text:
Why InGenius
What Is CTI?
Partner Demo System
About InGenius
/ Company
As a computer telephony integration (CTI) innovator, Upland InGenius connects existing telephone systems into leading CRMs with maximum flexibility, for world-class customer experiences and increased agent productivity.
InGenius Software Inc. was founded in 1996 as a real-time software development and contract R&D provider. The business evolved over the next 15 years, offering various software-related services and building products for streaming video, dynamic HTML, unified communications, mobile applications, softphones and other telephony applications. During these years, customer software development projects in the telephony space led the team to the realization that there was significant demand for the capability to connect phones directly into the CRM. Customers wanted a product that didn't require desktop software and was scalable to the enterprise.
In 2011, InGenius Software moved to an exclusive focus on computer telephony integration (CTI) to address this need. The following year, InGenius Connector Enterprise was officially launched and it continues to be the company's flagship product today. InGenius Software was acquired by Upland Software, Inc. (Nasdaq: UPLD) in October 2019, and became Upland InGenius.
Over the past 2 decades, InGenius has successfully delivered key telephony-related products and mission-critical systems to Fortune 500 companies, providing them with a tailored set of technology, systems and expertise. Enterprise customers trust InGenius to deliver business value to each of their unique environments.
Dale Gantous
Rich Loen
Jonathan Black
Vice President, Sales
Karen Holliday
Senior Director, Customer Success
Senior Director, Business Development
Kari Simpson
Senior Director, Product Strategy
Jean-Francois Davignon
Director, Customer Solutions
Michael McMahon
Dale Gantous is an executive with over 30 years of management, sales, technical and financial experience in the software and telecom sectors. She has a Bachelor of Science Honours in mathematics, with a minor in computer science, from McGill University. After university, Dale began her career in Telesat Canada's Space Systems Department, where she first specialized in satellite control systems and software development – beginning her career as a proverbial rocket scientist. From 1996 to 2019, Dale was Chief Executive Office and co-owner of InGenius, spanning its inception as InGenius Engineering Inc. to InGenius Software Inc. Today, she is General Manager of Upland InGenius.
Dale is a winner of the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance's Sara Kirke Award for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. She is a popular speaker at conferences like Dreamforce and Avaya ENGAGE, and at tech events for groups including IEEE Women in Engineering and Ladies Learning Code. Her recent media features have been included in outlets such as Telecom Reseller, UC Today, the Ottawa Business Journal and Techopia Ottawa. Dale's job, as she knows and loves it, is turning technical genius into a continuously profitable stream of customer satisfaction, job creation and fun.
Rich Loen is an experienced entrepreneur, engineer, Chief Technology Officer and senior software architect, who has managed multiple successful startups. He got an early start in entrepreneurship, creating his first company while still in high school and his second while completing a degree in Electrical Engineering at Carleton University. He then went on to found a number of companies in Ottawa including InGenius Software Inc., InGenius Engineering Inc., sofTV.net, Rewind Technologies and IceRadio.com. Rich won the Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award from the Ottawa-Carleton Board of Trade, and his companies have won many awards.
Rich has developed applications including real-time embedded telephony systems sold by Verizon, Mitel and Westell, communications systems for Telesat Canada, shrink-wrapped products used by NASA, universities and governments, and computer telephony integration software for integrating CRMs like Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics with leading phone platforms. A number of news providers have produced features and profiles on Rich, including Bloomberg, the Ottawa Business Journal and Startup Stories Online, and Rich has been invited to speak about tech on CBC Television. He cares passionately about developing usable software that's loved by customers and about creating a friendly and productive work environment for his employees.
When he's not working, Rich likes to build CNC woodworking and metalworking machines, and has been invited to participate at various Maker Faires, including Makers Central in Birmingham, England. He gives popular talks at Makerspaces about how to build CNC machines. Rich is interested in finding the intersection of art and craftsmanship, with a dose of tech thrown in just for fun.
Jonathan Black is a seasoned finance executive, specializing in new venture funding, strategic planning and international development. He is the Vice President of Finance at Upland InGenius, where he oversees financial policy and budgets. Jonathan previously worked at Storm Internet, Jefferson Partners, SHOUT Research and webHancer, and was a Founding Member of CanWISP. He is a Partner of Kuro Partners and holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Western Ontario. When he's not crunching numbers, Jonathan can be found coaching his daughter's hockey team or pretending to be a ski instructor to get a free season's ski pass.
Jeff Knight is an executive with over 20 years of experience in the IT industry. Recognized as an expert in the field of CRM integration, Jeff's role is to represent and grow business for Upland Software while maximizing the service and value clients receive from Upland's industry-leading solutions. Formerly, Jeff held sales roles with sofTV.net, Zix Corporation and Entrust. He has a Bachelor of Arts from Carleton University and he continues to expand his expertise in unified communications and software as a service. In his off time, Jeff can be found pacing up and down the sidelines at his sons' soccer, football and basketball games.
Karen Holliday has a track record of developing products through strategy and execution, with experience spanning development, quality assurance, services and support. She has held previous senior leadership positions with Saba Software, Halogen Software, Avaya and Nortel, and has a Bachelor of Science, Honours, Computer Science from the University of Regina. At InGenius, Karen manages customer care and quality assurance to ensure a high-quality product and delighted customers. She is passionate about unraveling complexity to solve business problems. In her time outside of work, Karen sits as member of the Huntley Community Association Board of Directors and is an avid runner.
Brian Jensen is a successful entrepreneur and technology executive with over 20 years of experience in technology innovation, new product introduction and business growth. He held previous business development positions with Honeywell, SPARQ Systems and Gallium Software. Brian holds a Master of Applied Science in technology innovation management from Carleton University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Ottawa. At Upland InGenius, Brian is focused on developing strategic relationships with CRM and telephony partners, and overseeing quality and innovations in customer support. Outside of work, he enjoys football and foodie outings.
Kari Simpson is an accomplished senior leader, with over 20 years of experience guiding large development and integration high tech projects with multiple cross-project dependencies. She holds patents related to website content data, instant message and semi-synchronous communication session availability and computer-based reading training.
Kari has a Master of Education focused on online learning, and she previously held senior product management roles with BlackBerry, Mitel and AutoSkill International. Her insights on the contact center industry have been featured in Contact Center Pipeline and UC Today. Kari developed an understanding of successful call centers by working as a Customer Service Representative at two of Canada's largest utilities – Bell Canada and Consumers Gas.
As Senior Director of Product Strategy for Upland InGenius, she is responsible for the delivery of product roadmaps, enterprise customer requirements, business cases and product strategy. Kari offers unique expertise to successfully incubate, build and market customer-focused software.
With over 20 years of software development and team management experience, Jean-Francois Davignon specializes in architecting solutions to meet customer needs. He is a veteran software development manager with Scrum experience and a lot of hands-on software development practice. JF has worked on consumer products and embedded software, and architected enterprise software for InGenius, Mitel, COAST and Corel.
At Upland InGenius, JF manages a team of consultants and developers that deliver high quality solutions and keep product innovations moving forward. When he's not coding, JF likes to swim, ski, cook, and share good food with family, friends and whoever's up for a good time.
Michael McMahon is the Director of R&D for Upland InGenius. He has 25 years of experience in the software industry, and 20 years of technical management experience working with software developers and stakeholders. Mike's skills include project planning, performance and project management, and building teams both locally and offshore. As an Agile coach and evangelist, he has gained expertise in transitioning teams and running many types of Agile projects. He held positions previously with Oracle, MetaSolv Software and Nortel. Originally from Halifax, Mike studied computer science at Dalhousie University. Outside of work, he's an avid photographer & triathlete.
InGenius Software Inc. is a recognized leader in computer telephony integration and contact center technologies.
