text:
The Climate Change Conundrum
Well, first let's ask the obvious for those that may not know. What IS Climate Change? If climate is the average weather found in a given place over time, then climate change is a shift in those weather conditions.
Climate Change is "a long-term shift in global or regional climate patterns. Often climate change refers specifically to the rise in global temperatures from the mid-20th century to present."
– National Geographic Society
History of Climate Change
Climate change has been on the international, scientific and political narrative for over thirty years. Early concepts began in the 1800s with the Greenhouse Effect and greenhouse gases, and then in the 1950s the Keeling Curve revealed the possibility of a warmer earth. In the early days, the concept of our changing weather was widely referred to in the media and by the public as "Global Warming". At one point in the 1970s, there were even rumblings of another Ice Age! All in all climate change as we know it today entered the world stage in the 1979 with the First World Conference on Climate Change. Primary attendees were climate scientists and researchers. The conference goal was to explore data and trends to provoke governments to be more proactive about climate change, as there was a direct correlation to human activity. Recommendations were noted and generally forgotten.
The issue really ramped up during the 1980s at the inception of the International Panel on Climate Change. Then, eleven years after the First World Conference, Geneva sponsored the Second World Climate Conference in 1990. The outcome? Dire warnings if governments failed to act promptly. The world community was charged to reduce carbon dioxide emissions while increasing carbon sinks, such as planting more trees that absorb more carbon dioxide. On many fronts these recommendations were largely ignored yet again.
Climate Change Reality
Wind, rain, and temperature have always fluctuated, with more or less frequency and ferocity coming and going storms. This is all part of nature, the natural cycles that help maintain life's complex ebb and flow.Many of the processes that bring this about are beyond our control. Yet the truth is that the world as we know it just isn't as it was and been consistently changing. Much has changed because of what we do.
Reasons Why We Care
In order to achieve and maintain a culture of health, our very environment must be healthy. There's little doubt about changing the global climate. The most significant contributor is carbon dioxide, which accounts for about half of all gases causing global climate and weather disruption. CO2 also emanates from burned fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and gas for heat, transportation, and industrial processes; methane, which accounts for 17% of greenhouse gas emissions, has 20 times the carbon dioxide power climate-changing gas. Rice cultivation, coal mining, energy production, and livestock rearing are also activities that play a role. Basically, we can curb our actions if we so choose.
Take collective action from reducing emissions to making our farming environmentally friendlier.
Repurpose, Recycle and Reuse – disposable items have always been the rage because they are cheaper and easier to clean up. Items and materials that can't be recycled go into a landfill or are dumped in the oceans.
Appreciate Sunlight – doing things with natural lighting so we utilize less electricity reducing carbon footprint.
Only use what you need.
Small practical steps have been taken to truly get developed nations to establish feasible, binding climate change contracts. But, is it enough? The climate is changing, and human activity is largely responsible. We will undoubtedly live in a very different world as we get older. It may not be pretty for future generations.
Tags:climate changeenvironmentenvironmental healthglobal warminghealthhuman activitypublic healthrecyclerepurposereuse
Prior Thoughts
The Great Resignation, THL Ep. 25 Season Finale November 30, 2021
Screenings: Prostate Exams, THL, Ep.24 November 15, 2021
Screenings: The Mammogram – THL, Ep. 23 October 31, 2021
Public Health Evolution October 29, 2021
Screenings: The Colonoscopy – THL Ep. 22 October 17, 2021
Preventive Medicine: Screenings – THL Ep. 21 October 3, 2021
The Climate Change Conundrum September 30, 2021
What's Happening Now? – THL Ep. 20 September 21, 2021
Advocacy in Maternal Health – THL Ep. 19 August 30, 2021
The Poverty Problem August 25, 2021
dsully315 on Marijuana is Legal. What Does It All Mean?
Pat Nafziger on Marijuana is Legal. What Does It All Mean?


Roger Ver also known as 'Bitcoin Jesus' is considering to start his own cryptocurrency exchange according to an interview with Bloomberg in Malta.
It does not come off as much of a surprise that the base currency of this exchange will be Bitcoin Cash. Roger Ver switched communities from Bitcoin to Bitcoin Cash last year with heavy involvement in the hardfork of Bitcoin.
Bitcoin.com belongs to Bitcoin Cash, and thus Roger Ver hopes to implement the exchange on the website. Bitcoin.com is already popular amongst the cryptocurrency community with its mining pools for both Bitcoin, and Bitcoin Cash. Hence it will help drive traffic to the planned exchange.
Roger Ver is seen to face a lot of criticism ever since he switched sides last year. His recent tweet however still signifies his reasoning of supporting Bitcoin Cash.
If an exchange does result, it may not fare as well as the current scenario given the stats from Chainanalysis. Chainanalysis earlier in the year showed that Bitcoin Cash had not fared as well in being an option for retail payments. Only $3.7 million in Bitcoin Cash payments were made in May 2018 which was a significant fall from the $10.5 million in March which was an all-time high. Bitcoin, on the other hand, had a staggering $60 million in May 2018 which still is nothing compared to September 2017 figures of a whopping $412 million.
Also according to Alexa.com, Bitcoin.com has lost a lot of attention. In the second half of the year compared to the first six months of 2018. Overall Bitcoin Cash is ranked 4th with a price of $510.02 with a market capitalisation of $8,871,766,683 at the time of writing.


text:
Germany–Portugal relations (German: deutsch-portugiesische Beziehungen; Portuguese: Relações Teuto-Portuguesas) are the diplomatic relations between Germany and Portugal. Both countries are members of the Council of Europe, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the OECD, NATO, the European Space Agency, the European Union, the Eurozone and the Schengen area, among others.

History

Before 1900
In the course of the disintegration of the Western Roman Empire, Germanic tribes conquered the Iberian Peninsula in the early 5th century AD, including the Vandals. The Suebi established an empire in what is now Portuguese territory.

Among the crusaders from the Rhineland (participants in the Second Crusade) who supported Afonso Henriques in his fight against the Arabs, Heinrich aus Bonn is the most famous figure. He played a decisive role in the siege of Lisbon in 1147 and was declared a martyr. He is the only German figure to appear in The Lusiades by Luís de Camões and therefore serves as a popular starting point in bilateral diplomatic oratory.

With Eleonore Helena of Portugal, a Portuguese princess became the wife of the German Emperor Frederick III in 1452.

When the Jews were also expelled from Portugal in the 16th century, some of the merchants among them also went to Hamburg (see also History of the Jews in Hamburg). In 1652, about 1250 Portuguese lived here, who continued to devote themselves mainly to trade and were buried in the Portuguese cemetery opened in 1611. The city owes its economic and cultural boom in the 17th and 18th centuries largely to Portuguese merchant families. This heritage continues to have an impact in Hamburg today, where the most important Portuguese community, also in terms of numbers, is located. With the Portuguese Quarter at the harbour, there is also a Portuguese-influenced café and restaurant district. Specialities such as pastel de nata or galão are best known in Germany today and are already part of everyday culture in Hamburg.

In 1687, Maria Sophia of Neuburg married the King of Portugal Peter II of Portugal in his second marriage, initially on 2 July 1687 per procuram in Heidelberg, while the actual wedding ceremony was performed on 30 August in Lisbon Cathedral.

The 1755 Lisbon earthquake permanently changed the world view in Europe. In Germany, too, this unforeseeable natural disaster met with great sympathy. It also preoccupied many scholars of the Enlightenment, including Goethe, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and Immanuel Kant. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe published descriptions of the Lisbon earthquake. The Lisbon earthquake became a symbol for the question of God's justification in the face of evil in the world.

In 1762, when war broke out in the service of Portugal, William, Count of Schaumburg-Lippe played a decisive role in Portugal's military success against Spain. The following year, on his advice, the king had the "Fort Graf Lippe" built in front of Elvas in what is now the World Heritage Site of the largest preserved bulwark fortifications in the world.

In 1815, the German-born Count Pedro de Sousa Holstein represented Portugal at the Congress of Vienna, where a reorganisation of Europe took place.

On 2 August 1829 Pedro I, Emperor of Brazil married the German Amélie of Leuchtenberg in Munich, in the chapel of the Palais Leuchtenberg wedding by proxy. Her uncle Charles of Bavaria was Pedro's representative. On 25 July 1829, her honorary guardian King Ludwig I of Bavaria ratified the previously negotiated marriage contract. Her brother Auguste de Beauharnais and the renowned naturalist and Brazil expert Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius accompanied her on her journey from England to Brazil, which began in Portsmouth on 30 August 1829 and ended in the port of Rio de Janeiro on 16 October 1829.

It was a very turbulent time, as shortly afterwards there was a civil war, the so-called Liberal Wars (1832-1834) between the supporters of King Miguell I, whom Frederick, Prince of Hesse-Darmstadt actively supported, and the supporters of his brother, the ex-king Peter IV and his daughter Maria II.

In 1836, the Duke of Palmela was elected Prime Minister in Lisbon after the new Cortes ended the Liberal Wars.

On 9 April 1836, the Portuguese Queen Maria II married the German nobleman Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. This brought the Portuguese branch of this German noble family, which can be traced back to the House of Wettin and the Margraves of Meissen, to the throne in Portugal.

Their daughter-in-law Stephanie of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (1837-1859) sailed to Lisbon accompanied by her brother Leopold of Hohenzollern and the Prussian Chief Master of Ceremonies Rudolf von Stillfried-Rattonitz and there married her eldest son, King of Portugal Pedro V (1837-1861) in 1858.

In Düsseldorf and later also in Lisbon, the charitably active Stephanie was known to the people as the "Angel of the Poor". Just one year after her death, a monument was erected to her in Düsseldorf: The bust of the Queen on a black marble column was created by Julius Bayerle. The monument to Princess Stephanie of Hohenzollern was renewed in 1890 by the sculptor Josef Tüshaus. Every year on the second Sunday in May, Düsseldorf's marksmen commemorate the Queen on St. Stephen's Day. In the centre of Düsseldorf, Stephanienstraße commemorates her, and a hospital in the centre of Lisbon is also named after Stephanie. Citizens of Düsseldorf and Lisbon donated a bust in what is now the Portuguese Foreign Ministry. A commemorative plaque can be found on the garden front of Jägerhof Palace in Düsseldorf.

