the keynoter at Jeb Bush's annual ed conference this year (in San Diego).
Nicholas Christakis' father, Alexander, was involved in the 1968 Rockefeller Foundation conference at Bellagio that would give rise to the Club of Rome and later became tied to the 1980s GERG-Global Evolution Research Group that created the Achieving Excellence template that became so controversial in Colorado schools. When Nicholas writes of 'learning' as a tool in planned cultural change as a medical doctor and sociologist, he knows precisely what the plans involving this term have been through the decades. To pull together the last several posts, it strikes me that George Will in his Soulcraft book, Candace Vogler with Self-Transcendence and her work with the Vatican's Humanity 2.0 Initiative, and the Lightbearers curriculum are all trying to get at the same kind of neural change via education as Nicholas Christakis.
Each of these writers is pushing a vision of education tied to What kind of society is good for us?, except none of us are part of the group planning 'thoughtfully' the desired neuroanatomical changes. This is the contrast with Mao according to Christakis:
A notable aspect of Mao's philosophy was an analogous confidence in the malleability of human behavior, on both individual and collective levels. Mao felt that the state must directly intervene to shape the belief and actions of human beings because the transformation of society 'depends entirely on the consciousness, the wills, and the activities of men.' Mao did not think highly of notions of an innate, shared human nature.
Mao's views sound remarkably like Soulcraft, agency-based education, and Tranzi OBE, don't they? Those are just a few of the euphemisms used over time to mask this transformational template. Are we really comfortable with a distinction as to whether it is okay to rewire brains for political purposes if one argues that the 'learning' being created is simply uncovering our preexisting 'good' human nature? All of these pushes want to get at the realm of moral judgments precisely because the writers want to place the emphasis away from "the state the world is in" to "the state we would want it to be in". What Clabough pushed above to be neurally practiced until the pathways created a habit as Creativity and Empathy gets to the same place as what Christakis stated as "moral judgments implicitly contain commands. Ought invites us to do something in a way that is does not." Templeton and Professor Vogler push the same vision as a Science of Virtues.
Is it really a valid distinction to push visions of education that get at the neurobiological realm in order to control future behavior in a difficult to perceive way because the future vision will "be good for us"?
How can anything be good for us when it has been shrouded in so much deceit? Is this why no amount of school shootings has ever been able to alter this template for neurobiological change?
Is global governance in the 21st century not about any kind of world parliament or binding judiciary, but rather the neural structures global learning standards and prescribed learning experiences, especially via technology and virtual reality, can deliver?
Just because we are not invited to these meetings does not mean that the purpose of the meetings and the sought changes cannot be tracked. Next time though a book is too direct in its laid out blueprints for change, it should probably be truly discarded in a trash bin and not resold to someone who recognizes either the name of the author or the book's connections to plans for schools and students.
Posted in Common Core, Outcomes Based Education, Quality Learning, Social and Emotional Learning | Tagged Bela Banathy, Ervin Laszlo, Martin Seligman, Riane Eisler | 17 Replies
Collective Cognition: Stipulating Right Thinking and Prescribing Prevailing Ideas to Defeat Polarization
Never heard the phrase 'collective cognition' before? Wouldn't creating required learning standards and then assessing for their presence in guiding a student's thoughts and actions amount to learning How to Think as a Community? After I wrote last week's post, but knowing we were about to pivot next to something called the Hidden Tribes Project, I was fascinated to read the bio of the co-author of this recent article https://behavioralscientist.org/the-cognitive-science-of-political-thought-practical-takeaways-for-political-discourse/ where Professor Sloman admits that the cognitive, linguistic, and psychological sciences can be used to create Collective Cognition. If only some ultra-rich person would bequeath mega-millions to his employer, Brown University, to set up a Center to create models for K-12 education reforms.
Think of the Hidden Tribes Project as what to do about the adults whose minds and values got away when earlier versions of K-12 education reforms, like outcomes-based education, failed to shift as desired away from subject-content to changing:
the ideas that give your life direction. And the answers fit together into a larger picture–what we call a 'worldview,' a way of understanding and making sense of our world. Your worldview determines (consciously or unconsciously) how you interpret and respond to everything in life. This is why it is so important to begin thinking about your worldview and the ideas you believe to be true…develop a worldview that influences everything you do.
That is a really useful definition of worldview and why, I believe, we have found it as the aim of what my book laid out as Tranzi OBE from the 90s, and what we are seeing as Portrait of a Graduate or Learner Profiles now. It's why learning standards globally carefully lay out the desired elements and seek to prescribe the 'learning experiences' that will create the characteristics at an internalized, physiological level. The Hidden Tribes Project, clearly related to the same aim but geared to adults and located at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, stated that its "focus is to better understand the forces that drive political polarization and tribalism in the United States today, and to galvanize efforts to address them." I found the Project after it was hyped here in July https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/what_are_the_solutions_to_political_polarization and I recognized the links to both Seedbed of Virtues and the 1997 "A Call to Civil Society".
George Will, in his Soulcraft book, kept using the same term "Better Angels of Our Nature" so let's look and see how 'our nature' can be reengineered with education reforms and other social science projects. After all, one of the co-authors of the June 2019 More in Common report "The Perception Gap: How False Impressions are Pulling Americans Apart" is tied to the Templeton-funded Positive Neuroscience initiative at U-Penn that is also tied to the World Happiness Reports the UN has taken to publishing. If he states that "in coming years I plan on continuing to use the tools of social science to improve human interaction and society. Through teaching, speaking, researching, and writing, I hope to do my part to help humanity realize the best possible version of itself," we would be wise to listen.
Humanity is so grateful, I reply with my usual sarcasm. Hopefully such aspirations and scholarship in "studying how social context in various populations can impact people's moral judgment and behavior…" will get Mr Yudkin tenure somewhere. According to the 2018 "Hidden Tribes: A Study of America's Polarized Landscape" the "work of rebuilding our fractured society needs to start now" and it needs to occur at the level of each person's values, attitudes, and beliefs. This will allow "re-connecting people across the lines of division in local communities all the way to building a renewed sense of national identity: A bigger story of us." More in Common believes that "a healthy democracy…requires a sense of shared values and commitments, and a willingness to find common ground". That desired answer to polarization and tribalism, a desired standardization at the level of "mind, heart, and soul" for all citizens, young and old, requires deliberately targeting:
At the root of America's polarization are divergent sets of values and worldviews, or 'core beliefs'. These core beliefs shape the ways that individuals interpret the world around them at the most fundamental level. Our study shows how political opinions stem from these deeply held core beliefs. This study examines five dimensions of individuals' core beliefs:
Tribalism and group identification
Fear and perception of threat
Parenting style and authoritarian disposition
Moral foundations
Personal agency and responsibility
This study finds that the hidden architecture of beliefs, worldview and group attachments can predict an individual's views on social and political issues with greater accuracy than demographic factors like race, gender, or income.
So education at every level and the media, whether broadcast, print, or websites of various supposed spectrums, need to get at and change that hidden architecture. To uncover and understand core beliefs, and "explore how this understanding can be used, not to deepen polarization but to bring people together." Does the coordinated effort to pretend that the Common Core was about workforce preparation or a database of personally identifiable information about students instead of an effort to change those prevailing values, attitudes, and beliefs suddenly make more sense? What if I told you that the initial indented quote on worldview came from something called the Lightbearers Curriculum from Summit Ministries that I found after a Daily Caller article this summer made a reference to something called a Blue Sky Worldview and a camp to create it? What if the same article simultaneously misrepresented socialism and asserted that Marxism is only what was found in the past in Communist countries or is what Bernie Sanders pushes?
Let's just say our False Narrative purveyors were well-represented among the advocates for this curriculum that also seeks to control "what ideas will rule the world" and provide "guidelines for shaping society for everyone's benefit". It is a curriculum intended for "endowing [the student] with the responsibility for shaping the future of the world." Theoretical Marxism, the non-historical kind that is a theory of Man as a Maker of History seeking to drive a transformational process in the real world, would recognize that aspiration as bringing about what Uncle Karl called the Human Development Society. It is still the same theory even when the M word is not used and the sales pitch is the need to "redeem culture as part of God's creation." Worthy aspirations and a theological emphasis do not change the nature of this theory or who created the idea of how to get such a theory into practice (Praxis?).
Calling it "faith in action" instead of praxis, or opining that "without action, students may relegate what they are hearing to dry academic philosophies and not realize that these ideas should become part of their lives on a daily basis," doesn't distinguish aims that function the same with comparable purposes. So religious based or classical schools want ideas embodied into action as an integral part of the curriculum to create Desired Habits and Behaviors and so do public schools now as part of learning standards and what is called High Quality Project-Based Learning. See what I mean about going to the same place and targeting the same normative realm in each student?
Tranzi OBE, in function even if now euphemized into a myriad of new names, still is in play if the curriculum actively seeks to tell students they should be change agents and
