Stefanos Draganidakis (from The Trap, Athens) is the winner of the Greek leg of Chivas Masters 2016 and he'll be representing Greece in the world finals in Shanghai.
Chivas Masters is not your typical cocktail competition as it requires much more than just a good recipe. During the event, finalists have to present three recipes showing the Chivas journey, starting from Scotland and making its way around the world.
On the 9th of May, CV Distiller hosted the eight Greek finalists who were judged by Ryan Chetiyawardana, known as Mr. Lyan, along with Mike Aikman, owner of the famous Bramble, Last Word and Lucky Liquor bars in Edinburgh, and Max Warner, the Chivas Global Ambassador.
Before the competition got under way, there was a special surprise for us. The finalists and a group of invitees went into the CV Distiller cellar where some of the best whiskeys in the world are kept. It was there that Max Warner introduced us to Chivas Regal The Icon, which is packaged in a Dartington crystal carafe, as special as the drink itself. This is the star of the Chivas range of which very few bottles are produced. This great blend is made out of whiskeys from 20 of the lesser known (some are even no longer in operation) distilleries in Scotland. It is no wonder then that each bottle costs over €3,500. This was the first time this rare blend had been presented in Greece and it made for the perfect opening for this competition.
When we actually got down to business, the finalists' cocktails began with 'The Classic Way', with New York being the first stop on the trip. Most cocktail recipes and techniques we use to this day hail from the golden cocktail period in New York, when Chivas conquered the American metropolis. It was the time when Harry Johnson came up with the Martini and Morning Glory Fizz.
The next cocktail round was called 'The Local Way' and had to be inspired by Greece and the concept of always carrying parts of home with you no matter where you travel.
The third round at Chivas Masters 2016 was named 'The Shanghai Way'. So much inspiration to be drawn from a city that's one of the world's largest metropoles, has one of the most innovative bar scenes and of course is part of a country so rich in history, culture and flavours.
30ml Horchata Syrup (1 part jasmine tea, half a measure of lightly roasted almonds, 1 part hot water in a blender. Added to that is 1 part hot water, 1 part coconut water, 1 vanilla pod with a little grated nutmeg and it all rests for 8 hours. The next step is to add 2 more parts water, 1 part coconut milk and some sugar before straining the whole mixture).
What was Stefanos Draganidakis' inspiration and how did it manage to be channelled into his drinks? He might not be able to reveal his final recipes before the world final but he did share some of the ingredients he's chosen for every one of his three drinks.
In 'The Classic Way' category, his cocktail is called Emperor and has Chivas Regal 12 at its heart. His drink will also include Cascara while the highlight will be an IPA beer based homemade syrup.
God's Feast is his recipe for the 'Local Way' category. The Chivas Regal 12 will be mixed with sour grape aromas in a homemade shrub while he's also going to be adding water from boiled chickpeas.
He's going to be presenting his cocktail 'Eye of Harmony' in the third category, 'The Shanghai Way'. Apart from Chivas Regal 12, he'll be using Bianco vermouth and olorosso cherry in an overall intensely floral drink.
Next stop for Stefanos is the Chivas Masters final and Shanghai. According to Max Warner, the Global Ambassador, Shanghai is a very lively city apart from being twice the size of New York. His personal goal is to give the city the recognition it deserves on the international bar scene.
It's worth mentioning that both Mike Aikman and Ryan Chetiyawardana were very enthusiastic about the finalists' recipes and said that they weren't surprised by the quality on show as Athens has established itself as a destination for bar lovers.


Smart All-in-One sensors from Lufft offer an additional input to connect external sensors, such as the external temperature probe WT1. This remote temperature sensor can be combined with any member of the WS family. A typical application is the use as a reference sensor for monitoring the efficiency of a solar system.


text:
package com.willshex.blogwt.client.api.page.event;

import com.google.gwt.event.shared.EventHandler;
import com.google.gwt.event.shared.GwtEvent;
import com.willshex.blogwt.shared.api.page.call.GetPageRequest;
import com.willshex.blogwt.shared.api.page.call.GetPageResponse;

public interface GetPageEventHandler extends EventHandler {
	public static final GwtEvent.Type<GetPageEventHandler> TYPE = new GwtEvent.Type<GetPageEventHandler>();

	public void getPageSuccess (final GetPageRequest input,
			final GetPageResponse output);

	public void getPageFailure (final GetPageRequest input,
			final Throwable caught);

	public class GetPageSuccess extends GwtEvent<GetPageEventHandler> {
		private GetPageRequest input;
		private GetPageResponse output;

		public GetPageSuccess (final GetPageRequest input,
				final GetPageResponse output) {
			this.input = input;
			this.output = output;
		}

		@Override
		public GwtEvent.Type<GetPageEventHandler> getAssociatedType () {
			return TYPE;
		}

		@Override
		protected void dispatch (GetPageEventHandler handler) {
			handler.getPageSuccess(input, output);
		}
	}

	public class GetPageFailure extends GwtEvent<GetPageEventHandler> {
		private GetPageRequest input;
		private Throwable caught;

		public GetPageFailure (final GetPageRequest input,
				final Throwable caught) {
			this.input = input;
			this.caught = caught;
		}

		@Override
		public GwtEvent.Type<GetPageEventHandler> getAssociatedType () {
			return TYPE;
		}

		@Override
		protected void dispatch (GetPageEventHandler handler) {
			handler.getPageFailure(input, caught);
		}
	}

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Deanna Foster of the McGill women's rugby team, has won gold with Team Canada at the rugby sevens world championship, sanctioned by the Fédération internationale du sport universitaire, in the Sao Paulo region of Brazil.
Jubilant members of Canada's university 7s rugby team celebrate their world championship win.
Deanna Foster of the McGill women's rugby team, won gold with Team Canada on Aug. 10, at the rugby sevens world championship, sanctioned by the Fédération internationale du sport universitaire, in the Sao Paulo region of Brazil.
A 20-year-old political science junior and a 5-foot-8 fullback from Caledon, Ont., Foster has also been selected to play for the national under-20 team in a Can-Am tournament in London and Sarnia, Ont., Aug. 20-23.
Canada, which won five of their six contests at the FISU tournament, avenged an opening-round 19-12 loss to France with a 26-17 victory over the French squad in the final, Sunday. They also posted preliminary-round victories over Great Britain (38-0) and China (49-5). In the the playoff round, the Canucks upended Belgium 17-10 in the quarter-finals and dumped Great Britain 37-5 In the semifinals.
"Very proud of this team's effort," said head coach Sandro Fiorino in a Rugby Canada press release. "We had contribution from all 12 players and all of them had a part in our success today. Despite being down, earlier in the gold medal game, the team did not panic and showed strong resilience. Credit to the ladies, they were very unselfish and played for each other.