Leopold von Hohenzollern married Antonia Maria of Portugal in Lisbon in 1861, and in 1899 the Prince had Sigmaringen Palace redesigned. He also had the so-called "Portuguese Gallery" built there.

The House of Braganza is closely linked to the noble family of Thurn und Taxis. From 1851 until his death in 1866, the former Portuguese King Miguel I lived in exile in Bronnbach. Miguel I married the German Adelheid von Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg in 1851. Seven children were born of this marriage, Michael II married Princess Elisabeth von Thurn und Taxis (1860-1881) in Regensburg Cathedral in 1877. Franz Joseph von Thurn und Taxis married Elisabeth of Braganza; his brother Karl August von Thurn und Taxis married her sister Maria Anna of Braganza, from this marriage three children were born.

After 1900

World War I

With the First World War, anti-German sentiments arose for the first time in Portugal, further fuelled by French war propaganda. After the bombing of Reims Cathedral, a Portuguese protest against German vandalism appeared on 4 October 1914, run by a Liga Anti-Germânica. Among its first signatories was Teófilo Braga. At the request of Great Britain in December 1915, the Portuguese government under Afonso Costa seized the 72 German ships that were in Portuguese ports at the time on 24 February 1916. On behalf of Kaiser Wilhelm II, the German diplomat Friedrich Rosen presented a complaint to the Portuguese government on 27 February to obtain the release of the ships. The government initially claimed not to have received a letter to this effect and rejected the request on 4 March. Germany then declared war on Portugal on 9 March. This made Portugal Germany's eleventh opponent. Decrees were issued in Portugal on 20 and 23 April 1916 which not only expelled resident Germans but also reversed naturalisations. Economic and scientific relations were hit hard by this measure. A Portuguese Expeditionary Force entered into its first direct military conflict with German troops in April 1918 at the Fourth Battle of Flanders (apart from the previous battle for Naulila in Africa, in December 1914), ending in a traumatic defeat for Portugal and further inflaming anti-German sentiment against O Monstro Alemão (the title of a pamphlet by Guerra Junqueiro). During the First World War, about 5,000 Portuguese prisoners of war were temporarily held in Germany, mostly in the specially built prisoner-of-war camp at Breesen, but occasionally in other camps, such as Soltau-Ahlften.

Among the ships confiscated in 1916 was the German Rickmer Rickmers. From 1924 it served the Portuguese navy as a sail training ship until it was decommissioned in 1962 and lay as a depot ship in the naval port of Alfeite near Lisbon. It was replaced by the sailing ship Sagres, also built in Germany in 1937. The Rickmer Rickmers returned to Hamburg in 1983 and has been moored as a museum ship in the Port of Hamburg at the St. Pauli Piers since 1987.

World War II
During the Second World War, Nazi Germany was supplied with tungsten for weapons production by the Portuguese Salazar regime. The Portuguese cargo and passenger ship Serpa Pinto transported Germans from abroad to Germany under changeable circumstances and in return brought numerous refugees out of Germany and Europe.

In the last three years of the Second World War, Portuguese were also deported to German concentration camps, mostly from occupied France. Several dozen of them perished there.

Before that, in 1941, about 150 Portuguese volunteers within the Spanish Blue Division had gone to war on the side of Nazi Germany. They were mainly alumni of the Viriato Legion and fought on the Eastern Front.

After 1945
In 1964, a Migration treaty between the Federal Republic of Germany and Portugal was signed. It laid the foundation for Portuguese guest workers in Germany. In September 1964, the Portuguese Armando Rodrigues de Sá was welcomed as the millionth guest worker in Germany by the then German Interior Minister Hermann Höcherl.

From 1965 until the end of 1993, the German Armed Forces maintained their Tactical Air Force Training Command in Portugal, stationed at Beja Airport in the southern Alentejo.

Germany supported the Democratization of Portugal after the fall of António de Oliveira Salazar and Portugal's accession to the European Community in 1986. After German reunification in 1990, Portugal supported the exemption of the new German states from the EC's ban on admitting new states, which was in force at the time.

Germany and Portugal met the EU convergence criteria to introduce the Euro in 1999 and both introduced it as cash at the same time in 2002.

Portugal fell into a severe economic crisis in the wake of the global financial crisis from 2007 onwards. Germany was one of the strongest proponents of austerity here, with Troika-supervised measures leading to wage cuts, tax increases and deep social cuts in Portugal, which until before the crisis had a lower public debt ratio than Germany, among others. As a result, voices arose in Portugal criticising German policies and accusing Chancellor Merkel and Finance Minister Schäuble of implementing a policy that unilaterally burdened the people in favour of the financial sector. In this context, civil society groups in Portugal occasionally recalled Portugal's solidarity-based support for Germany in its unilaterally declared debt relief after reunification in 1990, or the new debt limit violated in 2005, where Portugal was among the supporters of suspending the planned sanctions against Germany.

As a result of rising unemployment after the economic crisis in Portugal, immigration from Portugal to Germany also increased again, especially since the 2010s. In contrast to the first generation of the 1960s, mostly highly qualified people now came, who encountered a large number of unfilled jobs, especially as engineers and in health care.

Economic relations
The AHK German-Portuguese Chamber of Industry and Commerce was founded in 1954. Bilateral trade volume in 2021 amounted to 17.1 billion euros, with Germany importing 7.1 billion euros worth of goods from the country and supplying 10 billion euros worth of goods in return. Thus, Germany is one of the most important trading partners for Portugal. Three German companies are among the ten largest exporters in Portugal. A significant factor here is the company Volkswagen Autoeuropa near Palmela. Many more German companies are active in Portugal like Siemens, Robert Bosch, SAP, Continental, Leica Camera and Kirchhoff Automotive. The German discounter Lidl has a strong presence in Portugal.

The most important Portuguese companies in Germany include Inapa and the German branch of the Portuguese paper manufacturer The Navigator Company in Cologne, but also Sonae Industria and Sonae Sierra. Sonae Sierra operates some shopping centres in Germany. Some Portuguese banks are also represented in Germany, including Caixa Geral de Depósitos, which has its own branch in Berlin.

Tourism
Portugal is considered a popular destination among German holidaymakers and is the third most visited by Germans after the British and the Spanish. In 2012, this was 813,248 tourists, which represents an increase of 9.9 per cent compared to the previous year. The total increase in tourists was 3.9 per cent. The majority of German tourists visit the Algarve, followed by Lisbon and Madeira.

Cultural relations

In 1848, the German School Lisbon was founded in Lisbon, followed by the German Association (clube almao em Lisboa) in 1870. Several German and Portuguese universities maintain academic relations. In 1999, the Master German-Portuguese Studies was established at the University of Minho, which existed until 2009 and was restartet in partnership with the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main.

With the German School of Lisbon in 1848 and the German School of Porto in 1855, two German encounter schools exist. In addition, the German School Algarve (Escola Alemã do Algarve) has existed in Silves since 1996, although it is not one of the official German schools abroad.

In Germany, there are projects at a large number of schools, ranging from supplementary mother-tongue teaching to Portuguese as a subject for the Abitur, for example at the Max-Planck-Gymnasium in Dortmund since 1980.

There are two Goethe-Instituts in Portugal, in Lisbon and Porto. The Portuguese counterpart, the Instituto Camões, maintains a language centre in Hamburg and a cultural centre in Berlin, in addition to a number of collaborations and lectorates.

In 2009, a subsidiary of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft in the field of key technologies was established in Porto. The renowned Portuguese computer scientist José Luis Encarnação had already founded the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics in Darmstadt in 1987.

Since 2013, an annual German-Portuguese Forum has been held alternately in Berlin and Lisbon, bringing together high-ranking representatives of both countries from politics, business, academia and civil society.

Migration
In mid-2013, there were about 25,000 German citizens living in Portugal, especially in the Algarve region. In 2015, there were 133,929 Portuguese citizens living in Germany, who are generally regarded as well integrated. The largest group, with about 9,000 Portuguese, lives in the Hanseatic city of Hamburg, which has the oldest and most diverse connections to Portugal in Germany.

Diplomatic missions

 Germany has an embassy in Lisbon.
 Portugal has an embassy in Berlin and consulates-general in Hamburg, Stuttgart and Düsseldorf.

Literature

In German

 João Barrento, Klaus Pörtl: Verflechtungen. Deutschland und Portugal. TFM-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2002,  .
 Michael Studemund-Halévy: Portugal in Hamburg. Ellert & Richter Verlag, Hamburg 2007, .
 Peter Koj: Português, meu amor. Schmetterling Verlag, Stuttgart 2015, .
 Uli Jürgens: Ziegensteig ins Paradies: Exilland Portugal. Mandelbaum Verlag, Wien 2015, .
 Eduardo Lourenço: Portugal - Europa: Mythos und Melancholie. Essays. TFM-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1997,

In Portuguese

 Maria Manuela Gouveia Delille: Portugal - Alemanha : Memórias e Imaginários (Primeiro Volume da Idade Média ao Séc. XVIII). Edições Minerva, Coimbra 2010, .
 Maria Manuela Gouveia Delille: Portugal - Alemanha : Memórias e Imaginários (Segundo Volume Séc. XIX e XX). Edições Minerva, Coimbra 2010, .
 Fernando Ribeiro: Alemanha: Portugal. Edições Humus, Ribeirão 2014,  .
 A. H. de Oliveira Marques: Portugal - Alemanha - África: do Imperialismo Colonial ao Imperialismo Político. Edições Colibri, Lissabon 2007, .
 Luísa Coelho: Encontros Por Contar Alemanha e Portugal. Orfeu, Brüssel 2014,   .

