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Labour happened pretty quickly for me. One minute I was out boating, pulling people around on wakeboards (I was having cramps but they can go on for days right?!) and the next thing I know I'm in hospital hooked up to a heart rate monitor with straps around my belly making sure the baby was ok and definitely on his way… It was a bit of bleeding at home that told me I needed to go to the hospital and check that everything was ok - I was scared as I hadn't felt him move so hearing his heart beating, a really strong one, was music to my ears. High blood pressure rendered me unable to go back home so there I was, staying in hospital until master Lewis decided to make his grand entrance into the world. The high blood pressure meant that the doctor didn't want a long labour to put our wee man under any undue stress or risk, so I was given an induction gel at around 6pm on Saturday afternoon, the 5th January. It was just days after my 35th birthday. I knew we'd be celebrating together from now on. A quick examination suggested that things were moving very very slowly and I was told to get some rest and the doctor informed me he'd be back in the morning, likely to give me another gel. He went on to say that he'd given me a very low dose of the gel as he didn't want things to move too quickly and again, cause the baby any stress. Little did he know how our little man operated…
Rich stuck around for a bit before heading home to get some dinner and some sleep while I messaged some friends saying how boring and uneventful labour was… I got myself settled in the maternity ward, had a shower and even washed and blowdried my hair (which was still salty from boating that morning!) and lay down on the bed. The next time I was hooked up to the heart rate monitor, things began to change. The cramps were still coming around every 5 minutes but they were definitely getting stronger. Lying down was no longer comfortable and I was longing to get the belly straps off and be able to move around. There was no WAY I was getting any rest! The midwife offered me some panadol which I gladly accepted and remember thinking "how pathetic am I?! I'm not even in labour yet and this is PAINFULL!" I also remember thinking that it was going to be a bloody long night.
At around 10pm, Janelle (a close friend and paediatric nurse who was serendipitously working a night shift at the hospital) popped down to see me - just as the midwife was stabbing a shot of pethadine into my ass. She agreed to sit with me and chat while the drugs kicked in, when, as everyone kept telling me, I would be able to get some rest. The pain was starting to get seriously real and the pethadine wasn't even touching the sides. I was pacing the room, breathing heavily and trying to do everything I could to distract myself but it wasn't helping. I needed help. I needed something stronger. Janelle had to go back to work as the midwife checked me again - still 2 cms. I wasn't making any progress. So why did it hurt so much? I remember at one point asking the midwife who said "because you're in labour darling." Oh right. Got it. Time to toughen up…or at least try!
The only other thing I was able to have was gas and air - as I wasn't in advanced labour yet an epidural wasn't an option. By this point I was screaming and doing everything I possibly could to escape my own body. I asked if I should call my husband, who was at home in bed, but it seemed pointless - one of us may as well get some rest and if this is going to go on for a while! Janelle came to see me again and rubbed by back until finally, around midnight I was offered an epidural. By the time the anaesthetist arrived (who is the fairy godmother of labour by the way - I LOVE her) and managed to hold me still enough to get the drugs in I was delirious but so, SO grateful for the sweet relief - it was almost 2am by the time they kicked in and the midwife checked me again…Go time! 9.5cms - Janelle called Rich who drove to the hospital at the speed of light and arrived minutes before the doctor. My waters hadn't burst so he dealt with that and then it was time to push - just 30 minutes later our little boy had arrived.
I remember asking "is he ok? Is he ok?" And Rich, crying, telling me that he was perfect. Through his tears I could feel the pride pouring out of him. For me, for our little man and for our family. I'd done it.
A slimy little human was handed to me and I placed him on my chest - our son. Rich cut the chord and we marvelled at the human we'd made. He wriggled and cried in my arms as I comforted him and welcomed him into our lives. Rich kept saying "well done". We looked at each other and agreed: Leo.
The doctors took him from me for a minute to wrap him in a towel before giving him back for some more cuddles. I don't remember a lot of what happened next but I know we lay there for a while, I drank a hot chocolate and we took a lot of pictures of the new member of our family. Then it was time to check his vitals and stats while I had a shower and moved back to our room in the maternity ward.
It was 5am before I climbed into bed and got an hours sleep while Leo snoozed next to the midwifes and Janelle. At 7am he was wheeled back in to my room so that I could try and feed him and start our first full day in the world together.
Rich arrived back at the hospital around 9 am with a coffee - in a coffee mug that said "The adventure begins" on the side. Ironic now when you think about it. We shared cuddles with Leo all morning while midwives came to check on him and helped us try to feed him. The doctor came back to check on him and then friends arrived for some cuddles and after all that fuss we put him back in his little basinet when they left to give him some time to relax. Oh how I wish I'd held him every minute of that day. The midwives told us not to overdo it with too many visitors and I wish I'd had them all! In the afternoon Jenn and Nate popped in and took some photos of the three of us that I will treasure forever for that day we were truly blessed. We were so in love with our little man. The midwives loved him too and commented on how strong he was when they changed him. We were proud as punch. He hadn't cried since his initial shrieks after birth but we were sure he was going to find his lungs soon.
Breastfeeding wasn't going that well so we fed him an ounce of formula from a cup which he lapped like a little kitten. I'd heard friends had to do this with their newborns so I wasn't concerned and I was messaging Rich, who had gone to grab us some take out for dinner, that he was just buggered from having a big day - he was less than a day old after all! Then it was just the three of us again and we celebrated with pizza and Prosecco in my room with Leo sleeping by our side. The happiest people in the world, we were on cloud nine. Rich left us that evening to go and celebrate with the boys.
The next morning I enjoyed some Mum cuddles while Dad had a lie in (and shook off his hangover) before bringing us coffee and breakfast. We had another visit from the doctor who was a little concerned about some of his features and his "weakness" which we struggled to believe… there couldn't possible be anything wrong with our gorgeous son! The orthopaedic surgeon checked his postional talipes (crooked feet) and said they just needed a bit of physiotherapy and would be fine. Then another doctor came to asses him and agreed that he did seem a bit weak but it was unlikely to be anything serious - they just needed to run a few tests to make sure. She also recommended having his tongue tie cut which is hugely common in the UK and again, no cause for major concern. They couldn't really figure out why he wasn't crying but it just didn't occur to us that anything was seriously wrong. Rich took a photo for his passport and headed out to register Leo's birth and get his birth certificate.
Friends popped in throughout the day to meet Leo with flowers and balloons. We tried feeding him again after they left and he wasn't really loving it so the midwife took him to try a little bottle. Rich arrived with more takeout for dinner just as the midwife came back in to chat to us. And that's when the world turned upside down.
She said she was concerned that he wasn't eating and would be taking him into NICU. He wasn't with us at that point and in between all the visitors I'd barely held him all afternoon. We started to cry and told the midwife that we were upset - what was happening? We were in shock and had no idea what was going on. She had tears in her eyes and said she was sorry but they had to make sure he had some food. My burrito sat on the side in its wrapper. I felt sick to my stomach. Was there something really wrong with my baby?
They asked if I wanted to take him to NICU. Of course I wanted to take him! But where? Where was he right now? Sobbing I ventured out into the ward and found my beautiful son in his little crib. I can't even remember if I took him back to our room for a while or whether I had to take him straight into the NICU ward. Once we got there, the nurse explained where to wash our hands and that Rich had to wear a hospital gown over his clothes. It was so routine. So simple. But I couldn't process what was happening. I was in a fog. Can I sit with him? Can I hold him? We didn't think to ask those questions out loud, they just rattled around in my sobbing head. The nurse sat back down behind her computer so we left Leo there and walked back to my room, without our son, and just wept. We felt so utterly helpless. We didn't understand what NICU meant, or have any idea what was wrong with him. But he wasn't with us and that was wrong. I was shaking, panicking and lonely. And that was just the start of a very, very long and terrifying night.
The doctor came back and told us that they would do a head and spine ultrasound the next day and start getting some answers. They wouldn't discharge me that night because of my high blood pressure and Rich couldn't stay - so there I was alone on the ward while Rich went home to an empty house…being separated was absolutely horrific and of course neither of us slept. We messaged constantly throughout the night:
M: The head scan and everything else according to the notes is really just ruling out any major issues that aren't obvious to the naked eye. Essentially they're just double checking that the dimple in his back isn't something that goes right through his spine. But it should tell us whether the brain has developed properly. And the midwife was saying she had a really good look when they had him last night after he was born and the doc didn't see anything obvious…so this is just what they need to do - until he feeds and starts being more animated they have to work on ruling things out.
Given he's waving his arms and legs around.... you'd think spinal issues are unlikely (he wouldn't be able to move them)
I managed to pump 15 ml and take it to him. He was fed and sleeping in his crib.
R: I'm not ok. I'm so sad. I want to be stronger but I'm just not. I'm scared. You are amazing and I love you so much.
M: I'm scared too. But we also might be worrying about nothing. I don't know whether I'm more stressed about the feet, his spine or the fact that he's asleep all the time...
R: I'm ok about feet. That will come right. It's his spine and sleeping that concerns me.
M: And I'm clinging to the fact that the orthopedic surgeon had zero concerns about his feet. We should try and get some sleep - tomorrow will be a big day. I know we are fighters so we'll be fine. Leo is a legend. He's got this.
Just been to see him. He had what I expressed plus a bit from a cup plus a bit from the tube. 1:30 is when he feeds again so I'll pump again at 1 and then go and see him. I asked the nurse what she thought and she said it was difficult to say but he could just be lazy. I asked if that was common and she said "yes. Especially for boys!"
1am: I expressed some more and took it to him.
R: Any more awake?
M: No. I tried to speak to the nurse but she said that if he was only born yesterday she wouldn't blame him for being tired…She just keeps telling me that we won't know anything until the test results come back and there's no point in stressing because it won't help. I asked if she'd seen similar babies and she just said "once in a while"
5am: He's taken teeny tiny amounts from the bottle and had two feeds from the tube. I expressed again at 4. The scary questions are: why doesn't he have a suck reflex (hopefully just tongue tie and nothing more serious). Why is he so asleep - is he just lazy or does he have major brain issues? Feet and spine - hopefully nothing more serious than a common deformity? So now I'm actually more scared about the sucking reflex and lack of crying...
I don't know what to think anymore
R: Me neither
M: I just spoke to nice midwife for a while. She said: she cannot tell us it's all going to be ok but she has seen a few dimples and club feet in her time that have come back with absolutely nothing. She said he didn't look like a super sick little boy. That made me feel better.
In the morning Leo started his blood tests and we arranged for his tongue tie to be snipped. It was difficult to admit but we started to tell family and some friends that Leo was having some issues and was in NICU while he learned to feed and started receiving messages of hope and encouragement from friends who had also had kids in NICU for a few days and gone home happy and healthy. My mum reminded me that I was also a sick baby and she too remembers crying over an empty crib at home, but a few weeks later I was discharged and she took her little miracle home. Everything would be ok.
Rich arrived back at the hospital and we prepared ourselves for a big day of "answers." The doctor had to push hard for an ultrasound now that he was in NICU and we wheeled him off to get his spine and brain looked at. I was so scared watching the ultrasound and trying to asses what the doctors were thinking. They said the brain looked normal - no bleeds - but they didn't say much about the spine.
We got back to NICU to chat to the doctor and she said that both ultrasounds were clear. Good news! His hearing test also came back clear. It felt like our boy was making progress.
The tongue tie helped as well - Leo stuck his tongue out immediately and started sucking on my finger. We were over the moon! He latched straight away as well but he'd just been fed through the tube so we were looking forward to his next feeding time later that afternoon - we were so full of hope!
Even though he didn't breastfeed, he did take all of the next feed from a bottle. He was sleepy throughout and needed "assistance" with some of the milk being squirted into his mouth, but he took it and we were encouraged that he didn't need the tube. We were trying to avoid the tube as we desperately wanted him to learn to suck. That's all we thought he needed then he'd find the energy to wake up. Once he'd fed we could take him home….we'd be snuggled on the couch by the weekend - that's what we were aiming for.
After another assisted bottle feed in the evening I was discharged from the hospital and Rich and I were free to go home. Home. Without my baby. Not how I'd pictured it at all and I was absolutely devastated. Rich was strong for me and as we left I told the nurse I'd be back for the 5am feed. I couldn't believe I was leaving Leo there without me but I knew he was in safe hands and that I had to go - I needed some sleep and I needed to be with Rich. The 3 of us being separated the night before had broken us both and I couldn't be in the lonely room in the maternity ward again, and being with Leo wasn't an option. By the time we got home I was physically shaking and freezing cold. My body was starting to shut down. I managed to pump before passing out for a couple of hours before getting up to pump again. Then back to the hospital to feed Leo. I thought that after a night of rest and tube feeding he might have the energy to breast feed but it was to no avail. He was sleepier than ever and wouldn't even really feed from the bottle. My heart sank but as I went into another room to pump I was still full of hope.
We'd asked another doctor for a second opinion and both paediatricians arrived at 7am to see if they could work out what was wrong with Leo. They compared notes and assessed Leo, checking his reflexes and discussing the fact that he seemed weak, and potentially floppier than previous days. They spoke in hushed tones and asked us a million questions about the pregnancy and how he'd been since birth. At some point, the nurse (who was new in that day) commented on the fact that his breathing had started to fluctuate dangerously. The doctors shelved their current discussion and agreed that it was concerning. They asked her to do a blood gas which Janelle explained was a blood test to see how much carbon dioxide was in his blood. Too much - our baby was struggling to breathe. They added a CPAP mask to him - continuous positive airflow pressure - to give him some extra oxygen. I still didn't really think too much of it - he just needed a little help. I don't really remember the exact timeline of what happened next as it all seemed to happen in fast forward - there was talk of an MRI and discussion of the fact that the MRI machine in the hospital, despite being state of the art, couldn't be used with the breathing tubes, and whether it was worth risking taking Leo off for the test. In the meantime another blood gas was done. It was even worse. Leo needed to be placed on a ventilator to breathe for him. I didn't occur to me that the ventilator was life support until I heard one of the doctors say it out loud over the phone. My baby was on life support. He wasn't breathing on his own anymore. Shit shit shit shit shit. We asked the doctor to be frank with us. She told us that it was now obvious that Leo's problems weren't straight forward. At best we were facing a serious disability but we should be prepared for the fact that he might not make it. He might die. She told us we needed to get him on a plane to the Children's hospital in Miami ASAP.
Our amazing doctors insisted that we be taken to Nicklaus Children's hospital and called the head doctor who accepted Leo and said that they had a room for him. The medi-evac was ordered and as Rich rushed around the hospital and the island with friends who had come to help us to organise paperwork and passports, I sat in the next room trying to take it all in. We were leaving, hopefully that day, on an emergency plane with our son who as fighting for his life. We needed answers but it wasn't looking good. We were told that we needed to go even if only to get a diagnosis. Was I going to Miami to watch my son die? My friends took the day off work to come and sit with us. I was staring to get used to sitting in a room while people stared at me. I tried to eat. I tried to explain to the people who had come to support and care for me what was happening and how I felt. I tried to make conversation. But I felt sick. I was also exhausted. I was cold but I was sweating. The girls were asking how I was doing with hormones and baby blues - I had no idea whether I was feeling them. What was hormones, what was stress and what was exhaustion? I just wanted Leo to be ok.
It's amazing how hours of your life can just disappear in a hospital. Ask me to sit on a wooden chair for 12 hours straight without moving in any other situation and I'd say you're out of your mind. But somehow sitting, waiting in a hospital was simple. The time on the clock ticked past as people came in and out with updates - passport sorted, just need a police clearance… that's right, our 3 day old baby who had spent most of his life in intensive care needed to be checked for a criminal record before he could travel to the USA. Madness. I signed things, Rich rushed off to the passport office, the hospital referrals office, and wherever else he needed paperwork from. Friends kept tabs on the referrals team to see whether the plane had been scheduled. At some point in the afternoon we went home to pack our bags - we walked around our house trying to be quick but completely bemused as to what we might need. Nothing really fitted me as I had lost my bump but was only a few days post labour. The things that did fit me (pyjamas) badly needed a wash as I'd been wearing them for the last 3 days. I was expecting to be back home by now. I wasn't prepared for life on a ward. No one is. I was also still pumping so I also needed nursing tops and bras. We threw a few random things into a bag and rushed back to the hospital.
We weren't sure whether Rich would be able to come on the medi-evac. The planes are small and usually there's only room for one parent and we decided that that would be me, but there was a chance that Rich would be able to fit too. In the event that he couldn't, our friend Matt had agreed to fly with him so he wasn't alone and they'd held seats on the 5:40pm flight - the last one of the day to Miami. It was down to the wire but at 4pm we heard that there wasn't going to be space for both of us - he had to go. Saying goodbye to each other at that moment was one of the hardest goodbye's of my life. We had no idea whether Leo was going to make it to Miami and Rich knew he could have been saying goodbye to his son. Friends stayed with me at the hospital and I broke down. I was absolutely terrified. I had no idea what to expect from the medi-evac and I was scared that Leo wouldn't survive. But I knew I had to be strong for him - he needed me. I was a mother and an adult and I had to pull myself together and cope with this.
About 10 minutes later Rich walked back in - I figured he must have forgotten something but he said that the referrals team had called as he was in the car park on the way to the airport and told him he could go on the medi-evac after all. We both burst into tears of relief - glad that we were all back together and so much stronger as a team.