stop being conformed by the 'water' around them, the culture they were in. Rather, they should be transformed by renewing their minds. The idea behind the word 'transformed' is that of metamorphosis–changing into something different. While conformity to the world is something that happens passively, being transformed is something that happens actively. Conformity just happens, but transformation requires effort. Transformation only happens through mind renewal, changing the way you think.
I bolded that last part from the Lightbearers Curriculum to call attention to a discussion in the comments from the last post when I said that the predecessor to the Common Core was something in the 90s called the New Standards Project. Before Professor Lauren Resnick helped create that initiative, she called her curriculum a Thinking Curriculum to be grounded in HOTS–Higher Order Thinking Skills. Stipulated Ideas would dominate so that the real world perceptions would be controlled by Desired Ideas and Theories of What Could Be. The Soviets in 1962 called this a new kind of Dialectic Materialism that would allow a transformation of the existing world via a theory they called Ascending from the Abstract to the Concrete.
Its ideals still work the same today whether pushed on adults to supposedly bridge a Perception Gap and create a Convergence to defeat Polarization, or on children via mischaracterized learning standards and Thinking Curricula.
All of these advocates recognize that changing how we think leads to "transforming our behavior" in predictable ways. If anyone wants to prescribe "the basis of our decisions and actions," as these various NGOs like UNESCO or the OECD, faith-based institutions, think tanks, or any other institution have explicitly said they wish to do if we know where to look, we should all be aware that has become the new purpose of education and the goal of much of what is broadcast or published by the media.
I suppose I should be grateful my book and then this blog set off such an orchestration of False Narratives. The deceit left the crumbs that enable us to see the common vision. Everyone seems to want to get at what we believe and feel in order to control how we will behave.
And it has nothing to do with training pigeons except that once installed in our neural circuits via cognitive psychology, we will be programmed indeed.
Posted in Belmont Challenge, Common Core, Outcomes Based Education, Quality Learning, Social and Emotional Learning, Sustainability | Tagged Evald Ilyenkov, Higher order Thinking, Lauren Resnick, Martin Seligman, Marxist Humanism, Michael Cole, Positive Psychology | 16 Replies
Standardizing Self-Transcendence & Psychological Attributes to Deliberately Converge Prevailing Consciousness
Posted on October 7, 2019 by Robin
Since none of us were probably invited to NYC for the United Nations General Assembly last month, they just announced the roll out of a Futures of Education initiative with a 'Learning to Become' theme. It "invokes the need to develop the capacity to imagine a good and fulfilling life." Sounds like Statecraft as Soulcraft, doesn't it, taken to a current, global level? If anyone is still wondering too why there is so much hype about how all weather disasters must be due to Human-Caused Climate Change, we have this next quote as part of the Learning to Become agenda:
As we come to terms with human-caused changes to the planet and face the possibilities of fundamental transformations in social organization, human consciousness, and human identity, humanity needs to devote attention to the question: What do we want to become? Knowledge and learning are at the core of transformations in human minds and societies. Learning to Become invites us to become something we have not yet become.
As usual, I think that 'we' is rhetorical and 'we' are not supposed to really have a choice. I have warned repeatedly going back to Credentialed to Destroy how learning standards really work, but this NSF-funded paper "Understanding Standards" from Michigan State's Center for the Study of Standards and Society really does an explicit job of laying it out. The paper is from 2011 and is part of this Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences 2020 Agenda. https://www.nsf.gov/sbe/sbe_2020/Abstracts.pdf Yes, that would be next year.
We live in a world in which we are surrounded by standards for people, processes, practices, and products. These standards structure the sociotechnical world as well as the behavior of people in a variety of ways…Standards may best be understood as a means of governance that fall (largely) between laws and social norms…Standards are exemplars against which people and things are judged…[They can also be used to mandate] ethical codes of various sorts…Since standards are all about what and whose values shall be incorporated in products, processes, and practices, they are as much ethical as technical phenomena.
That is especially true when the 'standards' are prescribed to organize how the human mind and personality are to work, with that mandate carried out through poorly understood educational processes, locking in the desired changes at a physiological, neural level. When I was reading about both the Vatican's Humanity 2.0 Initiative and the Jubilee Centre's new curriculum on Virtue, as well as the Templeton Foundation's mega-million funding of planned social evolution, a name kept cropping up, Professor Candace Vogler, a philosophy professor at the University of Chicago. I located this interview with her on a Templeton supported research project https://news.uchicago.edu/story/qa-philosopher-candace-vogler-virtue-happiness-and-meaning-life where the repeated use of the term 'self-transcendence' struck me as the newest euphemism for what George Will called 'soulcraft', Amitai Etzioni calls 'communitarianism,' and the Marxist Humanist vision called little 'c' communism to be enabled by a high level of technological prowess and inventions.
Professor Voglin also came up as involved with numerous Lumen Christi Institute presentations including those pushing something called 'Right Reason,' which I am probably not exhibiting in writing this blog post. Templeton has now launched this initiative https://www.lumenchristi.org/news/2019/03/lumen-christi-receives-john-templeton-foundation-grant-for-science-religion-project to fund research at the so-called "intersection between science and religion". Just imagine how useful learning standards are to THAT agenda, and why it would provide multiple incentives for think tanks with common funding to Professor Voglin and George Will to misrepresent how those Catholic Curriculum Standards REALLY work. Professor Voglin said the Virtue, Happiness, and Meaning of Life Project had its 'genesis' in her "thinking about what the difference was between the people whose daily lives could be a source of happiness and purpose, and the people whose daily lives were a giant to-do list that was mostly a slog."
I will let everyone guess which expletive I wrote in the margin after that quote rationalizing this push towards collectivism, but the next quote did strike me as far more truthful:
We are mostly investigating the possibility that a fundamental attachment and orientation to a good can make your daily life into a source of happiness that can sustain you through struggle and trial and give you resilience and a sense of purpose.
That rang true because Hillsdale Barney Charter Initiative has used similar language, as do the Catholic Curriculum Frameworks, and the concept of a moral compass and guiding North Star also shows up in charters being funded by the Chan Zuckerburg Initiative. Tell me this next passage does not sound like Mihaly Csiksentmihalyi's definition of Excellence as aligning what is thought, wished for, and felt as the goals of Education. Remember too that various civil rights mandates now require Excellence and Equity as an education requirement as a matter of law.
What does virtue mean to you in the context of this project? Virtue is a kind of strength of character that helps you organize the things you take in from the world and the way you respond to them in the service of the actual good. And virtue helps to do that by harmonizing your thoughts, feelings, actions, and aspirations in good ways.
There is a new Personal Growth Framework out that calls precisely that-'self-authorship'- and we now know UNESCO calls it Learning to Become. A 2011 book I just finished called From Brain to Mind: Using Neuroscience to Guide Change in Education says educational practices designed to create such harmony intend to get at, and rewire, something called the Anterior Cingulate part of the human brain. That's one way to turn Mind, Brain, and Education into a true science, isn't it? Let's see what the two-day capstone project held in October 2017 had to say about this so-called virtue of 'self-transcendence' so we can appreciate what it means to enshrine it in learning standards, a school charter, a Portrait of a Graduate, or Curriculum Frameworks:
Our conviction that virtue is essentially related to self-transcendence has grown out of engagement with research throughout the humanities and the social sciences that has continued to suggest that individuals who understand themselves to be practically oriented to something greater than the self–a family with a long history and the prospect of future generations, a spiritual practice oriented towards due reverence for the sacred and the need to live right by and be consciously united with others, work on behalf of social justice and the improvement of one's community–often feel happier, have a deeper sense of purpose and meaning in their lives, and have overall better life outcomes than those who do not. Some psychologists have labeled this necessity for locating one's self within a broader context 'self-transcendence'.
That phrase has more universal appeal, doesn't it, than when George Will defined those same aims as 'Conservatism'? We have a global convergence going on now to use education, governments, regulations, think tanks, and faith-based organizations, among others, to push a vision that seeks to instill, via each person's central nervous system, "a deep attachment to an overall good (happiness or living well) that individuals cannot attain through dispositions of thought, action, and feelings that are ordered to securing individual benefit…One commonality explored in this volume [from capstone conference] is the way that virtue is intimately connected to a social or communal vision of happiness, and how virtue can play an instrumental role in securing this goal for us."
All this manipulation via education and, quite frankly, also the media is because we apparently don't know what is best for ourselves or our children so we need a reimagining of education to lock in the desired visions of transformation. Plus lots of deceit about what is really going on so not enough of us can balk at the requisite neural nets of 'new citizenship' in time.
As usual, I have too much going on to continue today, but I want to get back next to what is planned for us to force the so-called Better Angels of Our Nature to bloom. George Will used that Better Angels phrase a great deal and it showed up tied to yet another Kennedy School of Government Initiative from this summer.
I said I had to take a break from writing. I did not take any break from my reading.
Posted in Accreditation, Common Core, Outcomes Based Education, Quality Learning, Social and Emotional Learning | Tagged amitai etzioni, Bela Banathy, Communitarianism, Ervin Lazlo, Marxist Humanism, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Riane Eisler | 22 Replies