References

Portugal
Bilateral relations of Portugal

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Phase 1 Reports
Chima Egbujuo (he/him)
Country Researcher
Based in Nigeria for the past 12 years, Chima has worked as a researcher with the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC). Prior to that Chima worked as a University Lecturer in Imo State University. In his time at NERDC, much of his research has focused on policy reforms within the Nigerian education sector. Recently, he led two national studies on the impact of COVID-19 on the education sector, and has also provided technical leadership on a national study on Safe and Violent-Free schools. Chima has also led the technical process for the development of the country's first National Accelerated Basic Education Programme and the curriculum for the implementation of the programme. At present, he is providing leadership on implementation of this programme in Northeast Nigeria. He is also an active member of the Education in Emergency Working Group in Nigeria. Chima holds a PhD in Chemistry Education and Research. He is married with four kids and lives in Abuja.
Email Address: chima.egbujuo@auckland.ac.nz
Darlin Ibargüen Asprilla (he/him)
Based in Colombia, Darlin brought over ten years of working experience within the education and non-governmental sectors in Colombia. He began his journey into the education sector as a teacher at the secondary level, in a rural school, as a fellow of "Enseña por Colombia," a Teach for All global network partner. Darlin's roots and this teaching experience were the backbones of deciding to dedicate his life to tackling systemic inequalities through education. Consequently, he worked at the Ministry of National Education for almost five years, leading the development of strategies to improve the access, pertinence and quality of education, primarily for unserved rural communities. In parallel, Darlin co-founded the foundation "Salud a la Escuela – Health to School", seeking to develop projects that link health and education in rural and conflict-affected schooling contexts. So far, the NGO has benefitted over 2.500 people in ten rural schools across Chocó and Antioquia departments. In 2020, Darlin was awarded by the British Government the Chevening scholarship to undertake a Master's degree in International Development at the University of Manchester. Finally, Darlin loves dancing, so you could bump into Darlin dancing salsa as his perfect solution for enjoining life and releasing stress and concerns after a long and exhausting week.
Email Address: darlin.ibarguen.asprilla@auckland.ac.nz
Kayla Boisvert (she/her)
Based in the United States, Kayla has worked closely with the Accelerated Education Working Group since 2017, starting with a project to conduct a set of case studies about the application and utility of the AEWG's foundational 10 principles for effective AE practice.This has since led to Kayla supporting the AEWG with the refinement of these principles and their subsequent roll-out, dissemination and adaptation. Kayla has also worked with USAID on developing guidance on COVID-19 education responses, and is currently conducting evaluations on education for children and youth in conflict and post-conflict contexts. Kayla is currently completing her Ph.D. in Comparative and International Education at the University of Massachusetts. She lives in Western Massachusetts with her husband and two dogs who love to go hiking and running with her as much as possible.
Email Address: kayla.boisvert@auckland.ac.nz
Lorena Becerra Flórez (she/her)
National Coordinator
Con sede en Colombia, Lorena es una apasionada por la educación, durante quince años ha trabajado con comunidades rurales y en asentamientos urbanos afectados por el conflicto. Cuenta con experiencia en procesos de educación no formal enfocada en derechos humanos, género y fortalecimiento institucional. En su trabajo en diversas organizaciones no gubernamentales ha creado materiales didácticos con el objetivo de democratizar el conocimiento y acercar las leyes a las comunidades, lo que le ha permitido desarrollar habilidades como facilitadora; y a su vez descubrir otra pasión en la generación de espacios de diálogo para abordar diferentes temas y co- crear soluciones. Desde el 2020 trabaja en el Consejo Noruego para Refugiados liderando proyectos en donde se implementan de Modelos Educativos Flexibles. Tiene una Maestría en Educación de la Universidad de los Andes. Disfruta pasar tiempo con su esposo y compartir tiempo en familia.
Email: lorena.becerra@nrc.no
Lorena's bio in English
Based in Colombia, Lorena is passionate about education, for fifteen years she has worked with rural communities and in urban settlements affected by conflict. She has experience in non-formal education processes focused on human rights, gender and institutional strengthening. In her work in various non-governmental organisations, she has created teaching materials with the aim of democratising knowledge and bringing laws closer to communities, which has allowed her to develop skills as a facilitator; and in turn discover another passion in the generation of spaces for dialogue to address different issues and co-create solutions. Since 2020 she has been working at the Norwegian Refugee Council leading projects where Flexible Educational Models are implemented. She has a Master's degree in Education from the Universidad de los Andes. She enjoys spending time with her husband and family.
Ma Mya Aye (she/her)
Advocacy & Communications Officer
Based in New Zealand, Ma Mya Aye (Mya) has been working as a Research Assistant for some educational research projects at the University of Auckland since late 2021. Originally from Myanmar and as a private school manager and General English teacher in a semirural state of Myanmar, she had actively engaged in rural educational developmental initiations for 5 years from 2014 to 2019 while doing her undergraduate studies at Sittway University by distance. She was then awarded a New Zealand Government Scholarship to undertake further studies in New Zealand. She graduated with a Master of Arts in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages from Victoria University of Wellington and is looking forward to expanding her academic journey into the education field. In her free time, she enjoys exploring new places, trying new food and experimenting new dishes in the kitchen with her husband.
Email Address: mamya.aye@auckland.ac.nz
Maen Rayyan (he/him)
Based in Jordan, Ma'en joined Questscope in 2004 and oversees all technical and financial aspects of Questscope's work in Jordan. He has extensive experience in implementing Questscope mentoring and non-formal education programs and thrives on building relationships in communities where Questscope work. Ma'en not only brings 20 years of experience covering three continents, but he is also in a rare position to offer the Questscope respective of someone who has a wholistic experience in the sector in his time in the development world, he has worked in almost each development, and has offered each one growth and evolution. Ma'en has an innate ability to maneuver through governmental red tape, and the maze of ministries affairs. But ask any Questcope staff member and they will tell you that Ma'en is above all a talented artist – a poet and a writer. A charismatic leader with the soul of an artist, Ma'en also is a family man who dotes on his wife and three children.
Email: maen@questscope.org
Mai Nasrallah (she/her)
Based in Jordan, Mai has been working on youth and education related programming for the past six years in the region, most recently as the Youth Advisor for the Norwegian Refugee Council in Jordan. She has also worked with Mosaik Education, Oxfam and ESCWA over the past few years. Mai specializes in designing programmes that support youth to reach livelihood, education, and social engagement opportunities with a focus on youth wellbeing. She holds a Master's in Human Rights from the London School of Economics. In her free time, Mai enjoys spending time outdoors.
Email Address: mai.nasrallah@auckland.ac.nz
Manal ElMazbouh (she/her)
Based in Kuwait, Manal began her career as an English teacher in Lebanon, then she went on to work in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Her experiences there as both a teacher and coordinator drew her further towards a career in education and student support. As a result, Manal pursued a Master's Degree in Applied Linguistics and TEFL at Notre Dame University, Lebanon, while teaching English literature and language arts. Upon completing her thesis, she began working as an English language instructor at a university in Kuwait, teaching English and academic writing. Most recently, Manal is leading projects on the development of academic resources and activities to support the university's student community in her role as the head of her department. Manal is currently working on her Ph.D. at the University of Auckland. She enjoys traveling to new places and trying new activities such as parasailing or scuba diving. More often though, she can be found spending time with family or curling up with a good book in her spare time.
Email Address: manal.elmazbouh@auckland.ac.nz
Ritesh Shah (he/him)
Based in New Zealand, Ritesh is a Senior Lecturer of Comparative and International Education at the University of Auckland. For over ten years, his research and teaching has focussed primarily on educational provision in conflict-affected contexts, with an aim to understanding how formal and non-formal opportunities can attend to the diverse needs of learners and society. In this time, he has undertaken empirical research in Venezuela, Timor-Leste, Myanmar, Aceh (Indonesia), Palestine, Jordan, and Afghanistan, often in cooperation with international, regional, and local organisations and researchers, including the Accelerated Education Working Group (AEWG). Ritesh spends his weekends hiking the hundreds of miles of trails around Auckland or swimming in the ocean and lazing on a beach in the summer sun. He has two young daughters who enjoy his cooking.
Email Address: r.shah@auckland.ac.nz
Phase 1 Researchers
Ana Maria Restrepo-Saenz
Based in Colombia, Ana Maria is a long-standing consultant who has worked on education-related projects for a number of years. In the last year, she supported USAID and UNICEF on the emergency response to the COVID situation in Colombia. Much of her work focusses on vulnerable populations, migrant populations, populations affected by armed conflict and forced displacement in the country, but has also worked in related projects in the United States, Mexico and Honduras. She has a particular interest in early childhood education. Ana María is also a psychologist and holds a Masters' Degree from the School of Education at Harvard University. In her spare time, she loves to run, swim and practice rowing. She also the proud owner of a one year old dog, Florentino, who loves to bark during work calls.
Email Address: anarestreposaenz@gmail.com
Daniel Agudelo Navarro
Based in Colombia, Daniel began his career in education as a Teach For All fellow in Colombia, working as a math teacher in a rural school for two years. This experience affirmed his vocation and passion for education. Following this, Daniel worked Colombian National Ministry of Education, supporting quality education strategies in rural communities as an education policy advisor. He then completed his Master's Degree at the Institute of Education, University College London, and then taught Spanish in two primary schools in London. Upon his return to Colombia, Daniel began work as a consultant for UNICEF Colombia, supporting local governments with school reopening strategies in communities with high needs.Daniel also founded and leads an NGO dedicated to developing visual health and inclusive education programmes in rural schools. His NGO has reached more than 2,500 students in 10 rural schools, delivering more than 600 pairs of eyeglasses and conducting teacher training workshops. Daniel's dog Jagger has been his best mate during the pandemic, and sits with him as he cheers on his favourite football team.
Email Address: agudelodan@gmail.com
Diana Bagarukayo (she/her)
Based in Uganda, Diana has nearly 20 years of working within the education sector of the country for the European Union, the Dutch and Irish embassies, UNDP, and most recently, with the World Bank. She has been extensively involved in programme design, implementation and monitoring, policy development, research, and the tracking of government progress against human development indicators. She has worked across all sub-sectors. from pre-primary to tertiary, and worked extensively with government, NGOs and other partners. Recently she was part of a team involved in the design of an AEP secondary programme. Diana loves to travel, and spend time in the outdoors. She is passionate about skilling youth and mentoring girls and women as her way of giving back to her community.
Email Address: sekaggyad@gmail.com
Neelofar Shahzad
Based in Pakistan, Neelofar is working in development and humanitarian programming since 2002. She remained associated with organizations such as National Rural Support Program(NRSP), International Rescue Committee(IRC), American Refugee Committee(ARC), and Catholic Relief Services (CRS). She is currently working with ,Community World Service Asia. She supported Geneva-based research consultancy group as a lead researcher for Pakistan. Recently she has taken up a role in ALNAP's advisory group for updating guidance on Evaluating Humanitarian Action using the OECD DAC Criteria. She has two Master's Degrees—one from the University of Queensland in Development Practices, and another from the Geneva Centre of Research and Education in Humanitarian Action. In her spare time, Neelofar loves to cook, and her friends and family enjoy eating her food. Neelofar also suffers from wanderlust and enjoys exploring new places around the world.
Email Address: neelofar_shahzad@yahoo.com.au
Sixtine Berquist (she/her)
Advocacy & Communications Officer (Phase 1)
Based in New Zealand, Sixtine has worked in the non-profit and education in emergencies for five years. She first joined for the Institute of International Education's (IIE) Fulbright U.S. Scholars Programme in 2016 and moved to IIE's Student Emergency Initiatives (SEI) in 2017 as the Global Education in Emergencies Analyst. In this position, she worked to bridge the accessibility gap to higher education for displaced and refugee students through programme and communications management. She recently joined the Centre for Asia Pacific Refugee Studies working as the Programme Coordinator for the Non-Residential Fellowship. Sixtine completed her Masters in Conflict and Terrorism Studies at the University of Auckland in 2021. She received two Bachelors of Arts from Michigan State University in Comparative Cultures and Politics and Arabic in 2014. In her spare time, Sixtine is teaching herself how to sew and enjoys spending time with her family and cat, Trippie.
Email Address: sixtine.berquist@auckland.ac.nz

