Hypothyroidism is a very common condition in which the body's production of thyroid hormone is below normal. Thyroid hormone affects metabolism, and its deficiency causes many of the body's functions to slow down. An estimated 3 to 5 percent of the population suffers from hypothyroidism, and another 17 percent may be undiagnosed. It is more common among women than men, particularly those over age 40.
The thyroid gland, which is located in the lower part of the neck, uses iodine (found in foods such as iodized salt, seafood and vegetables) to produce thyroid hormones. The two most important ones are thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3). T3 accounts for more than 99 percent of the thyroid hormones present in the blood stream that affects the metabolism of cells. Several other hormones regulate the amount of thyroid hormone normally released into the bloodstream. Thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH), released by the hypothalamus, sends signals to the pituitary gland to release thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH). TSH in turn "tells" the thyroid gland to release the thyroid hormones T3 and T4. Under normal conditions, TSH regulates the amount of thyroid hormone in the blood to allow for normal functioning. In a hypothyroid patient, on the other hand, TSH levels fall as the pituitary attempts to decrease thyroid hormone production. As a result, hypothyroid patients continuously have decreased blood levels of circulating thyroid hormone.
Causes of hypothyroidism include congenital defects, surgical removal of the thyroid gland, irradiation of the thyroid gland, inflammatory conditions and Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Hashimoto's thyroiditis, an inherited autoimmune disorder in which the body's immune system attacks and damages the thyroid tissue, is the most common cause of hypothyroidism. It is eight times more common among women than men.
Lymphocytic thyroiditis, another type of inflammation of the thyroid, is caused by white blood cells called lymphocytes. This condition is common after pregnancy, affecting up to 8 percent of women. The initial phase of lymphocytic thyroiditis is normally caused by an excessive amount of thyroid hormone leaking from an inflamed thyroid gland, followed by a hypothyroid state that can last up to six months. Although most women eventually return to a normal state of thyroid functioning, some may remain hypothyroid.
Radioactive treatments for an overactive thyroid gland, or hyperthyroidism, which is a component of Grave's disease, can also lead to hypothyroidism. Insufficient dietary iodine, which is essential for the production of thyroid hormones, can also be a cause. However, this is very uncommon in developed countries. Finally, other medications used to treat hyperthyroid conditions, psychiatric drugs and drugs containing large amounts of iodine may also cause hypothyroidism by decreasing the levels of thyroid hormones in the blood.
What are the symptoms of hypothyroidism?
The symptoms of hypothyroidism vary in severity, usually develop slowly over the course of a month or even years, and may initially go unnoticed. They include weakness; fatigue; constipation; depression; joint or muscle pain; thin, brittle nails; dry, flaky and thickening skin; slow speech; weight gain; hoarseness; intolerance to cold; swelling of the face; puffy eyes; generalized hair thinning; among women, heavy and/or abnormal menstrual periods; short stature; and delayed formation or absence of teeth. In addition, some individuals may develop a swollen neck due to an enlarged thyroid.
At Sunridge Medical, our highly-trained physicians are experts in providing an integrated approach to the treatment of cancer and chronic disease. Our treatment plans are individualized, and involve both traditional and alternative medicines.
The physicians at Sunridge Medical have found that symptoms frequently can be improved and even reversed with our natural treatments. We take a holistic approach to patient care and strive not only treat the disease, but also alleviate symptoms, increase quality of life and, most importantly, address the underlying cause of disease.


So Gary Rowett has gone and the race is now on to find and appoint his replacement as Stoke City manager.
Luton Town boss Nathan Jones remains odds-on favourite with bookies to take over at the bet365 Stadium, although sources at the League One club insist there has been no formal Stoke approach for their man.
One likely candidate who won't be coming to Stoke is former Watford and Fulham boss Slavisa Jokanovic, who has made it known he is not ready for a return to management. However, the BBC intimated last night that the Serb was unhappy at the prospect of being added to a shortlist rather than the club's first choice.
Then what about Stoke old boy Steve Bould? He was last night put forward as a contender to replace Rowett, with an ally of the Blurton-born Arsenal assistant manager possibly taking charge of recruitment, where Mark Cartwright remains under huge pressure.
We will bring you all the latest Stoke City debate over the search for a new manager throughout the day.
What kind of manager are Stoke getting?
BBC Three Counties Geoff Doyle said: "Nathan Jones is a smart, intense, demanding manager - and one who is extremely ambitious.
"He plays slick, attacking, passing football, deploying a diamond formation in midfield. It results in goals - like last season, Luton have scored more than any other team in their division.
"He's known for being an excellent coach on the training ground and improves his players, while shipping out those he sees as 'passengers' or troublesome.
"Jones also develops exciting young players such as James Justin, Elliot Lee and Jack Stacey.
Danny Hylton has posted on social media about Nathan Jones's exit.
This week's column from Robbie Earle looks a the only talking point in town.
Stoke have gone for a young coach who is taking a step up rather than a Moyes or an Allardyce who, having managed for most of their careers in the top flight, may have been seen to be taking a step down.
It's not that Moyes or Allardyce don't do a good job, they do, but I think fans would have found it harder to connect with them because they would have been seen as hired hands on their latest project.
Martin Smith: Give him a chance!
Stoke have taken managers from the lower leagues before. Let's hope it's more Alan Durban and less Steve Cotterill.
Is Marko Arnautovic heading east?
This is from the West Ham-supporting head of TalkSport.
An interesting insight into Nathan Jones's ambitions and philosophy in a comprehensive interview with Stoke's Mark Mothershaw.
You set your sights high and eventually you want to manage a team like Barcelona. ..
Who will be in Nathan Jones's back room team?
Nathan Jones hopes to bring an assistant, coach and sports scientist with him to Stoke as he starts his new life in the Championship.
That could mean a reunion with former trusted ally at Luton Town Paul Hart, who left to become technical director at Notts County only in October.
And a move back to Kenilworth Road to try to tempt first team coach Joaquin Gomez to head north.
Nathan Jones had taken Luton from the bottom half of League Two to the brink of the Championship inside three years.
He has spoken about the quandary he has faced about leaving what he has built.
Nathan Jones has vowed to try to get the full potential out of the squad he has inherited as he hopes to make supporters proud.
He has won admirers for the attacking philosophy behind his success in three years at Luton Town and it is clear he aims to do the same at the bet365 Stadium.
Luton Town boss Nathan Jones is in talks with Stoke City about becoming their next manager.
At the time of writing, Luton's Nathan Jones is one of the leading contenders. That has taken just about everybody by surprise and yet it may well be the choice which signals that Stoke City are looking to do things differently in the future.
You only have to look at Luton's fantastic recent goalscoring record to see what the emphasis is on their style of football. We need some new ideas at Stoke after a couple of very disappointing years and making that sort of appointment would signal intent to change.
It would be a gamble, and a big one at that, but there are no sure bets in football. Some Stokies may see that as going for the cheap option, but we've tried the 'throw money at the problem and hope for the best' approach by allowing Rowett to blow a king's ransom, and such a policy is simply unsustainable at the level we're at.
Sometimes you have to put yourself out there and take a risk, and maybe it's time we do that and give change a chance. It's worth noting that Alan Durban, Lou Macari and Tony Pulis were all managers in the third tier when we appointed them and all of them went on to bring success to the club. It's not necessarily a negative thing to look downwards when you make such an important decision. I'm waiting with baited breath to see what we do.
Nathan Jones, manager of Luton Town.
Reports in Scotland claim Aberdeen could be approached by Stoke City for permission to speak to Derek McInnes about taking over from Gary Rowett.
McInnes, a former Bristol City boss, has drifted in the betting overnight after being a shock second favourite for the job early yesterday. However, the Sun reports: "Stoke are keen to look long-term and the record McInnes has developed of building teams is one of the attractions. Although he was sacked by Bristol City in his previous spell as a boss in England, that was six years ago now and his reputation has been enhanced by the work he's done at Pittodrie." McInnes has led Aberdeen to second place in the Scottish Premiership on four occasions and also took the Dons to the Scottish League Cup final this season.
BBC reporter - "No approach for Nathan Jones"
Nathan Jones is now priced at 1/4 with the bookies to be the new manager of Stoke City, drifting slightly from the 1/8 he was overnight. Second favourite for the job is now Martin O'Neill, the former Republic of Ireland boss who turned down a Stoke approach a year ago just after the sacking of Mark Hughes. O'Neill is priced at 9/1, with David Moyes next best at 10/1.


So much to do so very little time. I need to finish washing our clothes since I didn't have time to do it last night and I want to wash the bedding of the guest room since mom is coming tomorrow. I wanted to also wash ours but that will have to wait cause I don't think I'll have time tonight. I also have like five shows to watch since I didn't watch any last night. I was ahead but got behind again. No winning!
Anyways, I thought work was gonna be hellish at the store today but it wasn't too bad. I didn't get much cleaning though but the other supervisor was staying for the cleaners so I can always blame him. Bouhaha! My foot is still very sore, I should take a nice bath but I don't know if I have time or if I want to take the time as I have so many shows to still watch and mom's gonna be here for a few days so that means we will be coming home late so I won't really have time to watch much. I also had planned on mowing the lawn this Tue but looks like I won't be doing that either and will have to wait next week. I still haven't really decided what I want to do about Wed. I know I will cancel my first client and switch the second one but I'm not sure if I should cancel the third one or still do it. I'll decide tomorrow.
I think I will start taking my pill again cause last night I barely slept, I kept waking up. I'm scared to have another night like it tonight and be super tired tomorrow. Since I work from 9 am to 10 pm tomorrow and then going out with mom I think it's best to take a pill. I think I did pretty good as it's been a month since the last time I took one.
So that's pretty much it for today. Nothing exciting happened. I just need to catch up on my laundry and shows. I still need to put the laundry away as well. I shall get to it as I only have a few hours if I want to go to bed at a decent time tonight.