Canada's Top Growing Companies
The Report on Business ranking of Canada's Top Growing Companies from The Globe and Mail celebrates entrepreneurial achievement in Canada. InGenius earned a spot in 2019 based on 3-year revenue growth of 136%.
Growth 500
The Growth 500 recognizes Canadian businesses that have achieved aggressive 5-year revenue growth. InGenius was selected in 2019 for 5-year growth of 540% and in 2018 for 446% growth.
Employees' Choice Awards
The Employees' Choice Awards are given to the top 10 employers in Canada's National Capital Region. InGenius was a 2019-20 and 2018-19 award recipient.
Genesys AppFoundry Emerging Partner of the Year
The Emerging Partner of the Year award celebrates a top partner that has demonstrated growth and acumen working with Genesys customers. InGenius was the winner for 2018.
West Ottawa Board of Trade Business Excellence Awards
InGenius was selected for the Tech Award in 2018 by the West Ottawa Board of Trade, for demonstrating innovation and business sustainability in the technology industry.
TMC Labs Innovation Award
The TMC Labs Innovation Award honors products that demonstrate raw innovation and significant contributions to customer-related technologies. InGenius won in 2017.
Unified Communications Excellence Award
InGenius was chosen for the Unified Communications Excellence Award in 2017 for contributing trailblazing innovations to the contact center industry.
The team at InGenius has remained committed to a set of 7 core values from the very beginning of the company through to the present.
Brains with a Mission
We combine our strengths in software and telephony to deliver high quality products that make our customers successful and happy.
We stay at the forefront of technology developments and apply them in creative ways to develop world-leading products.
Open and Honest Communications
We fashion every aspect of our worklife with the common threads of equality, ethics and mutual respect for our employees, customers and partners.
Reaching for Success
We strive to offer the best solutions, sales and service in the world, and to win customers' confidence and business because of it.
Company Accountability
We manage responsibly with the company's long-term success in mind.
We collaborate across teams to ensure we achieve our corporate goals.
Employee Culture
We are committed to providing an enjoyable and growth-oriented environment for our employees.
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Marco Schito
Public Policy 101: Rationalist and Constructivst Ontology in Public Policy
Public policies are everywhere in today's world, but their ubiquity is also why their definition is often elusive and the analysis of public policies tends to be complex. The Public Policy 101 series offers the reader several tools of analysis that help make sense of the complexity of public policies. This 101 series comprises eight different articles, each focusing on a different aspect, which should provide the reader with a framework of analysis to better understand the complex world of public policy-making.
The stages of the policy process
Rationalist and constructivist ontology in public policy
An overview of the theories of the policy process
The public policy actors
The policy subsystem
Beyond national public policy
New approaches in public policy studies
Ontology and epistemology are two key terms in philosophy and the social sciences. The former refers to the nature of phenomena – what things are. It concerns the foundational claims about reality. The latter refers to how one can come to know these phenomena and things – that is, the standards used to establish the accuracy and truth of conjectures about how reality works (see Jones & Radaelli, 2015). While epistemology will be discussed more in depth in the next instalment of this series, the present article focuses on how actors involved in policy-making perceive reality. One cannot understand how phenomena can be explained if first the nature of said phenomena is not established.
A first tradition in the social sciences is the rationalist or positivist approach, which stemmed from economics and then spread to other disciplines. In this model, the individual – often labelled as homo oeconomicus – is a utility-maximising rational actor, facing a well-defined problem and equipped with perfect information (Forester, 1984). In other words, policy is logical, reasoned and neutral, and policy-makers can take the best possible decision to maximise their utility, having weighed up the alternatives (John, 2013: 24). To do this, the rational actor must possess a range of 'heroic qualities', as Griggs (2007: 174) put it. They must possess full information about the problem at hand, and have stable preferences that can be ranked in a clear and transitive order (e.g. x is better than y, which is better than z, meaning that x is also better than z). It must always be possible to specify, in a consistent way, that one outcome is better than, as good as, or worse than any other. This will allow rational actors to calculate costs and benefits of a particular course of action over others and compare potential different outcomes so as to choose those that confer the maximum utility to the actor or society (Griggs, 2007).
Figure 1: In a rational model, humans are very machine-like. Source: Pemptousia.
Such an exercise not only entails that actors can separate values from facts (i.e. have a positivist view of reality), but also that policy can be made linearly, as the policy cycle model proposes. In this approach, therefore, rationality is comprehensive in the sense that 'policy-makers translate their values and aims into consistent policy choices following a comprehensive study of all choices and their effects' (Cairney, 2019: 56-7). It is obvious that such a herculean feat is simply not possible: humans seldom have well-defined and consistent preferences; nor do they have perfect information and infinite time to make choices. People, as Cindy Kam (2005) put it, are 'cognitive misers': they are not machines able to simultaneously compare billions of alternatives, and must instead rely on informational shortcuts and heuristics to gather just enough evidence to make decisions (Cairney and Kwiatkowski, 2017).
As such, the behavioural model underpinning almost all theories of public policy is that of 'bounded rationality' (Simon, 1955, 1957, 1976; see also Jones, 2017; and Jones & Thomas III, 2018). Here, actors are not rational, but rather are fallible; they do not face well-defined problems, but ambiguous ones; they act upon imperfect knowledge and information; and the outcome is not optimising, but satisficing. Unlike comprehensive rationality, bounded rationality is based on four different tenets: (a) the principle of intended rationality, whereby actors are goal-oriented, but often fail to accomplish their intentions because of cognitive shortcomings that cannot cope with environmental complexities; (b) the principle of adaptation, according to which human thought is adaptive and based on the task facing people; (c) the principle of uncertainty, due to the complexity of social problems, which also affects probability calculus; and (d) the principle of trade-offs, whereby trading off one goal against another in a choice is far more difficult than comprehensive rationality suggests (Jones & Thomas III, 2018: 274-6).
Figure 2: Herbert Simon, the father of bounded rationality. Source: Wikipedia
Because of bounded rationality, the pursuit of ends in public policy is best understood as a satisficing process whereby policy-makers have to make decisions based on a limited amount of information that can be gathered and processed (John, 2013: 24). In other words, decision-makers act in situations of ambiguity which arise exactly because problems and preferences are not well known (see Zahariadis, 2007). Thus, decisions cannot be made on the basis of fully informed choices and policymakers tend towards what is 'good enough'.
But if the reality of public policy-making is one shaped by bounded rationality, what does this entail for how policy actors see and understand problems and solutions? First of all, in a situation of ambiguity policy actors must rely on heuristics and informational shortcuts, as mentioned before. Psychological research shows that rational reasoning often follows emotional reasoning (Haidt, 2001, 2012). Hence, good anchors for information processing are those that rely on emotions. These include beliefs and values that are already intrinsic to the individual (Sabatier & Jenkins-Smith, 1993; Jenkins-Smith et al., 2017); stories that can arouse emotions and appeal to beliefs (Jones et al., 2014; Shanahan et al., 2017); or value judgments based on conscious biases and strategic exploitation of social stereotypes (Ingram et al., 2007).
In all these cases, public policy becomes a social construction: decisions on which problem deserves attention and which solution should be chosen are not part of a utility-maximising process where policy-makers have perfect information about the world and infinite time to make decisions. Rather, they follow the tenets of bounded rationality, whereby the definition of problems and solutions depends on deep psychological, behavioural and social limitations.