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
O Grêmio Recreativo Esportivo e Cultural Leões da Fabulosa é a maior e mais antiga torcida organizada da Associação Portuguesa de Desportos. Foi criada em 26 de fevereiro de 1972. Seu lema é: A Portuguesa nos uniu e nada vai nos separar, e seu símbolo é um leão.

História

O nome da torcida, Leões da Fabulosa, tem origem em uma frase cunhada pela imprensa esportiva paulista da época de sua criação que, quando a Portuguesa entrava em campo, anunciava: "entram em campo os leões da Portuguesa com sua fabulosa torcida".

A história dos Leões da Fabulosa começa no início dos anos 70, mais precisamente em 26 de fevereiro de 1972. Na época, alguns times  já possuíam suas torcidas uniformizadas, e com o surgimento dos Leões, a Portuguesa também ganhava sua primeira torcida.

Vieram os anos 80 e a torcida passava a ser ainda mais conhecida nacionalmente, em especial pela presença
constante nos jogos da Lusa, nos mais distantes lugares. Essa sempre foi uma característica forte dos Leões:
o apoio incondicional dentro e fora do Canindé.

A torcida atingiu a maioridade mais forte do que nunca, com seu nome estabelecido nacionalmente, membros
atuantes e participação direta nos rumos da Portuguesa. Durante os anos 90 continuou, como sempre, ao lado do clube, mesmo no período de banimento das torcidas organizadas no estado de São Paulo.

Ainda durante esta década, chegou a atuar no Carnaval, como um bloco carnavalesco.

Em 2013 envolveu-se em tumulto com a torcida do Coritiba. Com o rebaixamento da Portuguesa, ao final do mesmo ano, seu presidente culpou o presidente do clube de futebol pelo ocorrido, revelando que há muito ocorriam divergências entre a diretoria do clube e a diretoria da organizada.

Ligações externas

Torcidas organizadas de São Paulo
Associação Portuguesa de Desportos


text:
Acclaimed Gorgeous Women (Ages 58 to 94) Who Prove Beauty is Ageless
Genuine excellence is immortal—you've heard that previously, isn't that so? In all actuality, regardless of how excellent we will be, we as a whole age. Be that as it may, now and again, somebody shows up who encapsulates excellence far into more established age-and a few ladies set another benchmark for magnificence norms. It's not generally an issue of make-up, as now and then a wonderful lady just remains shocking as long as she can remember. The accompanying ladies will blow your mind.
Susan Sarandon, 69.
Susan Sarandon, at age 69, was as of late reported as the magnificence envoy for L'Oreal Paris. Having constantly taken the idea of maturing in walk and with effortlessness, Sarandon looks as shocking today as she completed 30 years prior, with the splendid brilliance of her face still fit for halting somebody cool in their tracks.
Christie Brinkley, 62.
Christie Brinkley could be mistaken for a 30-something. She looks lively and youthful, and despite the fact that she's not restricted to plastic medical procedure, it hasn't gone under thought up until now. While Brinkley appears to have found the wellspring of youth, her peppy state of mind has unquestionably added to her elegant maturing; you can discover her moving amid photograph shoots and having a fabulous time wherever she goes.
Iris Apfel, 94.
It's difficult to trust that a 94-year-elderly person could even now be this cheeky, however Iris Apfel makes do with incredible panache. She turned into the substance of wellness when she modeled for a heath tracker mark, the Wisewear. Known for her trademark adornments decisions and strong eye equip, Apfel certainly recognizes' what with regards to form. She hasn't given age a chance to get her down and has been known to state, "I figure you can be alluring at any age." She's certainly turned out to be valid!
Helen Mirren, 70.
At 70, Helen Mirren looks similarly as spectacular as ever. She as of late showed up in an advertisement for L'Oreal, turning into the substance of the "age flawless" crusade. Hailed as the ideal specimen of immortal excellence, she was cited as saying, "As I age, I've lost that staggering uncertainty of youth." Mirren strolls pleased and lovely to demonstrate individuals wherever that age is only a number.
Joan Didion, 81.
A famous American creator, Joan Didion made swells in the form world when her Celine's 2015 battle became a web sensation. The brand was commended for highlighting a lady who didn't initially hail from the universe of design. She turned into a sensationalized name; individuals were shocked that even at 80, her fitness for form was on-point. Her flawless, solid skin and glistening hair have made in excess of a couple of individuals green with jealousy.
Raquel Welch, 76.
Referred to at first as a big name sex image on account of her provocative photograph shoots, Raquel Welch turned into a gigantically celebrated performer who was applauded for her abilities. She likewise anchored the second spot in the "most sizzling ladies ever" list in 2011. A few gossipy tidbits propose that she may have gone under the blade for plastic medical procedure, however her excellence is evident notwithstanding, as individuals grovel over her shocking looks and effortless disposition.
Sophia Loren, 81.
Another eye-getting lady who's a piece of the more than 80 club, Sophia Loren has taken great consideration of herself. She is a wellbeing expert who's credited her day by day strolls, combined with adherence to a Mediterranean eating routine, as her wellspring of proceeded with excellence and wellbeing. She as of late propelled a lipstick crusade with D&G and is set to be highlighted in an aroma advertisement also. There's no ceasing her just in light of the fact that she's on the opposite side of 80!
Charlotte Rampling, 69.
Charlotte Rampling is a British star who has opposed the chances of maturing. She trusts that yoga, contemplation, and absorbing essential supplements from the sun are in charge of her sparkling skin and ageless excellence. She was been the essence of another lipstick accumulation propelled by Knars in 2014. She's dodged plastic medical procedure, yet taking a gander at her you wouldn't feel that she'd ever require it in any case.
Joni Mitchell, 72.
Not hesitant to flaunt her wrinkles, Joni hoarded the spotlight when she assumed the component job in Saint Laurent's spring 2015 battle. Photographs of her were shown generally to exhibit that age doesn't matter to excellence—a message she grasps. She's certainly not reluctant to let the world see her similarly as she may be, and her valor in doing as such gains her the honors she gets.
Jane Fonda, 77.
While Jane Fonda has confessed to having minor plastic medical procedure, her inalienable magnificence radiates through, alongside her point of view. She refers to satisfaction as the wellspring of her dazzling shine, and trusts that appreciating life is something that few individuals consider important. Next time you're worried about the manner in which you look, make sure to liven up and have a ton of fun. Unmistakably it works ponders.
Jessica Lange, 66.
In 2014, Jessica Lange was picked as the essence of Marc Jacobs Beauty. Individuals who saw her shocking face experienced difficulty pinpointing her age, and most were off by no less than 10 years. Barely anybody realized that Lange was a ways into her 60's, on account of a sound way of life that is at the base of her excellence and brilliant prosperity.
Oprah Winfrey, 61.
In 2014, Jessica Lange was picked as the substance of Marc Jacobs Beauty. Individuals who saw her dazzling face experienced difficulty pinpointing her age, and most were off by no less than 10 years. Barely anybody realized that Lange was very much into her 60's, because of a solid way of life that is at the base of her excellence and brilliant prosperity.
Rene Russo, 61.
Rene Russo began her profession as a model, however it didn't take yearn for her to end up one of the best on-screen characters in Hollywood. Russo doesn't give her bipolar issue a chance to hinder her certain magnificence, and spectators can't keep their eyes off her impeccable highlights. She's one on-screen character who treasures great wellbeing, and credits it as a key to durable appeal.
Iman Mohamed Abdulmajid, 61.
Better referred to similarly as Iman, this flawless Somali model looks decades more youthful than her real age. As a performer and business visionary, Iman keeps herself occupied and discovers happiness in being a pioneer in the field of ethnic makeup, and in addition performing humanitarian work. She considers characteristic magnificence very important, engaging others to be their best selves.
Ellen DeGeneres, 58.
Ellen Degeneres' has been the discussion of Hollywood for quite a while. An enthusiast of the vegetarian way of life and an admirer of yoga, Ellen gives careful consideration to what she puts in and on her body to complement her excellence. She merrily refers to the estimation of good wellbeing while thinking about what to look like extraordinary: "You need to remain fit as a fiddle. My grandma, she began strolling five miles every day when she was 60. She's 97 today and we don't know where the damnation she is."
Geena Davis, 60.
Well known on-screen character and imperishable excellence Geena Davis has been stopping people in their tracks for quite a long time. She credits quite a bit of her proceeded with great looks to a devoted routine of thinking about her skin, and additionally treating her body well with exercise. She appreciates bows and arrows and eats a restorative eating regimen to help her in the maturing procedure. Some estimate that she may have had plastic medical procedure, however it's begging to be proven wrong.
Sigourney Weaver, 66.
Most well known for her jobs in Avatar and as Ripley in the Alien arrangement, Sigourney Weaver has dazzled groups of onlookers worldwide with her exercise in careful control between lovely performing artist and the cool, resolute characters she plays. She attributes her enduring excellence to the basic things throughout everyday life, for example, cultivating on the ends of the week and, as she says, "setting aside opportunity to take in the pleasant ambiance." Her satisfaction with life is the thing that conveys a brilliant gleam to her face.
Meryl Streep, 67.
Meryl Streep remains as a good example when individuals consider "maturing effortlessly." One of the best on-screen characters ever (with in excess of 30 grants and designations), she trusts that doing what she adores has had a major influence in keeping her young. She eats natural and cherishes swimming, so dealing with her body is fundamental to her magnificence. She declines to get plastic medical procedure (as though she needs it!), saying, "It resembles wearing a cloak—it is anything but something worth being thankful for. You need to grasp getting more seasoned."
Betty White, 94.
What rundown of excellent ladies in their later years would be finished without the hopeless Betty White? She professes to have no magnificence mysteries specifically, tossing in rather that she drinks a vodka on the stones each day. Maybe vodka is what streams in the wellspring of youth? "Fun is the name of the amusement," she says, and her irresistible grin is unquestionably a piece of what makes her so staggering, even as she approaches the achievement century stamp.