Oh yea, when I woke up this morning I checked if hub had cleaned the suggies kitchen and of course, he hadn't. I went back in the bedroom and yelled at him for it as he wasn't yet asleep or shouldn't of been as he had only been in bed for like 15 mins. He told me he'd do it before work. Yea right! He only went to bed at almost 9 am and worked for 4 pm so that didn't give him much time to actually wake up ahead of time and do it. Surprise, surprise.. I got home from work and it was done. Good job hub!


Difficulty: Trolley Line Trail; Easy. Flat rail trail with a stone-dust surface.
Grand Trunk Trail (East & West sections); Flat rail trail with a stone-dust surface. One short section is still hard packed dirt w/some tree roots.
Lake Siog Pass Trail/Holland Connector; Easy. Relatively flat trail along an old paved/dirt road. Other sections consist of stone-dust.
Curtis Island Loop; Moderate. Hard packed dirt & grass trail.
Grand Trunk Trolley Line Trail ; Easy. Flat rail trail with a stone-dust surface. Short hill up to the dam.
From the Mass Pike (I-90) take exit 9 to I-84. Take exit 3 to Route 20 west. Follow Route 20 through Sturbridge.
For the Grand Trunk Trolley Line Trail (Fiskdale section); At the junctions of Route 20 & 148 turn left on Holland Rd. Travel 0.3 miles to a small parking area on your right next to a sign reading "Trolley Trail".
For the Trolley Line Trail (East section); After crossing over East Brimfield Lake, take your first left down E Brimfield Holland Rd. Travel past the E Brimfield Lake along your left (spot the old RR bridge piers in the lake) and after 0.4 miles turn right down a dirt road. You'll pass by a house to your left and come to a yellow gate (this is US Army Corp of Engineers property. Park along your right.
For the Five Bridges Road parking lot; After crossing over East Brimfield Lake, take your second left down Five Bridges Rd. You'll spot a brown sign reading "Grand Trunk Trail-East Brimfield section. Follow the paved road for 1.2 miles until it turns to dirt. Continue for another 0.4 miles and the parking area will be on your left.
For the Route 20 parking lot; Continue along Route 20 for 1.9 miles. The parking lot is on the left.
The Trolley Line Trail and Grand Trunk Trails are sections of the regional Titanic Rail Trail which is planned to run from Palmer to Franklin. The Trolley Line Trail follows an old trolley rail bed once used by the Springfield & Eastern Street Railway, which used to operate between Springfield and Fiskdale (Sturbridge). The Grand Trunk Trail, which runs parallel to the Trolley Line Trail follows the rail bed of the old Grand Trunk Railroad. Some called it the "Titanic Railroad" after its founder, Charles Hayes, went down with the Titanic. The Trails are located on U.S. Army Corp of Engineers land along the Quinebaug River flood control area. Because both trails parallel each other it creates a nice loop. Another short section of the Trolley Line Trail is located across the Quinebaug River at the eastern end of the main trail, but is only accessible from E Brimfield Rd because the old RR bridge is gone. A short section of the Grand Trunk Trolley Line Trail is located in Fiskdale (part of Sturbridge), running from the East Brimfield Dam to Holland Rd. The Lake Siog Pass Trail/Holland Connector is a spur trail that takes you to Holland Pond and the start of the Quinebaug River Canoe Trail in Holland. Sturbridge has another completed section of the Grand Trunk Trail . For more information visit; BRIMFIELD TRAIL .
Starting from the Route 20 parking lot; The west end of the Trolley Line Trail begins here next to a map board.
Note; Heading west future plans call for extending the trail to New Holland Rd.
The wide, stone-dust trail travels east along the old rail bed, paralleling Route 20 for a bit. It travels through an area that was hit by the 2011 tornado that tore a path of destruction from Springfield to Sturbridge. What was once a shaded forest is now open fields with ripped up trees. Wood posts mark trail spurs or scenic side outs all along the trail. A short section of the Grand Trunk Trail parallels along your right which you can loop back along on your return. After about a mile you enter open forest leaving the destruction behind. At 1.3 miles you come to Five Bridges Rd (dirt road).
Note; The Lake Siog Pass Trail/ Holland Connector heads right along Five Bridges Rd. (See below).
Cross the road and continue straight along a causeway. To your right you'll spot the parallel Grand Trunk Trail which you can loop back along on your return. This section travels through wetlands along a small berm before the two trails combine and come to the Five Bridges Road parking lot after 1.6 miles. Here you'll find a map board, as well as, an informational sign board. The trails separate again, so bear left just past the parking lot to rejoin the Trolley Line Trail. The trail travels through wetlands followed by a rock cut before heading into the woods. The trail currently ends after 2.5 miles at the edge of the Quinebaug River where the old RR bridge used to be.
Note; Funds have been awarded to design the rebuilding the old RR bridge across the river to connect with the east side of the Trolley Line Trail. No construction as of June 2015. See; Trolley Line Trail (East section) below.
Return along the berm to a path on your left. This will bring you down to the Grand Trunk Trail which starts next to the river. This hard packed dirt and sand trail follows the old rail bed west, below the Trolley Line Trail. The trail surface is rougher with some tree root issues as it travels within site of the river. After 2.8 miles you'll pass by a couple of benches alongside the Quinebaug River. This is Rest Stop #3, a pull-in for the Quinebaug River Canoe Trail . You then re-join the Trolley Line Trail for a ways. Take your second left after 3.1 miles just before the rock cut (wood posts mark the spurs) along a stone-dust trail through an open field. Here you'll find benches overlooking a large marsh. Very scenic. You then re-join the Grand Trunk Trail which is also stone-dust and continue west along a causeway with the marsh along your left. You'll return to the Five Bridges Road parking lot after 3.5 miles where the two trails combine again. The trail quickly splits with the Trolley Line Trail bearing right. Continue straight along the Grand Trunk Trail which travels along a causeway. When you reach Five Bridges Rd the trail bears right and re-joins the Trolley Line Trail. Head left up to Five Bridges Road at 3.8 miles.
Note; The Lake Siog Pass Trail/ Holland Connector heads left along Five Bridges Rd. (See below).
Cross the road back along the Trolley Line Trail and take your first left along the Grand Trunk Trail. This section consists of a combination of both stone-dust and hard packed dirt & grass. You bear right off the old rail trail and rejoin the Trolley Line Trail at 4.4 miles. Head left to return to the Route 20 parking lot after a 5.2 mile loop.
Starting from Five Bridges Road; Travel west on-road (low volume) along this dirt road. A large marsh is along your right. Cross over Mill Brook at 0.2 miles, then look for a yellow gate on your left at 0.4 miles. Turn left and follow the paved Old Holland Rd (abandoned) south. After 0.6 miles turn left along abandoned Morse Rd (across from a large field). This section is stone-dust except for a short hard packed dirt & grass surface. After a mile you'll come to an intersection.
Note; Left takes you along the Curtis Island Loop. Follow the hard packed dirt and grass trail around the edge of the island. You'll pass by an informational sign before coming to a path on your left that leads down to Rest Stop #1, a pull-in for the Quinebaug River Canoe Trail . Benches and a fire pit here. A path on your left takes you to a beaver dam where the Mill Brook enter the river. Nice views of the marsh. The trail then follows the river back out to old Morse Rd after a 1/4 mile.
Continue straight over a slight hill, passing by the loop exit for Curtis Island and you'll cross an old bridge over the Quinebaug River. Here the trail reverts to old pavement. Very scenic floodplain. After passing another yellow gate you travel on-road along Morse Rd (residential). After 1.5 miles, just before a gray house on your right, you'll pick up the stone-dust trail again to the right. This wooded lane brings you to Holland Pond after 1.8 miles. A parking lot, map board and Porto-potty are located here, along with, the start of the Quinebaug River Canoe Trail.
Starting from the E Brimfield Road parking area; Travel past the yellow gate along the stone-dust trail. After 0.2 miles you'll come to the edge of the Quinebaug River where the old RR bridge used to be. Across the river is the west section of the Trolley Line Trail. This section utilizes the old rail bed from both the Grand Trunk Trail and Trolley Line.
Note; Future plans call for rebuilding the old RR bridge across the river to connect with the west side of the Trolley Line Trail. See; Trolley Line Trail/Grand Trunk Trail (West section) above.
Starting from the Holland Road parking area; Travel past the yellow gate along the stone-dust rail trail. This is part of the old Trolley Line. You start out along a high berm with the Quinebaug River below to your left. After passing through a cut you come to an old RR bridge abutment at a 1/4 mile with a bench overlooking the river below. The trail leaves the old rail bed and travels right up a slight hill with views of the East Brimfield Dam up to your left. Just past some maintenance buildings a paved road brings you to the top of the dam after 0.5 miles. Here you'll find informational boards (The dam was built in 1960 and is 520' long). You can also travel over the top of the dam to view the spillway.


text:
The United Nations unveils Principles for Responsible Investment at the New York Stock Exchange
Munich Re among the original signatories and the first German company to sign up
The Principles for Responsible Investment, unveiled today, are intended to provide institutional investors with guidelines for considering social and ecological criteria in their investments. They include observing such criteria in investment decisions, promoting sustainable investment approaches in the financial sector, and regularly reporting on implementation. At the invitation of Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary-General, Munich Re participated in the development of the principles. Given its extensive experience, Munich Re was represented in both the Expert Group and the Investor Group.
Dr. Heiner Hasford, member of Munich Re's Board of Management responsible for investments, said: "Signing up to the Principles for Responsible Investment is the logical continuation of our commitment in this area. Five years ago, Munich Re adopted a set of sustainability criteria for the acquisition of shareholdings. The following year, we extended this approach generally to all investments in equities and corporate bonds."