text:
Q: Ejecutar función jquery más de una vez en php Tengo este código, mediante el cual cargo la información que recojo de la base de datos y la muestro a través de un bucle foreach

                <?php
                 ?>
                 <img src="<?php foreach ($resultadoFoto as $key) {
                      echo $rutaSRC.$key -> fotoUsuario;}?>" width="100">

                <?php echo $usuario->getNombre()?>

<?php echo $resultado -> titulo ?>

<?php echo $resultado -> descripcion ?>

                <button class="eliminar" id="borrarActividad">Eliminar</button>

           <?php
                }
           }

           ?>

En el botón de eliminar he añadido un id para poder ejecutar mediante jquery un modal en boostrap para que el usuario tenga la oportunidad de borrar la actividad seleccionada.
El problema me viene cuando trato de seleccionar alguna actividad de la lista distinta de la primera. la función de jquery sólo ejecuta el modal en la primera actividad de la lista, sin opción de escoger otra aleatoria.
Aquí mi código jquery

He mirado en la consola y si que veo que el resto de las actividades tienen asignado el id borrarActividad.
La pregunta es, ¿Cómo puedo hacer que se ejecute el modal de actividad más de una vez y donde yo quiera?
Muchas gracias por leerme

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Home › Uncategorized › Why do we see wicked Christians?
Why do we see wicked Christians?
Many Lost Souls, some who call themselves Christians, have failed to fully understand why the Lord Jesus died for them.
They are attracted to Jesus and even Christianity, but for the wrong reasons. They seek to benefit from God's love, but fail to admit to their need for salvation. Their understanding of God is powered by their mind, not their heart and the Holy Spirit's encouragement. Rather than base their lives on obeying the Lords' teachings, as he commands them to do, they prefer to base their lives on obeying a form of Christian religion. They switch from one Christian Denomination to another because they prefer that denominations teaching.
Many are influenced by other Lost Souls who are disobedient to the Lord Jesus. In my life, I also had other Lost Souls seeking to influence me.
However, I could see that they were not at all like the Lord Jesus I was reading about in the Holy Bible. Also, the Holy Spirit of God was not confirming to me their salvation and thus union with Jesus as he described in John 14:23. They were not sharing with me the spiritual events that I was sharing with them. Whenever I gave my Testimony, they distanced themselves from me. When I preached from the Pulpit, their hearts were unmoved.
When I did meet a true Disciple of my Lord, which was a very rare event, the difference I saw in them was amazing. I could clearly see that there were two types of Christians.
But what I saw and still see is of no importance. It is what the Lord Jesus sees. If he is looking at you Christian as you live out your life, what does he see?
Does he see a person with the right Character (a saved person) or wrong Character (a lost person).
It is a challenge that we all face daily, for it is so easy to slip back. And I, to my shame, can so easily do that!


New York City and New York State agencies require that people who work with children and families be fingerprinted. This process of background checks helps to ensure that those working with children are qualified to do so and that children are kept safe.
If you work in a NYC child care center (not located in a DOE public school), you need to be fingerprinted at the NYC Department of Investigation.
If you work for the NYC Department of Education, you will be required to be fingerprinted through the NYS Education Department.