We serve seniors 60 or above in Mesa, County, Colorado. However, not all services are available in all areas so please call with any questions.
All of our meals are cooked fresh every morning in the kitchen of our office on Chipeta Avenue in Grand Junction. Our meals are designed to meet the state and federal requirements for nutrition for a senior. All of our menus are created and overseen by a registered dietitian employed by MOW MC.
Do you serve specialty diets?
Currently, because of the amount of meals we serve daily we are unable to accommodate any sort of specialty diets - including but not limited to gluten-free, vegetarian, and renal diets. Our meals are considered lower in fat, lower in sodium, and diabetic friendly.


text:
← The Opportunity Costs of Empire
Strange Bedfellows →
The man from Delaware
For the corporate and elite Democratic supporters who are desperate to stop a Sanders campaign, Joe Biden's official entrance has been a godsend. Early polls put Biden ahead of Sanders by as many as 20 points and the same pundits who called the 2016 race prematurely on both sides of the aisle were quick to pronounce the primary all but over.
Biden's campaign is also the clearest sign yet that the Democratic party elites and donors, who are faced with a restless party base and an insurgent Sanders candidacy that appears popular, will continue to look to anyone they believe might restore a sense of normalcy.
As you, dear reader, might imagine, I'm not happy. I mean, Joe Biden? Joe-freakin-Biden? Jesus! It's almost like the DNC is trolling us with Biden's entry into the crowded Democratic presidential primary.
If there's one person who represents pretty much all that's wrong with America, it's Biden, who is a hawkish, corporate sycophant and one of the principal architects of American mass incarceration that's decimated African-American households. Going further, Biden epitomizes the abject corruption of our elite that set the table for Donald Trump. If we're honest it's apparent that a large part of Trump's appeal was his attack on the sort of business-as usual and corruption that Biden represents.
Biden's not even shy about it. Recently Biden told supporters at a private fundraising event in Los Angeles that he hails from the "corporate state of Delaware".
In fact, Biden's exactly the sort of Democrat that for decades has traded working-class votes for employer-class donations. Biden supported NAFTA, most-favored-nation trading status with China, and the Trans-Pacific-Partnership. Democrats don't just have a problem with working-class white voters, but a problem with working-class voters of all races and backgrounds — lost to the party over the years due to frustrations with free-trade policies, a 50-year decline in real wages, disillusionment with bipartisan-supported foreign wars and their costs for military families, failure to regulate an increasingly exploitative financial-services sector, exploding incarceration rates, etc.
Biden was there every step of the way as America was transformed from a manufacturing economy where the gains were more equally shared to a financial economy that funnels all the gains to the 1%. In the process, Americans went from largely sharing in the productive economy with rising wages to being shackled with debt.
Biden also represents something deeper and darker in a Democratic Party that's embraced a neoliberal dispensation that's left our nation riven by a vast inequality not seen since the robber baron era. Indeed, Biden represents the wholesale capture of Democratic Party politics by the big banks and financial services industry. According to the New York Times, Biden was seen as so close to MBNA, the credit card company that was purchased by Bank of America, that he was referred to as the "senator from MBNA." Instead of the standard senate designation (D-Delaware), he was (D-MBNA).
Biden is a senator from Delaware, where as he noted, pretty much all of US corporations are incorporated. Delaware, the second smallest of US states, is home to many of the worlds biggest corporations, and is a key cog in the offshore tax haven system. Delaware has long been a refuge for financial capital thanks largely to the du Pont family, who used their tremendous influence in state governance to adopt a new and permissive corporate law that allowed corporate owners and managers enormous powers at the expense of other stakeholders. Biden was first elected to the Senate in 1971 and no doubt has spent more than three decades getting financial support from the banking interests that call Delaware their home.
I believe that one of the key reasons for Biden's ascendency is precisely because he's the man from Delaware, where the tiny state is a key node in the financing of US deficits by attracting foreign capital that flows in due to the tax-free treatment and secrecy that afforded.
Ultimately, what Biden and Delaware represent is a world where there are set of rules for the rich and powerful and another set of rules for the rest of us.
This entry was posted in neoliberals and tagged corruption, Delaware, Democratic Party, DNC, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, neoliberalism, Nicholas Shaxson, Treasure Islands. Bookmark the permalink.


Financial aid is any grant or scholarship, loan, or paid employment offered to help a student meet his/her college expenses. Such aid is usually provided by various sources such as federal and state agencies, colleges, high schools, foundations, and corporations.
Financial aid, often based on need, that does not need to be repaid. Generally, grants are based on financial need, which means they are awarded based on your family's size and financial circumstances.
Financial aid that doesn't need to be repaid. Scholarships can come from a variety of sources: state and federal governments, colleges, and private companies. Scholarships may be awarded based on financial need, academic achievement, community service, athletic talent, and many other factors.
Financial aid is money that you borrow from a bank, government, or private lending company. A loan must be repaid with interest. Loans offered by the government often have lower interest rates and can be repaid over an extended period of time.
This form of financial aid allows students to receive funds through part-time employment while enrolled in college. Unlike other campus jobs, students apply for work-study through the FAFSA and funds received are used for college costs.


text:
The UAW's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
Posted on Nov 21, 2019 by LaborPains.org Team
Yesterday was quite a whirlwind for the United Auto Workers (UAW). Just moments after the UAW's executive board moved to oust President Gary Jones, as well as Vance Pearson — another top official who has been charged in the ongoing corruption investigation at the union — Jones himself decided to resign.
Jones claims his decision to step down was made before he knew what the board was up to. Whether that's true or not, it's unlikely Jones was able to ignore the revolt against him among the UAW's own members. At least six local unions were reported asking for Jones' removal just one day earlier.
The resignation also came on the same day that General Motors (GM) filed a lawsuit against Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), seeking "recourse against FCA Group and its officials responsible for this long-running bribery scheme" with the UAW. The lawsuit documents a "near decade-long conspiracy to bribe senior [UAW] officials to corrupt the collective bargaining process and labor relations."
In the racketeering suit, GM claims FCA manipulated contract negotiations with the union in order to get itself the best deal, causing GM to incur "massive monetary damage." It describes how high-ranking FCA officials helped funnel money to UAW leaders through the union's National Training Center — a crime that resulted in the conviction of three FCA leaders.
So, just to recap, Jones' mere 17-month tenure with the union was marked by: An ongoing federal investigation into a wide scale scheme to defraud workers; Jones himself being accused of embezzling almost $1 million in union dues; 13 officials facing federal charges; and seven UAW leaders convicted of wrongdoing. Now, just add in Jones' resignation and a bombshell legal battle between two of the country's top automakers.
So much for Jones being a "steady hand" among labor leaders.
Jones' removal also brings into question the status of his other leadership positions outside of the UAW. For example, he remains on the board of the Economic Policy Institute — a think-tank notoriously backed by Big Labor interests.
There is one silver lining here: Auto workers that have recently voted against unionizing with the UAW, including workers at VW in Chattanooga, TN, now have further proof they made the right decision. As if they really needed it.
Categories: Crime & CorruptionUAW