Since 2003, the Munich Re Group-s asset manager, MEAG, has offered institutional and private investors an investment option along these lines with the "MEAG Nachhaltigkeit" fund.
The fact that Munich Re's own shares are recognised as a sustainable investment is reflected by their listing in all the important European sustainability indexes, like the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) and the FTSE4GOOD.
Munich Re will provide regular information on implementation of the Principles for Responsible Investment in its sustainability reporting.
The Munich Re Group operates worldwide, turning risk into value. In the business year 2005, it achieved a profit of €2,743m, the highest in its 126-year corporate history. In 2005, its premium income amounted to approximately €38bn and its investments to around €177bn. The Group is characterised by particularly pronounced diversification. It has approximately 38,000 employees in 60 countries throughout the world and operates in all lines of insurance. It is one of the world's leading reinsurers and, through the ERGO Insurance Group, the second-largest provider in the German primary insurance market and a leading player on several other European insurance markets.
Munich Re has over 140,000 shareholders throughout the world.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: R Markdown - xtable with longtable and scalebox outputs scalebox value I am creating a PDF document with with rmarkdown and knitr.  Below is an example code chunk.  When knitting to PDF it prints the scalebox value to the PDF, which I don't want.  My actual table is much wider so using the scalebox argument is necessary.
```{r, results = 'asis', echo = FALSE, message = FALSE, warning=FALSE}

    x <- matrix(rnorm(1000), ncol = 10)
    x.big <- xtable(x)

    print.xtable(x.big, hline.after=c(-1), tabular.environment = "longtable", scalebox = 0.7)

    ```

This only happens when using the longtable tabular environment.  Running the same code chunk with the standard tabular environment doesn't output the scalebox info.  I've tried setting every comment argument in the print.xtable function and the r code chunk to FALSE but with no luck.
How can I output my PDF file without that scalebox text being printed?

A: I haven't found a way to get around the scalebox issue.  What I ended up doing was using was the size argument in print.xtable instead.  Below is a sample function where size is an integer representing the desired size of the font.
outputXtableTest <- function( df, size){

  sizeNew = paste0("\\fontsize{", size,"pt}{", size+1, "pt}\\selectfont")

  print.xtable(
             df, hline.after=c(-1,0, 1:nrow(table)),
             tabular.environment = 'longtable',
             floating = FALSE, size = sizeNew
            )
}

See this post for more information.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Deployment of convalescent plasma for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19
Evan M. Bloch, Shmuel Shoham, Arturo Casadevall, Bruce S. Sachais, Beth Shaz, Jeffrey L. Winters, Camille Van Buskirk, Brenda J. Grossman, Michael Joyner, Jeffrey P. Henderson, Andrew Pekosz, Bryan Lau, Amy Wesolowski, Louis Katz, Hua Shan, Paul G. Auwaerter, David Thomas, David J. Sullivan, Nigel Paneth, Eric GehrieSteven Spitalnik, Eldad A. Hod, Lewis Pollack, Wayne T. Nicholson, Liise Anne Pirofski, Jeffrey A. Bailey, Aaron A.R. Tobian
Show 7 others
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the cause of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has spurred a global health crisis. To date, there are no proven options for prophylaxis for those who have been exposed to SARS-CoV-2, nor therapy for those who develop COVID-19. Immune (i.e., "convalescent") plasma refers to plasma that is collected from individuals following resolution of infection and development of antibodies. Passive antibody administration through transfusion of convalescent plasma may offer the only short-term strategy for conferring immediate immunity to susceptible individuals. There are numerous examples in which convalescent plasma has been used successfully as postexposure prophylaxis and/or treatment of infectious diseases, including other outbreaks of coronaviruses (e.g., SARS-1, Middle East respiratory syndrome [MERS]). Convalescent plasma has also been used in the COVID-19 pandemic; limited data from China suggest clinical benefit, including radiological resolution, reduction in viral loads, and improved survival. Globally, blood centers have robust infrastructure for undertaking collections and constructing inventories of convalescent plasma to meet the growing demand. Nonetheless, there are nuanced challenges, both regulatory and logistical, spanning donor eligibility, donor recruitment, collections, and transfusion itself. Data from rigorously controlled clinical trials of convalescent plasma are also few, underscoring the need to evaluate its use objectively for a range of indications (e.g., prevention vs. treatment) and patient populations (e.g., age, comorbid disease). We provide an overview of convalescent plasma, including evidence of benefit, regulatory considerations, logistical work flow, and proposed clinical trials, as scaleup is brought underway to mobilize this critical resource.
Journal of Clinical Investigation
https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI138745
10.1172/JCI138745
Dive into the research topics of 'Deployment of convalescent plasma for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
Coronavirus Medicine & Life Sciences 100%
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Medicine & Life Sciences 25%
Tissue Donors Medicine & Life Sciences 15%
SARS Virus Medicine & Life Sciences 14%
Coronavirus Infections Medicine & Life Sciences 14%
Antibodies Medicine & Life Sciences 11%
Workflow Medicine & Life Sciences 10%
Bloch, E. M., Shoham, S., Casadevall, A., Sachais, B. S., Shaz, B., Winters, J. L., Van Buskirk, C., Grossman, B. J., Joyner, M., Henderson, J. P., Pekosz, A., Lau, B., Wesolowski, A., Katz, L., Shan, H., Auwaerter, P. G., Thomas, D., Sullivan, D. J., Paneth, N., ... Tobian, A. A. R. (2020). Deployment of convalescent plasma for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. Journal of Clinical Investigation, 130(6), 2757-2765. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI138745
Deployment of convalescent plasma for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. / Bloch, Evan M.; Shoham, Shmuel; Casadevall, Arturo et al.
In: Journal of Clinical Investigation, Vol. 130, No. 6, 01.06.2020, p. 2757-2765.
Bloch, EM, Shoham, S, Casadevall, A, Sachais, BS, Shaz, B, Winters, JL, Van Buskirk, C, Grossman, BJ, Joyner, M, Henderson, JP, Pekosz, A, Lau, B, Wesolowski, A, Katz, L, Shan, H, Auwaerter, PG, Thomas, D, Sullivan, DJ, Paneth, N, Gehrie, E, Spitalnik, S, Hod, EA, Pollack, L, Nicholson, WT, Pirofski, LA, Bailey, JA & Tobian, AAR 2020, 'Deployment of convalescent plasma for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19', Journal of Clinical Investigation, vol. 130, no. 6, pp. 2757-2765. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI138745
Bloch EM, Shoham S, Casadevall A, Sachais BS, Shaz B, Winters JL et al. Deployment of convalescent plasma for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. Journal of Clinical Investigation. 2020 Jun 1;130(6):2757-2765. doi: 10.1172/JCI138745
Bloch, Evan M. ; Shoham, Shmuel ; Casadevall, Arturo et al. / Deployment of convalescent plasma for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. In: Journal of Clinical Investigation. 2020 ; Vol. 130, No. 6. pp. 2757-2765.
@article{618d37677c2641539f972f71940c8c90,
title = "Deployment of convalescent plasma for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19",
abstract = "Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the cause of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has spurred a global health crisis. To date, there are no proven options for prophylaxis for those who have been exposed to SARS-CoV-2, nor therapy for those who develop COVID-19. Immune (i.e., {"}convalescent{"}) plasma refers to plasma that is collected from individuals following resolution of infection and development of antibodies. Passive antibody administration through transfusion of convalescent plasma may offer the only short-term strategy for conferring immediate immunity to susceptible individuals. There are numerous examples in which convalescent plasma has been used successfully as postexposure prophylaxis and/or treatment of infectious diseases, including other outbreaks of coronaviruses (e.g., SARS-1, Middle East respiratory syndrome [MERS]). Convalescent plasma has also been used in the COVID-19 pandemic; limited data from China suggest clinical benefit, including radiological resolution, reduction in viral loads, and improved survival. Globally, blood centers have robust infrastructure for undertaking collections and constructing inventories of convalescent plasma to meet the growing demand. Nonetheless, there are nuanced challenges, both regulatory and logistical, spanning donor eligibility, donor recruitment, collections, and transfusion itself. Data from rigorously controlled clinical trials of convalescent plasma are also few, underscoring the need to evaluate its use objectively for a range of indications (e.g., prevention vs. treatment) and patient populations (e.g., age, comorbid disease). We provide an overview of convalescent plasma, including evidence of benefit, regulatory considerations, logistical work flow, and proposed clinical trials, as scaleup is brought underway to mobilize this critical resource.",
author = "Bloch, {Evan M.} and Shmuel Shoham and Arturo Casadevall and Sachais, {Bruce S.} and Beth Shaz and Winters, {Jeffrey L.} and {Van Buskirk}, Camille and Grossman, {Brenda J.} and Michael Joyner and Henderson, {Jeffrey P.} and Andrew Pekosz and Bryan Lau and Amy Wesolowski and Louis Katz and Hua Shan and Auwaerter, {Paul G.} and David Thomas and Sullivan, {David J.} and Nigel Paneth and Eric Gehrie and Steven Spitalnik and Hod, {Eldad A.} and Lewis Pollack and Nicholson, {Wayne T.} and Pirofski, {Liise Anne} and Bailey, {Jeffrey A.} and Tobian, {Aaron A.R.}",
note = "Funding Information: Any views or opinions that are expressed in this manuscript are those of the author{\textquoteright}s, based on his own scientific expertise and professional judgment; they do not necessarily represent the views of either the Blood Products Advisory Committee or the formal position of the FDA and also do not bind or otherwise obligate or commit either the Advisory Committee or the Agency to the views expressed. This manuscript was supported in part by a grant from the NIH (1K23HL151826) to EMB. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2020, American Society for Clinical Investigation.",
doi = "10.1172/JCI138745",
journal = "Journal of Clinical Investigation",
publisher = "The American Society for Clinical Investigation",
T1 - Deployment of convalescent plasma for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19
AU - Bloch, Evan M.