Pale yellow iris is native to Africa, Asia, and Europe and was introduced to North America in the mid-1800s as an ornamental plant for water gardens. It has also been used for erosion control and for making dyes and fibre.
Pale yellow iris can out-compete native aquatic species along shorelines, forming dense thickets like native cattails. Rhizomes of this species form mats that trap sediment. Accumulated sediment causes open water to silt up.
A key characteristic of this plant is large yellow to white flowers that are 8-10 cm wide. Each plant can have 4-12 flowers. Flowers have three large yellow petals and three downward-spreading yellow sepals with brown to purple patterns.
The leaves are flattened with a raised midrib and are 50-100 cm long and 10-30 mm wide.


Developed by the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program (NAEPP) Script Notes: Good (morning, afternoon, evening), my name is ________, and I will present "Asthma Basics for Schools." My goal today is to help you learn more about asthma and the school age child, as well as the role of the school in helping students with asthma. This presentation was developed by the NAEPP, which is administered and coordinated by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). The NAEPP was initiated in March 1989 to address the growing problem of asthma in the United States by raising awareness of asthma as a serious chronic disease and by providing guidance to ensure its accurate diagnosis and effective intervention and treatment strategies. The NAEPP works with intermediaries including major medical associations, voluntary health organizations, and community programs to educate patients, health professionals, and the public, with the ultimate goal of enhancing the quality of life for people with asthma and decreasing asthma-related illness and death.
3 Asthma is a Major Health Problem in the U.S.
5 million school-aged children have asthma1 Students miss almost 13 million school days each year due to asthma2 Asthma is the 3rd-ranking cause of hospitalization among children under 153 Script Notes: Almost 10% of, or more than 5 million, school-aged children have asthma. On average, students with asthma miss about 2-3 days more per year than students without asthma, although some students with severe and/or uncontrolled asthma miss much more than that. Asthma is serious and can cause students to go to the emergency room or urgent care office, be hospitalized, or in the worst cases, die. Note to presenter: According to the 2004 National Health Interview Survey, parents reported that 9.6% (5.1 million) of their school-aged children (ages 5-17) had ever been told by a doctor that they have asthma and still had asthma. This is sometimes called "current asthma". Consider adding local data, if possible. 1 Epidemiology and Statistics Unit. Trends in Asthma Morbidity and Mortality. NYC: ALA, July 2006. 2 CDC. Asthma Prevalence, Health Care Use and Mortality, National Center for Health Statistics. Washington, DC. 3 Hall MJ & DeFrances CJ National Hospital Discharge Survey. Advance data from Vital and Health Statistics, Table 3; no 332. Hyattsville, MD: NCHS,2003.
Script Notes: On average, a typical classroom of 30 students is likely to have 3 with asthma*. Note to presenter: According to the 2004 National Health Interview Survey, parents reported that 9.6% (5.1 million) of their school-aged children (ages 5-17) had been told by a doctor that they have asthma ("lifetime asthma") and still had asthma ("current asthma"). are likely to have asthma.4 4 Epidemiology and Statistics Unit. Trends in Asthma Morbidity and Mortality. NYC: ALA, July 2006.
produces recurring episodes of breathing problems is potentially life-threatening can occur at any age is not contagious cannot be cured, but can be controlled Script Notes: Asthma is a condition that: is chronic, meaning that it's an on-going, long-term condition. produces recurring episodes of breathing problems called asthma episodes is potentially life-threatening can occur at any age is not contagious, meaning it cannot be spread from one student to another cannot be cured, but can be controlled The cause of asthma is unclear. It is probably caused by a mix of genetic and environmental factors. Note to presenter: Some audiences may need a definition for genetic and environmental factors. Genetic factors are things passed down from your parents. Environmental factors are things in the environment around you that may contribute to the development of asthma.
6 What are the Symptoms of Asthma?
7 How Does Asthma that is not Well-Controlled Impact Student Learning?
Fatigue – students up at night with coughing, wheezing and other symptoms are tired in the morning Absenteeism related to asthma episodes, health care appointments, and hospitalizations Missed class time due to frequent school health office visits Script Notes: Student learning can be impacted by fatigue, absenteeism, or symptoms that interrupt students' attentiveness. An asthma episode is distracting and upsetting to other students and staff. Students with asthma sometimes experience lower self-esteem. Students' academic success can be affected by the missed class time and absenteeism. Some students with asthma feel anxious about participating in physical education or other activities, because they're afraid they will experience an asthma episode.
8 What Happens During an Episode of Asthma?
The lining of the airways become narrow and easily irritated due to inflammation The airways produce a thick mucus The muscles around the airways tighten and make airways narrower Script Notes: Three things can happen during an asthma episode: Swelling of the airways Clogging- the mucus blocks the airways and thus allows less air to pass through the airways Squeezing- the air passages are squeezed together by the muscles that surround the outside of each airway. This combination of swelling, clogging, and squeezing dramatically reduces the size of the airways.
9 What Can Make Asthma Worse?
Not all factors affect all people. It's important to identify what affects a particular student's asthma. Infections in the upper airways, such as colds Exercise Changes in weather and temperature Physical expressions of strong feelings (crying or laughing hard, yelling) Script Notes: Some things can make asthma worse and can initiate the onset of an asthma episode. Not all students with asthma are affected by the same factors, and their sensitivities can change over time. The most common cause of asthma episodes is colds or other upper airway infections, which is just one more reason to emphasize the importance of good handwashing. Some children only experience asthma symptoms during or after physical activity. This is referred to as exercise induced asthma (EIA). Changes in weather and temperature can affect some students' asthma as well. Strong physical expressions of feelings, such as crying or laughing hard, or yelling, can cause some students' asthma to flare up.
10 What Can Make Asthma Worse?
Allergens such as: Furred and feathered animals Dust mites Cockroaches Pollens from grass and trees Molds (indoors and outdoors) Script Notes: Classroom pets like rabbits, hamsters, gerbils, and parakeets may cause some students to have an asthma attack and should be removed. Most homes and schools in humid areas have dust mites. They are found in carpets, clothes, stuffed toys and fabric-covered items. Droppings, saliva, and the body parts of cockroaches and other pests can cause asthma attacks for some students. Some students' asthma flares up when grass is cut at their school, especially if their classroom window is left open. Mold grows where moisture is present. All molds that are found growing inside a school building should be removed immediately. Note to presenter: The information found in this slide is found in the following sources: and has a Home, School & Play resource which describes these triggers and how to remediate them.
11 What Can Make Asthma Worse?
Irritants such as: Environmental tobacco smoke Scented products Strong fumes or odors Outdoor air pollution Script Notes: Tobacco smoke can actually contribute to causing asthma, in addition to causing many students with asthma to experience asthma symptoms. Outdoor air pollution, including diesel exhaust from school buses, can cause asthma episodes. Poor outdoor air quality can also be a problem. Scented products, such as perfumes, body creams, cause some students' asthma to flare-up. Some classrooms, such as art rooms, science labs, and career and technical education classrooms, have strong odors from chemicals used. Strong fumes or odors from chemicals such as cleaning products, pesticides, and paint can cause some students' to have an asthma episode.
12 Is There A Cure For Asthma?
Asthma cannot be cured, but it can be controlled. Most young people with asthma should be able to live healthy, active lives with minimal symptoms. Script Notes: There is no cure for asthma, but it can be controlled. Most young people with asthma should be able to live healthy, active lives with minimal symptoms.
13 What Should Most People with Asthma Be Able To Do?
Be active without having asthma symptoms; this includes participating in physical activity and sports Sleep through the night without having asthma symptoms Prevent asthma episodes Have the best possible lung function (e.g., good peak flow number) Script Notes: Students with well-controlled asthma should be able to do everything a person without asthma is able to do. They should be able to: Be active without having asthma symptoms; this includes participating in physical activity and sports Sleep through the night without having asthma symptoms Prevent asthma episodes Have the best possible lung function (e.g., good peak flow number) Note to Presenter: Asthma is not under good control when a student has asthma symptoms or uses a quick-relief inhaler for asthma symptom control (not prevention of exercise-induced asthma) more than 2 days per week. Asthma is also not under good control if it interferes with any normal activities. Additionally, for children ages 5-11, if a student has asthma symptoms multiple times on any day, his or her asthma is not under good control. If a 5-11 year old child has nighttime awakenings due to asthma more than once a month, his or her asthma is not under good control. Nighttime awakenings more than twice a month is the limit for those 12 and older.