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Research Ethics Blog
By Nancy Walton, P.D.
The Facebook Emotions Study
•July 24, 2014 • 1 Comment
Over at my Business Ethics Blog, I just posted my thoughts on the recent controversy over the Facebook / Cornell study. I look at the question not of the ethics of the Cornell researchers, but of Facebook as a corporation I basically argue that:
a) the risks involved were trivial;
b) the commercial context matters, and permits certain kinds of experimentation;
c) the study was, from Facebook's point of view, closer to 'program evaluation,' (i.e., closer to a kind of study that is normally exempt from research regulations anyway).
You can read the whole thing, here: Facebook's Study Did No Wrong.
Here also is the view of 33 bioethicists, published in Nature, saying that while prior ethical review would have been a good idea, the study was not fundamentally unethical:
Misjudgements will drive social trials underground.
Research ethics scandals in Canada, you ask? Sadly, yes.
There are certainly plenty of people who think that research ethics scandals happen everywhere else, but not in Canada. Well, it seems that a recent report by food historian Ian Mosby at the University of Guelph has uncovered that, yes, in fact research ethics scandals can, do and have happened in Canada.
Mosby's report, published in Histoire Sociale/Social History, provides "a narrative record of a largely unexamined episode of exploitation and neglect by the Canadian government" and describes ten years of nutritional experiments conducted on 1300 Aboriginal adults and children, including those in residential schools. These funded studies were done without community or individual consent, without an assessment of potential benefits and risks, without any consideration of the extreme vulnerability of the persons and without any clear humanitarian or altruistic aims or realization of benefits to any people involved while exposing them to real harms. That's just the beginning of the problems.
The details of the report are horrific.
What is most shocking about this is that these researchers were in communities in which they already knew there were significantly higher general and infant mortality rates (compared to anywhere else at that time in Canada), high rates of malnutrition and hunger along with high rates of TB and other diseases, and yet when they arrived — and these documented facts were clearly confirmed by what they observed ‐ they saw this as a clear opportunity and a kind of living laboratory, rather than a humanitarian tragedy that required their intervention.
Many people, upon first hearing of these experiments, will wonder why the principles of research ethics were not followed here or why the obvious potential and actual ethical problems involved were not addressed in any way. Well, those who are familiar with research ethics know that, during the time these experiments were being conducted in Canada, the Doctor's Trials were taking place in Nuremberg, Germany after the Second World War (1946-1947). Out of that trial came the Nuremberg Code which outlined ten principles of ethically sound research, including the requirement that research subjects must provide voluntary consent. This challenged the paternalistic approach to research that, in some cases, assigned little to no inherent value to persons who were simply research subjects and nothing more. But what's important to realize is that it really isn't the case that as soon as the Nuremberg Code was established, everything instantly got better for research subjects and researchers stopped exploiting persons. That didn't happen and in many cases, research that was ethically problematic continued, despite the Nuremberg principles. It has taken many years for these principles to become the norm – to become realized, formalized, institutionalized and embedded in the culture of research. Consider the Tuskegee Syphilis Study which was not stopped until 1972 and only then after about 6 years of active lobbying by a persistent whistleblower.
According to the Toronto Star:
These experiments aren't surprising to Justice Murray Sinclair, chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The commission became aware of the experiments during their collection of documents relating to the treatment and abuse of native children at residential schools across Canada from the 1870s to the 1990s.
It's a disturbing piece of research, he said, and the experiments are entrenched with the racism of the time.
"This discovery, it's indicative of the attitude toward aboriginals," Sinclair said. "They thought aboriginals shouldn't be consulted and their consent shouldn't be asked for. They looked at it as a right to do what they wanted then."
Here are some links to the media coverage of the release of the report:
Hungry Canadian aboriginal children were used in government experiments during 1940s, researcher says
Canadian government withheld food from hungry aboriginal kids in 1940s nutritional experiments, researcher finds
Past abuses linger over First Nations education debate
When Canada used hunger to clear the West
Here, as well, is a link to Chapter 9 of the Canadian TriCouncil Policy Statement on Research involving the First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples of Canada.
Posted in by Nancy Walton, children, consent, ethics committees, justice, poverty, recruitment, regulations, review, scientists, vulnerable populations
Ethical Design for Cluster Randomized Trials
•November 22, 2012 • Leave a Comment
A team led by our friend and colleague Charles Weijer at the University of Western Ontario has just issued guideliens for what are known as "cluster randomized trials" (CRTs).
See the story here:
Western-led team delivers world-first ethics guidelines.
CRTs are clinical trials in which randomization occurs across groups of participants, or across institutions, rather than across individual participants. In other words, each participant is not randomized into one arm of the trial or another. Rather, randomization is done at the higher level — an entire institution's patient, population is treated as a unit for purposes of randomization. This raises a number of interesting ethical issues. These new guidelines will surely help advance our understanding, as well as highlighting an important range of issues for those of us not previously aware of them.
Posted in by Chris MacDonald, clinical trials, trial design
Clinical Trials in Russia
Generally, when westerners think of people in foreign lands participating as human subjects in clinical trials, we think of the developing world. That image is somewhat incomplete.
This was from September, but well worth a look at this NYT piece if you missed it:
Russians Eagerly Participate in Medical Experiments, Despite Risks
As a test subject in a Russian clinical trial for an experimental weight loss drug, Galina I. Malinina had to inject herself in the stomach daily. … she threw up every day for two weeks, yet stuck to the regimen, something valued by companies, as dropouts are expensive.
"It's wonderful," she said of the test substance, a weight loss serum under development by the Danish biotechnology giant Novo Nordisk. In addition to losing 22 pounds in a year, she said, "I became more lively; I walk easier and I have energy."
Why go through this? For the same reason that people sign up for clinical trials in India or rural China.
Patients, as was the case with Ms. Malinina, are eager to join trials because often it is the only way to receive modern medical care.
Is this predatory? Are drug companies testing drugs on poor Russians in order to sell drugs to wealthy Americans, Canadians, and Brits? The answer is not so simple. The Russian government, apparently, is pretty excited to provide incentives for drug companies to conduct trials there:
…under a law passed in 2010, ostensibly on health grounds, foreign drug companies must test medicine on Russians for it to be marketed in Russia.
Posted in by Chris MacDonald, clinical trials, consent, international, poverty, recruitment
Interpreting Canada's TCPS2
•January 17, 2012 • Leave a Comment
Canada's Interagency Advisory Panel on Research Ethics has begun putting online its interpretations of the second iteration of the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (a.k.a. "TCPS2").
"The Interagency Advisory Panel on Research Ethics (the Panel) is pleased to share a growing collection of its responses to written requests for interpretation…."
The website also explains the role of the Panel in interpreting the TCPS2, as well as featuring a nifty feedback function attached to each interpretive note.
Posted in by Chris MacDonald, interpretation, regulations
Cracking Down on Research Misconduct at a Chinese University
Here's an interesting bit on one Chinese university's efforts to crack down on research misconduct:
From Nature: Research ethics: Zero tolerance — A university cracks down on misconduct in China.
Most readers of this blog will know that research misconduct doesn't fall under the heading of Research Ethics, as that term is normally applied to the work of Research Ethics Boards and Institutional Review Boards. But neither are the issues entirely separate.
Here's a paragraph I found particularly interesting, about the causes of misconduct:
Cao and other experts on misconduct point to specific contributing factors. China's research system has developed very rapidly, and universities are scrambling to train the influx of students, scientists and administrators. "As a large, newly developed system of research, China does not have the control of its research programmes that is found in the West," says Nicholas Steneck, who studies research integrity at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Some researchers are simply oblivious to the rules, says Zhong Haining, a neuroscientist who trained at Tsinghua University and is now starting a lab at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland. "The official guideline for scientific misconduct may (or may not) exist, but it's not very well publicized, at least not emphasized so much in training," he says.