Figure 3: In public policy theories, reality is often taken as a social construction. Source: The Partially Examined Life
To be sure, bounded rationality is not the only way to tweak comprehensive rationality. A long tradition exists that runs parallel to Herbert Simon's work, in which rationality is not merely bounded in terms of cognitive limits, but is also the result of actors belonging to competing interest groups (Lindblom, 1959). In this case, the problem is not merely ambiguous, but presents multiple definitions, and knowledge can be contested, withheld or manipulated. This approach is often typical of the problem definition literature, where problems are understood to be 'wicked' in the sense that they are complex, open-ended, and intractable (Alford & Head, 2017; Head, 2008; Rittel & Webber, 1973). The resulting outcome is one in which bargaining and incremental adjustments prevail – 'muddling through' as Lindblom (1959) called it – but in which radical change can sometimes take place (Baumgartner & Jones, 2009; Baumgartner et al., 2017).
Finally, rationality can be bounded in the sense that it is distorted by the political-economic structures of inequality: the problem is defined strictly in ideological terms and information, far from perfect, blurs into misinformation. Under these conditions, Forester (1984: 28) suggests, incrementalist strategies tend to be profoundly conservative and change can only occur through restructuring strategies aimed at redressing inequalities. This approach is most strongly purported in critical policy studies, often based on authors such as Marx, Habermas or Foucault.
In conclusion, rationalism and constructivism in public policy should not necessarily be understood as complete opposite ontological approaches. Rather, they belong to different positions in the same ontological spectrum that differently understand human behaviour in reality-construction (for a similar approach in European politics studies, see Christiansen et al., 1999). Rationality is never unbounded – it is just not in our human nature. But at the same time, the boundedness of rationality should not be confined to cognitive limits. These limits can also be socio-political, based on contested knowledge and multiple competing groups, as Lindblom suggests; or they can be grounded in broader structures of inequality, which can warp one's perception and understanding of reality in ways that are most consistent with one's positioning in such structures. The next step is then to see how, based on different ontologies, theories of the policy process apply varying epistemologies to study public policy.
Alford, J., & Head, B. W. (2017). Wicked and less wicked problems: a typology and a contingency framework. Policy and Society, 36(3), 397-413.
Baumgartner, F. & Jones, B. D. (2009). Agendas and Instability in American Politics. 2nd edition. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Baumgartner, F., Jones, B. D. & Mortensen, P. (2017). Punctuated Equilibrium Theory: Explaining Stability and Change in Public Policymaking. In Theories of the Policy Process, 4th ed. Weible, C. M. and Sabatier, P. A. (Eds.). London: Routledge, pp. 55-102.
Cairney, P. (2019). Understanding Public Policy. 2nd edition. London: Red Globe Press.
Cairney, P., & Kwiatkowski, R. (2017). How to communicate effectively with policymakers: combine insights from psychology and policy studies. Nature Communications, 3(1), 1-8.
Christiansen, T., Jorgensen, K. E., & Wiener, A. (1999). The social construction of Europe. Journal of European Public Policy, 6(4), 528-544.
Forester, J. (1984). Bounded rationality and the politics of muddling through. Public Administration Review, 44(1), 23-31.
Griggs. S. (2007). Rational Choice in Public Policy: The Theory in Critical Perspective. In Handbook of Public Policy Analysis – Theory, Politics, and Methods. Fischer, F., Miller G. J., and Sidney, M. S. (Eds.). London: CRC Press, pp. 173-186.
Haidt, J. (2001). The emotional dog and its rational tail: a social intuitionist approach to moral judgment. Psychological Review, 108(4), 814-834.
Haidt, J. (2012). The righteous mind: Why good people are divided by politics and religion. London: Penguin Books.
Head, B. W. (2008). Wicked problems in public policy. Public Policy, 3(2), 101-118.
Ingram, H., deLeon, P., and Schneider, A. (2007). Democratic Policy Design: Social Construction of Target Populations. In Theories of the Policy Process, 2nd edition. Sabatier, P. A. (Ed.). London: Routledge, pp. 93-128.
John, P. (2013). Analyzing Public Policy. 2nd edition. London & New York, NY: Routledge.
Jenkins-Smith, H. C., Nohrstedt, D., Weible, C. M., and Ingold, K. (2017). The Advocacy Coalition Framework: An Overview of the Research Programme. In Theories of the Policy Process, 4th ed. Weible, C. M. and Sabatier, P. A. (Eds.). London: Routledge, pp. 135-172.
Jones, B. D. (2017). Behavioral rationality as a foundation for public policy studies. Cognitive Systems Research, 43, 63-75.
Jones, B. D. and Thomas III, H. F. (2018). Bounded rationality and public policy decision-making. In Routledge Handbook of Public Policy. Araral, E. Jr, Fritzen, S., Howlett, M. and Ramesh, M. (Eds.). London and New York, NY: Routledge, pp. 273-286.
Jones, M. D., & Radaelli, C. M. (2015). The narrative policy framework: Child or monster?. Critical Policy Studies, 9(3), 339-355.
Jones, Michael D., Mark K. McBeth, and Elizabeth A. Shanahan. (2014). Introducing the Narrative Policy Framework. In The science of stories: Applications of the narrative policy framework in public policy analysis. Jones, M. D., McBeth, M. K, and Shanahan, E. A. (Eds.). New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 1-26.
Kam, C. D. (2005). Who toes the party line? Cues, values, and individual differences. Political Behavior, 27(2), 163-182.
Lindblom, C. (1959). The science of Muddling Through. Public Administration Review, 24(3): 79-88.
Rittel, H. W., & Webber, M. M. (1973). Dilemmas in a general theory of planning. Policy Sciences, 4(2), 155-169.
Sabatier, P.A. and Jenkins-Smith, H. C. (1993). Policy Change and Learning: And Advocacy Coalition Approach. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Shanahan, E. A., Jones, M. D., McBeth, M. K., and Radaelli, C. M. (2017). The Narrative Policy Framework. In Theories of the Policy Process, 4th ed. Weible, C. M. and Sabatier, P. A. (Eds.). London: Routledge, pp. 173-214.
Simon, H. A. (1955). A behavioral model of rational choice. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 69(1), 99-118.
Simon, H. A. (1957). Models of Man: Social and Rational. New York, NY: John Wiley.
Simon, H. A. (1976). Administrative Behavior. 3rd edition. London: MacMillan.
Zahariadis, N. (2007). The Multiple Streams Framework: Structure, Limitations, Prospects. In Theories of the Policy Process, 2nd edition. Sabatier, P. A. (Ed.). London: Routledge, pp. 65-92.
Image References
Figure 1: Pemptousia (2018, 1st December). The Repercussion of rationalism on our lives [Drawing]. Retrieved from: https://pemptousia.com/2018/12/the-repercussions-of-rationalism-in-our-life-2/
Figure 2: Wikipedia (n.d.) Photograph of Simon Herbert circa 1981 [Photograph from News and Events, a newsletter published by the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT)]. Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_A._Simon
Figure 3: The partially examined life (2019, 7th October). Ep. 227: What Is Social Construction? (Hacking, Berger) (Part One) [Drawing]. Retrieved from: https://partiallyexaminedlife.com/2019/10/07/ep227-1-social-construction/
bounded rationality

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The PES Chorus, under the direction of Mrs. Hashem, participated in the annual Penacook Tree Lighting ceremony on Wednesday, December 3rd. They were featured in the Concord Monitor on Thursday with a photo. We are very proud of the time and dedication our chorus students put into participating in community events.


German (de)Syrische Kulturgüter in der Schweiz aufbewahren?
Russian (ru)Швейцария сохранит культурное наследие Сирии?
This undated photo released on August 25, 2015, on a social media site used by Islamic State militants shows the destruction of the 2,000-year-old Syrian Temple of Baalshamin. The Arabic at bottom reads: "The moment of detonation of the pagan Baalshamin temple in the city of Palmyra."