14 How Is Asthma Controlled?
Follow an individualized, written asthma action plan Reduce or eliminate exposure to things that can cause asthma symptoms Encourage and support use of medication as prescribed -	Quick-relief medicine for all students with asthma -	Long-term control medicine for students with persistent asthma Script Notes: How can we help students control their asthma at school? Follow an individualized, written asthma action plan. Each student's asthma action plan should come from his/her physician or other health care provider and be signed by parents and school nurse. If a student in a classroom is sensitive to specific allergens or irritants, reduce or eliminate student those allergens or irritants. Encourage students to use their asthma medications, as prescribed. For some students with only occasional symptoms, this may mean using just a quick-relief medicine to relieve symptoms. For others, it may mean using daily, long-term control medicine as well as quick-relief medicine when needed. Note to presenter: Sample asthma action plans can be found at Long-term control medicine handles inflammation and prevents episodes from occurring. Quick-relief medicine (many of these medicines are inhaled and start to work within a few minutes, such as albuterol inhalers, bronchodilators, metered dose inhalers or MDIs) should be used at the first sign of symptoms and need to be immediately available. If you think a student is overusing their quick-relief medicine, do not take it away, but instead review their plan and call their parents. Some students may need to use their quick-relief medicine before they participate in vigorous physical activity to help prevent onset of asthma symptoms.
15 How Is Asthma Controlled?
Monitor response to treatment and level of asthma control Encourage regular follow-up care Ensure good communication among school, the student's doctor, and home Script Notes: To help students control their asthma, we can also: Monitor students' response to use of their quick-relief medicine by noticing symptoms and having them measure their breathing by using a peak flow meter. Monitor level of asthma control. Encourage students to seek medical care when they experience asthma symptoms, as well as for well visits. Encourage regular communication and health updates among the school, the student's doctor, and his/her parents/guardians.
1.	Is your school free of tobacco smoke? 2.	May students carry their own asthma medicines? 3.	Does your school have an emergency plan for kids with severe asthma episode? Note to Presenter: If you are not planning to present on slide set #2, you may want to add additional information about some of these items while using these slides. See Slide Set #2 for more information about each of the items listed. The script notes provide the exact language from the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program document "How Asthma-Friendly Is Your School?" The text on the slide is shorthand for the longer text included in the script notes. Script Notes: Children with asthma need proper support at school to keep their asthma under control and be fully active. Use the questions below to find out how well your school assists children with asthma: 1. Is your school free of tobacco smoke all of the time, including during school-sponsored events? 2. Are students permitted to take medicines at school as recommended by their doctor and parents? May students carry their own asthma medicines? If some students do not carry it, can they quickly find and use their medicines? 3. Does your school have a written emergency plan for teachers and staff to follow, to take care of a student with an asthma episode? Is it made clear what to do? Who to call? When to call? In an emergency, such as a fire, weather emergency, or lockdown, or if a student forgets his/her medicine, does your school have quick-relief medicines for students to use? 5 National Asthma Education and Prevention Program. How Asthma-Friendly Is Your School?
17 How asthma-friendly is your school?
4.	Do all students with asthma have written asthma action plans at school? 5.	Is there a school nurse in your school all day, everyday? 6.	Does someone teach school staff and all students about asthma? Script Notes: 4. Do all students with asthma have updated asthma action plans on file at the school? An asthma action plan is a written plan from the student's doctor to help manage asthma and prevent asthma episodes. 5. Is there a school nurse in your school all day, every day? Does a nurse identify, assess and monitor students with asthma at your school? Does he/she help students with their medicines, and help them be active in physical education, sports, recess, and field trips? 6. Does the school nurse or other asthma expert teach school staff about asthma, asthma action plans, and asthma medicines? Does someone teach all students about asthma and how to help a classmate who has asthma?
18 How asthma-friendly is your school?
Can students with asthma fully participate in physical activities? Do they have immediate access to their quick- relief medicine before exercise if appropriate? Can they modify their activities if necessary? 8.	Does your school maintain good indoor air quality? e.g., reduce or eliminate things that may cause asthma symptoms Script Notes: 7. Can students with asthma fully and safely join in physical education, sports, recess, and field trips? Are students' quick-relief medicines immediately accessible before and after they exercise? Can students with asthma choose a physical activity that is different from others in the class when it is medically necessary? Can they choose another activity without fear of being punished? 8. Does the school have good indoor air quality? Does the school help to reduce or prevent students' contact with allergens or irritants, indoors and outdoors, that can make their asthma worse? Allergens and irritants include mold, dust mites, cockroaches, and strong odors or fumes from things like bug spray, paint, perfumes, and cleaners. Does the school exclude animals with fur or feathers? Not all students with asthma are affected by the same factors and their sensitivities can change over time.
Quickly evaluate the situation. Call 911 if severe and contact parent/guardian. Encourage student to use quick-relief medicine if s/he self-carries or it is kept in the classroom. If medicine is not available, call for the school nurse. Note to presenter: Please customize this slide and the notes below for your particular school and district. The steps outlined below may be used by school health directors or coordinators as a template to develop a district or school protocol. This protocol should be used along with other school asthma management materials, including instructions for evaluating students and administering inhaled medication. Script Notes: Every school should have a specific plan for handling asthma emergencies for students without an asthma action plan. Probably the most important thing any school staff member needs to know is how to handle an asthma episode. For some students, this can prevent a visit to the emergency room, hospital, and in the most severe cases, it can prevent them from dying. Steps for Handling Asthma Symptoms at School: If a student in your class has asthma symptoms (shortness of breath, wheezing, tightness in the chest, coughing), if possible, follow that individual student's asthma action plan. If a student does not have a personal asthma action plan, use your school's written emergency care plan. (States or districts usually have a standard format for such plans.) This emergency plan often includes the following steps: Quickly evaluate the situation. Call 911 if the student is in severe distress (unable to speak, lips blue). If the student self-carries or quick-relief medicine is kept in the classroom, encourage him/her to use the medicine as directed. If the quick-relief medicine is not in the classroom, call for the school nurse (or designee).
20 Conclusion Schools, families, and the community can work together to help students better manage their asthma. Note to presenter: If you are continuing the presentation, you may want to skip this slide and go directly to slide 2 of the Part 2 presentation. Script Notes: Together we can make a difference. We can take steps to help students keep their asthma under good control at school, and we can make sure students get the care they need if they have an asthma episode at school. Note to presenter: Ask the audience if they have any questions (be prepared to respond or refer questions). Then, thank the audience for attending the presentation, and ask them to complete and submit the presentation feedback form.
Download ppt "Asthma Basics for Schools Part 1 - Overview"
What You Need to Know About Asthma Going for the 3 Increases: Increase in Health, Increase in Happiness & Increase in Energy Strategies for Success in.
Youth Asthma Epidemic Hannah Lewis.
Asthma Management In Educational Settings Physical Education Teachers and Coaches Education Module.
New Providence School District Asthma Education for School Staff Carol McCabe, R.N. Jan Miller, R.N. Trish Kalinger, R.N.
1 Asthma Management In Educational Settings Classroom Teacher Education Module.
What every parent needs to know about Childhood Asthma This program is brought to you by Allies Against Asthma, a workgroup of the Consortium for Infant.
Long Beach Alliance for Children with Asthma We CAN Control Asthma Now.
Asthma and Work-related Asthma Developed by: Dana Hughes, RN, PhD Miners Hospital, University of Utah Libbey M. Chuy, MPH Asthma Program, Utah Department.
Take a Deep Breath Asthma in Children Michael W. Peterson, M.D. Professor and Chief of Medicine UCSF Fresno.
A Public Health Response to Asthma A call to action for organizations and people with an interest in asthma management to work as partners in reducing.
Asthma A Significant Health Problem Affecting Millions of Children Kayleigh Ringer EEC 4731 Module 2 Young Children's Health Issues.