The wait was somehow easier then. We tried to get some rest before the medi-evac team arrived and a few bites of pizza. And then the movie show started.
At around 9pm the Life Flight crew arrived. The nurses had prepared us by telling us that the "transfer" could take an hour or two and to expect it to seem chaotic. The Life Flight nurses introduced themselves and got straight to work. They completed all of their assessments of Leo, took his vitals and confirmed that he was stable enough to make the journey. Eventually they turned to us to sign a waiver saying that we understood the risks associated with flying Leo to Miami . We sat back and let them take control of the NICU room and prepare their gear. After just over an hour they moved Leo into the incubator he was going to travel in - essentially a mini NICU. He looks so tiny closed in there with tubes and monitors attached to almost every part of his body. It was so difficult to not be able to touch him while he was in there. I was his Mum. I needed to cuddle him. The best we could do was speak to him through the plastic screen.
At around 11pm they were ready to go - they turned to us with a simple question - are you ready? We grabbed our bags, said some teary goodbyes to the midwives and walked behind Leo as he was wheeled out of the hospital and into an ambulance that was waiting outside. I felt like I was walking alongside by own body - watching my life from the sidelines as though it was a movie. Only it wasn't. We were living it. We had 3 ambulances take us to the airport, one for Leo, one for us and one for support as the equipment carrying Leo was so heavy they needed as many people as they could to lift it in and out of the ambulance and plane. For good reason we were leaving the comfort of our homeland and all of our friends to a strange place we didn't ever want to go to - it dawned on us as we left the hospital just how scared we both were…really scared.
We met the pilot who would be flying us to Miami - he was a cool guy but he had bad news, he was missing a piece of paperwork that US customs were demanding to let us land in Miami and was still waiting for clearance. The nurses weren't amused and pointed out that they were running on air tanks and only had so many before they ran out and couldn't support Leo's breathing….they had 40 minutes emergency supply over and above the 1hr they needed to make the flight, and we were starting to eat into that. If we didn't get clearance in the next 5 minutes, we'd be on our way back to the hospital…
I couldn't face taking a backwards step but just as were loaded back into the ambulance, the pilot managed to pull a rabbit out of a hat and we were clear for take-off. Before that he'd said he was going to just take off and declare a medical emergency above Miami International airport which would close the runway to allow us to land! Now that would be arriving in style for our tiny 4 day old baby!
Finally we were wheels up and on our way. The nurses monitored Leo constantly on the plane, ensuring that he was stable throughout the flight and sending his vitals back to the hospital that was waiting to receive us. I called them the incredibles - the work they do is just so amazing and we knew Leo was getting the best care possible. Somehow we managed to fall asleep on the tiny bench seat we had behind Leo's stretcher and just an hour later we touched down in Miami. It was freezing. Having left Cayman in my pyjamas bottoms and a vest top I was seriously close to asking the ambulance that was collecting us for a rescue blanket! We cleared customs in the private terminal and Leo was transferred from the plane and into the ambulance for the final leg of his transfer. What we didn't realise then was that was the first and last time he would be in contact with the outside world. That's as close as Leo came to feeling fresh air, even though he couldn't breathe it in himself. The closest he came to seeing anything outside a hospital room.
We arrived at Nicklaus children's hospital in the early hours of Thursday morning and were taken straight to NICU which felt like we'd arrived on the starship enterprise. Banks of screens with charts and graphs of all the babies lined the walls of the corridor as we walked through in front of a row of nurse stations before we turned down the hallway of what would become our home for the next 5 days - room 4028.
Leo had his own room and a nurse that was dedicated to his care 24/7. In his state of the art room there was a sofa bed and an ensuite bathroom so that Rich and I could stay with him. It felt so good to be all together - the first time we'd all slept in one place as a family.
We were introduced to Alexis, our nurse working the nightshift, and shown around - the family room where we could get water, coffee and hot chocolate and store our food in the fridge, including the labels we should use to mark what was ours. There was a procedure for washing your hands on entry to the NICU and rules regarding visitors and what you could and couldn't bring into the treatment room. My head was spinning and I just wanted to get back to Leo.
Back in our room, consultants and nurses had already descended on our baby and a whole list of tests was underway - bloods, X-rays and ultrasounds which continued on until sunrise. We sat down with a doctor who asked us about Leo's story from start to finish. The days were starting to blend into one and I remember being fuzzy about the details when trying to remember what happened on which day. The only thing we were sure of was that he was born a normal baby, and now here we were, in a state of the art facility having been transferred on a medical emergency with our precious son on life support. All of it had taken place in just 4 days and I hadn't slept in 5. We were exhausted.
We set up the sofa bed, spread the blankets the hospital had provided for us and tried to get some sleep. First I had to pump - how I was still doing it I don't know but I was clinging to the hope that my baby might need it one day. He was now on IV's - they wanted to keep his stomach clear so that it didn't obstruct his breathing - so he wasn't even getting my milk anymore but I was told to keep pumping, that they would figure out what was wrong with him and then he'd need it. It felt futile but I kept doing it. It was the only thing I could do.
Finally I lay down to sleep for a couple of hours. Rich had crashed and was snoring so hard I was sure the nurses would pull the curtain in the room back any minute and tell us to shut up so they could concentrate! They didn't and we managed to get some rest before the morning shift change and our new nurse arrived - Nicole the legend!
In the morning we also met the neurologist and geneticist (as well as physios, social workers, lactation specialists, occupational therapists and a constant stream of other people). We knew that the neurologist and geneticist would be key to understanding what was wrong with Leo. They mapped out their plan for assesing Leo and investigating his condition which they said could take weeks thanks for the turnaround times for genetics - it felt like we had a long road ahead of us.
By 11am we were still in our pyjamas and hadn't eaten or drunk anything - with the continuous stream of consultants, doctors and nurses coming in to see Leo and talk to us it was impossible to leave and we didn't want to miss anything. Finally we took a trip down to the lobby of the hospital to grab a Starbucks. There, outside the elevator, our friend Bea was waiting to meet her husband Bruno and their friend Leo before coming to find us. I couldn't believe my eyes. I didn't realise how much I needed to see a friendly face until I saw her and the fact that they'd just shown up, without an invite or warning, armed with fresh pastries and juices (we needed the vitamins!) was just incredible. One of my (many) fears leaving Cayman was that we were leaving the support network of our island family and going to a place that was big and unfamiliar. Seeing Bea made me realise that even in another country, in a city we didn't live in, we weren't alone.
We sat with our friends for a while before the Neurologist walked past and asked to speak to us. He was a cool guy and suggested that we could try some easy therapies to see if Leo responded. These treatments were a stab in the dark and a very long shot, but they would be an easy fix. There was a chance…a hope. We left our friends to head back to Leo and waited for the meds to kick in and make our baby better.
But they didn't, and all too quickly that hope was extinguished as Leo failed to respond and all of the "easy fixes" were thrown out - it was starting to become increasingly obvious that Leo's problems were complicated and severe. The neurologist confirmed that the next step for him was an MRI which would take place the next day and the geneticist ordered a spinal tap - a procedure we were asked to leave the room for.
Unexpectedly and unannounced later that day another friend, Kim, who used to live in Cayman stopped by to drop of a bag of treats, notepad, SIM card and the offer of a car should we need it - she had heard the news from a friend in Cayman and wanted to help - another angel on our side in this foreign land.
Later we took a walk and grabbed some lunch before heading back in to more test results, consultants and questions. The evening rolled around before we knew it and as the nurses prepared for their night shift change, we realised that nothing else significant would be happening in Leo's treatment plan until the next morning. It had been a huge 24 hours of tests and consultations and now we needed to wait.
We decided to leave the hospital for a couple of hours and go out for a bite to eat. We were encouraged by the geneticist and neurologists thoroughness and we believed that they were going to find a disorder that we could treat and manage. We received messages from friends who knew of genetic metabolic disorders that were controlled by medication and allowed for a relatively normal life. We ordered burgers and Rich even had a beer. We were still hopeful.
But all of a sudden we realised what we'd actually done. We'd left our boy! How could we be so stupid?! What if something happened while we were out? He was in NICU and they said that he was stable but how did they know? This led us to asking ourselves what we would do if he stopped breathing. Would we want him to be resusitated? The days events had indicated that Leo was a very sick little boy and our main priority was to ensure that he wasn't in pain and that he wasn't suffering. If he wanted to fly away to the angels, we wouldn't be the ones to stop him. But one thing was for sure - we needed to be with him.
Unsurprisingly our appetites disappeared and we hot footed it back to the hospital, desperate to see our son. We spoke to the nurses straight away and told them what we'd discussed and how we were feeling. They understood and told us that we were incredibly strong and selfless parents. So why did we feel so selfish? Didn't they just hear me say that I wanted to let my son die if he stopped breathing? They said that what we were suggesting was strong and noble as we were putting our baby first. It didn't feel like it. We'd never felt so low.
Having seen how upset we were, the nurses offered to let us hold Leo and we jumped at the chance for a cuddle - not a simple process! In came the nurses and respiratory therapists to hold Leo's breathing tubes while he was transferred to our laps one at a time. Just 2 days earlier I'd been picking him up and snuggling with him in blissful ignorance and now it was all we could do to cradle him with a team of medical professionals and machines surrounding us. But it was magical. We cuddled him, held his little hand and spoke to him. We told him that we loved him as our tears fell onto his forehead. And then he was placed back into his crib, under the heat lamp, surrounded by warm pads to keep him cosy. He looked so snug and so relaxed. Our brave little man taking all of the proding, poking, monitoring and tubes in his stride.
We continued to chat about our options and what the next day might bring, until we couldn't fight the exhaustion any longer. Our friends who had stopped by earlier had bought us toiletries and a duvet and pillows which made the bed so much more comfortable and we collapsed into it for a few hours. I remember how Rich and I fell asleep, cuddled so close together we could have easily fitted in a single bed. At home we have the luxury of a king and neither of us can fall asleep if we're so much as touching fingers. We were shattered and just wanted to be close. We managed to sleep fairly well although I was still setting my alarm to pump and any time either of us got up in the night we would walk over and chat to Leo, make sure he was snug and comfortable and tell him we loved him.
We woke up before the nurses shift change in the morning - Nicole was with us again. Every day that we were in hospital we made a conscious effort to "start the day" by making the fold out bed back into a sofa, showering and making it feel like it was a new day, clean and fresh. We put plans in motion for our families to fly to Miami the next day and our friend Matt also told us that he was flying out that evening to be with us for the weekend.
The MRI was scheduled for 2:30pm and at around 11am the nurses removed the ECG cables and hat from Leo's head - we could see his beautiful hair again! They washed his little head and I was able to brush his blonde locks. It was such a tender moment and one I will cherish forever. We called it "Nicole's spa!" He smelled delicious and I loved caring for my little man and seeing his little curls. Soon he was ready and a new team of respiratory specialists came to accompany Nicole down to the MRI.
We knew we had around 3 hours until he'd be back so we went out to get some fresh air and some lunch. On the way we talked about what was potentially ahead of us if the MRI showed what we thought it might...we were on the same page. We couldn't let our little boy suffer and we wanted a quality of life for us all. We got back to the hospital with time to spare but almost as soon as we'd sat down we got a call from the neurologist who wanted to speak to us. The MRI had only been going for 2 hours and it was supposed to take 3.
He came into the room with the geneticist. We could tell it wasn't good news. The MRI showed that Leo was lacking a Corpus Collasum almost entirely. There was barely any connection between the left and right sides of his brain and firing within the brain was very slow. This correlated with a rare metabolic disorder called Nonketotic Hyperglycinemia (NKH) so the geneticist had gone to the lab to rush the results from the spinal tap. Leo's glycine levels were at 300 - ridiculously high compared to the usual 25 - and she'd sent both the MRI and glycine levels to her colleague and friend in Denver, a leading researcher for the disorder, who had confirmed that Leo had classic NKH.
We had our diagnosis. NKH is terminal and Leo was a severe case. We knew what we had to do. The doctors said that they supported our decision and left the room.
It was then that we really broke down. We sobbed on our knees by the window of the NICU room. We phoned our parents and told them that they wouldn't get to meet Leo. He had been through so much and it was time to set him free.
As he was wheeled back into the room I remember looking at my darling boy knowing the decision that we'd made about his life. I felt so guilty. We were going to let our son die.
We had a couple of hours while the doctors and nurses organised the relevant paperwork so we used the time to get some footprints and keepsakes - Rich cleaned up Leo's poor little feet that had been pricked for blood tests so many times!
Matt arrived just in time. We were given some paperwork to sign - I couldn't believe what I was doing. Then we prepared ourselves for the unthinkable. At 8pm Leo was taken out of his crib and we had some cuddles with the tubes in. He was riding the ventilator so no one thought it would take long once the breathing tube was removed.
After a few cuddles I turned to Rich and asked if he was ready. He nodded. At 8pm on Friday 11th January, 5 day after he was born, we removed Leo's life support. We held him, cried tears of love and sadness onto his little body and told him how much we loved him and would miss him. We held him close as doctors watched the monitors and his vitals crashed.
And then they came back up again. Our boy was fighting for his life. We always knew that Leo had a strong heart and he wasn't willing to give up just like that. He wanted more time with us.
It was so amazing to hold him without the machines and tubes but we didn't really understand what was happening - he had been on life support and he wasn't supposed to live without it. The doctor then told us that sometimes it takes minutes, sometimes hours and sometimes days. That's not how it happens in the movies! It didn't seem fathomable to us and we didn't want it to take days - we needed the pain to end and it seemed like tearing off the plaster was the way for that to happen.
But that wasn't Leo's plan.
At 9pm Nicole said her goodbyes - she had been so amazing and we will be forever grateful to her to supporting us through two very difficult days of tests and diagnosis. She truly loved Leo and the care she gave him and us is unforgetable.
As the clock pressed closer to midnight it started to become clear that he wasn't leaving us yet so we sat back with Leo cradled in our arms for another night in NICU. Dors stayed with us and we took it in turns to catch 40 winks while two of us stayed awake to keep each other company, watch Leo's vitals and hang out with him. It was the first time that we were able to sleep with our baby in our arms. It was magical. I began to realise that Leo was giving us bonus time with him - his gift to us. My selfless, brave baby wanted some time with his Mum and Dad and I am so grateful to him for that. As he and Rich slept together I realised how similar they looked - Leo was a miniature version of his Dad. They looked so cute together as Leo purred in Rich's protective arms and snuggled in closer.
As the morning rolled around and signalled the end of our "all-nighter" we decided to make some more memories. We got Leo's passport out and took some more photos and enjoyed a lot more cuddles. We "started the day" again and wandered how much of it we'd get to spend with Leo. We also met our new nurse, Lisa.
At 10:30, some more friends from Cayman - Nev, JS, Kate and Nate - arrived having jumped on the morning flight from Cayman and it started to dawn on us that even our parents might make it in time to meet him. Friends and family that were coming to support us in our loss were getting the chance to meet our son and I was so happy! I wanted other people to see how beautiful he was and be a part of our story. Leo was giving us so much more than we ever expected from him by holding on.
In the afternoon our parents and Rich's sister and my brother arrived. Leo was surrounded by so much love and his grandparents who were photographing him from every angle. There were a lot of tears but also so much joy as everyone cooed over our little man who was filling everyone with his gorgeous soul. The NICU rules for visitors had long gone out of the window once the diagnosis was confirmed and our room was alive with friends and family enjoying Leo.
Messages of love and support were pouring in from all over the world and people were sending pictures of candles burning for Leo.
As evening fell, we sent the family home to get some rest, apart from my brother, Jan who stayed with Kate and Nate to keep us company for the night. We now knew the drill - we needed people to stay awake and keep each other company to watch Leo's stats while Rich and I tried to get a few minutes of sleep. In a weird way the all nighters were fun. We shared stories and joked and hung out with Leo - as we would have done had we taken him home as a newborn and visitors come round to see us. Perhaps not in the middle of the night but still! At 4am Kate and Nate swapped with JS and Nev as my brother tried to get some sleep in a chair. He refused to leave and I'll always love him for it.
After a hectic day on Saturday with people arriving, meeting Leo and lots of cuddles, we wanted Sunday to be relaxed. We wanted Leo to be relaxed. So the focus was on storytelling and chilling with him. Rich's mum and sister told him tales of his late Grandpa and life on their farm when they were growing up. We told him about his family and those waiting for him in heaven.
He was starting to lose his colour and feel colder and we knew it wouldn't be too much longer. His heart rate started to plummet as the evening set in. Rich and I ran in an out of the shower keeping one eye on the monitor while the other one stayed right by his side. We ordered McDonalds and had a fast food picnic on the bed - we were exhausted and decided to get some sleep. If Leo decided to go that night we would be right next to him.
The nurse set an alarm on the monitor and said she would check on us regularly. The stats were dropping at a much faster rate than they had been but we eventually fell asleep for a few hours and by the morning we knew we were on the final stretch. I read Leo every Winnie the pooh story I could find online as well as some children books and we sang lullaby and songs - Lord of the dance being our favourite. Friends sent in recording of children's books which we played to him.
And then the crashes started coming thick and fast. He was leaving us.
At 3:50pm on Monday 14th January he died in our arms and we said our final goodbyes. I'll never ever forget that moment.
RIP our beautiful little Leo. We'll love you forever.
Thank you to all of the amazing doctors, nurses, midwives, friends and colleagues who helped us and Leo at every step on our journey and continue to support us with the most incredible care we could ever hope of receiving. You know who you are - we love you all.


