However, our team of experts including Professor Jeremy Millar and Associate Professor Jeremy Grummet are working to make the experience much less daunting, and equip men like Peter with more information to help them make decisions about their treatment.
This year, more than 17,000 Australian men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer. So The Alfred has teamed up with Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre as one of the trial sites for Navigate – an online decision aid resource for men diagnosed with low risk prostate cancer (and their partners).
Deciding which treatment option is best for managing low risk prostate can be very distressing and confusing for men. Many men are unaware of the different options they can pick to help manage their cancer. This trial will evaluate the practicality of the online Navigate Decision Aid, which was designed and developed with hands-on feedback and ideas from men who had experienced prostate cancer and treatment themselves.
Professor Millar said the online tool was a great additional support for men, combined with traditional advice from their doctor.
"Patients get information from a large range of sources. This online system, which they can access at their own pace, is a good way to help advise and inform guys.
Associate Professor Grummet said there are many treatment options available for men, some of them minimally-invasive.
To find out more about the Navigate trial or see whether you're eligible to join, visit the website.


These DIY blocks are a great addition to any playroom or classroom. After admiring the look and feel of natural tree blocks for years, but not wanting to pay the often high price for something I felt I could make myself, I finally decided to make a set for the boys last Christmas. This project took me an afternoon, easy and quick while providing hours of open-ended play, for free! I can honestly say they have used these blocks consistently throughout the year and the blocks are a big hit when friends come over to play, well worth the time spent making them.
Choose a log or branch. We used an old cedar fence post that we were not going to need. I started by smoothing out the knots and taking the bark off by using our Woodsman Pal (any sharp knife/hatchet would work). Depending on if you plan to have the blocks in the house or keep them as a building toy outside will help determine if you need to take the bark off the blocks. These blocks were for indoor use so I chose to take all the bark off.
Cut into block sized pieces. You can use whatever saw you have available. Make sure to try to keep the cut sides as even as possible to allow for easy stacking and building. Varying the lengths creates a unique set of blocks.
Sand the blocks. Because A was going to be using the blocks I sanded the cut sides and around the edges to avoid splinters. If your child is older you could leave them. Sanding is easier if you have access to a band sander, otherwise you can do it by hand (I did both).
Find a container to put them in. We had an old basket that wasn't being used that was the perfect size to fit all the blocks in. A crate would also work well.
Time to build and create!
These blocks didn't cost us anything to make as we had all the materials on hand, and they make great gifts for kids.
If you are making the blocks for little hands make sure to regularly check the blocks for broken pieces and rough edges that may cause splinters, simply sand them down if you find any.