3 bedroom, 2 bath condo located at the Commodore Condominiums. Spacious first floor unit offers direct access to the pool. Condo has a full kitchen with range, fridge, microwave, coffeemaker, and toaster. Unit has sleeping for 9; queen bed, full bed, full/twin bunk and queen sleep sofa. Amenities include: 4 wall a/c units, wifi internet, 4 tv's, gas grill, pool, outside shower, coin operated washer/dryer, and 2 car off street parking.


This Vintage Flower-Ornate Lapel Pin is designed and hand- crafted in Sydney, Australia. It measures 2cm in diameter and is secured onto the lapel via Silver finished lapel-pin.
His name is inspired by John Lennon - an extraordinary composer, singer and activist who believed that World Peace is possible and the source of all happiness and joy is Love. A beautiful human being who inspires many.


When you think of an environmental hero, a plumber might not be the first person who comes to mind. But this year, a union representing plumbers and pipefitters earned a "champion" award from a nationwide coalition of environmental and labor groups called the BlueGreen Alliance.
The work of plumbers like Harold Harrington is a big reason the union took home the top honor. Harrington belongs to United Association Local 370 in Flint, Michigan. And during the lead water crisis there, his members volunteered to go door to door and replace faucets and water filters in people's homes.
Leaders in both the environmental and labor movements say the country could prevent more public health disasters like the one in Flint if old infrastructure is fixed or replaced. That would include things like updating water systems and fixing leaking natural gas pipelines in American cities. And at the same time, those repairs would create jobs.
Some new regulations recently passed in California offer a prime example, according to Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club. The new rules were created in response to a four-month leak of methane—a potent greenhouse gas—from a natural gas storage facility near Los Angeles.
And that kind of project is what is increasingly bringing environmentalists and labor unions together. Fixing the pipelines and infrastructure helps both their causes.
Admittedly, Brune says, when it comes to natural gas infrastructure, the alliance between labor and environmentalists can become a bit tricky.
Traditionally, some unions—especially those representing construction workers—have opposed partnerships with environmentalists, especially when jobs from the extraction and transport of fossil fuels are at stake.
Case in point: the hotly contested Keystone XL pipeline, which promised to transport natural gas from Canada, through the United States, to the Gulf of Mexico. Environmentalists fought against it; labor and construction unions advocated for the pipeline because of the jobs. But the Sierra Club's Michael Brune isn't worried.
One area where they don't have a problem—growth in the green energy sector.
Just days before this year's BlueGreen Alliance conference in Cleveland, the U.S. Department of Energy announced it would give a local nonprofit $40 million to build the country's first offshore freshwater wind project in Lake Erie.
Applegate says projects like this help change labor's attitudes toward environmental groups. She says even coal workers are coming around.
Another sea change: Global warming is now a big issue for some labor unions. United Steelworkers International President Leo Gerard says they've understood for decades the capacity of climate policy to help both the environment and manufacturing.
For Gerard's union, the right people are Democrats. The United Steelworkers just announced its endorsement of Hillary Clinton for president—as did the AFL-CIO, the country's largest labor federation. But according to some analysts, Donald Trump's populist campaign could have the edge among rank-and-file workers.


…and you can watch Georgia's haul here!
During my Australian adventure my friends and I took a two day 'road trip' down the Great Ocean Road. We stayed overnight in sleepy Apollo Bay, visited the Twelve Apostles (underwhelming to be honest) and stopped off at some beaches along the way. I am not much of a video person, as you may know, but I hope that one day when I am old and boring (and missing my pals who will have no doubt stay in Australia forever because it is warm and lovely) I will be able to fondly look back on this montage and remember how lovely it was.
We stayed in this Airbnb in Apollo Bay because of the beautiful balcony on which we had one hell of a BBQ with all the fake meat a girl could wish for – sign up to Airbnb here to get £25 free credit.
The song in this video is Hookworms – Static Resistance, you can (and should) purchase their album here or here.


Beautiful apartment on floor 9, with two terraces of 50 m2 and 10 m2 with spectacular views of the city and the Bay of Cadiz. Completely renovated, tastefully decorated. Ideal situation. Close to train station and bus stops. A beaches and city center. Everything is close. Ideal for couples. In addition to the clothing house, you have umbrella, towels and chairs for the beach. And also 2 fantastic sunbeds for sunbathing on the terrace. Public parking in front of the building (not included in the price).
The apartment was only 5-10 minutes walk from the railway station along the main road. Despite this we still managed to get lost due to poor map reading skills and Cristina very patiently waited for us outside the building. The flat is homely with very comfortable furniture and plenty of space for two. It is very well equipped and there is a microwave instead of an oven. There is air conditioning in the living room but not in the bedroom. The shower is perfect. The terrace is huge with lovely flowers and plants - a good place to sit and watch the coming and going of the cruise ships. Cristina was very helpful with all the local information and recommendations,and was quick to respond with any queries. An excellent host.
Excellent apartment, views and location.
Just a fantastic holiday. Exactly what we needed. Beautiful, comfortable apartment .
Breathing spectacular views of both the marina to the front and the old town from the back balcony. Cristina the owner was very helpful with information on places to eat, shop and visit. Everything we needed was supplied and she even went the extra mile and printed and personally delivered our boarding cards. Lots of little kind extras included like salt, herbs etc. Plenty of kitchen implements, glasses and very important a freezer for ice cubes. Very comfortable spacious apartment. Wonderful choice of music cds provided also. All in all a great apartment and a delightful hostess.
The apartment was very comfortable and well equipped. Only a short walk from the centre of the town and the brilliant fish market.
Easy arrival as it is very close to the train station and buses.
Public parking Canalejas front of the building.


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Q: Run Webmatrix ASP.net in APACHE I have installed Webmatrix on Windows 7 and it's working well. I want to use WebMatrix ASP.NET on Apache.
How do I run WebMatrix on Apache?

A: Have a look at Mono
But you won't be able to run WebMatrix itself on Linux-based servers as Mono doesn't offer support for WPF.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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SENATOR: AUTONOMOUS DRIVING TECHNOLOGY STILL NEEDS IMPROVEMENT
On behalf of Satterley & Kelley PLLC posted in car accidents on Tuesday, April 17, 2018.
Self-driving cars may well end up significantly reducing injuries and fatalities on the nation's roads. However, there are still issues that need to be worked out. Two recent fatal crashes involving autonomous vehicles have some consumers, manufacturers and legislators concerned.
One of those legislators is U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal. He is calling for proposed legislation regarding these vehicles to mandate additional safeguards. One of them, says the Connecticut senator, is the requirement of technology allowing the driver to manually override the autopilot feature. Sen. Blumenthal, who sits on the Senate Committee on Science, Commerce and Transportation, also wants evaluations during the testing phase of these vehicles to be made public.
A policy expert with Consumer Reports agrees that additional safety regulations need to be added to proposed legislation. He says that competition among makers of self-driving vehicles has created "a race to be first instead of a race to be safe." However, he says, "you put people at risk and you potentially could set this technology back years if not decades." That technology, says Sen. Blumenthal, is still in the "toddler state of development."
Sen. Blumenthal recently rode as a passenger in two semi-autonomous vehicles on a test track. He saw firsthand the importance of manual override when the person behind the wheel of one vehicle had to use it to avoid hitting a parked car.
The senator, in discussing his concerns about autonomous driving technology, said, "I'm not a Luddite. I'm not simply standing in the way of progress. I believe that autonomous or driverless vehicles will be coming." However, he added that "we need more testing, more guarantees of safety and more protections."
It's not unusual for laws and regulations to lag behind rapidly-accelerating technology. Exactly who is liable for crashes involving autonomous vehicles can still be a complicated question. Drivers have to remain alert even if their hands don't have to be on the wheel. However, they reasonably expect the vehicle to "drive" in a safe manner.
If you or a loved one has been the victim of a crash with a self-driving car, an experienced Kentucky attorney can provide essential guidance and work to seek the compensation from the appropriate people and/or entities.
Tags: Car Accidents
Related Posts: Safe driving tips for Louisville residents, Effective methods to avoid automobile crashes, Study shows that new teen drivers more likely to cause accidents, Insurance data reveals that smaller cars are less safe


The battlefield was soaked in blood. Screams of injured soldiers rang through the air.
Eleven-year-old Nathaniel Knox knelt behind a rock, his gun clutched in his shaking hands. Nate had been heading to New York City to find his father. But now he was trapped in a terrible gunfight between American and British troops.
This Revolutionary War had started as a thrilling fight for freedom. The 13 American colonies were breaking apart from England, away from King George III. The colonies would band together to become a brand-new country: The United States of America! But King George was like a snake with America gripped in his fangs - and he didn't want to let go. So now it was war - brutal, bloody war. And America was being crushed by the mighty British army. Thousands of American troops were either dead or dying in filthy British prison ships. General George Washington's army was in tatters.
All Nate wanted was to find his father...and to get out of here alive.
February 5, 2018 Join Lauren as she's interviewed by KVVB-ABC TV's Aaron Sanchez about the origins of the I Survived series and the new Virtual Field Trip she hosts.