I wonder if the causes of misconduct are so different in other places?
Research Fraud Case Raises Concerns Over Ethics of Psychology Research
•November 15, 2011 • 1 Comment
It's a big story in research ethics and it has been reported in major newspapers all over the world. There's even a Wikipedia page already about this case. The story centres on a fraud case against Diederik Stapel, a well-known psychologist and widely-published researcher at Tilburg University. It is claimed that Dr. Stapel drew inaccurate and false conclusions from analysis of collected data and also that he also falsified and "made up" entire experiments, which were written up and published in a variety of high profile journals, including Science and The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, a publication of the American Psychological Association. Over his career, Dr. Stapel has published more than 150 papers which each, as the New York Times story about this case notes, are designed to "make a splash in the media" through provocative titles and topics. Not only have his own published papers been found suspect, many of the PhD theses he supervised have been found to be "tainted" according to a Science on-line magazine story.
Here's one account of the case, from one of my favourite science writers, Benedict Carey of the New York Times: Fraud Case Seen as a Red Flag for Psychology Research
There isn't a lot to say about this case that differentiates it from others out there about fraudulent conduct in science – there are plenty of stories about research fraud out there (far too many) describing claims of falsification of data, skewing of data, or misrepresentations of data, even "making up entire experiments". But two things stood out for me the more I read about this case.
First, the claims of fraud extend beyond Stapel's own work and publications. It's not unusual to read stories about fraud that may imply that colleagues or lab assistants turned a blind eye, or wondered about the veracity of findings or the 'incredible luck' of colleagues with seemingly perfect data. But this case extends well beyond inattentive, ignorant or silent colleagues. In this case, Stapel, as a supervisor, included his own students in his fraud and has quite possibly ruined their careers and their prospects. The Tilburg University commission investigating Stapel's misconduct has recommended that criminal charges may be appropriate based not only on the misuse of research funds, but also on harm done to these students. While many might ask, "Why would he also ruin the careers of students?" it would appear that the fraud was so extensive that he not only had no raw data to provide to students for secondary analyses or to inform their work, but that he really may not have ever conducted a well-run psychological study himself, in order to be able to guide someone else through the process. This "trickle-down" effect of research fraud is typically not addressed at all in stories like this even though it is clear that a key role of a senior scientist is almost always the mentorship of young scientists and researchers. The negative effects of scientific misconduct on those who are junior, who are entering the field with good intentions, thoughtfulness and enthusiasm is a serious potential fallout and one that should be treated just as seriously as the fraud or misconduct.
The second part of this story that interested me most was what Carey, writing in the New York Times, had to say. According to him, this case isn't the straw that "broke the camel's back", rather it's evidence that the camel's back has already and most certainly been broken. Benedict Carey is a New York Times science and medicine writer since 2004. I've read plenty of Carey's writing and he's a smart journalist who writes thoughtfully and articulately about all kinds of topics in the science and medical research world. What Carey notes and the Science magazine story confirms is that one reason why Stapel was able to do this so easily is that he never showed anyone his raw data, nor was he ever required to do so. Incredulously, students who wrote their thesis with Stapel as a supervisor were not allowed to view raw data or data sets that were being used for their own papers. Some never even were allowed to conduct an experiment at all. The findings Stapel cited in many of this own studies his colleagues felt were "too good to be true" and their failure to be able to replicate these results were felt to be due to their own shortcomings. "Cutting corners" with data, "statistical sloppiness, falsifying data" and "reporting unexpected findings as predicted" are claims that Carey notes are prevalent in a discipline in which raw data are rarely shared in order to back up results or requested by reviewers to verify findings and conclusions. What I've found is that researchers in the area of psychology tend to keep datasets for long periods of time — longer than any other human-research discipline I've encountered. I find it interesting that no one, at any time, requested to see an anonymized dataset or something to back up the (often) controversial claims of Stapel. In ethics review processes, we often think about what we call "the life of the data". We are concerned with what happens to datasets after collection and analysis are complete, details about how data are stored, and who might be able to access data in the future. From what I've read in research protocols about data management, researchers are not always thinking about the data as the very fundamental proof that can back up any claim they wish to make and publish. I often read graduate student research protocols, from a variety of disciplines, in which they state that the raw data will be destroyed as soon as the research or thesis is published. I always tell them that's unwise — and that data should be stored for a reasonable amount of time after publication or dissemination of findings. It's amazing, to me, that this is very often the first time (during the ethics review process) that anyone has talked to many new researchers about the idea that the data are there (and must be there!) as the fundamental link between a hypothesis and the claims made by a researcher.
It will be interesting to see if there is any further fall-out from this story. I'll continue to follow the story and update it.
The University of Tilburg established a commission to investigate Stapel's work and the claims made about fraudulent scientific conduct. As of two weeks ago, it is now available in English here.
Posted in by Nancy Walton, clinical trials, database, ethics committees, international, regulations, scientists, Uncategorized
What Scorpion Bites Can Teach Us About Placebo Trials
•August 14, 2011 • Leave a Comment
A recent story in Nature highlights a few important concepts in the conduct of placebo-controlled trials. This story is about a very small placebo-controlled trial involving only 15 children who were stung by bark scorpions in Arizona. The trial's goal was to demonstrate effectiveness of a new antivenom, Anascorp. The bark scorpion is the only scorpion in the southwestern US thought to be potentially life-threatening for humans and, according to what I've read, is a very frequent and very unwelcome visitor in many Arizona homes.
Here's a link to the story, from Nature: A tiny trial of 15 people helps convince the US to approve a drug that takes the pain out of scorpion stings
"It's a rare, potentially fatal, emergency medical disease that predominantly affects rural children, and if you put all those adjectives together, it didn't look possible to put [a placebo-controlled trial] together at all," says Leslie Boyer, director of the Venom Immunochemistry, Pharmacology and Emergency Response (VIPER) Institute at the University of Arizona in Tucson, who led the supporting trial reported two years ago in the New England Journal of Medicine. "We started out with a daunting task."
For one thing, trial investigators can't enroll participants ahead of time because there's no way of knowing who will get stung. Then there was the problem of getting hospitals to sign up to a placebo-controlled trial…."
This story is interesting because it demonstrates some of the difficulties with conducting placebo-controlled trials, and challenges with getting clear clinical research data about yet-to-be-approved treatments in the face of a life-threatening injury. It is also pretty unheard of for a trial involving such a small number of participants to be considered as clearly definitive as this one was.
First, it was difficult to think of using a placebo in the face of a potentially life-threatening scorpion sting. It would be unethical to agree to withhold any kind of treatment and to instead give a placebo to a child with the symptoms of a scorpion bite (which are described in the article as including "severe pain, extreme nausea, blurred vision and breathing problems".) Children who experience such a reaction have difficulty, over time, coping with the pain and nausea, and extreme demands on the cardiopulmonary system can lead to more serious situations, including death. Faced with a child who has been stung by a scorpion, most parents would not wish to take the time to (a) go through an informed consent process in the face of such a potential emergency, and (b) go through a consent process when the end result might well be a placebo. As a parent, you'd want the antivenom and you'd want it fast, understandably. The researchers fully understood this dilemma and the difficulty with using a placebo in this case.