As death and destruction continues in Syria without an end in sight, three archaeologists tell swissinfo.ch of the importance of preserving the nation's cultural heritage, how the Swiss could help train people to do this, and the role played by Switzerland as a safe haven.
What goes through an archaeologist's mind when they see historic sites or museum objects that are thousands of years old being blown up or demolished?
"As a Syrian archaeologist, I'm obviously very, very sad. This is really a tragedy for our cultural heritage," said Mohamad Fakhro, a lecturer at the University of Aleppo, the worst-hit city in the civil war.
That's the motivation behind a recent talk given in Bern by Fakhro, Mohammed Alkhalid, a post-doc student of Near Eastern Archaeology at the University of Bern, and Cynthia Dunning, director of ArchaeoConceptexternal link, an independent Swiss company that finds solutions for problems encountered by archaeologists and heritage managers.
In their TEDx presentation, they focused on the work of Shirinexternal link (Syrian Heritage in Danger: an International Research Initiative and Network), which brings together experts in various fields to support governmental bodies and NGOs in their efforts to preserve and safeguard the heritage of Syria. Dunning is an advisor to Shirin's international committee.
"My hope is that my Swiss colleagues in the cantons and universities or even in private companies will also participate in this reconstruction for the future, helping us find places for people to do some training," Dunning told swissinfo.ch.
For its part, the Swiss Federal Culture Office has played a central role in safeguarding the transfer of cultural propertyexternal link for many years.
"The safe haven is very special," said Dunning, who was responsible for the archaeological service of canton Bern from 1998 to 2010.
However, it's not as simple as Switzerland offering to look after objects and archaeologists then sending them over. "The government in Syria must say it wants to protect its cultural goods and must ask Switzerland to organise a safe haven for its objects. And that's not the case. It hasn't asked," she said.
Fakhro says he has tried to contact his colleagues in the directorate of antiquities and museum in Damascus to make them aware of the Swiss safe haven, but he says the law in Syria prevents them from taking advantage of it.
"It's completely forbidden. They say that if they were to do something like that, it would mean the government is weak," he said.
For Dunning, destroying a country's past means destroying irreplaceable memories, "so we have to work to try to find methods that somehow impede that by getting people involved in reconstructing the future in these countries – Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq or wherever".
The civil war in Syria, which has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and displaced millions, affects museums and archaeological sites, either as collateral effects of fighting or through looting and intentional damage.
"It's not just Palmyra – there's destruction of cultural heritage all over Syria and many illegal excavations everywhere," said Fakhro, who is also director of the department of excavation at the directorate for antiquities and museums in Aleppoexternal link.
Many government institutions and NGOs have launched initiatives to protect heritage sites, to register destructions and lootings and to prevent trade of stolen artefacts on the international art market.
Less developed are the initiatives to train experts and specialists that will be required after the war is over. Museums have to be reconstructed and recreated, artefacts restored, archaeological sites cleaned for mines and other traces of the war, heritage sites relaunched and prepared for visitors.
Dunning says that while the large international organisations such as UNESCO, ICOMOS (the International Council on Monuments and Sites) and ICOM (the International Council of Museums) can use their power to safeguard cultural heritage, "they have one disadvantage".
What was your reaction when you saw or heard of the destruction of ancient temples in the Middle East?
Shirin (Syrian Heritage in Danger: an International Research Initiative and Network) is an initiative of the global community of scholars active in the fields of archaeology, art and history of the Ancient Near East.
It brings together a significant proportion of those international research groups that were working in Syria prior to 2011, with the purpose of making their expertise available to wider heritage protection efforts.
The main purpose of Shirin is to support governmental bodies and non-governmental organisations in their efforts to preserve and safeguard the heritage of Syria (sites, monuments & museums). It will take account of, and respond to, the needs of Syrian colleagues and authorities regardless of their political, religious or ethnic affiliation, in particular with respect to emergency steps and measures.
The Institute of Archaeological Sciences of the University of Bern is the only Swiss institution that conducts research and provides the possibility of academic studies in both the fields of archaeology and philology of the Ancient Near East. It is involved in field activities in Syria, Turkey and Turkmenistan.
The armed conflict in Syria began in March 2011 with anti-government protests before escalating into a full-scale civil war between forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and those opposed to his rule – as well as jihadist militants from so-called Islamic State.
According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, eight million people have been displaced inside Syria, 4.5 million people live in besieged cities and hard-to-reach areas and 4.5 million refugees live in neighbouring countries and beyond.
1.5 million people have been injured and 250,000 have been killed.
TED (technology, entertainment and design) is a global set of conferences run with the slogan "Ideas Worth Spreading". These usually take the form of short talks of around ten minutes.
TEDx events are planned and coordinated independently, under a free licence granted by TED.
Archaeologists in Switzerland prepare for post-war Syria Thomas Stephens Oct 26, 2016 - 11:00 As death and destruction continues in Syria without an end in sight, three archaeologists tell swissinfo.ch of the importance of preserving the nation's cultural heritage, how the Swiss could help train people to do this, and the role played by Switzerland as a safe haven. What goes through an archaeologist's mind when they see historic sites or museum objects that are thousands of years old being blown up or demolished? "As a Syrian archaeologist, I'm obviously very, very sad. This is really a tragedy for our cultural heritage," said Mohamad Fakhro, a lecturer at the University of Aleppo, the worst-hit city in the civil war. "But my first reaction when I hear about the Temple of Baalshamin in Palmyra or other acts of destruction is focusing on how we can reconstruct them. We're archaeologists not politicians or soldiers. Our goal, our job, is to protect the cultural heritage." That's the motivation behind a recent talk given in Bern by Fakhro, Mohammed Alkhalid, a post-doc student of Near Eastern Archaeology at the University of Bern, and Cynthia Dunning, director of ArchaeoConcept, an independent Swiss company that finds solutions for problems encountered by archaeologists and heritage managers. In their TEDx presentation, they focused on the work of Shirin (Syrian Heritage in Danger: an International Research Initiative and Network), which brings together experts in various fields to support governmental bodies and NGOs in their efforts to preserve and safeguard the heritage of Syria. Dunning is an advisor to Shirin's international committee. "My hope is that my Swiss colleagues in the cantons and universities or even in private companies will also participate in this reconstruction for the future, helping us find places for people to do some training," Dunning told swissinfo.ch. For its part, the Swiss Federal Culture Office has played a central role in safeguarding the transfer of cultural property for many years. "The safe haven is very special," said Dunning, who was responsible for the archaeological service of canton Bern from 1998 to 2010. "Swiss law allows the Swiss government to bring in cultural objects from countries at war. That's what happened in Afghanistan: the Afghan cultural goods came to Switzerland and will be kept here for as long as the war continues in Afghanistan. Other countries don't have that. It's very special." However, it's not as simple as Switzerland offering to look after objects and archaeologists then sending them over. "The government in Syria must say it wants to protect its cultural goods and must ask Switzerland to organise a safe haven for its objects. And that's not the case. It hasn't asked," she said. Fakhro says he has tried to contact his colleagues in the directorate of antiquities and museum in Damascus to make them aware of the Swiss safe haven, but he says the law in Syria prevents them from taking advantage of it. "It's completely forbidden. They say that if they were to do something like that, it would mean the government is weak," he said. "We asked them about [bringing to Switzerland] objects found in Turkey or Jordan that belong to Syria, but they say that's not allowed either. It's politics." International effort For Dunning, destroying a country's past means destroying irreplaceable memories, "so we have to work to try to find methods that somehow impede that by getting people involved in reconstructing the future in these countries – Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq or wherever". It's an international effort, because, as Alkhalid says, the whole world is a victim of the destruction of cultural heritage. "Cultural heritage belongs to all of us. This is a global issue not just a Syrian issue. We're all affected." The civil war in Syria, which has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and displaced millions, affects museums and archaeological sites, either as collateral effects of fighting or through looting and intentional damage. "It's not just Palmyra – there's destruction of cultural heritage all over Syria and many illegal excavations everywhere," said Fakhro, who is also director of the department of excavation at the directorate for antiquities and museums in Aleppo. "This is the problem. You can't reconstruct illegal excavation because if you destroy the layers in the tiles or the archaeological site, you lose it forever. And of course when you have illegal excavations you have trading for antiquities – in Europe and around the world." 