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Javier Sotomayor Sanabria
Prince of Asturias Award for Sports 1993
Javier Sotomayor Sanabria (Limonar, Matanzas, Cuba, 1967 - ) is a Cuban former athlete considered the foremost high jumper in the history of the event. He holds world outdoor and indoor records and, during his career, he won an Olympic gold medal, two World Championships, four World Indoor Championships and three Pan American Championships, among other achievements. He set his first record at sixteen years of age, when he cleared two metres. He then began his specific preparation for the high jump, moving to Havana with a scholarship from the Escuela Superior de Perfeccionamiento Deportivo that allowed him to advance considerably in his training.
In 1984, at the age of sixteen, he set the still-existing 2.33m junior world record in Havana. Junior world champion in Athens 1986, he holds the three best records in that category, the others being those he set in Havana and his 2.30 m jump in London. The Cuban boycott prevented him from attending the Seoul Olympics. A year later, he won the Budapest World Championships, where he cleared 2.43 m, and Puerto Rico, where he jumped 2.44 m. The latter record stood until he cleared 2.45 metres in Salamanca that same year. He was the second Cuban athlete to set a world record, after Alberto Juantorena (in 400 metres, 1976). In 1990, a foot injury impeded him from competing. He came back to win the gold medal in the Central American and Caribbean Games held in Mexico City. Subsequently, in 1991, he made his second appearance in a world championship, in Tokyo, coming second with a jump of 2.36 m. In March of that year, he shared third place with the Soviet athlete Alexei Yemelin (2.31 m) in the World Indoor Championship held in Seville and in August achieved his second consecutive victory in the Pan American Games with a jump of 2.35 m. Sotomayor competed in the Olympic Games for the first time in 1992, in Barcelona, winning a gold medal (2.34 m). In 1993, he won the World Indoor Championship in Toronto, Canada, with a jump of 2.41 m, thereby regaining the title he had lost two years earlier. Some months later, before the world championship in Stuttgart, Germany, Sotomayor participated in the annual meeting in Salamanca, jumping 2.23 m, 2.32 m and 2.38 m in a single attempt, finally achieving a jump of 2.45 m that beat his own world record by one centimetre.
Sotomayor returned to the World Indoor Championships in 1995, where he cleared 2.37 m, winning the gold medal for the third time. He also competed for the third time in the Pan American Games, held in Mar del Plata, Argentina, and once again won the gold medal with a jump of 2.40 m, setting a record for this competition that still stands. Meanwhile, at the World Championships held in Gothenburg, Sweden, he came second with a jump of 2.37m. At the Atlanta Olympics, he barely cleared 2.25 m due to an injury to his left leg. At the 1997 World Championships, he jumped 2.37 m, once more winning the gold medal. In 1998, his most relevant results were first place at the Grand Prix Final in Moscow, with a jump of 2.31 m, and second place at the Athletics World Cup held in Johannesburg, with a jump of 2.28 m.
He was accused of drug-taking following the Pan-American Games in 1999 and was suspended. The IAAF decided to shorten his suspension to one year. The members of the board decided to give him an "opportunity to rehabilitate" based on his "exceptional career". The IAAF further highlighted the more than 300 anti-doping controls that Sotomayor had passed, all with negative results. The decision was also taken to allow him the possibility of attending the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney so as to bring his remarkable career to a close. For their part, sports authorities in Cuba such as the president of the Sports Institute were pleased, though not satisfied, as the doubts about Sotomayor's innocence still weighed heavily. The president of the Cuban Olympic Committee also insisted on "laboratory manipulation", although he accepted not knowing by whom, nor in what way the parties involved had conspired. He won the silver medal in Sydney with a jump of 2.32 m. At the beginning of 2001, he competed in the World Indoor Championships in Lisbon, coming fifth (2.25 m) and in the Edmonton World Championship (Canada), clearing 2.33 m. In October that same year, he announced that he was retiring from athletics.
He was once again accused of taking drugs shortly after that. The IAAF confirmed the results of the test in January 2002. The decision meant a lifetime ban, but it was no longer effective due to the fact he had retired. Having brought his career in athletics to a close, he obtained a degree in Physical and Sports Culture, which has allowed him to train athletes in his country. He has also held office as president of the Athletes Care Subcommittee and as member of the Cuban Athletics Federation Committee.
Sportsman of the Year in 1988 (awarded by the Spanish Sports Press Association), Cuban Sportsman of the Year and Most Outstanding Athlete of Latin America (awarded by the Prensa Latina Cuban news agency), in 2007 he was inducted to the Central American and Caribbean Athletic Confederation's Hall of Fame and, in 2011, was distinguished with the "Youth Inspiring Sport" Prize by the International Olympic Committee. He was also invited to the temporary exhibition on the occasion of the IAAF centenary that took place in Barcelona, where the shirt he wore when he set the world record of 2.45 m was on display.


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Home Forums > Pokémon Videogames - Main Series > Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon >
Interview Ultra Sun & Moon fan meeting in Tokyo Interview with Masuda, Ohmori and Iwao - May 12, 2018
Discussion in 'Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon' started by May, May 13, 2018.
On the 12th of May 2018, Game Freak hosted a Pokémon Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon Fan Meeting at the Pokémon Center in Tokyo. The interview was later added to 4gamer.
On the 12th of May 2018, Game Freak hosted a Pokemon Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon Fan Meeting at the Pokemon Centre Mega Tokyo in Ikebukuro. Around 200 fans gathered for the occasion to listen to a special talk with some of the game's developers. Here's an overview of what was discussed.
In attendance from Game Freak were producers, Junichi Masuda and Shigeru Ohmori, as well as Director Kazumasa Iwao.
Pokemon Ultra Sun & Moon were Ohmori and Iwao's first game serving as Producer and Director respectively (For the original Sun & Moon games they served as Director and Battle Director). They started the talk by mentioning that during development the dev team were conscious at all times of the word 'Ultra' featured in the title of the games.
Masuda's Producer position was more senior than Ohmori's, however when it came to the Mantine Surf mini game, the plan for development was largely based on talks with members of the surfing community.
In Ultra Sun & Moon, much like former titles, Masuda also had a hand in creating the soundtrack. We learned some details regarding one of his compositions for the games, the BGM for the fight with the Legendary Pokemon Necrozma. The theme for this battle was 'Incompleteness', and as such the feeling of instability was emphasized in the tracks composition. The implementation of the pounding bass drums, as well as a fast tempo and intensity not often present in Pokemon soundtracks was key to realizing this theme. Fellow GameFreak composer Go Ichinose created the battle theme for Ultra Necrozma by taking Masuda's Necrozma theme and elaborating on the pipe organs to conjured a sort of godlike image for the arrangement.
With the idea of conveying the supreme nature of the Pokemon's supreme existence to the player in mind, the build up to the encounter with Ultra Necrozma had to be at least twice as intense as the Legendary encounters in the original Sun & Moon games stated Iwao. Although they considered Ultra Necrozma to be the most comprehensively powerful pokemon players have encountered so far, they still wanted to make sure that as long as you utilized the strengths of the pokemon your gathered together on your journey, in the end you would come out on top.
In regards to the design of Ultra Necrozma, Iwao stated that, to put it bluntly, they wanted it to look cool. And when he considered "How do you make a cool pokemon?" naturally he concluded "You make it Dragon type". With that as the primary design principle they set about creating a fusion of the Psychic type Necrozma and a new Dragon type form. With that said, the result was less an entirely new appearance, but rather a rearrangement of Necrozma's body parts into a new Dragon shaped entity.
The discussion next shifted to the group who played a large role in the story of Ultra Sun & Moon, Team Rainbow Rocket. In this game, 7 leaders of the villainous organisations from previous pokemon games gather together to form one super group led by Giovanni. It was initially planned that they would make their appearance as bosses in the Battle Agency, but it was decided that just appearing as holograms would be somewhat underutilizing them, and so Team Rainbow Rocket was created.
These bosses were taken from parallel universes where the protagonist of their respective games never existed, or possibly failed to stop their schemes. On top of that, they each obtained a legendary pokemon to add to their teams. Taking the central role in this collection of villains was Giovanni, however the other villains were not exactly serving as his underlings, rather each of them found that their positions aligned with his cause and an alliance was naturally formed. The development team was happy with the idea that the appearance of these characters from previous Pokemon games might lead to more players gaining an interest in older titles.
Next, the question and answers section:
"How did the idea for Z-Moves come about?".
Ohmori answered:
"With the implementation of Mega-Evolutions we didn't want a situation where only Pokemon capable of mega-evolution would take all the glory, so for that reason we added Z-Moves."
As Alola was themed heavily around Hawaii, the poses trainers make when activating a Z-Move were also designed with this theme in mind. One by one the dev team thought up 'Aloha-like' poses, even going as far as to hold internal Z-Move Pose meetings to come up with more ideas.
"Are there currently plans for new Pokemon games?"
Masuda started to reply: "We do have plans, but…" before stopping and inquiring "Do we have Nintendo Switch owners here?" to the audience. Which he then followed up by saying "If you don't own a Switch, please, go and buy one".
Whatever could he have meant by that I wonder.
(Addressed to Ohmori and Iwao) "What do you like most about Masuda-san?".
After thinking for a moment, Ohmori replied with a smile
"A lot of what Masuda says seems to have no weight behind it, but the more you listen to what he has to say you realise there's a lot of depth hidden in his carefree manner of speaking, and you come to understand the bigger picture of what he's telling you. The more you chew on those words, the more flavour comes out, that cuttlefish-like nature is what I like most about him."
It seems like Masuda isn't always able to convey the ideas in his head to the dev team, but Ohmori and Iwao have managed to forge a relationship with him whereby they can 'just about understand' what's going on up there.
When Masuda is working on a game, he has something of a fixation on making sure any loading that the game needs to carry out during gameplay is finished within 1/30th of a second. Especially in the Pokemon games, where the game is constantly loading data for the next section in the background while the player is progressing through a scene, Masuda likes to designs things around avoiding inflicting the stress of constantly having to wait for the game to finish loading on the player. Even in battles, data loading is masked behind move animations and Pokemon's battle cries in order to avoid delays to the pace of battle. According to Masuda "The more graphics improve, the more time it takes to load data, so on that point right now development is becoming more difficult". In that sense, back in the days of the Game Boy Advance Pokemon title's sprite based art style it was a lot easier to manage, he reminisced.
(Directed to Masuda) "What's your fondest memory in life?"
Without hesitation he replied
"When I got married the other day"
Prompting the audience to erupt into congratulatory applause.
Finally, with the Q&A section over, on the subject of Ultra Sun & Moon, Masuda closed with a short message.
"I feel like we were really able to draw out the appeal of the 3DS with these titles. It's already been half a year since their release, but please continue to enjoy these games deeply. The next thing we're all excited about is 'Zeraora' right? He'll be making his debut in this years new movie, so please look forward to it."
With that, the event drew to a close.
Translation source: reddit