Speaking to the Florida Record, Cindy Hamilton from The Opt Out Florida Network said that Florida is the cradle of education reform with a governor that is determined to increase accountability to increase test results. However, over the years negative impacts have been seen due to the high stakes that are attached to the testing the children take.
"The high stakes would be teacher pay and teacher evaluations, school grades, which means money, and also whether or not a child is retained in third-grade or passed or even in 10th grade. If they don't pass the test they can be denied a diploma when they graduate," she said.
Cindy Hamilton runs an organization, along with several others, called The Opt Out Florida Network with groups at the district levels to serve as a grassroots organization to support people choosing not to take the tests. According to Hamilton, Opt Out is an act of protest in defiance of unjust laws.
The lawsuit aims to have the third-grade retention law declared unconstitutional and unenforceable.
In Florida, parents have another way for children to move on to fourth-grade by providing a portfolio. Hamilton states that while a portfolio sounds like a lovely idea to a layman, it isn't.
As a result, the parents involved in the lawsuit have refused to take part in any of the reading test.
Florida's third-grade retention law, in place since 2003, has been controversial since its inception. The parents are hoping that through the lawsuit the judge will sign an injunction, putting a stop to third-grade retention and put the children back into a fourth-grade seat.
Hamilton says that while Florida's legislature has been pressured to make changes to the accountability system, it is not focusing on the high stakes in the classrooms, which is what it should be and not what tests should be taken. She adds, though, that she does think that assessments are still valid.