Second, there is another older antivenom that had been used between about 1965 and 2000. Produced at Arizona State University's Antivenom Production Laboratory in Phoenix, this antivenom, while effective, was not highly purified, leading to anaphylactic reactions in many patients. Furthermore, the laboratory that produces it stopped making it. Some doctors and emergency rooms have stockpiles of the older antivenom drug and were, again understandably, very reluctant to withhold the old antivenom (which, while imperfect, did the trick) in order to enroll patients into a placebo-controlled trial.
So the researchers knew what they were up against, in terms of being able to conduct a placebo-controlled trial. And they also knew that, in many cases, a placebo-controlled trial is one of the necessary first steps in being able to make clear, quantitative claims about drugs in order to move forward to conduct larger trials investigating dosage, safety, side effects, etc. Once they got 2 hospitals to take part, they only needed 15 patients in order to demonstrate, quite definitively, that the new antivenom was, as the researchers say, "overwhelmingly effective." The results were impressive: for all kids treated with Anascorp, symptoms resolved completely within 4 hours — compared to long, and more complicated recoveries for the kids who got a placebo.
Once word got out about the effectiveness of this new antivenom, a new ethical dilemma emerged. No one wanted to administer the old antivenom; nor did they want to be enrolled in yet further placebo studies. So Anascorp was made available, on an "open trial" basis, to all centres who might treat patients with bark scorpion stings. In a 6 year period, they effectively conducted the largest antivenom "trial" in history, with more than 1500 patients treated with the new antivenom, with only mild side effects. They then put together an FDA proposal to approve the use of the drug in treating scorpion stings.
Good news. As of August 4, 2011, the FDA has approved the use of Anascorp for use in scorpion stings. You can read about that here, if you're interested (or live in Arizona!): FDA approves Anascorp for Use in Scorpion Stings.
Posted in by Nancy Walton, children, clinical trials, consent, pharmaceuticals, recruitment
Disclosing Conflicts of Interest: The Case of Tamiflu
•June 3, 2011 • 1 Comment
An interesting story recently from CBC highlights some of the difficulties with the topic of conflict of interest in medicine and biomedical research.
Here's a link to the story:
CBC Tamiflu Probe Sparks Drug Policy Review
"In the course of the CBC investigation, Zalac also reported that three of Canada's most prominent flu experts — Dr. Donald Low and Dr. Allison McGeer of Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, and Dr. Fred Aoki of the University of Manitoba — had received research funding or acted as a consultant or speaker for Roche during the period when Tamiflu was being promoted.
Their research involvement with Roche and other anti-viral drug makers was not a secret within the industry.
All three would sign the now standard conflict-of-interest declarations when speaking at professional events or publishing papers. And the Public Health Agency says it has always been aware of the drug industry affiliations of its private sector advisers and takes these into account. But these relationships were rarely reported in broader public forums, in the media or even when some of these individuals would appear in marketing videos or flu-warning commercials on television produced by Roche."
In biomedical research, typically ethics review boards ask researchers to "declare" potential conflicts of interest to them. That's great. It's certainly a start. But once potential for conflicts of interest have been "declared" to ethics review boards (in what is, essentially, a confidential review process), what happens then? Do research participants always know about potential conflicts of interest that researchers have? Is this made explicit in an understandable way to participants?
This story demonstrates that conflicts of interest in health care and medicine (and biomedical research) are, often, handled in a fairly superficial or limited way with an emphasis on disclosure and little beyond that. In this story, the three key "flu experts" who were, in 2009, promoting Tamiflu as a key defense against the H1N1 flu were also found to have received research funds or acted as a speaker or consultant for Roche, the company that makes Tamiflu.The Public Health Canada Agency of Canada (PHAC) states that it was aware that these experts had affiliations with the drug company, but these relationships were not reported broadly to the public. The public were watching these experts and PHAC closely for advice and guidance. Should they have known more about the relationships between these experts and Roche, the company who makes Tamiflu?
Tamiflu was seen, by much of the public, as the panacea for H1N1 and avian flu. Governments stockpiled the drug, hoping never to have to use their vast stores. Now that these stores are approaching expiry, a decision needs to be made about either replenishing them or exploring new alternatives. Over the last few years, while these stockpiles of Tamiflu have been sitting in storage, other independent researchers have been exploring whether or not Tamiflu really is all it's cracked up to be as a first-line drug for H1N1 flu. As the story notes, researchers are challenging the "fact" that Tamiflu reduces morbidity and hospitalizations from the flu. Furthermore,the side effects (including bizarre behaviours and delusions) thought to have resulted from taking Tamiflu are viewed as serious enough to perhaps warrant exploring other options.
When we look closely at this, it may well be that the relationships that these experts had with Roche do not constitute an obvious conflict. As science moves forward, recommendations and best practices change and this may well have been the case with Tamiflu. It may also be true that Tamiflu was the first line defense in 2009 and the research since then has shown that it may not be as good as we thought. These three experts may have truly felt that Tamiflu was, in fact, the best treatment for the flu at that time, while they were vigorously promoting it. However, without full disclosure of the relationships that they had with Roche and some clarity from the PHAC on how these potential conflicts would be managed, the public may well doubt their abilities to be objective about Tamiflu. It now appears that the PHAC may well be making changes to how they manage such potential conflicts of interest, in regards to their experts and advisors.
From the CBC story:
"As for the Public Health Agency of Canada, it released a statement that said it would be inappropriate at this point to release the drug company connections of its advisers without their consent.
PHAC says that its advisory committees provide advice but that the agency makes the final decisions. However, because of the questions raised in the CBC documentary, the agency said it "intends to establish a policy on the release of information relating to members of its expert or advisory groups/committees.""
Posted in ethics committees, pharmaceuticals, regulations, Uncategorized
Prenatal Surgery, Hope for Spina Bifida and Ethical Reflection
•February 15, 2011 • 1 Comment
Spina bifida is a serious developmental birth defect in which the spinal cord and backbone fail to develop completely and infants may be born with some of the spinal cord protruding out of their middle or lower back. Treatment typically involves surgery as soon as possible to repair the birth defect. There are different forms of the defect and depending on the presenting form and the treatment, children born with spina bifida may have varying levels of disability.
Surgery on the spina bifida deformation can occur prenatally, i.e., while the fetus is still in the womb, or it can occur soon after birth. A recent story in The New York Times notes that there is now clinical evidence that surgery done while the fetus is still in the womb results in better outcomes and far less disability for children compared to children who have the defect repaired surgically after birth.
The story highlights a seven-year study (that recently ended) in which mothers of fetuses who had been diagnosed with spina bifida were randomized into one of two treatment arms: to either have reparative surgery prenatally or to have surgery soon after birth to repair the spina bifida defect. The study was stopped after it was found that the outcomes in the prenatal surgery arm were simply better — children were less disabled, were more likely to walk and had less neurological complications.
Here is the story from The New York Times: Risk and Reward In Utero
"It was one of the hardest decisions I had to make to be in the study," said Ms. Shapiro [a pregnant woman who enrolled in the study], who knew how disabling spina bifida was because her sister-in-law has it. "It was a big disappointment that we didn't get the prenatal surgery because I knew that that was the surgery that was most likely going to help him the most, because otherwise why would they be doing the study? But at the same time, he could have died or been born prematurely from prenatal surgery. When they explained everything to us, I wanted to be in it regardless."
This is a fascinating study. The potential for the future is pretty amazing. But, as the story notes, the study raised some interesting ethical issues.