text:
Pioneering trial offers hope for restoring brain cells damaged in Parkinson's
Results from a pioneering clinical trials programme that delivered an experimental treatment directly to the brain offer hope that it may be possible to restore the cells damaged in Parkinson's.
The multimillion-pound study, funded by Parkinson's UK with support from The Cure Parkinson's Trust and in association with the North Bristol NHS Trust, aimed to investigate whether boosting the levels of a naturally-occurring protein, Glial Cell Line Derived Neurotrophic Factor (GDNF), can regenerate dying brain cells in people with Parkinson's and reverse their condition, which is something that no existing treatment can do.
To get GDNF to the brain cells that need it, a specially designed delivery system was developed. In total, 41 participants underwent robot-assisted surgery to have four tubes carefully placed into their brains, which allowed GDNF to be infused directly to the affected brain areas with pinpoint accuracy, via a port in the side of their head.
Six took part in the initial pilot study to assess the safety of the treatment approach. A further 35 people then participated in the nine-month double blind trial, where half were randomly assigned to receive monthly infusions of GDNF and the other half placebo infusions. After the initial nine months on GDNF or placebo, all participants had the opportunity to receive GDNF for a further nine months.
While there were some encouraging signs of improvements in those receiving GDNF, disappointingly there was no significant difference between the active treatment group and those who received placebo on any assessments of Parkinson's symptoms.
However, results from brain scans revealed extremely promising effects on damaged brain cells.
All participants had brain scans before starting the trial and after nine months to assess how well their dopamine-producing brain cells were working.
After nine months, there was no change in the scans of those who received placebo, whereas the group who received GDNF showed an improvement of 100% in a key area of the brain affected in the condition - offering hope that the treatment was starting to reawaken and restore damaged brain cells.
By 18 months, when all participants had received GDNF, both groups showed moderate to large improvements in symptoms compared to their scores before they started the study. This offers further encouragement that the treatment may have long-term beneficial effects but because everyone knew they were receiving the active treatment and there was no comparison group, these improvements need to be treated with caution.
The findings from these ground-breaking trials are published today in Brain and the Journal of Parkinson's Disease.
The trial also features in an upcoming two-part documentary series for BBC Two – The Parkinson's Drug Trial: A Miracle Cure?
Dr Alan Whone, Principal Investigator on the GDNF trial, said: "The spatial and relative magnitude of the improvement in the brain scans is beyond anything seen previously in trials of surgically delivered growth-factor treatments for Parkinson's. This represents some of the most compelling evidence yet that we may have a means to possibly reawaken and restore the dopamine brain cells that are gradually destroyed in Parkinson's.
"Its failure to produce the same effect on symptoms could be for a number of reasons. It may be that the effects on symptoms lag behind the improvement in the brain scans, so a longer double-blind trial may have produced a clearer effect.
"It's also possible that a higher dose of GDNF would have been more effective, or that participants at an earlier stage of the condition would have responded better.
"This is why it's essential to continue research exploring this treatment further – GDNF continues to hold potential to improve the lives of people with Parkinson's."
Dr Arthur Roach, Director of Research at Parkinson's UK, said: "While the results are not clear-cut, the study has still been a resounding success. It has advanced our understanding of the potential effects of GDNF on damaged brain cells, shown that delivering a therapy in this way is feasible and that it is possible to deliver drugs with precision to the brain.
"All the partners involved - including the scientific team, companies, charities and patients - are continuing to work together to explore possible routes to further studies. It is vital that we learn everything we can from these recent trials and we're keen to work with both the wider research community and people affected by Parkinson's so that any future trials have the very best chance of success."
Trial participant Tom Phipps, 63, from Bristol, was the first person to undergo the pioneering surgery. He said:
"Clinical trials around Parkinson's are so important because it's a condition that's not going to go away unless people do proper research. Being a scientist myself – I'm a graduate of biological sciences – I wanted to contribute.
"During the trial I noticed an improvement in my mobility and energy levels, and I was even able to reduce my medication. Since it ended, I have slowly increased my medication but I still ride my bike, dig my allotment and chair the local branch of Parkinson's UK.
"My outcome was as positive as I could have wished for, I feel the trial brought me some time and has delayed the progress of my condition.
"The best part was absolutely being part of a group of people who've got a similar goal – not only the team of consultants and nurses, but also the participants.
"You can't have expectations – you can only have hope."
Professor Steven Gill, lead neurosurgeon and designer of the device, commented: "This trial has shown that we can safely and repeatedly infuse drugs directly into patient's brains over months or years through a small implanted port that emerges through the skin behind the ear. This is a significant breakthrough in our ability to treat neurological conditions, such as Parkinson's because most drugs that might work cannot cross from the blood stream into the brain due to a natural protective barrier.
"Even at a low dose we have seen evidence of patient improvement, which is incredibly encouraging. Now we need to move towards a definitive clinical trial using higher doses and this work urgently needs funding. I believe that this approach could be the first neuro-restorative treatment for people living with Parkinson's which is, of course, an extremely exciting prospect."
Helen Matthews, Deputy CEO at The Cure Parkinson's Trust, said: "It is fantastic to see these encouraging results. This was an extremely complex trial delivered with thanks to the dedication of the entire trial team of participants, researchers, industry and charities.
"The Cure Parkinson's Trust has been involved in and has championed the GDNF story since 2003 through the commitment and determination of the charity's late co-founder and president Tom Isaacs.
"These results, particularly the brain scans show that GDNF, delivered with Convection Enhanced Delivery, has promise as a potential treatment to slow, stop or even reverse Parkinson's. However, it is critical we now concentrate on how to best support moving GDNF forward, to understand if it can be a viable treatment to potentially regenerate dopamine cells and impact the lives of people living with Parkinson's."
Dr Erich Mohr, Chairman and CEO of MedGenesis, the biotechnology company who owns GDNF, commented: "While the results are not as clear cut as would have been desirable, when you look more closely there are exciting signs of promise for Parkinson's.
"In particular, when the scores on three of the key assessments are combined - motor response, activities of daily living and good quality "on time" – it reveals a highly significant difference between the treatment and placebo groups. We believe this experimental Parkinson's Disease Composite Response (PDCORE) may better capture the full effects of GDNF and we're working to get it scientifically validated so that it can be used in future trials."
Paul Skinner, General Manager for Neurological Products at Renishaw, the engineering company which developed and built the device, said: "It has been a privilege to work alongside the study team and with the participants in this ambitious trial.
"We are very encouraged that there were changes in the brain scans, demonstrating that GDNF is having an effect, and that the delivery system achieved precision administration of drugs into the brain.
"This provides great potential for using the drug delivery system, being developed by Renishaw, for future Parkinson's studies and experimental treatments for other neurodegenerative diseases and brain tumours." ENDS
For more information and interviews, please contact:
Amy Dodge, Media and PR Manager, Parkinson's UK:
0207 932 1362 or 07961 460248 (out of hours)
adodge@parkinsons.org.uk
This press release highlights the findings reported in two papers both published on Wednesday 27 February 2019:
'Randomised trial of intermittent intraputamenal glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor in Parkinson's disease' - published in Brain: A Journal of Neurology.
'Extended Treatment with Glial Cell Line-Derived Neurotrophic Factor in Parkinson's Disease' - published in Journal of Parkinson's Disease.
35 people with Parkinson's took part in this nine-month placebo controlled, double-blind clinical trial of GDNF. A further six people were involved in the initial safety phase.
To deliver GDNF to the correct brain region, an innovative delivery system, specially designed for the task called Convection Enhanced Delivery (CED) was used. Participants underwent surgery to have four tubes carefully placed into their brains. These were connected to a small port behind their ear to allow GDNF to be pumped directly to the affected brain areas with pinpoint accuracy.
Participants attended Southmead Hospital every four weeks to have GDNF or placebo therapy and undergo careful monitoring and assessments to measure how their symptoms are impacted by the treatment.
After the initial nine months on GDNF or placebo, all participants had the opportunity to receive GDNF for a further nine months.
The study was completed in February 2017. All participants enrolled in the study successfully completed it. 99% of GDNF infusions were successfully administered and there were no serious side effects from the study drug.
The partners
The study was funded by Parkinson's UK, with support from The Cure Parkinson's Trust and in association with the North Bristol NHS Trust. Study drug, additional project resources and supplementary funding was provided by MedGenesis Therapeutix, who in turn received some program funding support from the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research. Renishaw plc manufactured the CED device on behalf of the North Bristol NHS trust and provided additional technical and analytical support. PET scans were acquired at the Wales Research and Diagnostic PET Imaging Centre, Cardiff University and analysed at the PET Imaging Centre at the University of British Columbia. Most importantly, the researchers would like to gratefully acknowledge the contribution of the study participants.
The BBC Documentary
The Parkinson's Drug Trial: A Miracle Cure? will air on Thursday 28th February at 9pm on BBC Two, and the second episode will air on Thursday 7th March at 9pm on BBC Two, subject to TV schedules being confirmed.
About Parkinson's
Every hour, two people in the UK are told they have Parkinson's.
It affects 145,000 people in the UK – which is around one in 350 of the adult population.
Parkinson's is a degenerative neurological condition, for which there currently is no cure. The main symptoms of the condition are tremor, slowness of movement and rigidity.
About Parkinson's UK
Parkinson's UK is the UK's leading charity supporting those with the condition. Its mission is to find a cure and improve life for everyone affected by Parkinson's through cutting edge research, information, support and campaigning.
For advice, information and support, visit www.parkinsons.org.uk or call our free, confidential helpline on 0808 800 0303.
About The Cure Parkinson's Trust
The Cure Parkinson's Trust (CPT) has one bold aim – to cure Parkinson's. Further information at www.cureparkinsons.org.uk
© Parkinson's UK, July 2019. Parkinson's is the operating name of the Parkinson's Disease Society of the United Kingdom. A charity registered in England and Wales (258197) and in Scotland (SC037554)


text:
filed: September 29, 2011 • Rhode Island
South Kingstown headlines
Credit: By Liz Boardman/Independent Staff Writer, South County Independent, www.scindependent.com 29 September 2011 ~~
During public comment, O'Neill also asked if the town should be more proactive about setting guidelines for wind turbines.
"I am looking at North Kingstown's move to prohibit wind turbines, and I would like us to be prepared," O'Neill said. "What is in our arsenal to prohibit a 400-foot turbine?"
Planning Director L. Vincent Murray said turbines need a special use permit because of their height.
"We have had a half a dozen residential turbines, but no activity of late," Murray said. "There has been no interest in commercial grade turbines."
The town Conservation Commission and Planning Board had been working on a draft ordinance and the state planning program was developing statewide standards, too, Murray said.
Beyond the size of commercial turbines, infrastructure issues must be addressed, Alfred said.
"We've already had contact with the company building five turbines off Block Island," Alfred said. "The landing areas are tied into the National Grid feeder system. The zoning code allows substations in every zone, but we need to look at where it is best to put them."
During the town manager's report, Alfred said DEM had issued the necessary permits for Dugway Road Bridge and the steel installation would begin in the next three weeks.
He also reported that the town has submitted a federal stimulus grant application to install solar panels on portions of the Town Hall annex roof. If installed, the solar panels would save approximately $7,000 a year in energy costs.
Without the grant, the town would not move forward on the project because the $326,000 cost would take more than 25 years to recoup, Alfred said.
Source: By Liz Boardman/Independent Staff Writer, South County Independent, www.scindependent.com 29 September 2011