Image Title: Top 20 Free Printable Emotions Coloring Pages Online For Design 2. Post Title: Emotions Coloring Pages. Filename: top-20-free-printable-emotions-coloring-pages-online-for-design-2.jpg. Image Dimension: 230 x 230 pixels. Images Format: jpg/jpeg. Publisher/Author: Judson Haag. Uploaded Date: Wednesday - February 13th. 2019 21:54:06 PM. Category: Coloring Pages. Image Source: homedit.com. Coloring With Top Doors Therapy Pages 4. Feelings Cards Inside 20 To 18. For Intended Download Preschoolers Idea Emotions Printable 2. 5. Pertaining Free Ideas Regard Design Bloggers Fun 0. Pinterest Online Prepare Decorations Designs Help And 6 Feeling Worksheets Emotion Social Kids 17. Emotional 10. Inspirational Faces Your 15. Page 7. Open In Psychology 6.


OPINION: 2019 is unlikely to see the plunge into recession many fear with growth likely to stabilise supporting profit growth, the Fed is likely to undertake a pause in rate hikes and global monetary policy is likely to remain easy. The RBA is expected to cut interest rates. The main things to keep an eye on are: the risks around the Fed, US/China tensions, global growth, Chinese growth and the property price downturn in Australia.
Fear of the Fed.The Fed provided no real surprises and nor did US inflation, but investors became increasingly nervous that Fed hikes would crush US growth and profits.
US dollar strength.While the US dollar did not rise above its 2016 high it caused problems in the emerging world where US dollar denominated debt is high.
President Trump's trade war.This was always a high risk for 2018 and once it got underway it weighed on share markets. While the initial focus seemed to be the US versus everyone it morphed into fears of a new Cold War with China adding to fears about growth and profits.
China slowdown.This was as expected to around 6.5% as a result of credit tightening but fears that it will combine with the trade war and get worse added to global growth angst.
Global desynchronisation.US growth was strong, but it slowed in Europe, Japan, China and the emerging world.
Global growth to stabilise and then resynchronise.Global growth is likely to average around 3.5% which is down from 2018 but this is likely to mask slower growth in the first half of the year ahead of some improvement in the second half as China provides a bit more policy stimulus, the Fed pauses in raising interest rates, the fall in currencies against the $US dollar provides a boost to growth outside the US and trade war fears settle down (hopefully). Overall, this should support reasonable global profit growth.
Global inflation to remain low.With growth dipping back to around or just below trend in the short term and commodity prices down inflation is likely to remain low. The US remains most at risk of higher inflation due to its tight labour market, but various business surveys suggest that US inflation may have peaked for now at around 2%.
Monetary policy to remain relatively easy.The Fed is likely to have a pause on rate hikes during the first half and maybe hike only twice in 2019 as it gets into the zone that it regards a neutral. Rate hikes from other central banks are a long way away. In fact, further monetary easing is likely in China and the European Central Bank may provide more cheap funding to its banks.
Geopolitical risk will remain high causing bouts of volatility.The main focus is likely to remain on the US/China relationship and trade will likely be the big one. While Trump is likely to want to find a solution on the trade front before tariffs impact the US economy significantly & threaten his re-election in 2020, it's not clear that this will occur before the March 1 deadline from the Trump/Xi meeting in Buenos Aires so expect more volatility on this issue. Wider issues including the South China Sea could also flare up along with negotiations around Italy's budget.
By Dr Shane Oliver, Head of Investment Strategy and Economics and Chief Economist, AMP Capital.