First, the study was stopped by the local monitoring board as clinical equipoise was disturbed when the prenatal surgery was found to be so much better, in terms of outcomes, than surgery done after birth. Prenatal surgery was seen as a potential panacea, in the 1990s and early 2000s, for repair of the spina bifida defect (see the link to the 2003 story below) but while outcomes were generally good, the surgery did (and still does) involve significant risk to both mom and fetus — and there wasn't enough good data on outcomes, the safety risks and health complications. Thus the obvious need for a clinical trial. Did the trial start out with clinical equipoise though? We've written about clinical equipoise here before, i.e. the genuine uncertainty about what the preferred treatment might be at the outset of a clinical trial. Physicians and parents, as the story demonstrates, clearly believed that the prenatal surgery option resulted in better outcomes and was worth the risk. In fact, many pregnant women who enrolled in the trial did so just to have a chance at accessing prenatal surgery.
The physicians who were involved in the study knew that pregnant women would not enroll in the study if the prenatal surgery was offered elsewhere (as it was up until the study), so they persuaded other hospitals not included in the study to stop offering the prenatal surgery. Thus, pregnant women were essentially forced to enroll in the trial for a chance to be randomized into the treatment arm that provided the prenatal surgery. However, as a result of randomization, many of these women who enrolled were randomized into the other treatment arm and received surgery after the birth of their infant.
It's interesting (from both a practical and an ethical perspective) that a procedure, albeit one with risks involved, that was offered before the start of the trial to pregnant women carrying fetuses with diagnosed spina bifida, was, for all intents and purposes, no longer offered except (possibly) through enrollment in a clinical trial. Physicians who, before the trial, could offer this treatment to their patients (with all the potential risks and benefits involved), were no longer free to do this if they were providing care in a hospital that was not part of the clinical trial. While some bioethicists quoted in the story feel that the move to limit access to the prenatal surgery was a bold, collaborative step, others state that it was ethically problematic to take away any notion of choice for pregnant women by severely limiting access to an option many already felt to be superior, that was desired by many even with the risks.
While many clinical trial participants enroll with altruistic objectives, others enroll in order to access treatments and procedures that might only be available through a trial. This is seen, often, with drugs that are not yet freely available on the market until clinical testing is complete. In this case, clearly, pregnant women would be interested and motivated to enroll, out of genuine concern for the future of the child they are carrying. Altruism might well be part of the motivation — as the story notes, one gracious woman who was randomized into the after-birth surgery felt that while her son did not benefit from the surgery as much as he might have from prenatal surgery (he has some significant disabilities), participation in the trial contributed to knowledge about his disease. Needless to say, it's a good thing that the trial was done and also a good thing that it has been stopped in order to make what has been shown to be a superior treatment available, once again, to all.
If you're interested in this really fascinating topic, here are two related stories. The first is a recent story from The New York Times on the possibilities related to the outcomes of this trial: Success of Spina Bifida Study Opens Fetal Surgery Door.
The second is a much older story from The National Review in 2003, on the emerging possibilities of fetal surgery for spina bifida. (I remember this story when it was published for the unforgettable image, shown above, called "The Hand of Hope"): Miracles of Life: The Beltway goes inside the womb
Posted in by Nancy Walton, children, clinical trials, consent, ethics committees, neurological, recruitment
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sharon@missmenopause.co.uk
About Miss Menopause
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Menopause Real Life Work Stories
Menopause Real Life Work Stories | www.missmenopause.co.uk
In Blog, Education, Menopause, Real life stories, Women, Workplace
It was the second time this week she had to strip off her clothes, and it was only 8am! She must be really under the weather…
Sarah had her children later in life. She was a proud mother of two great kids, an 8-year-old and a 6- year-old. She felt young, she was only 48 years old.
Her usual routine was the same as lots of working mothers. She'd get up with her husband, grab a coffee, then begin the routine of getting the kids out of bed, rustling up breakfast, and encouraging them to get ready and out to school. Some days were better than others. Some mornings they would bicker and wind each other up. They would change their minds about their favourite breakfast from one day to the next, but Sarah had become an old hand, and despite these spats, she had never let the morning routine affect her work.
She worked at a local company that was 20 minutes away from her daughter's school, so once the kids had been dropped off (her son was at a different school), it was off to work. Her routine was timed to perfection, and despite the challenges of becoming a working mother, Sarah had never been late in the last 10 years.
Her job as an administrator was a vital one. She was so good at what she did that she almost blended into the background. Things just happened. Bills and staff were paid correctly and on time. Sarah was an excellent employee. She loved her job and knew that after she had her first child that she wanted to come back. She now worked 4 days per week and had plans to go back to full time at some point.
So as she stood there, dripping wet for the second time that week, she had no choice but to jump in the shower and get a change of clothes. Maybe she was just under the weather? It was a real struggle to get to work on time but she managed it. It was just as well there were no speed cameras en route!
Over the next couple of months this became a more regular thing. What was really off-putting was there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to it; why she was so hot and sweaty? Sarah put it down to stress, as she had recently taken on more responsibility at work. That must be it, surely? Getting to work on time was becoming really stressful. Sarah was also not sleeping well. She was exhausted.
One day in Spring, Sarah was late. She knew there would be a meeting with her manager. They had worked together for a couple of years. The meeting seemed pointless and went something like this this;
"I know you were late this morning. If you're late again, you might be in trouble as per our policy. Please make sure it doesn't happen again!"
It was wasn't Sarah's intention to be late again. She'd never been late in 10 years and wasn't planning on making this a habit. But it did happen again two weeks later. The kids had been acting up, she'd been putting on a load of laundry, and boom-the same thing happened again. She was dripping wet and left with no choice but to get showered and change her clothes again. The heat was unbearable. It seemed to come from within, and there was no escape.
Despite driving at breakneck speed, Sarah was late. The quality of the conversation was no better. No questions were asked about what had caused the lateness, and no encouragement was given to go to the doctors. No questions were asked about menopause and what might be happening?
After 10 years of exemplary service, why could Sarah's manager not see this was out of character? This wasn't explored. Sarah was in trouble. Sarah hadn't been told about menopause and what she might expect, and neither had her manager.
Sadly, Sarah was late again and was put on a warning. She decided to leave her job as she didn't feel supported. She later found out that what she was experiencing was peri menopause. She feels bitter that she didn't know about menopause and that her employer wasn't more supportive.
What would happen in your organisation right now if you had a Sarah working for you? How much talent might you be losing? How well equipped are your managers?
* Sarah is not her real name. However this is the story of a real working woman in the North East of England.
Raising awareness about the menopause among women, men, and employers is all about education and making it comfortable and acceptable for people to speak about it. Menopause is not a condition to be treated and cured, it's a normal stage of life that every woman goes through. Helping people to realise this is my mission.
My training events are aimed at educating HR professionals, managers, and working women about the menopause in a fun, engaging, and informative way.
If you'd like to find out more, contact me at sharon@missmenopause.co.uk You can also join my Facebook group or my Facebook and Twitter campaign #wearemenopause
2019: A Year in the Life of a Menopause Educator
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Telephone Sharon MacArthur on 07793291409 or Send an Email
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Can We Share Pregnancy Scares?
How did you break the news to your OH??
Pregnancy Pillows-Is that Useful !! OR its a waste of money?
Good Books on pregnancy and twins..... ?
Having a scan next week at 15 weeks - can they tell boy/gir?
Flu jab anyone else having problems getting it?
Hospital bag: packing advice please.
Any mums to be in Taunton somerset??
Any experiences of maternity at St James Leeds?
Hip pain on one side lhs.