'There's always hope' Many government institutions and NGOs have launched initiatives to protect heritage sites, to register destructions and lootings and to prevent trade of stolen artefacts on the international art market. Less developed are the initiatives to train experts and specialists that will be required after the war is over. Museums have to be reconstructed and recreated, artefacts restored, archaeological sites cleaned for mines and other traces of the war, heritage sites relaunched and prepared for visitors. Dunning says that while the large international organisations such as UNESCO, ICOMOS (the International Council on Monuments and Sites) and ICOM (the International Council of Museums) can use their power to safeguard cultural heritage, "they have one disadvantage". "The only partners they speak to are government partners. They can't speak to other people who are not in the government and who may be in the opposition or whatever. And that's a chance for the NGOs, who can get people together – from the opposition, from the government – who are all archaeologists and who can all work together. They don't have problems talking to each other although they might have different religions or political ideas." As for the future, who knows? "We can only be optimistic!" said Alkhalid. "Although personally I'm not so optimistic. But there's always hope. We hope that the war and the tragedy in Syria will end and that after the war we can do something for the cultural heritage." Fakhro is also realistic. "It's hard to say what the future will bring, but we have to do our best to prepare materials, a team – whatever – for the post-conflict reconstruction and preservation. Unfortunately until now the picture is dark, but without hope you can't work." The destruction in one district of Aleppo can be seen in the drone footage below, filmed by the Aleppo Media Centre and released on October 10: What was your reaction when you saw or heard of the destruction of ancient temples in the Middle East? Shirin Shirin (Syrian Heritage in Danger: an International Research Initiative and Network) is an initiative of the global community of scholars active in the fields of archaeology, art and history of the Ancient Near East. It brings together a significant proportion of those international research groups that were working in Syria prior to 2011, with the purpose of making their expertise available to wider heritage protection efforts. The main purpose of Shirin is to support governmental bodies and non-governmental organisations in their efforts to preserve and safeguard the heritage of Syria (sites, monuments & museums). It will take account of, and respond to, the needs of Syrian colleagues and authorities regardless of their political, religious or ethnic affiliation, in particular with respect to emergency steps and measures. The Institute of Archaeological Sciences of the University of Bern is the only Swiss institution that conducts research and provides the possibility of academic studies in both the fields of archaeology and philology of the Ancient Near East. It is involved in field activities in Syria, Turkey and Turkmenistan. (Source: Shirin) War in Syria The armed conflict in Syria began in March 2011 with anti-government protests before escalating into a full-scale civil war between forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and those opposed to his rule – as well as jihadist militants from so-called Islamic State. According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, eight million people have been displaced inside Syria, 4.5 million people live in besieged cities and hard-to-reach areas and 4.5 million refugees live in neighbouring countries and beyond. 1.5 million people have been injured and 250,000 have been killed. TEDx TED (technology, entertainment and design) is a global set of conferences run with the slogan "Ideas Worth Spreading". These usually take the form of short talks of around ten minutes. TEDx events are planned and coordinated independently, under a free licence granted by TED.
Three archaeologists explain the importance and challenges of rebuilding ancient Syrian heritage sites destroyed by Islamic State.
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Geneva is believed to be the first city in the world with its own portable container to save cultural property in the event of local disasters.
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A grieving family seeks answers to man's suicide death in jail
Above: Family members (from left) Jim, Jamie and Darlene Reily hold a photo of thier son/brother Michael who died in Worcester County House of Corrections. Steven King/Worcester Magazine
Michael Reilly was sent to the Worcester County House of Corrections on June 11 this year. The next morning he was dead, the apparent victim of a suicide. More than a half year later, the only thing of which his family is sure is that their son and brother is dead. The rest, to them, remains a mystery dotted with questions � and they want answers.
Now, with a formal complaint filed with the state Attorney General's office � and fully prepared to go to court if necessary � Reilly's family is speaking out in hopes that its collective voice is heard. His mother Darlene, father Jim and sister Jamie do not deny that the boy with a �smile that could light up a room� had a host of personal issues. His past speaks to it: multiple arrests, in and out of jail, and time spent in mental health facilities as the result of a bipolar diagnosis.
That they can accept. What they cannot accept � what they refuse to believe � is that he deserved to die hanging by a bed sheet in a jail cell at the age of 24. While they may not all have the same theory as to just what transpired in the hours leading up to his death, Michael's family believe something went horribly wrong at the jail.
�The state failed,� Darlene Reilly says. �We're hoping we can save another family from going through the pain we've gone through and have [the state] fix the system where they do their job. I feel that they did not do their job. The system failed. The Worcester County House of Corrections failed.�
Michael Reilly died Wednesday, June 12 as a prisoner inside a jail cell in the House of Corrections in West Boylston. He had been brought in the day before after his arraignment in Clinton District Court on an arrest that took place Monday, June 10 in that town. In the months since, his family has retained a lawyer, Michelle Hubbard, who recently filed a presentment letter with the Attorney General. They are fully prepared, in the absence of a settlement by the state, to follow through with a lawsuit in court.
The allegations are many, among the most serious being that someone at the jail forged Michael's signature on a written request for special needs status. Among other charges are that jail staff failed to provide Michael Reilly with �adequate mental health care�; acknowledging Reilly said he would kill himself and failing to email or call Mental Health Watch; failing to act upon phone calls Reilly made to his mother and father during which he allegedly said, �Mom, they took my bed. I'm not going to make it here� and �Dad, get me out of here � you just lost your son.�; and failing to conduct an adequate mental health evaluation of Reilly.
The presentment letter also alleges no one checked on Reilly between 7:20 a.m., when he returned from a nurse's office, and 8:30 a.m., when he was found hanging in his cell with a bed sheet wrapped around his neck.
Reilly's family says there was very little cooperation on the part of the jail in the wake of their son's death. Jim Reilly says it took several weeks for authorities to provide an incident report to the family. That report, which he says was provided by the jail superintendent, consisted of one and a half sentences written on one sheet of paper.
�None of this was going to come about until we asked for the incident report,� Jim Reilly says. �[The superintendent] had probably a 20-page report and what he gave us was one piece of paper with, like, a sentence and a half. It was not the incident report we wanted. We wanted the report the superintendent had in his hand.�
Another aspect of Michael Reilly's death that disturbs his mother is that his court-appointed lawyer called her not long after Michael had died, saying he wanted to visit his client.
�[The attorney] was never notified,� Darlene Reilly says. �He could not even believe it.�
David Tuttle, a spokesperson for the Worcester County Sheriff's Office, provided this statement when asked to comment on Michael Reilly's death and his family's claims: �Approximately 6,200 inmates a year pass through the facility. On a daily basis our officers and staff do an outstanding job protecting inmates from harm. When an inmate successfully takes his own life, as unfortunately happens, it takes a tremendous toll on the responding officers [and] all first-responders, who do their best to save a life. Our sympathies go out to the family. This is a hard situation for everyone involved.�
Because of what he says is an ongoing investigation and the potential of a lawsuit, Tuttle says jail officials cannot comment further.
Darlene Reilly says her son was supposed to attend a substance abuse program Sunday, June 9. She went to pick him up, but he was not there. When she contacted him, she says he told her there was �a change of plans� and he was going to stay with some friends in Clinton, where he had gone to school. The family, which resided in Malden at the time of his death, had lived in Lancaster while Michael was in school.