California Pizza Kitchen has introduced a line of appetizer sized pizzas called California Flatbreads as permanent additions to its menu, priced at an average $5.95 each.
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The Shaved Mushroom + Spinach is topped with cremini mushrooms, sautéed spinach, California olive oil and Romano and Parmesan cheeses.
The Spicy Fennel Sausage + Poblano is made with sausage, fresh mozzarella, fire-roasted chiles, Greek oregano and spicy marinara sauce.


text:
Coronavirus India Highlights: Punjab seeks priority allocation of COVID-19 vaccine once available
Kerala and Maharashtra continue to be the biggest contributors, reporting more than 5,000 new cases on Friday.
By: Express Web Desk | Ahmedabad, Kochi, Mumbai, New Delhi, Pune | Updated: December 7, 2020 9:05:33 am
As of Friday, Maharashtra accounts for the highest number of both active cases and fatalities. (File)
Coronavirus India Highlights: Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure priority allocation of COVID-19 vaccine to Punjab on account of its higher mortality rate and high levels of co-morbidities in the state.
Meanwhile, India detected 36,011 new Covid-19 cases in the 24 hours ending 8 am Sunday, taking the country's overall tally to over 96.44 lakh. Out of the total cases, active cases have further dropped to 4.03 lakh and 91,00,792 people have recovered so far with over 41,000 recoveries reported in the last 24 hours. With 482 new fatalities, the country's death toll mounted to 1,40,182.
Pfizer India Saturday requested an emergency use authorization for its Covid-19 vaccine in India, becoming the first pharmaceutical company to do so. The move comes after Pfizer's parent company received such a clearance in the UK and Bahrain. In its application submitted to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), it has asked permission to import the Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 mRNA vaccine for sale and distribution in the country.
Currently, India has five vaccines in advance phases of clinical trials with the Serum Institute of India conducting phase-3 trials of the Oxford-Astrazeneca and Bharat Biotech in collaboration with ICMR conducting trials for its indigenously developed vaccine candidate Covaxin.
Meanwhile, a plea was filed on Saturday in the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Centre to ensure refund of "exorbitant" amounts charged by private labs and hospitals for conducting RT-PCR tests to detect COVID-19.
Coronavirus India Highlights: Anil Vij tests Covid positive; India detects 36,595 new cases; total infections over 95.71 lakh, active cases fall to 4.16 lakh; PM Modi chairs all-party meet. Follow latest updates here
22:01 (IST)06 Dec 2020
1,498 new Covid cases, 24 deaths recorded in Haryana
Haryana recorded ew cases of coronavirus and 24 deaths on Sunday, while 1,887 patients recovered in the last 24 hours. The recovery rate of Covid-19 patients in the state reached 93.65 per cent as the number of active cases reduced to 12,897 Sunday evening.
Among 24 patients who died include five each in Faridabad and Hisar, three each in Gurgaon and Karnal, two in Panchkula, and one each in Ambala, Rohtak, Kurukshetra, Yamunanagar, Sirsa and Jhajjar. While Gurgaon added another 310 new cases, Faridabad added 265 new cases, Sonipat (104), Hisar (47), Ambala (73), Karnal (63), Panipat (105), Rohtak (57), Rewari (144), Panchkula (66), Kurukshetra (39), Yamunanagar (16), Sirsa (25), Mahendragarh (9), Bhiwani (31), Jhajjar (43), Palwal (30), Fatehabad (19), Kaithal (3), Jind (46), Nuh (1) and Charkhi Dadri (2).
According to State's Sunday evening bulletin, 371 patients were in critical condition (326 on oxygen support, 45 on ventilator support). As on Sunday evening, the Covid positivity rate in Haryana was 6.54 per cent, fatality rate 1.06 per cent and the testing per million population in the state was 1,49,216.
Karnataka reports 1,321 fresh cases, 10 deaths
Karnataka on Sunday reported 1,321 fresh COVID-19 infections and 10 mortalities taking the total cases and fatalities to 8,93,006 and 11,856 respectively, the health department said. The total number discharged were 8,55,750, including 889 today. As many as 25,381 were active cases including 280 in the ICU, the department said in its bulletin.
Almost all the districts in Karnataka saw a steep decline in the cases and fatalities, including Bengaluru though it alone was on the higher side with the figures of infection in three digits. The city today reported 733 infections and seven fatalities more than half of the total infections and deaths in the state. Cumulatively, the city reported 3,74,024 infections, 4,183 deaths, 3,50,204 who got discharged, including 275 today, and 19,636 active cases.
The reduction in cases and infections since the past two months finally culminated in zero infections in Bidar whereas only four districts reported deaths, including Bengaluru. Districts which reported infections in single digit were Ramanagar (2), Koppal (3), Bagalkote (5), Chikkaballapura (7) and Gadag (8).
Punjab seeks priority allocation of COVID-19 vaccine once available
Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure priority allocation of COVID-19 vaccine to Punjab on account of its higher mortality rate and high levels of co-morbidities in the state.
In a letter to Modi, the CM said despite its relatively low caseload, Punjab has higher fatality rate due to coronavirus, and, therefore, it needs special attention in the allocation of the vaccine once available. Punjab has so far witnessed 1.55 lakh coronavirus cases and 4,905 deaths.
Pointing out that the vaccines currently under consideration would not perhaps reduce transmission much but prevent the disease from escalating to serious levels, Amarinder said their best use would therefore be among the most susceptible groups, including the elderly and persons having co-morbidities. According to a state government release, Amarinder also wanted to know if the COVID-19 vaccination exercise would be entirely funded by the Centre, including the cost of vaccines and supplies.
Gujarat: 1,455 new COVID-19 cases, 1,485 recoveries; 17 die
Gujarat on Sunday reported 1,455 fresh coronavirus positive cases, taking the count of infections to 2,18,788, the state health department said. With 17 more patients succumbing to the viral disease, the cumulative death toll mounted to 4,081, it said.
At 1,485, the number of recoveries exceeded the new cases. The tally of recoveries in the state now stands at 2,00,012, taking the case recovery rate to 91.42 per cent, the department said a release.
The state now has 14,695 active cases. With 69,310 samples being tested during the day, the overall tally of tests rose to 82,41,960, the release said.
Twenty more fatalities, 2,089 new COVID-19 cases recorded in a day in Rajasthan
Twenty more fatalities related to the coronavirus infection took the death toll in Rajasthan to 2,429 on Sunday, while 2,089 new cases pushed the infection tally to 2.80 lakh, according to a health department bulletin.
Of the total caseload, 22,427 are under treatment while 2,55,729 people have been discharged after treatment till now, it stated.
In Jaipur, the death toll stood at 455, followed by 253 in Jodhpur, 198 in Ajmer, 163 in Bikaner, 147 in Kota, 113 in Bharatpur, 104 in Udaipur and 95 in Pali.?
'Of the new cases recorded on Sunday, Jaipur accounted for 481, Jodhpur 221, Ajmer 105, Kota 101, Alwar 95, Udaipur 91 and Bhilwara 81.
Clinical trial: 17 volunteers given Sputnik V vaccine in Pune
A total of 17 volunteers have been administered Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine at a Pune hospital as part of the human clinical trials, doctors said on Sunday. Sputnik V vaccine has been developed by the Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology and Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF). As per reports, India has purchased 100 million doses of the candidate from Russia.
"Seventeen healthy volunteers were administered Sputnik V vaccine in the last three days as part of human trials," Dr S K Raut, Head of Clinical Research Department of Noble Hospital here, said.
The inoculation process began on Thursday, he added. "All the volunteers, who were administered the vaccine, will be under observation for the next few days," Dr Raut added.
Nagaland reports 39 new COVID-19 cases, 1 fresh fatality
Nagaland's COVID-19 tally mounted to 11,379 on Sunday as 39 more people tested positive for the infection, while one fresh fatality pushed the northeastern state's coronavirus death toll to 69, health officials said. Kohima district reported the highest number of new cases at 28, followed by Dimapur (five) and Wokha and Tuensang (two each), Health Minister S Pangnyu Phom said.
Out of the 69 coronavirus fatalities reported so far, 59 were due to the contagion, seven due to comorbidities, and an investigation is underway to ascertain the cause of three other deaths, Health Department Director Dr Denis Hangsing said. The state now has 544 active coronavirus cases, while 10,653 people have been cured of the disease and 113 patients have migrated to other states, he said.
The recovery rate among the coronavirus patients in the state stands at 93.61 per cent, the official said. Kohima has the highest number of active cases at 311, followed by Dimapur (148) and Tuensang (32), he said. The state has so far conducted 1.14 lakh COVID-19 tests, including 69,940 RT-PCR, 36,154 TrueNat and 8,461 rapid antigen tests, Hangsing added.
Maharashtra: 611 new COVID-19 cases in Thane; tally reaches 2,32,401
Thane has added 611 new COVID-19 cases, raising the tally in the Maharashtra district to 2,32,401, an official said on Sunday. Seven more people have also succumbed to coronavirus infection, taking the toll in the district to 5,733, he said. As of now, there are 7,278 active COVID-19 cases in the district, while 2,19,390 patients have recovered, he said.