AU - Shoham, Shmuel
AU - Casadevall, Arturo
AU - Sachais, Bruce S.
AU - Shaz, Beth
AU - Winters, Jeffrey L.
AU - Van Buskirk, Camille
AU - Grossman, Brenda J.
AU - Joyner, Michael
AU - Henderson, Jeffrey P.
AU - Pekosz, Andrew
AU - Lau, Bryan
AU - Wesolowski, Amy
AU - Katz, Louis
AU - Shan, Hua
AU - Auwaerter, Paul G.
AU - Thomas, David
AU - Sullivan, David J.
AU - Paneth, Nigel
AU - Gehrie, Eric
AU - Spitalnik, Steven
AU - Hod, Eldad A.
AU - Pollack, Lewis
AU - Nicholson, Wayne T.
AU - Pirofski, Liise Anne
AU - Bailey, Jeffrey A.
AU - Tobian, Aaron A.R.
N1 - Funding Information: Any views or opinions that are expressed in this manuscript are those of the author's, based on his own scientific expertise and professional judgment; they do not necessarily represent the views of either the Blood Products Advisory Committee or the formal position of the FDA and also do not bind or otherwise obligate or commit either the Advisory Committee or the Agency to the views expressed. This manuscript was supported in part by a grant from the NIH (1K23HL151826) to EMB. Publisher Copyright: © 2020, American Society for Clinical Investigation.
N2 - Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the cause of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has spurred a global health crisis. To date, there are no proven options for prophylaxis for those who have been exposed to SARS-CoV-2, nor therapy for those who develop COVID-19. Immune (i.e., "convalescent") plasma refers to plasma that is collected from individuals following resolution of infection and development of antibodies. Passive antibody administration through transfusion of convalescent plasma may offer the only short-term strategy for conferring immediate immunity to susceptible individuals. There are numerous examples in which convalescent plasma has been used successfully as postexposure prophylaxis and/or treatment of infectious diseases, including other outbreaks of coronaviruses (e.g., SARS-1, Middle East respiratory syndrome [MERS]). Convalescent plasma has also been used in the COVID-19 pandemic; limited data from China suggest clinical benefit, including radiological resolution, reduction in viral loads, and improved survival. Globally, blood centers have robust infrastructure for undertaking collections and constructing inventories of convalescent plasma to meet the growing demand. Nonetheless, there are nuanced challenges, both regulatory and logistical, spanning donor eligibility, donor recruitment, collections, and transfusion itself. Data from rigorously controlled clinical trials of convalescent plasma are also few, underscoring the need to evaluate its use objectively for a range of indications (e.g., prevention vs. treatment) and patient populations (e.g., age, comorbid disease). We provide an overview of convalescent plasma, including evidence of benefit, regulatory considerations, logistical work flow, and proposed clinical trials, as scaleup is brought underway to mobilize this critical resource.
AB - Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the cause of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has spurred a global health crisis. To date, there are no proven options for prophylaxis for those who have been exposed to SARS-CoV-2, nor therapy for those who develop COVID-19. Immune (i.e., "convalescent") plasma refers to plasma that is collected from individuals following resolution of infection and development of antibodies. Passive antibody administration through transfusion of convalescent plasma may offer the only short-term strategy for conferring immediate immunity to susceptible individuals. There are numerous examples in which convalescent plasma has been used successfully as postexposure prophylaxis and/or treatment of infectious diseases, including other outbreaks of coronaviruses (e.g., SARS-1, Middle East respiratory syndrome [MERS]). Convalescent plasma has also been used in the COVID-19 pandemic; limited data from China suggest clinical benefit, including radiological resolution, reduction in viral loads, and improved survival. Globally, blood centers have robust infrastructure for undertaking collections and constructing inventories of convalescent plasma to meet the growing demand. Nonetheless, there are nuanced challenges, both regulatory and logistical, spanning donor eligibility, donor recruitment, collections, and transfusion itself. Data from rigorously controlled clinical trials of convalescent plasma are also few, underscoring the need to evaluate its use objectively for a range of indications (e.g., prevention vs. treatment) and patient populations (e.g., age, comorbid disease). We provide an overview of convalescent plasma, including evidence of benefit, regulatory considerations, logistical work flow, and proposed clinical trials, as scaleup is brought underway to mobilize this critical resource.
U2 - 10.1172/JCI138745
DO - 10.1172/JCI138745
JO - Journal of Clinical Investigation
JF - Journal of Clinical Investigation


Wheezing is a topic covered in the 5-Minute Emergency Consult.
Wheezing is very low pitched with airway diameters of 5 mm.
Airways of <2 mm are unable to transmit sound because the energy is lost as friction heat.
Wheezing occurs early in the disease due to intense bronchospasm following the event.
Rosen, Peter, et al., editors. "Wheezing." 5-Minute Emergency Consult, 5th ed., Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2016. Emergency Central, emergency.unboundmedicine.com/emergency/view/5-Minute_Emergency_Consult/307523/all/Wheezing.
Wheezing. In: Rosen P, Shayne P, Barkin AZ, et al, eds. 5-Minute Emergency Consult. 5th ed. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2016. https://emergency.unboundmedicine.com/emergency/view/5-Minute_Emergency_Consult/307523/all/Wheezing. Accessed April 25, 2019.
Wheezing [Internet]. In: Rosen P, Shayne P, Barkin AZ, Wolfe RE, Hayden SR, Barkin RM, Schaider JJ, editors. 5-Minute Emergency Consult. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2016. [cited 2019 April 25]. Available from: https://emergency.unboundmedicine.com/emergency/view/5-Minute_Emergency_Consult/307523/all/Wheezing.


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Python is a simple, user-friendly language that is designed to make automating the tasks that security professionals perform quick and easy. Whether you are new to coding or have been coding for years, SANS SEC573: Automating Information Security with Python will have you creating programs that make your job easier and make your work more efficient. This self-paced course starts from the very beginning, assuming you have no prior experience or knowledge of programming. We cover all of the essentials of the language up front. If you already know the essentials, you will find that the pyWars lab environment allows advanced developers to quickly accelerate to more advanced material in the course.
All security professionals, including Penetration Testers, Forensics Analysts, Network Defenders, Security Administrators, and Incident Responders, have one thing in common: CHANGE. Change is constant. Technology, threats, and tools are constantly evolving. If we don't evolve with them, we'll become ineffective and irrelevant, unable to provide the vital defenses our organizations increasingly require.
Maybe your chosen Operating System has a new feature that creates interesting forensics artifacts that would be invaluable for your investigation, if only you had a tool to access it. Often for new features and forensics artifacts, no such tool has yet been released. You could try moving your case forward without that evidence or hope that someone creates a tool before the case goes cold...or you can write a tool yourself.
Or perhaps an attacker bypassed your defenses and owned your network months ago. If existing tools were able to find the attack, you wouldn't be in this situation. You are bleeding sensitive data and the time-consuming manual process of finding and eradicating the attacker is costing you money and hurting your organization big time. The answer is simple if you have the skills: Write a tool to automate your defenses.
SEC573 is designed to give you the skills you need for tweaking, customizing, or outright developing your own tools. We put you on the path of creating your own tools, empowering you to better automate the daily routine of today's information security professional and to achieve more value in less time. Again and again, organizations serious about security emphasize their need for skilled tool builders. There is a huge demand for people who can understand a problem and then rapidly develop prototype code to attack or defend against it. Join us and learn Python in-depth and fully weaponized.
The course begins with a brief introduction to Python and the pyWars Capture-the-Flag challenge. We set the stage for students to learn at their own pace in the pyWars lab environment, which is 100 percent hands-on. As more advanced students take on Python-based Capture-the-Flag challenges, students who are new to programming will start from the very beginning with Python essentials.
You will never learn to program by staring at PowerPoint slides. This section continues the hands-on, lab-centric approach established at the beginning of the course. It covers data structures and more detailed programming concepts. Next we focus on invaluable tips and trick to make you a better Python programmer and to show you how to debug your code.
NOTE: Most of this course is focused on expanding your Python skills, leveraging modules, and performing important operations used by all information security professionals. You will learn about file operations, log analysis, database operations, low-level network operations such as Raw sockets and packet parsing, high-level network operations such as HTTP and authentication, object-oriented coding, regular expressions, subprocess execution and automation and much more. All of these skills are common to every security profession and useful to everyone regardless of your discipline. Starting with this third section, the remainder of the course is broken down into three sections themed with defense, forensics, and offense.
In this section we take on the role of a network defender with more logs to examine than there is time in the day. Attackers have penetrated the network and you will have to analyze the logs and packet captures to find them. We will discuss how to analyze network logs and packets to discover where the attackers are coming from and what they are doing. We will build scripts to empower continuous monitoring and disrupt the attackers before they exfiltration your data. Forensicators and offensive security professional won't be left out because reading and writing files and parsing data is also an essential skill they will apply to their craft as well.
In our forensics-themed section, we will assume the role of a forensics analyst who has to carve evidence from artifacts when no tool exists to do so. Even if you don't do forensics, you will find that the skills covered in this section are foundational to every security role. We will discuss the process required to carve binary images, find appropriate data of interest in them, and extract those data. Once you have the artifact isolated, there is more analysis to be done. You will learn how to extract metadata from image files. Then we will discuss techniques for finding artifacts in other locations such as SQL databases and interacting with web pages.
During our offensively themed section we play the role of penetration testers whose normal tricks have failed. Their attempts to establish a foothold have been stopped by modern defenses. To bypass these defenses, you will build an agent to give you access to a remote system. Similar agents can be used for Incident response or systems administration, but our focus will be on offensive operations.