�I said, 'Mike, no, come home' and he said, 'Mom, you know I'm doing good. I'll be alright,'� Darlene Reilly recalls of their conversation that night. On Monday, she says she called him at 3 p.m. and he was still in Clinton. He asked what time dinner was and said he would be home by 5:30 p.m.
That night, police arrested Michael for allegedly driving a stolen vehicle and possessing a stolen credit card. His mother says he had gone to a store to buy cigarettes. The only other times she and her husband spoke to their son was during the separate phone calls he made to them from the House of Corrections before he died. Neither parent acquiesced to his request that they bail him out (bail had been set at $1,000 at his arraignment).
�At that time, I felt � the safest place for him would be in protective custody,� Jim Reilly says. �I said, 'They're just going to put you in PC, anyway.' I felt that was the safest place for him, for a week, until our trial date. The next morning he was dead.�
His family admits Michael led a �troubled� life. He was arrested four or five times, they say, and he spent time in mental health institutions. His first arrest came at 16, when he stole a steak from a Shaw's Supermarket, his mother says. He was addicted to pills and, before entering the House of Corrections this year, had done a previous stint of nine months at the facility for stealing a car.
�Michael fought a lot of demons,� Darlene Reilly says of her son. �Mike would self-medicate to feel normal. A lot of times with that, you know, he made some bad choices.�
His mother says in all his previous arrests, the charges had been thrown out, such as the time an ex-girlfriend claimed he threw a rock at her. Then there was the time another ex-girlfriend, who Michael's mother says had just left the family's house after eating with them, went to another man and told him Michael had raped her.
�That was a total lie. That did not happen,� Darlene Reilly says. �Most of Michael's stuff was dismissed or continued without a finding. He didn't really have any criminal, like bad stuff on his record.�
For his drug addiction, Michael Reilly took part in a drug court program in Concord at one point. It should have lasted a year, but he ended up violating the terms of the program.
�The year turned into, like, two and a half years,� Jim Reilly says. That landed Michael in the Billerica House of Corrections. Incidentally, his father says what happened in West Boylston would not have happened in Billerica.
Once he finished that sentence, he did well for a while, his mother says, and then Michael tried to kill himself. In April, just months before his death, his family had him committed to Bridgewater State Hospital. He was supposed to be there for 90 days, but was released in fewer than 25. As he had before when he complete a jail sentence or time in a mental health facility, Michael did �really good� for a while.
�When he got out,� his sister says, �he would text me and we would talk and I was actually becoming closer to him and being more friendly.�
Michael started installing floors with a family friend and would send pictures of his work to his sister.
�The next thing you know, he got arrested,� Jamie Reilly says. �I didn't even expect it to happen.�
His mother says Michael wanted to get better and that he thoroughly enjoyed being with his family. She just does not think he could ever beat down the demons.
�In my heart I really thought he was doing good,� Darlene Reilly says. �He really wanted it, to get better.�
She says she is not entirely convinced her son committed suicide, something her husband has not quite bought into. But even Jim Reilly says he is starting to question the circumstances surrounding Michael's death. Both of them, along with Jamie, want to know exactly what happened during the final fateful hours of Michael's life.
�Did he hang himself? Did someone do this? I don't have the answers,� Darlene Reilly says.
The family's attorney says it must wait six months to allow the state a chance to respond to the presentment letter. If there is not response, �It's presumed the state denies the allegations,� Hubbard says. At that point, the family can proceed with a lawsuit.
Have a story tip or idea? Call Walter Bird Jr. at 508-749-3166, ext. 322, or email him at wbird@worcestermagazine.com . Be sure to follow him on Twitter @walterbirdjr and catch him with Paul Westcott every Thursday morning at 8:35 on radio station WTAG 580AM for all things Worcester!


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Herd Immunity: Covid Deaths Devouring the South Are No Accident | The Nation
Herd Immunity: Covid Deaths Devouring the South Are No Accident
"For Scott Atlas, as for Republican governors like Ron DeSantis, Greg Abbott, Tate Reeves, and Kay Ivey, the human cost of our shredded public health system is a feature, not a bug.
People visit the "In America: Remember" public art installation in Washington, D.C. The installation commemorates all the Americans who have died from Covid-19. (Robert Nickelsberg / Getty Images)
At the end of August, I wrote about the deficiencies in President Joe Biden's initial response to the Covid-19 pandemic. At the beginning of September, the president announced a series of new initiatives that will tackle many, though not all, of these shortcomings. I am not positing a cause and effect here: I don't think the president's inner circle is reading my columns in The Nation to decide what to do. However, what is driving the Biden administration's moves is reasonable scientific advice, and my comments here were largely framed within the existing scientific consensus of what we should be doing now. We can argue the specifics—and certainly still criticize—but by and large, "science is back" in 2021 (depending where you look, but more on that later).
It's hard to remember—perhaps because I am trying so hard to forget—the sheer lunacy of Trump's science last year: second-rate economist Peter Navarro's campaign to put hydroxychloroquine in the drinking water (with help from my own institution's Harvey Risch); the president's ravings about bleach and ultraviolet light; and then there was Scott Atlas, the Rasputin of 2020. Though an actual physician, his training was in neuroradiology, not infectious diseases; until 2012, Atlas was a professor in his field of expertise at Stanford. After 2012, his relationship with the university shifted, and he became a fellow at the Hoover Institution, the conservative think tank loosely affiliated with the university, where he was a vocal opponent of the Affordable Care Act and pushed for Medicaid to become a bridge to private insurance.
But Scott Atlas's claim to, well, infamy, was his embrace of the concept of herd immunity: the idea that Covid-19 was of negligible clinical significance for anyone but the elderly, and that—apart from sequestering the elderly from the rest of the population—public health restrictions were unnecessary. Rather than heed public health advice, Atlas claimed as many people needed to get infected as possible as quickly as possible to develop herd immunity and put the pandemic behind us. This was met with vociferous pushback from the medical and public health community, since "letting 'er rip"—letting the virus spread uncontrolled and thus allowing millions to get infected—also risked millions of deaths. Besides, actually sequestering the elderly and those with underlying conditions was nearly impossible given the sheer number of individuals in these categories. Atlas resigned his White House post on December 1, 2020.
I started to think about Atlas again over the past few weeks. As the Covid-19 epidemic has torn through the American South, I've been trying to make sense of it all. It's easy to criticize Southern governors as ignorant, uninformed actors in the sheer catastrophe unfolding in the ICUs in the region. But then I remembered a passage in a book I read a while ago, by economists Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, called Why Nations Fail. In it they examine how poverty happens across the world throughout history, arguing that
poor countries are poor because those who have power make choices that create poverty. They get it wrong not by mistake or ignorance but on purpose. To understand this, you have to go beyond economics and expert advice on the best thing to do and, instead, study how decisions actually get made, who gets to make them, and why those people decide to do what they do.
What is happening in the American South is no accident. It is not born of ignorance or folly. It is a choice. Consider this comment in a New York Times article by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis: "Clearly the vaccines are keeping most of these people out of the hospital, but we're not building the herd immunity that people hoped," he said (emphasis mine). Herd immunity. We're back to Scott Atlas, who would be a footnote in epidemic history—except for the thousands of deaths for which he is responsible. DeSantis was an early adherent of the notion of herd immunity espoused by Atlas and a group of scientists funded by the libertarian American Institute for Economic Research. Governor DeSantis and his colleagues in the South genuinely think they are doing the right thing. Their persistent, horrific quest for herd immunity confirms preexisting biases about the role of the state in our lives—the less the better. In the People's Temple of the Sunshine State, this faith has led the people's leader to hand out the Kool-Aid to his own citizens, leading them to their own deaths.