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Bangladesh government readies repayments to cheated e-com clients
FE REPORT | Published: December 09, 2021 09:29:52 | Updated: December 09, 2021 11:04:43
The government has started the process of refunding a stuck-up fund of Tk 2.14 billion of e-commerce customers.
The fund is now pending with payment gateways since the shop-less trading firms went bust, officials said.
"The Ministry of Commerce has already requested the central bank to take necessary steps," said one official, in an advancement that should defuse much of the furor over the crisis.
Sources say the move to settle the matter came in line with a second meeting of the sub-committee on formulating a proposed digital commerce law and regulatory body for the freewheeling e-commerce sector.
The ministry believes that the funds stuck at different payment gateways may be paid back to the customers concerned if the ordered products were not received by them, according to a commerce ministry letter.
Besides, those consumers of the digital companies who have no cases against such companies can be recompensed, the letter mentions in the repayment directions.
When contacted, additional secretary of commerce ministry AHM Shafiquzzaman said, "We have asked the Bangladesh Bank (BB) to take necessary step to pay back the funds to the customers concerned that got stuck with different escrow services."
He hastened to add that consumers who have no cases against such digital platforms will get back their money.
On November 02, 2021, Bangladesh Bank requested the commerce ministry for the payback of over Tk 2.14 billion in e-commerce customers' money stuck up in different payment gateways. The commerce ministry on November 07 also sought opinion from the law ministry on legal aspects regarding the repayment.
On June 30, the central bank had introduced an escrow service on payment to e-commerce platforms.
Since the issuance of a circular on October 14, 2021 over the botched e-commerce issue, over Tk 5.05 billion had been paid to the payment gateways by the customers concerned against goods they had ordered. Of the amount, the payment gateways have already settled over Tk 2.91 billion to the online marketplaces.
The remaining amount of over Tk 2.14 billion got stuck in the different service-providing firms, including SSL, shurjoMukhi, Foster, bKash, Nagad, and Southeast Bank Ltd.
Of the stuck-up amount, over Tk 1.65 billion of Qcoom online shopping, paid by its customers against ordered goods, has been stuck up with Foster Payments.
And over Tk 485 million has been stuck in other payment gateways, according to a central bank letter.
Earlier, in a special meeting on the troubled e-commerce sector held at the commerce ministry on October 25, 2021 with Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi in the chair, the government decided to take steps to pay back Tk 2.14 billion stuck in different payment gateways to e-commerce customers in three months.
Government agencies concerned have been working to pay back the money that was paid in advance by customers from July 01 until October 14, it adds.
The government authorities have taken multiple steps in the wake of various scandals by dubious e-commerce platforms such as Evaly, E-orange, Dhamaka Shopp-ing, Sirajganj Shop and their likes.
The cabinet division and the commerce ministry have already formed a high-powered committee to bring discipline in e-commerce through resolving the problems the otherwise prospective sector is riddled with evidently for lax guidance.
Top officials of the e-commerce platforms concerned, who are allegedly involved in regularities in the name of online trade with customers concerned, are now in jail.
A process is now at the final stage to issue unique business-identification numbers (UBINs) to e-commerce platforms this month.
The government has made a move to set up a regulatory authority for the country's e-commerce sector, which, experts say, holds high prospects, if not squandered, as the world is fast boarding the information superhighway for transactions and interactions of all modes.
176 businessmen get CIP status

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Bryce Newberry, KPRC 2 Reporter
Tags: Missing Girl, Spring, Cell Phone
Why a Texas woman spent nearly $9,000 to keep her missing daughter's phone active
Alexandria "Ali" Lowitzer hasn't been seen since April 26, 2010.
SPRING, Texas – Nearly 13 years since a Spring teenager disappeared without a trace, her mother is letting go of one piece of her she has held onto all these years.
Alexandria "Ali" Lowitzer vanished on April 26, 2010 after riding the bus home from school while walking a short distance to her job on Cypresswood Drive in Spring.
Ever since, her mother Jo Ann Lowitzer, has paid $60 a month to keep Ali's cell phone number active.
"It was that one little piece of her that I still had," Jo Ann Lowitzer said while fighting back tears. "If she were able to reach a phone, she would have already called by now."
After all the years and adding up the cost of nearly $9,000 on Monday, she decided to finally call the cell phone company and disconnect Ali's phone.
"I told her the truth, I was like, 'My daughter's been missing for 12 years and it's just time'," Jo Ann Lowitzer said. "When something tragic like this happens in your life it changes you."
Jo Ann's gut instinct about what happened to Ali hasn't changed, even though the years have.
"The only thing that I am 100 percent sure of is someone took her," Jo Ann Lowitzer said.
She still gets tips on the website she set up, but said they have trickled over the years. She said she hasn't heard from investigators for at least five years.
Ali disappeared with her cell phone but activity on it stopped soon after she got off the bus in 2010, Jo Ann said. She eventually purchased a new phone and activated it with Ali's number, which helped a private investigator get access to Ali's email and Facebook account.
Neither account turned up any solid leads.
"The not knowing is the hardest, the hardest thing ever," Jo Ann Lowitzer said. "The ultimate hope is, I hope she's alive."
Jo Ann Lowitzer now helps other families looking for loved ones, volunteering for organizations like Texas Center for the Missing and Texas EquuSearch, which she said helps her cope with her own tragedy.
Texas Center for the Missing's Houston Missing Persons Day, being co-organized by Jo Ann Lowitzer, is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 4, one day after Ali Lowitzer would turn 29.
Bryce Newberry