In this final section you will be placed on a team with other students. You will apply the skills you have mastered in a series of programming challenges. Participants will exercise the new skills and the code they have developed throughout the course in a series of challenges. You will solve programming challenges, exploit vulnerable systems, analyze packets, parse logs, and automate code execution on remote systems. Test your skills! Prove your might!
Students are required to bring their own laptop so that they can connect directly to the workshop network we will create, and thus get the most value out of the course. It is the student's responsibility to make sure that the system is properly configured with all drivers necessary to connect to an Ethernet network.
You are required to bring Windows 10 (Professional), Windows 8.1 (Professional), Windows 8 (Professional), Windows 7 (Professional, Enterprise, or Ultimate), or Windows Vista (Business, Enterprise, or Ultimate) either on a real system or a virtual machine. You will need administrative access to your Windows computer and the ability to install various software packages, including Python, on that computer.
You will use VMware to run Windows and Linux operating systems simultaneously when performing exercises in class. You must have either the free VMware Player or later or the commercial VMware Workstation 8 or later installed on your system prior to coming to class. You can download VMware Workstation Player for free, here.
We will give you a USB full of tools to use during the class (which is yours to keep). We will also provide a Linux image with all of our tools pre-installed that runs within VMware Player or VMware Workstation.
An available USB port with the ability to read an ExFat format.
By bringing the right equipment and preparing in advance, you can maximize what you will see and learn -- and have a lot of fun doing it!
A basic understanding of any programming or scripting language is highly recommended but not required for this class. SEC573 starts with the most basic fundamentals of Python programming. There is no aspect of programming or Python that must be understood before attending this course. The lab environment is self-paced and this allows students who have had some experience coding advance more quickly than those who have not. You are provided a Virtual Machine that gives you the ability to complete the labs that are in your course book after the live course or your OnDemand access has finished.
SEC573 contains more labs and exercises than even the most skilled programmer can complete in one week. Students who are brand new to the concepts should expect to complete about a third of the labs while in class and take the additional material with them in the Virtual Machine to continue their study and advance their skills. Students who already know some programming will complete a higher percentage of the exercises in class but will still take home additional material to continue learning. In the vast majority of cases, even those students who start the class with a good understanding of how to code in Python will leave with incomplete labs that they can continue to use to develop their skills. SEC573 will meet you where you are and quickly advance your skills. You will leave with new skills you can put to good use when you return to your workplace and with additional material to continue to develop your skills.
Modify existing open source tools to customize them to meet the needs of your organization.
Manipulate log file formats to make them compatible with various log collectors.
Write new tools to analyze log files and network packets to identify attackers in your environment.
Develop tools that extract otherwise inaccessible forensics artifacts from computer systems of all types.
Automate the collection of intelligence information to augment your security from online resources.
Automate the extraction of signs of compromise and other forensics data from the Windows Registry and other databases.
pyWars labs: A self-paced lab environment that allows students to work through labs and exercise at their own pace. Challenges include reverse engineering malware, malware covert channels, cryptography essentials, advanced regular expressions, advanced network communications, and more.
Practical application labs: The application of coding concept is applied to build tools for defenders, forensicators, and penetration testers. The labs cover parsing log files to identify hackers, long-tail/short-tail analysis of logs, capturing and parsing network packets, carving forensics artifacts from binary data, retrieving SQL data, interacting with websites, process execution, exception handling, synchronous and asynchronous network communications, and more. The Python modules and concepts covered in these labs include File Operations, Python Sets, Regular Expressions, gzip, collections module, freq.py, Geolite, scapy, reassembler.py, struct, sockets, select, Python Objects, argument packing and unpacking, sqlite3 , urllib,urllib2, cookielib, requests, StringIO, and more.
Capture-the-Flag Challenge: Test your ability to apply your new tools and coding skills.
"Good scripting skills are essential to professionals in all aspects of information security. Understanding how to develop your own applications means you can automate tasks and do more, with fewer resources, in less time. SEC573 is designed for network defenders, forensics examiners, penetration testers, and other security professionals who want to learn how to apply basic coding skills to do their job more efficiently. This course will help take your career to the next level by teaching you this highly sought-after skill. We will focus on the most important skills for security professionals, such as interacting with networks, websites, databases, and file systems. We will cover these essential skills as we build practical applications that you can immediately put into use in your place of work."


text:
package io.sarl.lang.core.tests.scoping.extensions.numbers.cast.intprimitive;

import static io.sarl.lang.scoping.extensions.numbers.cast.PrimitiveIntCastExtensions.toAtomicDouble;
import static io.sarl.lang.scoping.extensions.numbers.cast.PrimitiveIntCastExtensions.toAtomicInteger;
import static io.sarl.lang.scoping.extensions.numbers.cast.PrimitiveIntCastExtensions.toAtomicLong;
import static io.sarl.lang.scoping.extensions.numbers.cast.PrimitiveIntCastExtensions.toBigDecimal;
import static io.sarl.lang.scoping.extensions.numbers.cast.PrimitiveIntCastExtensions.toBigInteger;
import static io.sarl.tests.api.tools.TestAssertions.assertEpsilonEquals;
import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertNotNull;

import java.math.BigDecimal;
import java.math.BigInteger;
import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicInteger;
import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicLong;

import com.google.common.util.concurrent.AtomicDouble;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.DisplayName;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Tag;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;

import io.sarl.tests.api.AbstractSarlTest;

/**
 * @author $Author: sgalland$
 * @version $FullVersion$
 * @mavengroupid $GroupId$
 * @mavenartifactid $ArtifactId$
 * @see "https://github.com/eclipse/xtext-extras/issues/186"
 */
@SuppressWarnings("all")
@DisplayName("Calling int cast operator")
@Tag("core")
@Tag("unit")
public class CodeTest extends AbstractSarlTest {

	private static int left = 4;

	@Test
	public void toAtomicLong_int() {
		AtomicLong value = toAtomicLong(left);
		assertNotNull(value);
		assertEpsilonEquals(4., value.doubleValue());
	}

	@Test
	public void toAtomicInteger_int() {
		AtomicInteger value = toAtomicInteger(left);
		assertNotNull(value);
		assertEpsilonEquals(4., value.doubleValue());
	}

	@Test
	public void toAtomicDouble_int() {
		AtomicDouble value = toAtomicDouble(left);
		assertNotNull(value);
		assertEpsilonEquals(4., value.doubleValue());
	}

	@Test
	public void toBigInteger_int() {
		BigInteger value = toBigInteger(left);
		assertNotNull(value);
		assertEpsilonEquals(4., value.doubleValue());
	}

	@Test
	public void toBigDecimal_int() {
		BigDecimal value = toBigDecimal(left);
		assertNotNull(value);
		assertEpsilonEquals(4., value.doubleValue());
	}

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
APS drafted anti-solar leasing letter signed by Ariz. legislators
Flickr; Wayne National Forest
Solar leasing companies' lease provisions and marketing practices were questioned in letters from Arizona Congress-people to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
The letter to the FTC, it was later revealed, was based on one drafted by an employee of Arizona Public Service (APS). APS is the state's dominant electric utility, a major campaign donor to Arizona legislators, and a long-time opponent of solar installers, according to renewables advocates.
The Arizona Corporation Commission subsequently voted to open a docket on consumer complaints about solar companies. Initial hearings are expected in the spring, promising a new round in the high profile fight between utilities across the country and the national companies that provide rooftop solar with no upfront costs or ownership responsibilities through third-party ownership (TPO) financing.
A November 19, 2014, letter from Democratic Representatives Ron Barber, Ann Kirkpatrick, and Kyrsten Sinema asked the CFPB to look into solar panel leasing practices.
A December 12, 2014, another letter signed by Republican Representatives Trent Franks, Paul Gosar, and Matt Salmon, but allegedly drafted by APS Energy Innovation Program Consultant David Peterson, asked the FTC to look into those practices as well.
The business volume of TPO finance companies like Vivint, Sunrun, and SolarCity has grown tenfold since 2009, threatening the viability of vertically integrated utilities like APS.
"Nationally, installers report that about half of residential systems are financed or leased through the company (as opposed to purchased outright), while about 70% of commercial systems are financed/leased as opposed to purchased," according to the just-released National Solar Jobs Census 2014 from The Solar Foundation. In six states representing approximately 75% of the total capacity expected in the national residential market in 2014, third-party ownership accounts for approximately 70-90% of all new residential installations."
Arizona Capitol Times APS employee drafted anti-solar letter signed by AZ congressmen
Filed Under: Generation Solar & Renewables Regulation & Policy Corporate News


The Hartford-shire damosel in great distress : this country girl is troubled in her mind ... : the tune is, My father gave me house and land.
Verse - "You pritty damsels fair and young,".
BEIN 2000 Folio 6 219: Mounted to 30 x 42 cm.


text:
Allow tanker drivers to operate during lockdown, NNPC tells law enforcement agencies
OIL AND GASNEWS
By Majorwaves	 On Apr 1, 2020
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has appealed Law enforcements agencies across the Country to allow petroleum products tanker drivers free movement during the lockdown ordered in parts of the country by President Muhammadu Buhari and some state governments.
A release today in Abuja by the NNPC Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Dr. Kennie Obateru, said the exemption granted by Mr. President to certain categories of essential workers covers the operations of petroleum products tanker drivers.
The release said that the Federal Government counts on the support of the law enforcement agencies across the country to ensure smooth distribution of petroleum products across the nook and cranny of the country during the period of the restriction.
The corporation said that NNPC holds over 2.6billion litres of petrol enough to last the period of the lockdown and beyond, advising that motorists should not engage in panic buying.
COVID-19: NIPCO heightens support for customers, staff
NCC moves against COVID-19


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Online estimates can vary greatly, and have a tough time keeping up with local market conditions. A Mercer real estate professional is your best bet for getting a truly accurate home estimate. Get a quick, free, no hassle estimate of your Mercer, PA property's value today.