It's the time of year when all Americans observe and honor our brave veteran heroes. If there's anything we know about Culpeper and Fredericksburg families, it's how patriotic they are! For the family members and friends of these U.S. veterans, Veterans Day is especially meaningful. And for all of us, Veterans Day renews a deep appreciation for all American veterans who have honorably served or are currently serving our great country.
At Found and Sons Funeral Chapels & Cremation Service, we make honoring our veterans a priority, and we wish to help you plan a respectful funeral. We want our veterans and their family members to know when it comes to memorializing a soldier's life, he or she deserves only the best.
Most veterans know they can be buried in one of the 135 national cemeteries, with available space. In order to prepare, presenting your discharge papers is a very important part of establishing your eligibility in these cemeteries. However, many veterans wish to be buried close to their family and friends in their hometown in a private cemetery. For veterans from Culpeper and Fredericksburg, our qualified staff is ready to plan a respectful military service for our local heroes.
During a military funeral service, military men and women will honor the veteran with a burial flag and Presidential Memorial Certificate. The burial flag is generally given to next of kin. The U.S. government will provide the headstone or marker, and some veterans are even entitled to burial allowances, meaning partial reimbursement of an eligible veteran's burial and funeral costs.
An important step in planning a veteran's funeral is choosing the best way to pay tribute to your loved one's life. At Found and Sons, we offer many special touches to help you personalize the service, including tribute videos, personalized printing, memorial websites, flowers, and specifically for veterans, a flag presentation with a 21-rifle salute.
We can help you through all these arrangement steps and find out exactly what you are entitled to while planning a funeral for a veteran. We work with these wonderful families often and know the process well. For more information, you can go to https://www.va.gov, or call our funeral homes at any time.


As part of any recruitment process, Crestbridge collects and processes personal data relating to job applicants. Crestbridge is committed to being transparent about how it collects and uses that data and to meeting its data protection obligations.
What information does Crestbridge collect?
Crestbridge will also collect personal data about you from third parties, such as references supplied by former employers, information from employment background check providers and information from criminal records checks. Crestbridge will seek information from third parties only once a job offer to you has been made and will inform you that it is doing so.
Why does Crestbridge process personal data?
Crestbridge needs to process data to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract with you. It also needs to process your data to enter into a contract with you.
In some cases, Crestbridge needs to process data to ensure that it is complying with its legal obligations. For example, it is required to check a successful applicant's eligibility to work in Jersey, UK, Bahrain, Luxembourg and the Cayman Islands before employment starts.
Crestbridge has a legitimate interest in processing personal data during the recruitment process and for keeping records of the process. Processing data from job applicants allows Crestbridge to manage the recruitment process, assess and confirm a candidate's suitability for employment and decide to whom to offer a job. Crestbridge may also need to process data from job applicants to respond to and defend against legal claims.
Where Crestbridge relies on legitimate interests as a lawful basis for processing data, it has considered whether or not those interests are overridden by the rights and freedoms of employees or workers and has concluded that they are not.
Crestbridge processes health information if it needs to make reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process for candidates who have a disability. This is to carry out its obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment.
For some roles, Crestbridge is obliged to seek information about criminal convictions and offences. Where Crestbridge seeks this information, it does so because it is necessary for it to carry out its obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment.
Crestbridge will not use your data for any purpose other than the recruitment exercise for which you have applied.
If your application is unsuccessful, Crestbridge will keep your personal data on file in case there are future employment opportunities for which you may be suited. Crestbridge will ask for your consent before it keeps your data for this purpose and you are free to withdraw your consent at any time.
Crestbridge will not share your data with third parties, unless your application for employment is successful and it makes you an offer of employment. Crestbridge will then share your data with former employers to obtain references for you, employment background check providers to obtain necessary background checks and the Disclosure Scotland Service to obtain necessary criminal records checks.
Your data may be transferred outside the European Economic Area (EEA) if you are applying to work in Bahrain or the Cayman Islands. Data is transferred outside the EEA on the basis of your application and for the purposes of sharing your CV or resume with hiring managers locally.
How does Crestbridge protect data?
Crestbridge takes the security of your data seriously. It has internal policies and controls in place to ensure that your data is not lost, accidentally destroyed, misused or disclosed, and is not accessed except by our employees in the proper performance of their duties.
For how long does Crestbridge keep data?
If your application for employment is unsuccessful, Crestbridge will hold your data on file for 6 months after the end of the relevant recruitment process. At the end of this 6-month period, we will ask you separately if you would like your details retained by us so that you may be considered for potential opportunities. At the end of that period (or once you withdraw your consent), your data will be deleted or destroyed.
ask Crestbridge to stop processing data for a period if data is inaccurate or there is a dispute about whether or not your interests override Crestbridge's legitimate grounds for processing data.
If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact our Data Protection Officer who will provide a Data Subject Request form and provide details of information required from you in order to process your request.
If you believe that Crestbridge has not complied with your data protection rights, you can complain to the relevant Information Commissioner.
You are under no statutory or contractual obligation to provide data to Crestbridge during the recruitment process. However, if you do not provide the information, Crestbridge may not be able to process your application properly or at all.


This Summer I am going to be all over a nandal. For the unacquainted, a nandal is a sandal that's big on comfort and not dissimilar to something your nan would wear. AKA probably shoes you would have cried over had your mum bought them for you as a teenager.
Not me, oh no. This year I am ALL OVER THEM. The uglier and more comfortable the better. I have friends who are rejoicing in their Birkenstocks at the very thought of being able to walk all day in comfort and be so on-trend it hurts.
They are basically the sandal no man will ever understand or even like, but that's fine with me. So while I decide between approximately 15 pairs I have seen and *need* – may I introduce you to the embellished nandal, a gorgeous, gem-encrusted beauty that bridges the gap for those of you slightly terrified of this trend between cool and not-in-a-million-years.
These absolute beauties were spotted at the New Look SS14 press preview show and I fell in love with them then. They're out next month. Marni, anyone?
But if they're a little expensive (ahem), here are a few other high street variations.
Nandal – brilliant! I am so glad they are back – such comfort. The embellishment reminds me of shoes in 2003 which brings nostalgia flooding back.