text:
Meigs County News Sports Uncategorized
Cougars Pounce Tornadoes
September 4, 2021 September 4, 2021 Brent Rose 38 Views 5 min read
RACINE, Ohio – The Southern Tornadoes hosted the Frontier Cougars Saturday, September 4, 2021 at the Roger Lee Adams Memorial Field.
The Cougars won the toss and chose to receive the ball. Tornadoes Derek Griffith kicked the ball to the 20 yard line where the Cougars took it and ran to the 28 yard line. On the first play for Frontier JD Schmidt passed to Tanner Bills and went 44 yards to the Southern 28 yard line. Frontier had two more first downs and got the ball to the three yard line where the Southern defense held, and took over on downs.
The Tornadoes marched the ball down the field to the 20 yard line, when they lost momentum, and was forced to punt. Frontier took possession on the 6 yard line at the 3:25 mark on the clock. Their first pass was thrown incomplete, but on second down they handed the ball to Tanner Bills and he broke away for a 77 yard run to the 17 yard line. After that long run the Tornadoes held strong and with 2:52 left in the quarter took back possession of the ball on the 22 yard line. On the first play of this set of downs, Southern's quarterback Josiah Smith was picked off by Cougars Lucas Cox, who returned the ball for the game's first score. The two point conversion was attempted twice with flags on both teams, and on the third attempt it was no good. So at the the 2:42 mark Frontier led the Tornadoes 6-0.
The Tornadoes received the kickoff at the 31 yard line, but went four and out, and punted the ball back to the Cougars, who finished the first quarter with the ball on the 43 yard line. The second quarter started and the Cougars marched on down the field and at the 8:58 mark led the Tornadoes 14-0.
Southern's Derek Griffith received the kickoff on the 20 yard and returned it to the 30 yard line. On first down quarterback Josiah Smith ran the ball for four yards to the 34. His next play was a pass that was picked off by the Cougars Lucas Cox and ran back for six points. The kick for the extra point was good making the score 21-0 with 7:55 left in the half. Southern again attempted to push down the field starting at the 25 yard line. They moved the ball to the Cougars 45 yard line. On the next play quarterback Josiah Smith ran the ball to the 25 yard line, but the Tornadoes were penalized for holding, bringing the ball back to the 45. The next play was picked off by the Cougars. At the 4:49 mark the Cougars found the end zone again, after a failed extra point attempt led the Tornadoes 27-0. Southern started off the next possession at the 13 yard line where Blake Shain ran the ball to the 25 yard line. The Tornadoes were penalized for holding which brought the ball back to the 15 yard line. Southern passed to Derek Griffith who moved the ball to the 21 yard line. But that was as far as the Tornadoes went. With a second down run by Logan Hensler for no gain and a third down fumble recovered by Josiah Smith, the Tornadoes were forced to punt from the 17 yard line with 2:50 left in the half.
The Cougars took possession on the 48 yard line and moved the ball to the Southern 40 before handing the ball to Tanner Bills for a 40 yard touchdown run. With the extra point no good the Cougars lead was extended to 33-0 and ended the half.
With a running clock per league rules, the Tornadoes come out of the locker room looking to recover from a rough first half. They received the ball in the third quarter at the 20 yard line with Blake Shain running it back to the 32 yard line. The next play Josiah Smith kept the ball and made it to the 50 yard line. But that is as far as the Tornadoes would go, after a penalty for false start that moved them back five yards and a pass to Blake Shain that got them back to the 50 they had to punt tha ball away at the 8:52 mark.
The Cougars went four and out and the Tornadoes took possession at the 4:47 mark. Southern come out of the huddle and on first down attempted a hook and ladder play but Lincoln Rose was stopped for a loss of three yards. The Tornadoes got back to the original line of scrimmage, but on fourth down quarterback Josiah Smith was intercepted again, the Cougars ended the third quarter 33-0.
The Cougars started the fourth quarter on the 39 yard line and made it to the 44 yard line before having to punt to the Tornadoes. Southern started out on the 36 yard line, but didn't go far as they were picked off again by the Cougars, the fifth interception of the game. The Cougars started out on the 42 yard line at the 6:06 mark and burnt the clock down to 2:59 mark before the Tornadoes took back over.
Southern moved the ball from the 39 yard line to the 17 yard line with runs from Logan Hensler, Josiah Smith, and Blake Shain before running out of time.
Final Score: Frontier Cougars 33 – Southern Tornadoes 0
The Tornadoes will travel to South Gallia next Friday.
Below are scenes from the game, photos by Carrie Rose.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Zatlite: One cries because one is sad.
I believe I just hit a new low.
I just pointed out to my team leader a blooper a second person (recently departed) who was hired as team leader made in code.
I emailed him because he was responsible for merging the changeset.
So I passed along my vote of non-confidence in the associated changeset with a screenshot of a side by side diff and also highlighted the problem syntax with the highlight tool.
He just came back to me and said I don't see where the problem is.
Two team-leads in a row is just too much.
If you're a programmer you ought to pay attention to detail and first and foremost, understand boolean logic.


text:
Q: "short read" from filesystem, when can it happen? It is obvious that in general the read(2) system call can return less bytes than what was asked to be read. However, quite a few programs assume that when working with a local files, read(2) never returns less than what was asked (unless the file is shorter, of course).
So, my question is: on Linux, in which cases can read(2) return less than what was requested if reading from an open file and EOF is not encountered and the amount being read is a few kilobytes at maximum?
Some guesses:

*

*Can received signals interrupt a read like that, but not make it fail?

*Can different filesystems affect this behavior? Is there anything special about jffs2?

A: I have to ask: "why do you care about the reason"? If read can return a number of bytes less than the requested amount (which, as you point out, it certainly can) why would you not want to deal with that situation?

A: POSIX.1-2008 states:

The value returned may be less than
  nbyte if the number of bytes left in
  the file is less than nbyte, if the
  read() request was interrupted by a
  signal, or if the file is a pipe or
  FIFO or special file and has fewer
  than nbyte bytes immediately available
  for reading.

Disk-based filesystems generally use uninterruptible reads, which means that the
read operation generally cannot be interrupted by a signal.  Network-based
filesystems sometimes use interruptible reads, which can return partial data or no data.
(In the case of NFS this is configurable using the intr mount option.)
They sometimes also implement timeouts.
Keep in mind that even /some/arbitrary/file/path may refer to a FIFO or
special file, so what you thought was a regular file may not be.  It is therefore
good practice to handle partial reads even though they may be unlikely.

A: A received signal only makes read() fail if it hasn't yet read a single byte. Otherwise, it will return partial data.
And I guess alternate filesystems may indeed return short reads in other situations. For example, it makes some sense (to me) to have a network-based filesystem behave just like a network socket wrt short reads (= having them often).

A: If it's really a file you are reading, then you can get short read as the last read before end of file.
Howver, it's generally best to behave as if ANY read could be a short read.  If what you are reading is a pipe or an input device (stdin) rather than a file, you can get a short read whenever your buffer is larger than what is currently in the input buffer.

A: I am not sure but this situation could arise when the OS is running out of pages in the page cache. You could suggest that flush thread will be invoked in that case, but it depends on the heuristic used in the I/O scheduler. This situation could cause a read to return fewer bytes.

A: What I have always read being called a "short read" is not related to the file access read(2) but to the physical read of a disk sector.  It happens when, while reading the data part of the sector, less valid magnetic signals are found than to make the 512 (or 4096 or whatever) bytes of a sector. That makes an invalid sector and a read fault. Regarding "when", or rather why it happens is most probably because the power feeding the drive fell down while that sector was written.
Could it be that a read(2) ends with a physical error code called "short read"?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


The Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) has given situation report about a building that collapsed during a demolition exercise in Oke-Arin area of Lagos Island on Monday.
According to the agency, the collapsed building located at Egerton oke Arin square had been marked by the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA) for demolition, which started on Sunday.
The officials were on top of the building when some scavengers tried to remove the doors on the ground floor and the remaining parts of the building collapsed on them.
The four scavengers sustained minor injuries and had been taken to the nearest hospital before the arrival of LRT.
Details about the collapse which comes less than a week after a building collapsed at Ita Faji, leaving twenty dead are sketchy.
According to LASEMA, the building is one of those marked by the LASCBCA for demolition.


text:
13C NMR studies of the interaction of concanavalin A with saccharides.
C. F. Brewer, H. Sternlicht, D. M. Marcus, A. P. Grollman
The binding of alpha- and beta-methyl-D-glucopyranoside and beta-(o-iodo-pheryl)-D-glucopyranoside to concanavalin A has been studied by carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance techniques. The kinetics and binding orientations of these saccharides relative to the transition metal ion site in the protein have been determined.
Advances in experimental medicine and biology
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-0949-9_4
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology(all)
10.1007/978-1-4684-0949-9_4
Dive into the research topics of '13C NMR studies of the interaction of concanavalin A with saccharides.'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
Methyl Beta-D-Glucopyranoside Chemical Compounds 100%
Carbon-13 Medicine & Life Sciences 92%
methylglucoside Medicine & Life Sciences 87%
Carbon-13 Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Medicine & Life Sciences 80%
Concanavalin A Medicine & Life Sciences 63%
Metals Medicine & Life Sciences 49%
Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Medicine & Life Sciences 48%
Ions Medicine & Life Sciences 47%
Brewer, C. F., Sternlicht, H., Marcus, D. M., & Grollman, A. P. (1975). 13C NMR studies of the interaction of concanavalin A with saccharides. Advances in experimental medicine and biology, 55, 55-70. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-0949-9_4
13C NMR studies of the interaction of concanavalin A with saccharides. / Brewer, C. F.; Sternlicht, H.; Marcus, D. M. et al.
In: Advances in experimental medicine and biology, Vol. 55, 1975, p. 55-70.
Brewer, CF, Sternlicht, H, Marcus, DM & Grollman, AP 1975, '13C NMR studies of the interaction of concanavalin A with saccharides.', Advances in experimental medicine and biology, vol. 55, pp. 55-70. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-0949-9_4
Brewer CF, Sternlicht H, Marcus DM, Grollman AP. 13C NMR studies of the interaction of concanavalin A with saccharides. Advances in experimental medicine and biology. 1975;55:55-70. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4684-0949-9_4
Brewer, C. F. ; Sternlicht, H. ; Marcus, D. M. et al. / 13C NMR studies of the interaction of concanavalin A with saccharides. In: Advances in experimental medicine and biology. 1975 ; Vol. 55. pp. 55-70.
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abstract = "The binding of alpha- and beta-methyl-D-glucopyranoside and beta-(o-iodo-pheryl)-D-glucopyranoside to concanavalin A has been studied by carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance techniques. The kinetics and binding orientations of these saccharides relative to the transition metal ion site in the protein have been determined.",
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AB - The binding of alpha- and beta-methyl-D-glucopyranoside and beta-(o-iodo-pheryl)-D-glucopyranoside to concanavalin A has been studied by carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance techniques. The kinetics and binding orientations of these saccharides relative to the transition metal ion site in the protein have been determined.
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In August 2003, a comprehensive peace agreement ended 14 years of civil war and prompted the resignation of former president Charles TAYLOR, who was exiled to Nigeria. After two years of rule by a transitional government, democratic elections in late 2005 brought President Ellen JOHNSON-SIRLEAF to power. The legislative and presidential polls were broadly deemed free and fair despite fraud allegations from JOHNSON-SIRLEAF's rival George WEAH. The United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), which maintains a strong presence throughout the country, completed a disarmament program for former combatants in late 2004, but the security situation is still volatile and the process of rebuilding the social and economic structure of this war-torn country remains sluggish.