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There are currently properties with a median home value on of $, $249,700 less than this home. The median list price per square foot on is , $ less than this home. Of the total homes on , 100% are For Sale, 0% are For Rent, and 64% are Single Family Homes. Interested in knowing how much your home on is worth? The Homes.com Automated Valuation Model (AVM) provides an estimate of the home value of every on and off market property in the US.


text:
"Here's to freedom, cheers to art. Here's to having an excellent adventure and may the stopping never start."
Official Star Wars Art
General Subject Art
Official Disney Art
Evil Genius Sketches
Kevin-John Chocolates by Romolo
Since 1987, the Kevin-John brand has become one of the strongest fine art brands nationally. With a client list that boasts more than 350 of the top athletes, celebrities, pro sports teams and corporations in the country, as well as an international list of collectors, Kevin-John is one of the most in-demand professional artists of our time.
Kevin-John's art has been showcased at major events throughout the country as well as on ESPN, ABC, Spike TV, The Golf Channel, at the Super Bowl, Walt Disney World Resort and the PGA Tour. He has also been chosen by leading companies to be the official artist for many of their sports and pop culture themed products.
Never limiting his style or subject matter, Kevin-John has been commissioned to create art for some of the biggest brands in the world. He is currently under contract with the Walt Disney Company as a Disney Master Artist, commissioned to create theme park exclusive art for sale in the Art of Disney Galleries and gift shops at the Walt Disney World Resort and at Disneyland. In July of 2018, Kevin-John realized a life long dream and accepted a contract from LUCASFILM to create fine art based on the Star Wars film series.
The team at Kevin-John Studios, based in Santa Barbara, California, continues to develop new relationships with retail and corporate partners to bring the ever expanding Kevin-John brand to his ever growing fan base. Wine, apparel, coffee and home goods, featuring the art of Kevin-John, add to the spectrum of offerings.
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Commission an Original Painting
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I've always loved stories full of mystery and adventure like the kind Tintin always got mixed-up in. You got to discover new countries, stumble across forgotten places or even find hidden treasure. But nothing gets you more excited for an adventure than a good old map!


text:
Henry Mayo to reduce wages, salaries by 10% 'across the board'
Tammy Murga
FILE PHOTO The newly constructed Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital Patient Tower. Dan Watson/The Signal
After recently terminating some management-level positions, Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital will reduce wages and salaries by 10% "across the board" to implement cost-control measures due to continued low numbers of hospital visits, according to officials.
The message was delivered to employees from hospital President and CEO Roger E. Seaver via a recent email, stating the change would become effective May 31. The memo also noted that Henry Mayo would continue the mandatory "flex-off," or time off, of one day per week for those in leadership and management positions through May 30.
Seaver's statement read:
"Beginning May 31, we will implement an 'across the board' wage/salary reduction of 10% of the hourly rate or base salary for all non-union staff including leadership. At the same time, all members of the executive leadership team, directors and managers will be required to flex-off one day per pay period. The 10% reduction in pay and one-day flex-off per pay period will continue until patient demand for our services achieves a financial break-even."
Seaver added that there would be no overtime, registry, or per diems granted unless "acuity-based volumes drive the requirement."
The decision was a "painful but necessary" one, according to Henry Mayo spokesman Patrick Moody in a statement Wednesday.
"As has been widely reported and as we have stated before, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on hospital revenue streams. As a result, we have had to focus on reducing our expenses and adjust staffing for the patient volumes we currently have and project into the future."
The latest notice to employees comes after the hospital announced in late-April it would end 10 management-level positions and lay off additional staff members in May as a result of already low hospital visits that are projected to continue as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Tammy Murga covers government and politics for The Signal. She joined in the summer of 2018, previously working in Northern California as an assistant editor and reporter for the Lake County Record-Bee. In 2016, she graduated from Mount Saint Mary's University, Los Angeles. Have a story tip? Message her on Twitter (@tammyxmurga) or at [email protected]


text:
Flag Desecration Amendment
The Flag Desecration Amendment, often referred to as the flag burning amendment, is a controversial proposed constitutional amendment to the United States Constitution that would allow the United States Congress to statutorily prohibit expression of political views through the physical desecration of the flag of the United States. The concept of flag desecration continues to provoke a heated debate over protecting a national symbol, protecting free speech, and protecting the liberty represented by a national symbol.
While the proposed amendment is most frequently referred to colloquially in terms of "flag burning," the language would permit the prohibition of all forms of flag desecration, which may take forms other than burning, such as using the flag for clothing or napkins.
The most recent attempt to adopt a flag desecration amendment failed in the United States Senate by one vote [ [http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/06/27/flag.burning/index.html Flag-burning amendment fails by a vote] , "CNN.com, June 28, 2006.] on June 27, 2006. [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/27/washington/27cnd-flag.html Amendment on Flag Burning Fails by One Vote in Senate] , "New York Times".]
Proposed amendment
The full text of the amendment (passed several times by the U.S. House of Representatives):
:"The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States."
This proposed amendment was intended to give Congress the right to enact statutes criminalizing the burning or other desecration of the United States flag in a public protest. Proponents of legislation to proscribe flag burning argue that burning the flag is a very offensive gesture that deserves to be formally outlawed. Opponents maintain that giving Congress such power would essentially limit the principle of freedom of speech — enshrined in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and symbolized by the flag itself.
Principal theories underlying these First Amendment principles include a robust national discourse about political and social ideas, individual self-realization, the search for truth, and speech as a "safety valve." These concepts are expounded in both the majority and dissenting opinions of the cases described below. There Justice William Joseph Brennan, Jr. noted that the "Principal function of free speech under our system of government is to invite dispute; it may indeed best serve its high purpose when it induces condition of unrest, creates dissatisfaction with conditions as they are, or even stirs people to anger." [491 US 397, 428 (1989)]
Many polls concerning flag desecration have reached different conclusions. A summer 2005 poll by the First Amendment Center found that 63% of Americans opposed amending the constitution to outlaw flag burning, up from 53% in 2004. [ [http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=15418 firstamendmentcenter.org: news] .] A USA Today/Gallup Poll in June 2006 found that 54% of Americans opposed a flag desecration amendment. [ [http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-06-26-poll-results_x.htm Poll results show support for Iraq pullout, flag-burning amendment] , "USA Today".] Some sources claim that a USA Today/Gallup Poll in June 2006 reached the opposite conclusion, with 56% supporting a constitutional amendment. [ [http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0629/p02s02-uspo.html Why the flag amendment hasn't cleared Senate hurdle] , csmonitor.com.] ] [ [http://washingtonobserver.org/en/document.cfm?documentid=58&charid=3 Shall We Burn the National Flag? Chat on the Eve of National Day] ] , "Washington Observer"] ] Another poll conducted by CNN in June 2006 found that 56% of Americans supported a flag desecration amendment. [ [http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/06/27/flag.burning/index.html Flag-burning amendment fails by a vote] , "CNN.com", June 28, 2006.] Overall, it does seem that support for a flag desecration amendment is on the decline; Gallup's 1999 poll showed 63% favoring a flag burning amendment while its 2006 poll found 56% supporting such an amendment. [ [http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0629/p02s02-uspo.html Why the flag amendment hasn't cleared Senate hurdle | csmonitor.com ] ]
Judicial and legislative history
The first federal Flag Protection Act was passed by Congress in 1968 in response to protest burnings of the flag at demonstrations against the Vietnam War. [PDFlink| [http://lugar.senate.gov/CRS%20reports/Flag_Protection.pdf Flag Protection: A Brief History and Summary of Recent Supreme Court Decisions and Proposed Constitutional Amendment] | 50.7 KiB ] Over time, 48 of the 50 U.S. states also enacted similar flag protection laws. All of these statutes were overturned by the Supreme Court of the United States by a 5-4 vote in the case "Texas v. Johnson", 491 U.S. 397 (1989) as unconstitutional restrictions of public expression.
After the "Johnson" decision, Congress quickly passed a new Flag Protection Act, which was also struck down by the Supreme Court the following year by the same 5-4 majority in the case "United States v. Eichman", 496 U.S. 310 (1990). The Court decided that expression through flag burning was constitutionally protected.
The decisions were very controversial and have prompted Congress to consider the only remaining legal avenue to enact flag protection statutes—a constitutional amendment. Each Congress since the "Johnson" decision has considered creating a flag desecration amendment. Since 1995, beginning with the 104th Congress, the proposed amendment has been approved biennially by the two-thirds majority necessary in the U.S. House of Representatives, but it has consistently failed to achieve the same constitutionally-required super-majority vote in the U.S. Senate (during some sessions, the proposed amendment did not even come to a vote in the Senate before the expiration of the Congress' term).
Several local governments and civic organizations have sent non-binding petitions to Congress asking that this amendment be proposed for ratification. However, some local governments oppose the amendment, and have sent their own petitions to Congress.Fact|date=February 2008
In both the "Johnson" and "Eichman" decisions, the statutes were struck down by a block composed of Justices William J. Brennan, Thurgood Marshall, Harry Blackmun, Antonin Scalia, and Anthony Kennedy. The dissenters in both cases were Chief Justice William Rehnquist , and Justices John Paul Stevens, Byron White and Sandra Day O'Connor.
Congressional votes
During each term of Congress since 1995, the proposed amendment has passed the House of Representatives, but not the Senate, falling four votes short on two occasions in the upper body. As approved by the House of Representatives each time, the joint resolutions have called for ratification by state legislatures—of which a minimum of 38 state legislative approvals would be required (three-fourths of the 50 states) within a period of seven years following its proposal by both houses of Congress. As can be seen by the votes in the House of Representatives, support for the amendment appears to be slipping with only 286 "yes" votes during the 109th Congress in 2005 in contrast to the 312 "yes" votes a decade earlier during the 104th.