Remember, before Covid-19 the South was already the least healthy region in the country: People there lived shorter lives, with much higher rates of chronic conditions. The South was the epicenter of the American AIDS epidemic—and rife with other infectious diseases. Yet, except for Louisiana and Arkansas, most of the states in the Deep South refuse to expand Medicaid—depriving many of their citizen of access to medical care that can make their lives better. While that, too, may be rooted in a libertarian, small-government impulse, writers like Jeneen Interlandi of The New York Times have made a compelling case that decisions to restrict access to health care in the United States have everything to do with race. This is where American libertarianism meets white supremacy.
Conservatives have worked hard for decades to bring us to this very moment, always implying that the safety net they were shredding—the basic fundamentals of public health they've been chipping away at over the past year—were benefiting someone else. Someone darker. Someone less deserving. Before Atlas was pro-Covid, he was looking to roll -back the ACA and dismantle Medicaid.
Lest there be any doubt, let's take a detour to another aspect of American health care and public health: abortion and reproductive health. The new ban on abortion in Texas was crafted carefully to make it difficult to challenge. This was a considered, deliberate approach, which will deprive thousands of women of the care they need, but first and foremost women of color in the state. As Thomas Edsall wrote in the Times recently, abortion has never really been just about abortion but always tightly linked with racist ideologies. Edsall offered this quote from Richard Ballmer at Dartmouth: "Opposition to abortion became a convenient diversion—a godsend, really—to distract from what actually motivated their political activism: the defense of racial segregation in evangelical institutions."
This is our post-pandemic future—and it is bleak. When the next virus arrives here, we will be even weaker than we were before 2020. The trajectory of the pandemic in the United States has many drivers and we cannot lay all the regional variations at the feet of our politics. However, the toxic stew of Trumpism, white supremacy, and small-government-at-all-costs mania—the embrace of pseudoscience—has made things much worse.
Watching developments over the past few weeks and months has, frankly, frightened me. Now Republican governors are going after vaccine mandates—though all their states have long had them for preventable childhood illnesses and for sectors of the workforce who interact with the sick and dying (e.g., health care workers). When Amy Coney Barrett assured us that the Supreme Court isn't just a bunch of partisan hacks, what we heard was the Lady Macbeth of the judiciary trying to rub out the stain of the past few years' judgments, even as she feels compelled to acknowledge it, in public, as real. With such partisanship now in place, might we see the striking down of long-held precedents on vaccine mandates and other public health measures? We're already seeing state after state enact new laws to constrain public health authority.
There has been a thread of the national conversation that blames public health for being its own worst enemy. The charge is that our failure to communicate clearly over the course of the pandemic has undermined public trust—and that much of what is happening now in terms of the attacks on public health is self-inflicted. Admittedly, there were significant failures in public health communications over the course of the pandemic, and there is huge room for improvement in this regard. However, separating the signal from the noise is harder in the context of state-sponsored misinformation and the deliberate manipulation of public sentiment for political gain.
But let's head south again. The recent attacks on public health, the willingness on the part of Ron DeSantis, Greg Abbott, Tate Reeves, Kay Ivey to defy standard public health practice—even as they see their constituents suffer—has its roots in a deep ideological commitment. This isn't about the CDC's shifting mask guidance, or about the belated acknowledgement of airborne transmission of the virus. This isn't what matters to these leaders. And it's simply willful ignorance to suggest that "bad communication" is at the root of what is happening now. As Naomi Klein notes, every catastrophe is an opportunity.
The pandemic has enabled these leaders to pursue policies they have wanted to push way before SARS-COV-2 had entered the scene. As the poet Anne Sexton said of self-destruction in another context: "Suicides have a special language. Like carpenters they want to know which tools. They never ask why build." The GOP is looking for ways to undermine access to health care, public health regulations and programs—the whole already-frayed safety net. Right now, we need a massive investment to revive public health in America. We were in dire shape before the pandemic; now we have one party that is hell-bent on destruction and the other party, for all its welcome departure from the Trump administration's insanity, thinks it can McKinsey its way out of a crisis, ignoring the fundamental weaknesses in our public health system.
Scott Atlas may be gone, but what he helped bring to pass must give him some measure of satisfaction. And as for the deaths of those who might still be alive if they had gotten vaccinated instead of being told they were defending freedom? In my mind's eye, I see him shrugging it all off, telling us blithely that you can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs. For Dr. Atlas and the politicians who share his views, the chilling fact may be that all of this has been worth it."
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Texas Tex Longford es un personaje ficticio de la serie de televisión británica Hollyoaks, interpretada por la actriz Bianca Hendrickse-Spendlove desde el 10 de mayo de 2010 hasta el 13 de mayo de 2013.

Biografía
En el 2011 Texas comienza a platicar con un hombre llamado Cameron, su hermana India Longford la acusa de ser irresponsable pero Texas la convence de intentar conocer a alguien por internet, India termina conociendo a Cameron y acuerdan con tener una cita, en el camino el coche se para e India ve pasar a un hombre quien resulta ser Silas Blissett y este la ayuda, mientras están ahí India descubre que Silas es en realidad "Cameron", quien en realidad había ido para matar a Texas, sin embargo cuando intenta escapar la mata. Más tarde cuando descubren el cuerpo de India, texas se culpa ya que se siente responsable de la muerte de su hermana ya que ella la animó a conocer a gente por internet. Texas comienza una relación con Dodger Savage.

Más tarde Silas lleva a Texas al bosque para matarla después de enterarse que había tenido relaciones con Doug Carter para obtener cocaína y un cóctel de tranquilizantes, ahí Texas le dice que ella era en realidad la cita de "Cameron", Silas se molesta al darse cuenta de que India no era la cita de su personaje y decide matar a Texas golpeándola en la cabeza, Texas se da cuenta de que él fue el responsable de la muerte de su hermana y decide hablarle de ella, esto hace que Silas cambie de parecer al sentirse culpable por haberla matado y la lleva al hospital donde les hace creer a todos que él la había rescatado.

Después de que Silas es arrestado Texas le pregunta por qué le hizo daño a su hermana y este le responde que se arrepentía por haber matado a India y que a la que debió haber asesinado tuvo que haber sido ella.

Más tarde Will Savage la manipula creyendo que ella lo había empujado y le había causado una parálisis por lo que logra que Texas por culpa acepte la propuesta de matrimonio que Will le hace, Texas intenta terminar con Will pero no lo logra, finalmente cuando lo descubre besando a Leanne Holiday lo hace, sin embargo Will la manipula nuevamente haciéndole creer que tenía un aneurisma, el día de la boda Texas finalmente descubre que Will nunca tuvo un aneurisma y que él había pagado la boda con el dinero que él y Leanne le habían robado a Mercedes McQueen. Minutos después Texas muere después de que Will la empujara de una ventana luego de que ella le dijera que nunca lo había amado, que sólo estaba con él por remordimiento y que al que en realidad amaba era a su medio hermano Dodger.

Referencias

Enlaces externos
 Hollyoaks Official Website :: Character :: Texas Longford

Personajes de Hollyoaks

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A YACHT in difficulty in the Haven waterway was towed to safety by Angle lifeboat this afternoon, April 15.
HM Coastguard said a call was received about a yacht in difficulty near Neyland yacht club at 2.20pm.
Crew members were seen waving for help.
Angle lifeboat was called, along with the police boat - on routine patrol - and the yacht towed to Neyland marina.


may have scored for Brazil in their 2-0 victory over Mexico but it was his theatrics that got everyone talking during the last-16 World Cup clash.
But football fans have flocked to social media to direct their anger and embarrassment towards the player for his theatrics, with Gary Lineker leading the charge.