With the present situation of energy crisis, fossil fuels (coal, oil & natural gas) potential is unable to meet the current energy demands and as we know that energy is the life line of growth in any economy that's why energy saving is very important. Our country's per capita energy consumption is 325.1 million tones oil equivalent which is very low as compared to the industrialized countries but the energy intensity is very high.
We can easily narrow the gap between demand & supply and decrease the energy intensity in each sector by simple approach towards energy conservation and efficiency through energy efficient technology and housekeeping habits.
Use of energy efficient technologies with strict following of norms & std.
Use of renewable like solar, wind etc.
Use of efficient technologies like CFLs etc.


text:
The Reginald J. P. Dawson Library () is the public library of Mount Royal, Quebec, Canada. It was founded in 1952 and moved to its current facility at 1967 Graham street in 1967. In 1976 it was named after the mayor of the city, Reginald J.P. Dawson, who was in office from 1951 to 1987. The building was expanded in 2012–2013 from 1,700 to 3,100 square metres using plans by architect Pierre Morency. The library was computerized in 1998.

Art at the library

In 2015, the library received its first work of public art, a marble piece by local sculptor Peter Monk entitled Harmony. In 2016 another work was donated by another local sculptor, Megerditch Tarakdjian, a 1.85-metre bronze entitled The Reader. Each month, different artists, residents of Town of Mount-Royal, are featured on the library's Art Wall and in the exhibition hall.

References

Libraries in Quebec
Mount Royal, Quebec
Libraries established in 1952
1952 establishments in Quebec

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
From Telangana chief minister K. Chandrasekhara Rao's plan to give 20 sheep and a ram to every Yadav and Golla Kuruma family in the state to Union ministry for science and technology directing scientists to come up with 'verifiable' findings about five cow products, here is what the Glasshouse of the week contains.
Rahul Noronha
Jeemon Jacob
Amarnath K. Menon
Ananth Krishnan
ISSUE DATE: June 26, 2017
UPDATED: June 16, 2017 15:22 IST
Illustration by Anup Ray
BAA BAA CHIEF MINISTER
In terms of ambition, you can't fault Telangana chief minister K. Chandrasekhara Rao's plan to give 20 sheep and a ram to every Yadav and Golla Kuruma family in the state from June 20. It would mean distributing 8.4 million sheep in two years, for Rs 5,000 crore. Not only is the stock being sourced from other states, but grass is being sowed on 46 lakh acres to ensure enough fodder, and 100 mobile veterinary clinics and a toll-free number are being set up. The state government, however, is a tad sheepish about the Rs 90 crore plan for insurance and on tagging livestock, spawning speculation of existing stock being recycled.
BOW TO THE COW
To prove that the health benefits of cow products are not a whole lot of bull, the Union ministry for science and technology has directed scientists to come up with 'verifiable' findings about 'panchagavya', or five cow products: milk, urine, dung, curd and ghee. On a visit to China, Union minister Harsh Vardhan said on June 8 that senior scientists, including from IIT Delhi, were on the job.
RAJNATH'S CONFESSION
Freudian slip? Interacting with reporters in Mumbai on June 8, Union minister for home Rajnath Singh announced that the Centre will soon come up with an integrated permanent solution on Kashmir. Asked whether it will include removing Article 370, he first refused comment, then smiled and said, "Aapki manokamna poori hogi (your wish will be fulfilled)." Half an hour later, when BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari told him his statement could well make headlines the next day, Singh shrugged and said, "I was referring to farmers' issues."
GRAND COALITION
She had contested the 2016 Lok Sabha bypoll, only to lose to BJP candidate Gyan Singh. He had contested the 2009 LS polls, but lost to her mother, Rajesh Nandini Singh. Himadri Singh, 31, daughter of the late Dalbir Singh, former Union minister and Congress MP from Shahdol, and Narendra Marawi, 35, BJP leader and chairman of the Madhya Pradesh Tribal Commission seemd primed for a political contest in the future. Instead, they got engaged on June 8 in Shahdol, with politicians from both parties dropping in to bless them.
COPPER TALES
First ex-vigilance director Dr Jacob Thomas came out with Swimming with Sharks, a tell-all tale that got him into trouble. Now, former additional DGP and CIC Dr Siby Matthews' Nirbhayam is creating waves. He was under pressure, he reveals, from the IB, to arrest then IG Raman Srivastava in the ISRO case. Releasing the book, former CM V.S. Achuthanandan said the book he's awaiting is from T.P. Senkumar, the DGP at loggerheads with CM Pinarayi Vijayan.
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text:
Exclusive: Digital Journal Gets Behind-the-Scenes Look at Dell Global Notebook Launch
By Chris Hogg Jun 26, 2007 in Technology
Rumours about a major Dell global product announcement have swirled around the Internet for a few weeks, with reports that included both fact and fiction. But before the official unveiling, Digital Journal got an exclusive look at the new notebooks.
Digital Journal — Earlier this month, details about two new Dell notebook lines were leaked onto the Internet. The announcement sounded big, promising quite a few technological innovations for consumers.
Before the official unveiling (taking place around the world later today), Digital Journal got a sneak peek at the new Inspiron and XPS notebooks. Here's what we learned, and what you will find out later today when the official product announcement is made:
The new Inspiron line will come in eight different colours (iPod anyone?), it comes with an optional Blu-ray drive for high-def video and even allows consumers to build laptops with built-in RAID support.
The new XPS line includes a built-in webcam, biometric fingerprint technology and the whole thing weighs less than 4 lbs. (and is less than 1-inch thick).
Engadget initially reported the Inspiron line could come with a hybrid hard drive, but Digital Journal has learned the line will only include a standard hard drive. (However, Digital Journal did learn Dell is planning a big hard drive announcement coming in a month or so - check out the video for details).
In an exclusive look at the Inspiron and XPS lines, we show you photos and video of the laptop lines that will be launched later today.
Some of the details of this launch have the potential to change industries (such as the high-def war) and give the consumer a lot of choice, power and enterprise-level features in two inexpensive consumer product lines.
Check out the video above for details, specs and inside info on Dell's global product launch.
More about Dell, Inspiron, Xps, Laptops, Notebooks
dell inspiron xps laptops notebooks computers


text:
BioMax Films
Bringing lost large format cinema back to the screen
The Biograph Project
W.K-L. Dickson
Capturing the 19th century
The history of the Biograph
The Biograph story begins in late 1894 when four men – three American and one British – joined forces to develop a peepshow motion picture device called a Mutoscope. The four were Herman Casler, Harry Marvin, Elias Koopman and William Kennedy-Laurie Dickson, the latter the British inventor who had invented the world's first successful motion picture camera and viewer when he was employed by Thomas Edison, and who now was helping to produce a rival to his own invention, the Edison Kinetoscope. Unlike the Kinetoscope, which used film, the Mutoscope used reels of sequential photographic images on cards.
The four formed the KMCD Syndicate which in December 1895 became the American Mutoscope Company and later the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company. To produce their films (which could then be turned into flick cards) they produced the gigantic Mutograph camera which employed 68mm wide film, to differentiate the product from Edison's 35mm film. Biograph films were intended for projection on a screen as well as through the peepshow Mutoscope, and the inaugural film show took place at 12 October 1896 at Hammerstein's Olympia Music Hall.
Biograph was an instant success, its huge picture, sharp photographic quality and steady image startling audiences worldwide. Biograph made a speciality of films of actuality: travel, sports, news events, railway journeys, war reportage, and world-famous personalities. Many celebrities of the time appeared before the Biograph, wittingly or unwittingly. They included Pope Leo XIII, politicians William McKinley and Li Hung Chang, French victim of injustice Alfred Dreyfus, military heroes Horatio Kitchener, William Dewey and Lord Roberts, actors Joseph Jefferson and Herbert Beerbohm Tree, and monarchs Queen Victoria and Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands.
Biograph films were usually one minute in length, though much longer films were made of some boxing matches. They were gathered together in programmes of twenty minutes or so to be shown in variety theatres and music halls (there were no cinemas in the 1890s). The company gained much prestige for its films of the world, taken from American to China, and from Britain to South Africa, but there was another side to its output. For the peepshow Mutoscope the company produced risqué comedies with such titles such as The Amorous Guardsman, Wicked Willie and Why Marie blew out the light. These suggestive films, with their titillating scenarios, were the cause of much censorious comment, and the Mutoscope gained the popular soubriquet of 'What the butler saw.'
Biograph expanded overseas, with branches appearing in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, India, the Netherlands and elsewhere. The chief filmmaker was Dickson, who joined the British Mutoscope and Biograph Company. Other camera operators included Eugène Lauste and his son Emile, Fred Ackerman, Frederick Armitage, Arthur Marvin and Billy Bitzer. In 1902 the American company abandoned 68mm film to concentrate on 35mm production, in line with the rest of the film business. The British company followed suit in 1903, but ceased film production completely soon after. American Biograph continued, finding new success with the director D.W. Griffith, but the large format spectacular films that left audiences awe-struck were no more. It was not until the 1990s that archives and film scholars began to rediscover the amazing legacy of Biograph, and only today with The Biograph Project that we can experience again the film wonder of 1896-1903 in the form in which the world first saw it.
Adrian Wood
Email: info@biomaxfilms.com
BioMax Films is dedicated to the creative presentation of archive film for audiences today.
BioMax Films is led by a team with many years' experience in film archives, broadcasting and archive film exhibition.


text:
Q: ArrayFormula/Index GoogleSheets Formula Repeating Values I am trying to get my sheet to show the rankings of some data, and to pull the team name from my data.
I have managed to get this to work, but when I have 2 teams that have the same score my sheet just displays the first team name rather than recognising that this name has already been used.
The formula is on the first sheet in cell C3 and is referencing cell from the second sheet.
Cell C3 should show Year 5 and C4 should show Year 6.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qnuW1BbhFqjaBBBn1JA15sniyvTMROLiFYJMUSI3de0/edit?usp=sharing
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