The chronology of the Congress' action upon the flag-desecration amendment runs over a period of more than ten years:
In order to be added to the Constitution, it must likewise be approved by a two-thirds vote of those present and voting in the 100-member Senate, as well as be ratified by at least three-fourths of the 50 state legislatures. Senators had until the end of 2006 to take action on H.J. Res. 10 during the remainder of the 109th Congress. On March 7, 2006, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist announced that he would bring the bill up for consideration in June 2006."House Approves Move to Outlaw Flag Burning", June 22, 2005, [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/06/22/national/w154243D82.DTL Associated Press via "San Francisco Chronicle"] ] On Monday, June 26, 2006, the Senate began debate on the proposed amendment. The following day, the amendment, sponsored by Senator Orrin Hatch, fell one vote short in the Senate, with 66 in support and 34 opposed. The Republican nay votes were from Bob Bennett (UT), Lincoln Chafee (RI), and Mitch McConnell (KY). The vote on Senator Richard Durbin's alternative amendment, which would have given Congress the power to ban flag desecration intended to intimidate or breach peace on federal land, was 36-64. [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/27/washington/27cnd-flag.html Amendment on Flag Burning Fails by One Vote in Senate - New York Times ] ] Opponents pointed to the proximity of the vote to the November 7, 2006 Congressional Election, and claimed that the vote (and a recent vote on the Federal Marriage Amendment) was election year grandstanding.
Arguments for the amendment
Proponents of the amendment argue that protecting the flag is necessary because of the uniquely important nature of the flag. They argue the flag is the most revered symbol of the United States itself, and thus burning it is a profoundly offensive gesture towards all its citizens. In his dissenting opinion in "Texas v. Johnson", the late Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist wrote,
"The American flag, then, throughout more than 200 years of our history, has come to be the visible symbol embodying our Nation. It does not represent the views of any particular political party, and it does not represent any particular political philosophy. The flag is not simply another 'idea' or 'point of view' competing for recognition in the marketplace of ideas. Millions and millions of Americans regard it with an almost mystical reverence regardless of what sort of social, political, or philosophical beliefs they may have. I cannot agree that the First Amendment invalidates the Act of Congress, and the laws of 48 of the 50 States, which make criminal the public burning of the flag."
Rehnquist also argued that flag burning is "no essential part of any exposition of ideas" but rather "the equivalent of an inarticulate grunt or roar that, it seems fair to say, is most likely to be indulged in not to express any particular idea, but to antagonize others."
Quoting the famous lines, "Shoot if you must, this old grey head, but spare your country's flag," from the Civil War poem, "Barbara Fritchie," he said the flag was "the visible symbol embodying our Nation."
Arguments against the amendment
Opponents of the flag desecration proposal, including civil liberties groups and First Amendment defenders, point out the rarity of flag desecration in the United States, and assert that the proposed amendment is the epitome of "a solution in search of a problem." They also say that an amendment making such activity illegal would undermine the very principles for which the flag stands; jailing protesters of dissenting opinion—such as those who burn national flags—is common under authoritarian regimes.
Another argument stems from the fact that groups such as the American Legion and the Boy Scouts of America regularly burn flags as a way to dispose of them in a respectful manner in keeping with the United States Flag Code. According to this argument, the amendment would single out people who committed the same acts with different intentions — thus, the amendment would regulate free thought, in contradiction with the First Amendment. Additionally, the question arises of what exactly constitutes a "flag". "Do the small, paper flags attached to toothpicks count as one of the sacred items", for example, would be a common question. One could also wonder if, for example, kicking out a chalk flag drawing by walking on it (or even drawing it on a surface where people regularly walk on) is a form of desecration. It is further pointed out by some opponents that as flag desecration is done as a means of protest, it is an attention-getting act. Thus calling attention to it by prosecuting and jailing those responsible (and turning them into martyrs and political prisoners in the eyes of their supporters), would serve only to make flag desecration a more attractive means of protest, and therefore, increase the incidence of it.
In light of this argument, the framing of this Amendment as dealing with flag burning is misleading. As the Supreme Court has never declared it unconstitutional to ban the burning of flags, it is not clear that a Constitutional Amendment would be necessary to effect such a ban. Indeed, most localities have ordinances restricting the burning of any material, flags included. In "Texas v. Johnson", the Supreme Court did not find that it is unconstitutional to ban the burning of flags, but that it is unconstitutional to ban "the expression of particular political views" through the burning of flags. Thus, this Amendment is aimed not at banning the burning of flags, but at banning the expression of particular political views through the burning of flags.
Furthermore, it must be understood that while this is presented as preventing flag burning, the term "desecration" refers to a much broader range of activities, and in fact can be applied to anything that is determined to be "disrespectful", including not only affirmative acts, but failures to act. Previous arrests under flag-desecration laws have been made for symbolic desecration such as failure to salute the flag, refusal to pledge allegiance to the flag, and speaking contemptuously of the flag. Some Jehovah's Witnesses, Muslims, and others feel that the pledge and salute elevate the flag above the status of God. Amending the Constitution to make flag desecration laws possible might also result in the punishment of members of these religious groups. For example, in the case of "Minersville School District v. Gobitis", 310 U.S. 586 (1940), the Supreme Court upheld the expulsion from school of children who refused to recite the pledge of allegiance on religious grounds. Thus, some American citizens fear one day being forced to salute the flag and being legally coerced into saying the pledge of allegiance if this amendment is enacted. However, this decision was overturned in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette.
In the majority opinion in "Texas v. Johnson", Justice William J. Brennan wrote:"We do not consecrate the flag by punishing its desecration, for in doing so we dilute the freedom that this cherished emblem represents."
Potential interpretations of the amendment
In 2005, the First Amendment Center published a report titled "Implementing a Flag-Desecration Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: An end to the controversy ... or a new beginning?". [ [http://www.fac.org/PDF/FirstReport.Flag.Desecration_FINAL.PDF Robert Corn-Revere, "Implementing a Flag-Desecration Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: An end to the controversy ... or a new beginning?"] ] The report pointed out that the effect of the proposed amendment would likely be challenged on collateral matters in ways that will require the courts, and ultimately the U.S. Supreme Court, to parse the exact meaning of ambiguous terms contained therein. The focus of the report was on the meanings that would be assigned to the phrases, "physical desecration" and "flag of the United States."
The phrase "physical desecration" might be open to various interpretations concerning the uncertainty of the context of desecration. For example, uncertainty exists over whether the term includes the wearing of the flag as clothing, receiving a tattoo of the flag, or flying a flag upside-down. It is uncertain what can be interpreted as "physical desecration", as it may or may not require that the flag actually be physically damaged, or even merely made to appear damaged. It is also unclear whether "virtual flag desecration" (which could be defined as an artistic depiction of flag desecration, a computerized simulation of flag desecration, or burning any object which has a flag on it) would be subject to the amendment. There is also a question over whether the perpetrator of such an act is required to have a specific intent to "desecrate" in order to be prosecuted. The Report of the 108th Congress, in proposing this amendment, stated::
"...'desecrate' means deface, damage, or otherwise physically mistreat in a way that the actor knows will seriously offend one or more persons likely to observe or discover his action..."
This seems to suggest that the amendment will apply only to acts where the actor intends offense.
Since the amendment would allow prohibition against only "the flag of the United States," it could be construed as only applying to flags that are the "property" of the United States government, as opposed to private property. This language could also be interpreted as being limited to flags that meet the exact specifications for the United States flag laid out in federal law. It is unclear what effect the amendment would have with respect to former flags of the United States, such as the 48-star flag that preceded the admission of Alaska and Hawaii, or the original 13-star , or how far from the traditional definition of a flag a symbol could deviate (for example, having orange stripes instead of red) before falling out of the ambit of the amendment's jurisdiction.
The First Amendment Center concluded that the Supreme Court was likely to interpret this language narrowly, resulting in decisions that would not satisfy either proponents or opponents of the proposed amendment. Other possible interpretive issues were not addressed by the First Amendment Center report.
First, no scope is stated in the amendment. The Supreme Court has previously held that Congress may prohibit foreign acts that have an effect in the United States, in "Hartford Fire Insurance Co. v. California", 509 U.S. 764 (1993), and certainly the desecration of the flag on foreign soil would likely have the intended effect of offending United States citizens. However, the general rule is that a law does not apply outside the United States unless the language of the law expressly provides for such an application. It is therefore unclear whether Congress would be able to prescribe punishments for those who burn the flag of the United States in a foreign country.
Second, the amendment would empower "Congress" to act, but not the states. Congress might interpret the amendment as giving it the power to ratify state laws to this effect, as it does for interstate compacts. The Court may find that the amendment has a preemptive effect, acting as a bar to anyone other than Congress itself passing such regulations. If so, then cases involving flag desecration would likely be restricted to the U.S. federal courts, as are cases involving criminal violations of copyright law. These are the only criminal courts over which Congress has jurisdiction to permit federal crimes to be heard.
All of these questions would necessarily await the interpretative role of the courts, and such a process would likely require several years for the resolution of each issue.
* [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:S.J.RES.12: Text of the proposed Amendment from the Library of Congress]
* [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/cpquery/T?&report=hr131&dbname=cp108& Committee Report on the Flag Protection Constitutional Amendment]
* [http://civilliberty.about.com/od/freespeech/p/flagburning.htm A History of Flag-Burning Laws] . A history of U.S. laws banning flag burning and other forms of flag desecration, from 1897 to the proposed Flag Desecration Amendment.
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/31/magazine/31ONLANGUAGE.html?ex=1280462400&en=4a69efa91f4d272b&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss On Language: Desecration] . Column in the New York Times (July 31, 2005) by William Safire on the use of the word "desecration" in the proposed amendment.