Located at 203 N. Wabash in the Chicago Loop, this renovation of the landmark Old Dearborn Bank Building is a study in contrasts. In collaboration with the John Buck Company and an integrated team of interior designers, Booth Hansen acted as the architect of record for the restoration of the façade and a complete redesign of the interior, including 250 boutique rooms, multiple dining establishments and social spaces, and a rooftop bar. This is the first hotel by the Virgin Group in the United States.
The terra cotta façade, restored to historic standards, displays the ornate beauty of early 20th century Chicago architecture. Inside, a highly activated interior captures the modern, four-star lifestyle representative of the Virgin brand. Spaces are accented with the company's trademark red, creating continuity between multiple program types. The striking difference between exterior and interior underscores the challenges of renovation work today: in this project, Booth Hansen successfully balanced a respect for history with the client's desire for technological advancement and cutting-edge amenities.
Hotel chambers accommodate the complete lifestyle of the today's urban traveler, including separate sleeping and dressing areas and smart phone connectivity. More than a typical room, the chamber concept responds to a range of contemporary needs while maintaining a lively, youthful vibe.


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Every few days I get these wedding advice e-mails from TheKnot.com - stuff like "Book a Florist Now – or Forever Hold Your Peace" and "9 Reception Disasters to Avoid". To my great disappointment, Reception Disasters only included things like what to do if your younger cousins eat too much wedding cake, or your floral centerpieces wilt, or what happens when you're running low in liquor. There was nothing about how to behave if your wedding is the first time in 12 years your parents will be in the same room at the same time, or how to deal with your aunt's scotch-loving boyfriend. That's the kind of Reception Disaster I'd like to avoid, but perhaps I am alone in this.
I have to admit I was a bit apprehensive, but the room had its own leather couch, so I tried to force myself to revel in the luxury of it all. The saleslady measured me, and then brought me a white corset, fluffy bathrobe and a pair of white pumps. She instructed me to put them on, then disappeared, returning a few minutes later under a cloud of white.
"Close your eyes!" she said.
She stood there, expectantly, and I realized the idea was for me not to see the dress until it was on me, so that I would fall in love with my bridal self and throw down my Mastercard with reckless abandon.
"Open your eyes!" she said, breathlessly, after I'd struggled in. I did.
She looked disappointed. "We don't want 'nice'," she said. "We want WOW." Then she whipped off the dress and trotted away, leaving me to stare at myself in the mirror in my corset and pumps, both of which were a couple of sizes too big and gave the impression I was a kid playing dress-up in my mother's clothes.
The rest of the afternoon kind of became a bridal Groundhog Day. The saleslady would appear holding another dress, and I'd close my eyes, dive in, and then try to think of something polite to say.
Eventually, instead of coming back with a dress she brought in the owner of the store - the Grand Poobah of wedding dresses – probably to get a load of the girl who deemed a dress "a bit virginal".
"She doesn't even like this one!" she said, worriedly, as I stood there draped in chiffon.
The owner frowned. "What are you looking for, exactly?" he asked.
"That is like WATER," he hissed, and we stared at each other for minute, in a sort of bridal standoff.
In January, now slightly distressed as according to TheKnot.com I was supposed to have bought my dress AND accessories by now, I asked my father to come wedding dress shopping with me. I figured if I had to deal with someone who insisted I looked glorious in something the size of a Volkwagen, my father, who doesn't believe in sugar-coating anything – especially to salespeople – was the right person for the job.
The other bride who was at the store when we arrived had brought her mother, grandmother, and 8 friends. All of them had shiny, perfectly-coiffed hair, and appeared to be having a whale of a time. When I emerged from the change room, they stopped in mid-conversation. The bride actually gasped.
The dress was made of many layers of translucent fabric embroidered with flowers, and the saleslady has fastened two giant clips to my back to keep it from falling down. I looked in the mirror. My hair was frizzed out in several directions, none of which were down. If I looked like an angel, it was a wind-up toy angel belonging to a two-year old.
"What do you think?" I asked my dad.
"Nice," he said, shrugging, and returned to his Blackberry.
Later, as we left the store empty-handed, and I tried to explain my frustration.
"I know," said my dad.
I realized he was right. It is a dream. And maybe what we're all hoping to find is a dress with a written guarantee of that dream, which in my case is that my relatives will set their differences aside that day and be smiling and supportive like the people in Martha Stewart.
Touched, I thanked him. Then I pulled out my To Do list, and made a note to stock up on liquor.
Enjoying your wedding day requires a confidence like no other. You must embrace every decision and choice you have made over the last ump-teen months and be resolved to ignore the fact that for every tiny little detail of your perfect day, there is someone in the room that disagrees with your choice. Happiness is a state of mind more so on your wedding day than any other. Live it up!