However, the social media anger didn't stop there. Someone else amusingly claimed the Paris Saint-Germain star should have entered a 'Seal on Dry Land Imitation Contest'.
The 26-year-old was compared to that 'little sibling that you barely touch and immediately falls on the floor and pretends to be dying'.


Duke rising senior Amanda Blumenherst, the three-time defending National Player of the Year, won the U.S. Women's Amateur at the Eugene Country Club in Eugene, Ore., Sunday, one year after losing on the event's final hole last year. This time around, Blumenherst stormed back on the last nine holes of the 36-hole championship, taking her first lead over Spain's Azahara Munoz on the 31st hole and playing beautiful golf down the stretch to redeem her tough 2007 defeat with a 2-and-1 final.
With the win, Blumenherst became the sixth player to take the amateur crown a year after losing in the final. She also became the first college golfer to win since former Duke star Virada Nirapathpongporn in 2003.
PARRING WITH THE CHAMP: What happens when a Chronicle reporter plays nine holes with Blumenherst.
BLUMENHERST TAKES NPOY: Blumenherst won her third consecutive National Player of the Year award this year.
TARGET PRACTICE: How it feels for Blumenherst and the Blue Devils to play with a constant target on their backs.
HISTORY DENIED:The Chronicle live-blogged this year's NCAA Championship, when Duke came up short in its historic quest for four consecutive national championships.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The Blue Devils made their run, and though the four-peat eluded them, Duke's Amanda Blumenherst made history of her own by capturing her third consecutive National Player of the Year award.
Nevertheless, it looked like Blumenherst might have lost to Arkansas' Stacy Lewis early on. The Blue Devil struggled early, finishing 1-over after her front nine, including a double bogey on her ninth hole, number 18, that put her four strokes back of Lewis heading into the turn.
But from then on, Blumenherst caught fire.
Starting with a birdie on hole one, she put together a ridiculous final stretch that included two more birdies and an eagle on the second-to-last hole. On that hole, she hit a gap wedge 103 yards and the ball rolled back about eight feet into the hole. The eagle on her scorecard put her at 4-under for the day.
The back nine vaulted Blumenherst from a tie for fourteenth to a tie for fifth, extending her streak of top-10 finishes to 32. She also finished within the top-5 in every tournament this season and her score average of 71.0 ties the Duke record she set last year.
Although Blumenherst was understandably disappointed with the team result, her excitement over her third straight player of the year crown helped to temper the letdown. And the three-time champion is already looking ahead so she can make it four in a row next year.
HISTORY DENIED (9:50 p.m. EST) — Duke had to go low on the last day of the NCAA Championship to win. That's exactly what the Blue Devils did, shooting a round-best 7-under, but it wasn't enough to capture an unprecedented fourth consecutive title. Amanda Blumenherst finished 4-under, carding three birdies and an eagle in her last nine holes, to move into a tie for fifth overall. After starting 4-under through three holes, Jennie Lee finished 3-under, highlighted by her early hole-in-one. The Blue Devils will finish third at 28-over, 12 strokes behind USC. We'll have more later tonight.
NOT IN THE CARDS? (7:54 p.m. EST) — Duke's still 22 shots behind USC on the back nine. It's the Blue Devils' best day on the links, but subpar rounds on the first three days and weather stoppages look like they're going to prevent Duke from an unprecedented fourth national title. More updates later.
PLAY RESUMES (5:37 p.m. EST) — Just got a call from Sabreena Merchant that play has just resumed at the University of New Mexico Golf Course. We'll see if Duke can maintain its torrid pace.
NOT SO FAST: LEE, BLUE DEVILS BEGIN ASSAULT — Just when top-seeded Duke seemed out of the mix to capture its fourth-straight national championship, Jennie Lee and the Blue Devils are starting to make their run. Lee, a junior, came out and birdied her first two holes (Nos. 10 and 11) before acing the 12th to start 4-under. Thanks to Lee's scorching start and a birdie from freshman Kim Donovan, Duke is 5-under on the day, which is best on the course. The defending champs have moved to third place at 30-over, 15 strokes behind USC and nine strokes behind UCLA.
Lightning in Albuquerque, N.M. has stopped play for the third straight day, and our beat reporter, Sabreena Merchant, is stuck on a bus with the rest of reporters on the middle of the course. Once play resumes, we'll keep you updated and see if the Blue Devils can maintain their hot play and find a way to put the pressure on the leaders.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Interesting sidenote to today's action: Though Duke seems like a longshot to become four-time defending national champions now, junior Amanda Blumenherst's candidacy as National Player of the Year is still very much on the line.
Blumenherst's main competition for the honor is Arkansas' Stacy Lewis. Lewis has won six tournaments this year to Blumenherst's four, but the Blue Devil has had much stiffer competition in her victories. Currently, Lewis is in seventh at 3-over and Blumenherst is sitting in a tie for 14th at 7-over, so she needs to overtake Lewis today to make her case.
Blumenherst has never finished outside the top 10 in any tournament in her career at Duke–that's 31 straight–but her streak is on the line today. Look for the junior to make a run to keep both the run and her candidacy alive.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — On a day when bad weather caused numerous breaks in play, Duke couldn't seem to catch any breaks of its own.
Trailing USC by 15 strokes after round two, the Blue Devils put together a round of 11-over before play was finally stopped for good late Thursday night. It is currently the fifth-best round of the day, but still leaves Duke far off the lead in its bid for an unprecedented fourth consecutive national title.
Junior Jennie Lee–the only Blue Devil to finish 18 holes–had her best round of the tournament, shooting a 1-over with two birdies, but lamented the fact that her rhythm was disrupted by the stoppage of play.
That theme resonated with the rest of the Blue Devils on Thursday as the golfers all had difficulty finding consistency on the course due to the repeated stoppage of play. After days of above 90-degree heat, Thursday brought rain, lightning, hail, heavy winds and unexpectedly cold temperatures. Any momentum the Blue Devils managed to generate was quickly put to rest by weather intervention.
Junior Amanda Blumenherst also struggled with the layoff, double-bogeying and bogeying her first two holes after play resumed from the initial break for lightning. The two-time defending National Player of the Year has registered just one birdie in this round after knocking in four on Wednesday.
Now trailing co-leaders USC and UCLA by 18 strokes, the Blue Devils' bid for a place in the record books appears to be nearly impossible.
It's easy to wonder if the outcome would have been different if the weather hadn't wreaked so much havoc. On Wednesday, when the Blue Devils resumed their round–while other teams stopped for the day–they promptly fell an additional seven strokes back of the pace. Duke might have been able to apply a lot more pressure on the leaders in the third round had it been allowed to continue its second round Thursday.
Two days into the final leg of its quest for an unprecedented fourth national championship, top-seeded Duke finished Wednesday in 12th place, 15 strokes behind co-leaders USC and UCLA at the University of New Mexico Golf Course in Albuquerque, N.M. The Blue Devils were in 18th place after Tuesday, also 15 strokes off the pace.
On Wednesday, though, Duke had to deal with more than simply making golf shots. The weather wreaked havoc all day, causing two suspensions and eventually ending play early. Wind gusts exceeded 60 m.p.h. and the Blue Devils' round lasted more than eight hours. After the first break due to high winds, Duke went into the clubhouse 16-over. Five holes later, the Blue Devils had finished the day 23-over.
Blumenherst, in particular, was affected by the high winds. She bogeyed two of her last five holes after the break to drop to 1-over.
The Blue Devils hit the links again tomorrow, with only 36 holes to make up the necessary ground to capture their fourth straight title. We'll have a reporter in Albuquerque keeping you up-to-date with live reports and analysis, so make sure to follow along!