* [http://wwwnew.towson.edu/clt/editorials/peak3.html Flag-Burning: a Detriment to the Oceanian Way] , a satire by Alexander S. Peak
* [http://www.scalzi.com/whatever/003585.html Cracking the Flag-Burning Amendment]
* [http://www.esquilax.com/flag/history.shtml A Brief History of Flag Burning]
* [http://www.sethbutler.com/tattered TATTERED: Investigation of an American Icon] is a documentary photo essay, investigating the principle identity, misuse, commodification and desecration of the American flag in the context of the U.S. Flag Code.
* [http://burntflag.com Flag-burning from your armchair] , a flag-burning parody.
* [http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Citizens_Flag_Alliance SourceWatch article on Citizens Flag Alliance]
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Flag Desecration Amendment — Demonstranten in Washington Das Flag Desecration Amendment (Flaggenschändungsergänzung), auch als flag burning amendment bekannt, ist ein vorgeschlagener Zusatzartikel zur Verfassung der Vereinigten Staaten. Der neue Artikel würde den Kongress… … Deutsch Wikipedia
Flag desecration — and flags of other countries. Some countries have laws protecting the right to burn a flag as free speech. BackgroundFlags can be destroyed by burning or can be defaced with slogans, excrement, etc. Flags can be walked upon, spat upon, or dragged … Wikipedia
flag desecration — Flagrant misuse of flag by such acts as mutilation, defacement, or burning. Statutes making such acts criminal offenses (e.g. 18 U.S.C.A. No. 700 (1989)) have been held to be unconstitutional as violating the freedom of expression protection of… … Black's law dictionary
Flag of the United States — American Flag redirects here. For the Arizona ghost town, see American Flag, Arizona. Flag of Columbia redirects here. For the flag of the South American country, see Flag of Colombia. Flag of the United States of America Name … Wikipedia
Flag Protection Act of 2005 — The Flag Protection Act of 2005 was a proposed United States federal law introduced by Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Robert Bennett. The law would have outlawed flag burning, and called for a punishment of one year in jail and a fine of… … Wikipedia
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Flag Protection Act — Origin of the Flag Protection Act, United States Reacting to protests during the Vietnam War era, the 90th Congress enacted Public Law 90 381 (82 Stat. 291), later codified as 18 U.S.C. 700, et. seq., and better known as the Flag Protection Act… … Wikipedia
First Amendment to the United States Constitution — First Amendment redirects here. For other uses, see First Amendment (disambiguation). United States of America This a … Wikipedia


It doesn't get much easier than this. Cut a piece of Painted Blooms Designer Series Paper, layer it onto coordinating Card Stock, add a coordinating ribbon, stamp your sentiment and you have a quick, but really pretty card.
I love all of the paper in the Painted Blooms Designer Series Paper pack, and some of the designs are so pretty that you don't need to stamp anything else to it to create your card. I did stamp some additional small flowers around my Thank You, and cut this out using my Artisan Label Punch, and cut one more Punch using Black Berry Bliss Card Stock and cut it in half so I could layer it around my sentiment. I will really hate to see this paper go so I just might have to stock up on a few packs before it is retired.


Koh Samui is a good place to head for a few days R&R. The sand is golden, the water is clear and warm and there's a low-key party scene that will keep you locked in night after night. If you fancy heading to a spot that offers you all your entertainment in one place then Bophut Fisherman's Village is the place for you. Getting to Bophut Fisherman's Village from Bodega Koh Samui is best done by bike, so grab a rental and be on your way!
Compared to quieter parts of the island and neighboring Koh Phangan, the Village is a bustling hub of tourist services and it really comes alive on Friday nights when the market hits its peak and locals mix with visitors in a big, friendly crowd.
If you were to put a Western label on this place then it might well be 'hipster', but we mean that in the best possible way! Bophut Fisherman's Village is a modernized zone of quirky cafes, great restaurants and high-end shopping, where you can get your coffee brewed a thousand different ways and grab some great, unique souvenirs direct from the people who crafted them.
The name harks back to a time when the village really was just a launching spot for fishermen. Those times may have gone and the little wooden fishing boats have moved on to make way for the stalls and markets of modern-day Bophut, but it's still a lovely place with a great sense of community.
This is the place to come to shop for high quality arts and crafts, along with women's clothes, spices, and jewelry. The prices are slightly higher than elsewhere in Thailand but the quality is often better too; it's still OK to haggle here, so ask for the best price and you might be pleasantly surprised.
At the end of the main street through the village you'll find The Wharf, a shopping plaza close to the beach. The shops here are the most expensive but you're paying for the location; this is prime property in Bophut!
If Bophut isn't quite your style, there's plenty of other night markets in Samui you can check out!
Once you've had your retail therapy for the day, head to Bophut Beach just a short stroll away from the main street. This gorgeous stretch of white sand isn't the quietest spot in Thailand but it's not been ruined by tourism either. Small beach restaurants are dotted along the length of the shoreline and there's a fleet of jets-kis waiting to be taken for a spin round the bay.
After the sun has set and hunger strikes, head back to the main strip to enjoy the evening walking street. Food stalls rub shoulders with artisan craft centers, and the whole place has a real buzz about it. The action kicks off at 5pm but you will still find people willing to whip you up a tasty pad thai or tom yum until about 11pm.
Those in the know head to the strip of beach near Coco Tams, where the music gets turned up and the ubiquitous Thai drinks buckets come out. This isn't a rave by any means, but it's a great place to meet other travelers and swap stories.
Every taxi driver on Samui will know where the Village is, so jump in a red songthaew truck and relax. If you want to self-drive then hiring a scooter is only 150 baht a day so there's no excuse not to get to Bophut to pick up some bargains! There's a parking area on the right hand side of the entrance where the attendants will guard your vehicle for a small tip, which is pretty handy.


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Jos Buttler backs stood-down James Anderson as England name Ashes squad
December 7, 2021, 6:38 am Updated: December 7, 2021, 12:10 pm
England's Jos Buttler has backed James Anderson to play a substantial Ashes role (Alastair Grant/Nigel French, PA Images).
Jos Buttler backed James Anderson to play a big role in the Ashes – and beyond – despite England's decision to stand their record wicket-taker down from the first Test as a fitness precaution.
Although passed fit Anderson was absent from the tourists' 12-man squad for the curtain-raiser at The Gabba and will spend the next five days fine-tuning his skills in the nets while the two old rivals look to get the best of each other, and a dodgy weather forecast, in Brisbane.
Elsewhere head coach Chris Silverwood and captain Joe Root have thrown their faith behind Surrey's Ollie Pope, handing him the number five slot ahead of the more experienced Jonny Bairstow, and will make a late call on whether or not to include spinner Jack Leach.
If they do decide they need the slow left-armer's variety, Anderson's long-term new ball partner Stuart Broad could join him on the sidelines, leaving over a thousand Test wickets in the dressing room.
The decision to shelve Anderson, the most prolific seamer in history, was met with surprise in Australia but with five Tests squeezed into the next six weeks the veteran was always unlikely to be an ever-present. Instead he is gearing towards the next game – a day/night clash in Adelaide where England hope he can make the pink Kookaburra talk under lights.
Memories of the 2019 Ashes – when he broke down on the first morning and was not seen again – also played their part. But Buttler made it clear that Anderson was still going to be a big factor Down Under and is not giving any indication that his long and illustrious career is winding down.
R Burns, H Hameed, D Malan, J Root (c), O Pope, B Stokes, J Buttler (wk), C Woakes, O Robinson, M Wood, J Leach, S Broad.
"Jimmy's not going to play but he is fit. It's just precautionary," he said.
"It's obviously a very long series and we want a guy like that to be available to play as much of a part as possible. Jimmy's been bowling and bowling well – I faced him in the nets that's been a great challenge going into a Test match.
"It seems that age is just a number for Jimmy at the minute. He's in fantastic shape, his skills are brilliant as always and he still seems to be trying to improve and learn new things.
"That hunger doesn't seem to be wavering at all, he still gets just as grumpy if he bowls a bad ball and his competitiveness is incredibly high in anything he does, let alone on a cricket field. I certainly see him wanting to continue as long as he can and there doesn't feel like there's anything in the way of him doing that at the moment."
James Anderson/Instagram
Anderson posted on Instagram: "Gutted to be missing the first test but it's a long series with a lot of cricket to be played. I'll be doing all I can to help from the sidelines this week.
"The squad have been working tirelessly and we're so excited to get started."
The decision to back Pope over Bairstow is also significant. The latter has experience of playing Ashes cricket away from home, as well as a fine century in Perth to look back on from 2017, but has had an indifferent 2021 since his Test recall.
Ollie Pope during a nets session at The Gabba (Jason O'Brien/PA)
Pope also knows he is overdue a down payment on his undeniable potential – an average of 32.16 representing a modest return from his first 20 caps – but he has caught the eye in practice and now has a big opportunity to shine.
Incongruously, Buttler is also preparing to make his first Ashes appearance on Australian soil, more than 10 years on from his international debut. He was still typecast as a limited-overs specialist during England's last Test visit to these shores and has found the tag hard to shed, despite racking up 53 caps in the five-day format and enjoying two spells as vice-captain.
If there was ever a time to settle the debate, this is it.
"For any English player, to come and tour Australia in the Ashes is certainly on your bucket list," he said.
"I remember coming here on a Lions tour in 2013 and I went to watch a few of the days of the Test here in Brisbane. When you see it up close you understand the intensity and hostility of this environment.
"I'm incredibly excited about the challenge. It's going to be incredibly tough but that's kind of what you want to play the game for. I'll throw myself into it as much as I can and I know I need to be near my best to be successful."
England boost as Exeter confirm Henry Slade is available for trip to Montpellier