A: Just use SORT.  Sheets is not excel. Do not try to make it into one.
=SORT(Scores!O16:P20,2,0)


text:
package software.amazon.awssdk.enhanced.dynamodb.internal.operations;

import java.util.concurrent.CompletableFuture;
import java.util.function.Function;
import software.amazon.awssdk.annotations.SdkInternalApi;
import software.amazon.awssdk.enhanced.dynamodb.DynamoDbEnhancedClientExtension;
import software.amazon.awssdk.enhanced.dynamodb.model.TransactWriteItemsEnhancedRequest;
import software.amazon.awssdk.services.dynamodb.DynamoDbAsyncClient;
import software.amazon.awssdk.services.dynamodb.DynamoDbClient;
import software.amazon.awssdk.services.dynamodb.model.TransactWriteItemsRequest;
import software.amazon.awssdk.services.dynamodb.model.TransactWriteItemsResponse;

@SdkInternalApi
public class TransactWriteItemsOperation
    implements DatabaseOperation<TransactWriteItemsRequest, TransactWriteItemsResponse, Void> {

    private TransactWriteItemsEnhancedRequest request;

    private TransactWriteItemsOperation(TransactWriteItemsEnhancedRequest request) {
        this.request = request;
    }

    public static TransactWriteItemsOperation create(TransactWriteItemsEnhancedRequest request) {
        return new TransactWriteItemsOperation(request);
    }

    @Override
    public OperationName operationName() {
        return OperationName.TRANSACT_WRITE_ITEMS;
    }

    @Override
    public TransactWriteItemsRequest generateRequest(DynamoDbEnhancedClientExtension extension) {
        return TransactWriteItemsRequest.builder()
                                        .transactItems(this.request.transactWriteItems())
                                        .clientRequestToken(this.request.clientRequestToken())
                                        .build();
    }

    @Override
    public Void transformResponse(TransactWriteItemsResponse response, DynamoDbEnhancedClientExtension extension) {
        return null;        // this operation does not return results
    }

    @Override
    public Function<TransactWriteItemsRequest, TransactWriteItemsResponse> serviceCall(
        DynamoDbClient dynamoDbClient) {

        return dynamoDbClient::transactWriteItems;
    }

    @Override
    public Function<TransactWriteItemsRequest, CompletableFuture<TransactWriteItemsResponse>> asyncServiceCall(
        DynamoDbAsyncClient dynamoDbAsyncClient) {

        return dynamoDbAsyncClient::transactWriteItems;
    }

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
San Francisco police union warns they will resign or retire if forced to get vaccinated
Celeste Caminos | TheBL 08/07/21, 19:15
San Francisco Deputy Sheriffs Union Members (Facebook San Francisco Deputy Sheriffs Association)
Amid a rash of shootings and assaults in San Francisco, California, the San Francisco Deputy Sheriffs' Association (SFSO) warned that hundreds of officers will resign or retire if they are forced to receive the CCP virus vaccine (COVID-19), Fox News reported.
The announcement comes in response to news that the city of San Francisco is requiring all public employees to be vaccinated by Sept. 15.
"The problem we are faced with now is the strict San Francisco Mandate which is vaccinate or be terminated," wrote the union in a statement posted on Facebook on Friday, Aug. 6.
"If deputy sheriffs are forced to vaccinate a percentage of them will retire early or seek employment elsewhere," added the letter.
The union also stated that for those officers who do not wish to be vaccinated, continuing to wear masks should be sufficient.
"Approximately 160 out 700 Deputy Sheriffs [that] are not vaccinated prefer to mask and test weekly instead of being vaccinated due to religious and other beliefs," the post continues. "Currently, the staffing at the SFSO is at the lowest it has ever been due to the past 9-month applicant testing restriction placed on the Sheriff's Office by the Mayor."
"San Francisco cannot afford to lose any more deputy sheriffs or any first responders. If they retire early or quit this will affect public safety even more". concluded the press release.
Last month, the city announced that all 35,000 public employees must be vaccinated against the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus by Sept. 15, or else risk dismissal.
The city's Human Resources Department policy chief, Mawuli Tugbenyoh, clarified that while religious and medical exemptions are allowed, those who claim them could still face "repercussions ranging up to dismissal," Fox News reported.
In addition, the White House announced plans to impose mandatory vaccinations on all 4.2 million federal employees.
In response, the American Postal Workers Union (APWU), which represents more than 220,000 postal workers, expressed its rejection.
"While the APWU leadership continues to encourage postal workers to voluntarily get vaccinated, it is not the role of the federal government to mandate vaccinations for the employees we represent," the union said in a July 28 statement.
Because of the Delta variant of the coronavirus, the federal government and some states want to re-impose the use of masks, in addition to requiring vaccination.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) expressed concern about the possibility of going back on some measures and warned about the liberals' intention to live in a "perpetual pandemic."
"Make no mistake—the threat of bringing masks back is not a decision based on science, but a decision conjured up by liberal government officials who want to continue to live in a perpetual pandemic state." McCarthy tweeted.
Make no mistake—The threat of bringing masks back is not a decision based on science, but a decision conjured up by liberal government officials who want to continue to live in a perpetual pandemic state.
— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) July 28, 2021
Beyond the fact that some people don't want to get vaccinated because of their religion or other medical reasons, there are many citizens who are hesitant because they fear that experimental vaccines are unsafe and will cause serious adverse effects, as they are already seeing.
According to data from VAERS, the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, so far the number of reported deaths and injuries totals 545,338 cases, with 12,366 vaccine-associated deaths and 14,251 cases of permanent disability.
Every Friday, VAERS makes public the vaccine injury reports received by the system as of Friday of the previous week.
Woman seen leaning out of speeding car with AK-47 in San Francisco
Servicemen threaten to 'Quit' as US army makes COVID-19 vaccines mandatory in September
How California's liberal laws led to increased crime
San Francisco may ban police, city use of facial recognition
Tags:House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) San Francisco Police mandatory vaccination
McCarthy vows to level things up with Democrats if Republicans win back House majority
Washington 01/11/22, 16:29
McCarthy issues motion condemning Pelosi's decision on Jan. 6 committee, Democrats vote to reject
U.S. 07/26/21, 23:12
Macron: Mandatory vaccination for healthcare workers and vaccine 'passport' to leave home
Europe 07/12/21, 21:58
Biden administration says it is 'the government's business' to seek out the unvaccinated
Largest US healthcare union fights against mandatory vaccines: workers 'have the right to make their decision about their own health'
News 06/26/21, 04:40
Houston employees appeal after their vaccine mandate lawsuit was dismissed


text:
HOUSE MAJORITY WHIP JIM CLYBURN STUMPS FOR ANTI-ABORTION REP. HENRY CUELLAR
Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, questions U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on April 27, 2022, in Washington, D.C.
By Varghese 9 months ago
Leadership's support for Cuellar shows "cognitive dissonance" between Democrats' words and their actions, said primary challenger Jessica Cisneros.
WHEN POLITICO PUBLISHED the draft Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, top Democratic leaders were quick to condemn it. In a joint statement released Monday night, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called the draft "an abomination, one of the worst and most damaging decisions in modern history." On Tuesday morning, President Joe Biden called on states to protect the right to abortion and on voters to elect pro-choice Democrats in upcoming contests. Later that day, House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., tweeted: "For 49 years, women have had the constitutional right to make choices about their body. The whole notion of politicians controlling those decisions is beyond the pale. It ought to be alarming to us."
But on Wednesday, Clyburn hosted a get-out-the-vote rally with the party's last remaining House member to oppose abortion rights, Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas. On May 24, Cuellar will face a runoff in his second primary challenge from progressive candidate Jessica Cisneros, who supports reproductive rights and lost to Cuellar by less than 4 percentage points in the 2020 primary for Texas's 28th Congressional District. Cisneros came within 2 points of Cuellar's votes in the March Democratic primary, forcing the runoff.
"We're watching the erosion of our fundamental freedoms in this country. This isn't a drill," Cisneros told The Intercept. "Urgency is important, and Democrats need to pull out all the stops to fight for us."
"I do not agree with Henry Cuellar on everything," Clyburn said at Wednesday's rally, according to Texas Monthly's Jack Herrera. "We need to sit down with people who we do not agree with and try to find common ground, to do what is necessary to move this country forward."
Clyburn is not alone among party leadership in endorsing the anti-abortion incumbent. Pelosi; Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md.; and Democratic Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. — all of whom profess support for abortion access — are backing Cuellar. Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-V.T., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and New York Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman, for their part, back Cisneros.
Party leadership's support for Cuellar "points out the cognitive dissonance that's going on right now," Cisneros said. "Democratic leadership is saying one thing, the actions are showing another by supporting the last anti-choice Democrat in Congress, which is Henry Cuellar." Cuellar did not provide comment by the time of publication.
In September, Cuellar was the only Democrat to vote against the Women's Health Protection Act, a bill that would strengthen access to abortion and prohibit states from singling out or impeding access to abortion services. Despite his opposition, it passed the House by seven votes before failing by two in the Senate. Sens. Warren; Sanders; Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis.; and Ed Markey, D-Mass., called Tuesday to abolish the filibuster in order to pass the bill or another measure to codify the right to abortion in federal law.
"With the House majority on the line," Cisneros said, "Henry Cuellar could be the deciding vote on the future of our reproductive rights and so many other fundamental freedoms in this country. And we just can't afford to take that risk."
While Cisneros had outraised Cuellar by half a million dollars as of the end of March — with $3.2 million in contributions to Cuellar's $2.7 million — Cuellar's campaign has also gotten a major boost from two political action committees for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC. The group's affiliated PAC United Democracy Project spent more than $330,000 last month on ads attacking Cisneros. And the fledgling AIPAC PAC, which endorsed Cuellar in March, has spent more than $165,000 in support of his campaign since January. Along with the group Democratic Majority for Israel, AIPAC has been behind millions more in spending to attack several progressive candidates.
The progressive Israel foreign policy group J Street, which is backing Cisneros, has spent $100,000 on the race so far. Justice Democrats, Emily's List, NARAL, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, and Working Families Party all endorsed Cisneros. Groups including WFP, Justice Democrats, NARAL, the Communication Workers of America, Texas Organizing Project, and Service Employees International Union have spent at least $2 million in support of Cisneros and opposing Cuellar. At the end of last quarter, Cuellar's campaign had $1.4 million cash on hand to Cisneros's $1 million.
Cisneros said her team was used to outside spending and was focused on continuing to build grassroots power. "He doesn't have people where we do. We've been up against this fight before and we've shown that we can go toe-to-toe with any outside spending."
Cisneros's campaign called on Democratic Party leaders Wednesday to withdraw support for Cuellar in light of their denunciation of the draft opinion and his opposition to abortion rights. "At every turn, my Congressman has stood in opposition to the Democratic Party agenda from being anti-union to being anti-choice," Cisneros said in a press release. Pelosi and Clyburn did not respond to a request for comment.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which backs incumbent members, has not made an endorsement in the race. On Tuesday, the DCCC released statements calling the draft opinion "a devastating blow" to safe and legal abortion and denouncing Republicans in Virginia, Florida, Arizona, New Hampshire, Michigan, and North Carolina as "complicit in this all out assault on women's freedoms." None of the statements mentioned Cuellar.
While DCCC hasn't explicitly weighed in, several of its approved vendors are working to reelect Cuellar, The American Prospect reported Wednesday. Last month, as Cuellar faced scrutiny after an FBI raid reportedly connected to his Azerbaijani business interests, DCCC Chair Sean Patrick Maloney told The Hill that Democrats would maintain control of the district. He did not specify which candidate would hold it.
In 2020, former DCCC Chair Cheri Bustos supported Cuellar's 2020 primary campaign. That cycle, he also became the first-ever Democrat to receive the Koch network's endorsement in a federal race.
"Losing the right to choose is imminent," Cisneros wrote in a tweet on Monday about the draft option. "Yet, Cuellar voted with Republicans against codifying #Roe." She called for contributions to Texas abortion funds and wrote, "We have the last word on May 24."
"I'm more than ready to start working with them to deliver on the Democratic agenda," Cisneros told The Intercept. "I hope that Democratic Party leadership won't stand in the way of delivering for the people here."
Tags: ANTI-ABORTION, Court, JIM CLYBURN, REP. HENRY CUELLAR
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text:
«Смешна́я девчо́нка» (; США, 1968) — музыкальная комедия Уильяма Уайлера, основанная на одноимённом мюзикле о жизни знаменитой американской комедийной актрисы Фанни Брайс, её карьере на Бродвее и в кино, а также романе с предпринимателем и игроком Ники Арнштайном. В 1969 году фильм получил семь номинаций на премию «Оскар», но победа досталась только Барбре Стрейзанд в категории «Лучшая женская роль».