The COVID-19 recovery rate in the district is 94.40 per cent, the mortality rate is 2.47 per cent, while the active cases constitute 3.13 per cent of the total cases reported so far, the official said. Among cities in the district, Kalyan has reported the maximum number of COVID-19 cases at 54,753, followed by Thane city-52,521, Navi Mumbai-48,899 and Mira Bhayander-24,452.
Out of the total COVID-19 deaths, Thane city accounts for 1,249, Kalyan-1,067, Navi Mumbai-995 and Mira Bhayander-761, the official said.
11% of symptomatic negative cases in RAT found COVID-19 positive through RT-PCR
Nearly 11 per cent of those in the national capital who tested negative for COVID-19 in rapid antigen tests (RAT) but had symptoms for the disease were found to have been afflicted by the viral infection in RT-PCR test between September 1 and November 7, according to official data. Out of the 56,862 symptomatic patients who tested negative in rapid antigen tests, 32,903 were retested through RT-PCR and of them 3,524 were found COVID-19 positive, according to the data shared by health authorities in response to an RTI query filed by a PTI reporter.
In order to effectively curb the spread of coronavirus infection, the Union Health Ministry had in September asked all states and Union Territories to mandatorily retest all symptomatic cases found COVID-19 negative in rapid antigen tests through RT-PCR so that no positive case is missed.
For Delhi, the case positivity rate in RT-PCR, which is considered the gold standard for COVID-19 screening, was 20.97 per cent in September, while it was only 4.77 per cent when it comes to rapid antigen test, the RTI reply stated.
611 new Covid-19 cases in Thane; tally reaches 2,32,401
Economy to reach pre-Covid-levels by end of FY 2022, says Niti Aayog
ndia's economic growth is likely to reach pre-COVID-19 levels by the end of the 2021-22 fiscal as the GDP contraction in this financial year is expected to be less than 8 per cent, Niti Aayog vice chairman Rajiv Kumar said on Sunday.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has also revised its forecast of economic growth for the current fiscal year (2020-21) to (-)7.5 per cent as against its earlier forecast of (-)9.5 per cent.
"We should reach pre-COVID-19 levels at the end of fiscal year 2021-22 for sure," Kumar told PTI when asked about growth projection for the next financial year. He added that the GDP contraction this fiscal is expected at less than 8 per cent. (Read more here)
35 fresh COVID-19 deaths in Puducherry, no deaths
Puducherry reported 35 fresh COVID-19 cases on Sunday, taking the tally to 37,244, while the toll remained at 614 as there were no fatalities. The day also saw 62 patients getting discharged from various hospitals after recovery. Mahe region topped the list of fresh infections (18), followed by Puducherry 13, Karaikal 3 and Yanam 1, the Director of the Health Department S Mohan Kumar said in a release. Cumulatively 37,244 cases have been confirmed, out of which 36,238 were treated and discharged. Active cases remained at 392. (PTI)
Bengal woman, days away from turning 100, recovers from COVID-19
A month shy of 100, Bhabatarini Samanta had to battle the deadliest of foes in the path of her becoming a centenarian - the coronavirus. And, she mananged to get the better of it, stunning doctors and family members alike.
Samanta, at 99 years and 11 months, was admitted to a designated COVID-19 hospital in Fuleswar area on November 24 with fever and breathing trouble. Subhasis Mitra, director of the hospital, said she had numerous complications, and a medical team had to be set up to assess her health condition. "With time and care, she started recovering. We are delighted that we could make her free from COVID-19 and send her home in time for the 100th birthday, which is just a few days away," he said. (PTI)
Watch| Covid-19 immunity explained
Explained: Is 'natural immunity' from COVID better than a vaccine?
On the heels of last month's news of stunning results from Pfizer's and Moderna's experimental COVID-19 vaccines, Sen. Rand Paul tweeted a provocative comparison.
The new vaccines were 90% and 94.5% effective, Paul said. But "naturally acquired" COVID-19 was even better, at 99.9982%, he claimed.The primary advantage of a vaccine is that it's predictable and safe, she said. "It's been optimally tailored to generate an effective immune response."
But what do we know about how the immunity from a prior infection compares with the protection given by the new vaccines? And what if you have already had COVID - is it safe to be vaccinated? We asked experts to weigh in on the latest evidence
(Read NYT's explainer here)
Tamil Nadu Congress leader K S Alagiri tests positive for Covid-19
Tamil Nadu Congress Committee President K S Alagiri has tested positive for coronavirus on Sunday and is admitted to a private hospital. "TNCC President K S Alagiri has tested positive for coronavirus following a test today morning and has been admitted to a private hospital for treatment," A Gopanna, TNCC media department chairman said in a statement.
Gopanna asked those who had come in contact with Alagiri to get tested. Alagiri attended a meeting with Congress and DMK members on Thursday.
Tamil Nadu Congress Committee leader KS Alagiri tests positive for #Covid19. He is admitted to a private hospital. Three days ago, Alagiri took part in a meeting with Congress and DMK leaders. @IndianExpress
— Janardhan Koushik (@koushiktweets) December 6, 2020
622 new COVID-19 cases, two deaths in Telangana
elangana reported 622 fresh COVID-19 cases, taking the tally to over 2.73 lakh while two fatalities pushed the toll to 1,472. Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) accounted for the most number of cases with 104, followed by Rangareddy 55 and Medchal Malkajgiri 51, a government bulletin said on Sunday providing details as of 8 pm on December 5. As many as8,125 patients are under treatment and57,308 samples were tested on Saturday. (PTI)
India's covid-19 vaccine development timeline
Rolling out Covid vaccine: Who will get it, when, and how
On January 11, China shared the genetic sequence of SARS-CoV2, the coronavirus shutting down borders and economies across the world. On March 16, US-based biotech firm Moderna and a week later, researchers at Oxford University announced the start of human trials on vaccines against it.
In India, the government resorted to an unprecedented lockdown to contain the virus. Up until April 19, by which time the country had reported 15,712 cases and 507 deaths, a vaccine was nowhere on the horizon. That day, at the daily briefing by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Joint Secretary Luv Aggarwal said a high-level task force would "identify a pathway for vaccine development" — the first time the government mentioned the V-word.
With that, the ball was set rolling. By July, the Indian regulator had cleared Phase 1 human trials of the first indigenous vaccine candidate, developed by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Bharat Biotech. (Read Kaunain Sheriff M's report here)
India records over 36,000 new Covid-19 cases, 482 deaths
India detected 36,011 new Covid-19 cases in the 24 hours ending 8 am Sunday taking the country's overall tally to over 96.44 lakh. Out of the total cases, active cases have further dropped to 4.03 lakh and 91,00,792 people have recovered so far with over 41,000 recoveries reported in the last 24 hours. With 482 new fatalities, the country's death toll mounted to 1,40,182.
With 36,011 new #COVID19 infections, India's total cases rise to 96,44,222
With 482 new deaths, toll mounts to 1,40,182. Total active cases at 4,03,248
Total discharged cases at 91,00,792 with 41,970 new discharges in the last 24 hrs pic.twitter.com/imO6Ql1aHw
— ANI (@ANI) December 6, 2020
Active cases have further dropped to 4.16 lakh and 90,16,289 people have recovered so far with almost 43,000 recoveries reported in the last 24 hours.
Coronavirus India LIVE updates:
Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij tests positive
Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij has tested positive for Covid-19 on Saturday. In a tweet, Vij said, "I have been tested positive for Corona positive. I am admitted in Civil Hospital Ambala Cantt. All those who have come in close contact to me are advised to get themselves tested for corona." This comes days after Vij volunteered to take a shot of Bharat Biotech's vaccine candidate Covaxin, as part of its third phase trial.
Despite Covid fears, state charting new growth: Mamata Banerjee
Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said despite the Covid-19 pandemic, West Bengal is moving ahead and is performing better than several other states. Speaking at the virtual Infocom-2020, a business-technology event organised by a private group, she stressed on inclusive growth. "We will have to wait for the vaccine (for Covid-19). There must be some long-term plan on how to survive. Need to focus on the right priorities and in inclusive growth rather than polarisation," she said. Bengal respects each and every one, the chief minister said and quoted Rabindranath Tagore's famous poem "Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high ….".
Can Covid-19 impact the hearts of children?
Through the Covid-19 pandemic, cases have been reported of myocardial injury — the death of myocardial cells in the heart. While most of these patients with myocardial injury had pre-existing cardiovascular disease, a case has now been reported of a two-month-old infant who had reversible myocardial injury and heart failure, similar to Covid-19-related heart issues seen in adults. The child, a Covid-19 patient, recovered with normal heart functions, scientists have reported in the journal JACC: Case Reports. In the infant, an ECG showed myocardial injury due to Covid-19 infection, and heart failure symptoms exacerbated by the infection.
Coronanvirus


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