text:
About AFA
AFA of Indiana
Micah Clark
Micah's Email
Shop and Donate
By AFA-IN / July 19, 2018
Deport the Deplorables?
Victor David Hanson//American Greatness – Deport the Deplorables is a slogan of popular culture, found on bumper stickers, t-shirts, and internet postings….
Victor David Hanson//American Greatness – Deport the Deplorables is a slogan of popular culture, found on bumper stickers, t-shirts, and internet postings. But now the mini-industry of deplorable/deportable sloganeering has made its way into more elite circles.
With just three words, the phrase "deport the deplorables" sends two popular messages: one, get rid of undesirable American citizens who voted for Donald Trump and who were properly written off in 2016 as deplorables by Hillary Clinton. And, two, by implication, don't deport the illegal aliens who broke U.S. immigration law. Or put more succinctly, foreign nationals who crash our borders are innately superior people to citizens of the working- and middle-classes who voted for Trump.
A bipartisan disdain exists for the middle and working classes, whether periodically politically manifested as the old blue-dog Democrats, Perot voters, Reagan Democrats, Tea Party activists, or Trump supporters. On the Left, they were derided as the clingers of rural Pennsylvania whom Obama blamed for his 2008 primary loss to Hillary Clinton in that state and who never appreciated his genius: "And it's not surprising, then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
The "new" Hillary of 2016 demonized this same group as irredeemable and deplorable:
You know, to just be grossly generalistic [sic], you could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic—you name it. And unfortunately, there are people like that. And he has lifted them up . . . Now, some of those folks, they are irredeemable, but thankfully they are not America.
A post-election Hillary intensified her deplorable campaign tropes and grew even angrier at the Trump base: "I won the places that are optimistic, diverse, dynamic, moving forward. And his whole campaign, Make America Great Again, was looking backwards. You don't like black people getting rights, you don't like women getting jobs, you don't want to see that Indian American succeeding more than you are, whatever that problem is, I am going to solve it."
Contempt from Left and NeverTrump RightDeplorable America was often stereotyped as nativist or worse for wishing border security and an end to illegal immigration—and often compared to illegal immigrants, but always in a negative context as either lazy or crazy or uniquely bigoted.
John McCain, it is often forgotten, first began his tit-for-tat verbal war with Trump, when in 2015 he announced, "He [Trump] fired up the crazies. Now he galvanized them. He's really got them activated." When Obama went abroad he sometimes mused to his foreign hosts about the slothful American: "If you're in the United States, sometimes you can feel lazy and think we're so big we don't have to really know anything about other people."
Yet a more targeted contempt for the white working classes more recently has been voiced by pundits of the NeverTrump right. They apparently blamed the deplorables for hijacking their Republican Party, empowering an uncouth Trump, and voicing adamant opposition to illegal immigration.
Soon the furor fueled the weird trope that illegal aliens were preferable to citizen Trump supporters. Indeed, it became surreal how often illegal immigrants (almost always deliberately conflated with legal immigrants) were praised as preferable to U.S. citizens.
David Brooks, in a January 2018 New York Times column, saw rural Trump country as the equivalent of a dysfunctional East Germany following unification. Brooks had almost nothing good to say about the rural white population:
These rural places are often 95 percent white . . . Are these counties marked by high social cohesion, economic dynamism, surging wages and healthy family values? No. Quite the opposite. They are often marked by economic stagnation, social isolation, family breakdown and high opioid addiction. . . . It is a blunt fact of life that, these days, immigrants show more of these virtues than the native-born.
Brooks deliberately chose the generic "immigrants" to suggest Trump supporters were xenophobes rather than simply being opposed to illegal, rather than all, immigrants. There is no doubt that rural Pennsylvania, Appalachia, Southern Ohio, or the Central Valley of California are suffering "stagnation" compared to diverse Silicon Valley and multicultural Manhattan. But Brooks conflates cause and effect. Steel mills and manufacturers did not leave rural America, and family farms did not collapse, because of preexisting opioid addiction and family breakdowns. Rather these pathologies arose from chronic recession and depression, due to radical changes in the global economy, which outsourced any American jobs that most easily could be replicated abroad.
What Immigration Idealists Refuse to See
If one is going to stereotype the immigrant community on the basis of drive-by anthropology, then Brooks might wish to visit "immigrant" communities in southwest Fresno County. Parlier and Orange Cove, to take just two examples, have radically expanded due to illegal immigration from southern Mexico. Both exhibit far higher incidents of crime, family disunion, social welfare dependency and illiteracy than nearby communities of mostly U.S. citizens of long duration such as Kingsburg or Exeter. It is not very helpful to conflate meritocratic immigration that is legal with illegal immigration predicated on proximity to the southern border, or, for that matter, singling out the Trump voter as typical of a culpable American, without continuing that stereotype by assessing similar pathologies of the inner city or barrio.
In a spontaneous riff in a panel discussion at a Washington think tank, Bill Kristol had been more candid in both channeling Obama's "lazy" American theme and the desirability of newcomers (their legal status again omitted) over "the white working class":
Look, to be totally honest, if things are so bad as you say with the white working class, don't you want to get new Americans in? . . . You can make a case that America has been great because every—I think John Adams said this—basically if you are in free society, a capitalist society, after two or three generations of hard work, everyone becomes kind of decadent, lazy, spoiled—whatever.
If we are going to engage in such ignorant stereotyping, I know a lot of fourth- and fifth-generation Americans who are far harder working than recent illegal immigrants.
As NeverTrump furor grew in 2018, this idea of ridding America of Trump supporters and replacing them with supposedly better immigrants (again, their legal status by design is never indicated) grew more overt and explicit. Max Boot, for example, recently dreamed that the United States might deport citizen Republican Trump supporters and replace them with Latin American "newcomers" of uncertain legal status: "If only we could keep the hard-working Latin American newcomers and deport the contemptible Republican cowards—that would truly enhance America's greatness."
The so-called Calexit leader Shankar Singam, in a television appearance to promote the secession of California from the union, welcomed the flight of the middle class from California. Only that way would their welcomed departure make room for a wave of superior immigrants. Singam boasted that, in fact, the United States "should be grateful for us": "If everyone in the middle class is leaving, that's actually a good thing. We need these spots opened up for the new wave of immigrants to come up. It's what we do." Singam apparently does not believe that illegal immigration has had any role in creating a medieval society in California, where one-third of all U.S. welfare recipients live, and about a fifth of the state's population lives below the poverty line.
Singam was sort of channeling the earlier expressed ideas of liberal Minnesota governor Mark Dayton. He thought any who criticized the mass influx (both legal and illegal) of Somali immigrants into their communities, deserved to leave to make way for superior newcomers: "If you are that intolerant, if you are that much of a racist or a bigot, then find another state. Find a state where the minority population is 1 percent or whatever…Our economy cannot expand based on white, B+, Minnesota-born citizens." I suppose "B+" citizens are better than deplorables and irredeemables.
Open Borders . . . Or Else?How odd that our pundits and politicos so breezily suggest that U.S. citizens, with whom they disagree with on matters of (mostly illegal) immigration, should pack up and leave their homes.
New York Times columnist Bret Stephens recently said he was writing tongue-in cheek, when he advised: "So-called real Americans are screwing up America. Maybe they should leave, so that we can replace them with new and better ones: newcomers who are more appreciative of what the United States has to offer, more ambitious for themselves and their children, and more willing to sacrifice for the future. In other words, just the kind of people we used to be—when 'we' had just come off the boat."
Stephens claimed that he was being satirical, but he seemed to drop that artifice when he finished his column by suggesting that he wasn't really all that ironic: "We're a country of immigrants — by and for them, too. Americans who don't get it should get out." So, either agree with open borders or current immigration policy or lack of it—or leave the country?
Once again, note the deliberate conflation of legal and illegal immigrants. It was never a Trump signature issue to suspend legal immigration. What got him elected was not exclusionary immigration policies in general, but an end to illegal immigration in particular. Or perhaps worse still, Trump called for diverse, meritocratic, measured, and legal immigration, which, because it did not ignore illegal immigration from Central America and Mexico, was somehow branded as racist and nativist.
Advantages for the Elite
What is behind this fantasy of deporting the deplorables and welcoming in the deportable—other than displaying a cheap contempt for those who elected Trump?
In the abstract, perhaps self-interest. The dream of ridding the U.S. of the working citizen classes and substituting illegal immigrants in their place, would be advantageous to elites. Labor would be cheaper. Voting would be more liberal. And elites would have the influence and affluence to navigate around any personal downside in the swaps of citizens for non-citizens.
Race certainly is also a subtext. One can stereotype, and generalize and pontificate about so-called lower-middle-class whites clingers, crazies, deplorables, irredeemables, lazy, or East Germans without much downside. And one can generalize and categorize illegal aliens as noble and superior with only an upside. What certainly would spell being politically incorrect would be to run statistical analyses of the citizen working classes versus illegal aliens in terms of criminality, identity theft, hit and run accidents, illegitimacy, and education levels. To the extent one could find accurate data in our current politicized climate, the results might not support the idea that the average illegal alien from Oaxaca is better educated, more literate, less likely to break some sort of law, and more rarely on public support than his or her citizen middle-class counterpart in Bakersfield, Idaho Falls, or Kingman.
The elite notion of a "citizen of the world" plays a role as well. Coastal culture promotes the idea of a global elite sharing roughly similar enlightened values, most of them antithetical to those of their fellow Americans of the lower classes and of the interior. A Manhattanite or Silicon Valley winner apparently feels more empathy with counterpart foreign nationals than with fellow American citizens.
Finally, nothing better illustrates the isolation of the elite than its romance for the illegal immigrant and corresponding disdain for the red-state American. To the degree that our coastal class knows illegal aliens first-hand, it may be largely through the hiring of inexpensive nannies, housekeepers, landscapers, and cooks, but not through neighborhood get-togethers, shared schools with their children, or as co-workers. Similarly, if they know the citizen working classes, it is largely as either through televised caricatures or an occasional and cursory safari drive through rural America.
This Victor David Hanson article first appeared in amgreatness.com
Categories: AFA, News Tags: AFA, AFA of Indiana, Deplorables, Illegal Immigration
John Adams' Warning to America
Supreme Court rejects Texas challenge of election results
Dems begin fight to kill life-saving measure
Cancel Culture Has Come for Us
Parents advised to organize against CRT curricula now
May God have mercy upon us and our troubled country
'Truth, Statues and Imperfect People'
Tucker: Power-hungry officials crack down on coronavirus dissent
Big Media/Big Tech vs 1st Amendment
Tucker Cuts through the Chaos with Truth!
Civil rights activist Bob Woodson responds to riots: Race is being used as a ruse
Time to Reign in Tech Censors!
Micah's Weekly Email
Click here to view Sample Email


text:
Take Five With Tom Fenton
Mixed Bag: Thin Clients, VDI, Management, Etc.
Here are five random items that are worthy of comment.
By Bruce Hoard
From time to time, I like to sit back and consider random items I've crossed paths with in the recent past. Today, I have VMware, virtualization management, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), thin-client computing and the demise of news rattling around my brain chamber.
VMware. I give this company grief because -- well, because it's VMware. It's the Big Kahuna, the Major Domo, the Maximum Leader -- and that makes it fair game for me and a lot of other observers. In the wake of our recent Readers Choice Awards, however, I really have to take my hat off to VMware, because it absolutely blew the competition away in almost every case. By that I mean the company finished first in 10 of 15 categories and second in another. It won every category from Server Virtualization to Best Virtualization Training Vendor, and it beat Citrix in Application Virtualization along the way. Only Veeam beat VMware in one of its strong areas, which was Virtual Business Continuity. The more you learn about this company, and the more you see how it stacks up against the competition, the more you have to respect it. Talk about a well-oiled machine.
Virtualization management. This segment of the industry is growing like crazy, and the competition is intense as one new company after another enters the market hunting for a sweet spot where they can hang their hat and make a buck. If you can't monitor everything that's happening in virtual environments and correct for problems before they occur -- from a single, centralized console, of course -- forget about it. VMware, Citrix and Microsoft are major players, but many smaller vendors are serving up strong competition. What chance does virtual machine (VM) stall have in this high-energy environment?
The high cost and complexity of VDI. VDI has made a big splash in the past year as VMware and Citrix keep leapfrogging each other with new updates to their View and XenDesktop products, respectively. But what's been left out of the conversation is the high cost of doing business in this complex arena. Enter companies like Kaviza -- which in its recently announced version 4.0 builds on earlier versions that slashed storage costs and simplified installation -- and now DataCore, which claims it has a configuration for virtual desktops that reduces the total hardware cost to roughly $32.41 per desktop, including storage infrastructure.
How thin is zero, and does it really matter? If you're PanoLogic, it does really matter, because your claim to offer a true zero-client device gives you a competitive edge over the big boys, aka Hewlett-Packard and Wyse. If you're Wyse, you introduce the Wyse Z90 thin client, a high-performance thin client based on Windows Embedded Standard 7. For you, zero is nice, but not necessary. If you're the mighty HP, you don't care who's thin and who's zero, because your customers don't care, and heck, you don't even bother dedicating an entire press release to a thin-client announcement. Now that's slumming it!
What's news, and what's not? At a time when content is king -- and preferably free -- the borderline between news, pseudo-news and everything else out there is obliterated. Vendors, of course, are prime offenders in this scenario, following up their "news" releases with supporting blogs that are meant more for lionizing their products than they are for helping explain them. I like to think I recently captured the essence of this situation in my blog, which described the blog of Citrix CIO Simon Crosby. Said I: "You know if Simon says this announcement is 'perhaps predictably short on detail,' as he did, you're only getting the French pastry, as opposed to the boeuf bourguignon."
What's on your mind these days? Tell me at bhoard@1105media.com.
Bruce Hoard is the new editor of Virtualization Review. Prior to taking this post, he was founding editor of Network World and spent 20 years as a freelance writer and editor in the IT industry.