В 2006 году Американский институт киноискусства присудил фильму 16-е место в своем списке Лучшие американские фильмы-мюзиклы за 100 лет по версии AFI. Ранее он занимал 41-е место в списке 100 самых страстных американских фильмов за 100 лет по версии AFI, песни «People» и «Don't Rain on My Parade» находятся на 13-м и 46-м местах в списке 100 лучших песен из американских фильмов за 100 лет по версии AFI. «Смешная девчонка» считается одним из величайших музыкальных фильмов всех времен.

В 2016 году Библиотека Конгресса США признала фильм «Смешная девчонка» «культурно, исторически или эстетически значимым» и он вошёл в список Национального реестра фильмов.

Сюжет
Действие фильма происходит в Нью-Йорке. Фанни Брайс, простушка из пригорода, с детства мечтала стать знаменитой и решила начать карьеру с выступлений в водевилях. Во время выступления на роликах Фанни устроила на сцене каламбур, и хозяин театра в бешенстве хотел уволить её, но публика была в восторге от забавной девушки и от её чудесного голоса, и Фанни получила эту работу.

После выступления за кулисами она познакомилась с известным игроком Никки Арнштайном, который очаровал Фанни и, пообещав вскоре увидеться, исчез на долгое время. Но у влюблённой Фанни не было много времени для грусти, так как её карьера начала бурно развиваться и вскоре её заметил знаменитый нью-йоркский конферансье Флоренз Зигфелд, который предложил ей работу в своём шоу «Девушки Зигфелда». На первом же выступлении Фанни предстояло исполнить финальную песню, в которой восхвалялась красота исполнительницы. Но закомплексованная девушка, считающая себя дурнушкой, долго не соглашалась её исполнять, вступив в спор с самим Зигфелдом. Перед ней тогда встал выбор: либо она поёт, либо будет уволена. Фанни всё же согласилась, но из этого исполнения устроила комедийное шоу: она появилась перед публикой в свадебном платье с подушкой у живота, изображая беременную женщину. Конечно же, публике это очень понравилось, но только не Зигфелду, который просто не мог терпеть, чтобы кто-то нарушил его распоряжение. Но восторженная овация публики и несколько выходов на бис опять помогли Фанни сохранить работу. В этот же день в жизни Фанни вновь появился Никки Арнштайн. Он опять очаровал влюблённую в него девушку и, как и прежде, исчез.

Спустя год во время турне шоу «Девушки Зигфелда» на железнодорожном вокзале Фанни встретила Никки. В этот раз она не могла удержаться и, бросив шоу, устремилась вслед за Ником в Европу, и тогда Ник сделал ей предложение; вскоре они поженились. Фанни забеременела и на некоторое время оставила карьеру. Ник продолжал играть и однажды впутался в коррупционную аферу, из-за которой был арестован. Фанни пыталась вытащить мужа из тюрьмы, но Ник был осуждён на три года. Перед тем как сесть в тюрьму, он попросил у Фанни развод, чтобы она могла продолжать жить нормальной жизнью. Фанни не хотела с этим соглашаться, потому что очень любила Ника. Спустя восемнадцать месяцев Ник вернулся, но Фанни теперь понимала, что они стали очень далёкими и нет смысла что-то продолжать. После развода Фанни посвятила себя дочери и своей публике, для которой в свои песни она вкладывала душу.

В ролях

{{ВРолях|Барбра Стрейзанд | |Фанни Брайс (озвучивала Капитолина Кузьмина)}}

 Песни из фильма

 «Overture»
 «I'm the Greatest Star» — Фанни
 «If a Girl Isn't Pretty» — Фанни, миссис Стракош и Роуз
 «Rollerskate Rag» — Фанни и девушки на роликах
 «I'd Rather Be Blue Over You» — Фанни
 «Secondhand Rose» — Фанни
 «His Love Makes Me Beautiful» — Фанни и компания
 «People» — Фанни
 «People (Reprise)» — Фанни
 «You Are Woman, I Am Man» — Ник и Фанни
 «Don't Rain on My Parade» — Фанни
 «Sadie, Sadie» — Фанни и Ник
 «The Swan» — Фанни
 «Funny Girl» — Фанни
 «My Man» — Фанни
 «Finale»

 Награды и номинации
 1969 — премия «Оскар» за лучшую женскую роль (Барбра Стрейзанд), а также ещё 6 номинаций: лучший фильм (Рэймонд Старк), лучшая женская роль второго плана (Кэй Медфорд), лучшая операторская работа (Гарри Стредлинг), лучший монтаж (Роберт Суинк, Мори Уайнтроуб, Уильям Сэндс), лучшая музыка (Уолтер Шарф), лучшая оригинальная песня (Funny Girl, музыка — Жюль Стайн, слова — Боб Меррилл).
 1969 — премия «Золотой глобус» за лучшую женскую роль в комедии или мюзикле (Барбра Стрейзанд), а также 3 номинации: лучший фильм — комедия или мюзикл, лучший режиссёр (Уильям Уайлер), лучшая оригинальная песня (Funny Girl, музыка — Жюль Стайн, слова — Боб Меррилл).
 1969 — премия «Давид ди Донателло» в категории «лучшая зарубежная актриса» (Барбра Стрейзанд).
 1969 — премия Гильдии сценаристов США за лучший американский мюзикл (Изобель Леннарт).
 1969 — номинация на премию Гильдии кинорежиссёров США за лучшую режиссуру — Художественный фильм (Уильям Уайлер).
 1970 — 3 номинации на премию BAFTA: лучшая актриса (Барбра Стрейзанд), лучшая операторская работа (Гарри Стредлинг), лучшие костюмы (Ирен Шарафф).4

 Критика
Критики хвалили Стрейзанд, а Полин Кейл из The New Yorker назвала её игру «бравурным выступлением … У Фанни Брайс, роль которой она исполнила, самые остроумные комедийные интонации со времен комедий 30-х годов. Она заставляет письменные диалоги звучать как вдохновенная импровизация. .. Триумфальный талант Стрейзанд преодолевает слабые стороны фильма». В своем обзоре, опубликованном в Chicago Sun-Times, Роджер Эберт назвал Стрейзанд «великолепной» и добавил: «Со времен юной Кэтрин Хепбёрн, это самая настоящая комедийная актриса. На самом деле она вообще не поет песню, она её разыгрывает. Она делает песню руками и лицом, которые просто индивидуальны, это единственный способ описать их. Раньше такого никто не делал. Она поет, и ты действительно счастлив, что ты там». Но самому фильму он дал низкую оценку, отметив, «что фильм слишком затянут, второстепенные персонажи, как правило, деревянные … что делает сам фильм по себе отчасти шизофреническим. Невозможно хвалить одну лишь мисс Стрейзанд, но трудно найти что-то ещё похвальное в этом фильме». Ричард Л. Коу из The Washington Post отметил, что Стрейзанд "вероятно, способна на большее разнообразие, чем это ", но фильм был «настолько ограниченный, что она и картина превратились в длинную, капризную занудную историю». Рената Адлер из The New York Times написала, что «талант Стрейзанд очень сильный», но в фильме «есть что-то снисходительное». Уайлер «относится к Барбре довольно нежно и даже покровительственно», но отметила, что «мисс Стрейзанд это не нужно».

Ян Доусон из британского журнала The Monthly Film Bulletin'' писал: «История актрисы, чей драматический взлет "из грязи в князи" сопровождается оборотной стороной успеха — страданием, лежит в основе многих американских мюзиклов. Но Уильяму Уайлеру удается преодолеть клише жанра и создать, в основном благодаря Стрейзанд, драматическую комедию, в которой музыкальные номера иллюстрируют общественный аспект жизни звезды, ни разу не прерывая повествования».

Примечания

Ссылки

Фильмы США 1968 года
Кинокомедии 1968 года
Кинокомедии США
Фильмы-биографии США
Фильмы-мюзиклы США
Фильмы о театре
Национальный реестр фильмов
Фильмы о музыкальном театре