The Bellingham Tenants Union is a democratic membership organization. Members vote all the crucial decisions about how our union works and what it does.
The BTU is an open organization that accommodates member involvement at a variety of levels. Members who want to get more involved can become Stewards, Organizers, and Elected Leadership, working together to carry out BTU campaigns and projects. Members are not limited to one role, often members have multiple roles.
Members have the right to attend and vote at Members Meetings. At these monthly meetings we share reports on what the BTU has been doing, and we make proposals and debate and decide what to do next. Members elect fellow members to become Elected Leadership, who are charged with representing the BTU and making decisions in between Members Meetings. Elected Leadership and Organizers report on their activities at every Members Meeting, and the membership has the power to reverse any of their decisions.
Click below to learn more about what each role does and how to SIGN UP FOR IT.
Join the union and become a member!
Stewards are essential for our union's function and success.
Our union's strength lies in the relationships between our members, which give us our ability to organize. Every member in the union is supported by point-people, Stewards. Stewards mobilize their members to take action.
To be a Steward, you need three things: a passion for housing justice, a commitment to attend a training, and a commitment to spend around 3 hours a month volunteering.
Build relationships with new members. When a tenant joins the union, a Steward will be connected with them. This member is now supported by a Steward, i.e. 'under their stewardship'.
Get to know your members by having a 1 on 1 meetings with them. Ask questions that draw out their experiences and listen to their story.
Educate your members on what the union does, how it works, and opportunities for them to be involved.
Continue to build the relationship with your members into the future. Check back with them at least twice a year.
Be a union point-person for members under your stewardship.
Listen for any issues, complaints, and tenant rights violations.
Solve member problems if you can. If you can't, pass on information to union leadership to solve the problem.
Mobilize your members to take action when there's an critical action alert. Calling and texting are most effective ways to get the word out.
Once a year, there will be an Annual Steward Assembly held for Stewards to talk with each other, check-in with Organizers and Elected Leadership, share feedback, and be informed on new BTU developments.
Organizers are the engines of the union.
Carry out the day to day work of BTU, such as planning events and actions, doing outreach to members, coordinating endorsements, and supporting members.
The position of organizer shall be open to all general members in good standing. Organizers shall attend as many Organizing Committee meetings as possible, and do their best to complete tasks that they volunteer for.
The Co-Chairs are the official spokespeople of the Elected Leadership and of the BTU. In addition, the Co-Chairs shall perform all functions that are legally required of a President and Vice-President. There shall be two Co-Chairs. One Co-Chair shall co-coordinate the Steward and Membership Working Group. One Co-Chair shall coordinate or co-coordinate the Communications Work Group.
The Secretary shall maintain the official copy of the Articles of Incorporation, Bylaws, and all currently approved policies and procedures; maintain the voting list and certify the results of elections; record minutes at General Membership Meetings; co-coordinate the Steward and Membership Working Group; ensure new members are receiving a Steward; and record and compile all actions approved by the General Membership and the Organizing Committee.
The Treasurer shall keep all books of account; conduct financial transactions; file all required tax returns and pay all tax liabilities in a timely manner; and prepare an annual financial report for distribution in writing to the membership.
The Equity Steward shall lead the BTU's equity, diversity, and inclusion efforts to ensure they are aligned with its Mission, Vision, Values and Strategic Goals. The Equity Steward shall coordinate or co-coordinate the Equity Work Group.
We appreciate supporters! The housing crisis affects all of us.
People can become Supporters on the right-hand side of our Join or Supporter page.
How do all those people coordinate?
Members meet monthly to discuss the business of the union, make decisions, and share updates/events.
Four of these meetings are Seasonal (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter) Meetings, where there is usually a special presentation/discussion.
The Fall Meeting is the Annual Membership Meeting, where membership elects leadership, updates our platform, and makes other big decisions.
Organizers and the Elected Leadership serve on the Organizing Committee, which is charged with carrying out the day to day work of the BTU.
This work includes planning events, coordinating work group functions, supporting Members and Stewards, monitoring policy development, and responding to emergent issues.
The Organizing Committee meets in the middle of the month. And members are welcome to attend as well!
Work Groups are how BTU organizes itself into areas of interest. They are absolutely critical for our union to function and grow.
Learn more and consider joining a Work Group.
become a Member! Exciting, we'd be happy to have you. Join the union here.
join a Work Group! Thank you. Click here.
become a Steward! Wonderful. To be a Housing Justice Steward, all you need is a passion for housing justice and a commitment to attend a training. The time commitment is around 3 hours a month. Sign up to be a Steward here.
become an Organizer! Now is the time. Let us know why you want to be an organizer here and the committee will be in touch with you. Click here.
become an Elected Leader! Yay. At least 35 days before the Annual Membership Meeting, you can get on the ballot either by a vote of the Organizing Committee, or by a nomination petition signed by ten voting members. Then you need to win the election!


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October 11, 2021 — Dave Kostos
Innovations and technologiesExecutive vision
Acronis #CyberFit Summit Miami keynotes announced
Acronis #CyberFit Summit
The best and brightest thought leaders in the IT channel are coming together at the upcoming Acronis #Cyberfit Summit – in person in Miami and virtually for attendees around the world. This array of speakers, detailed here, features all-star guest appearances in keynote addresses from author and former host of CNN Newsroom Brooke Baldwin, CEO and founder of The Black Swan Group Chris Voss, internet entrepreneur, investor, and co-founder of Reddit Alexis Ohanian, and two of Acronis' visionary leaders: Patrick Pulvermueller and Serguei "SB" Beloussov.
Whether you're attending virtually or in-person at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach hotel in Florida, here's a sneak peek at the line-up of keynotes you can look forward to hearing from October 25-27.
Alexis Ohanian, an internet entrepreneur and investor has seen – and helped create enormous digital business success stories. Best known for co-founding the social online community Reddit, Ohanian has also authored a bestselling book Without Their Permission, chronicling his experience as an entrepreneur building, selling, and chairing the organization.
In addition to his role at the head of the Front Page of the Internet, Ohanian has dedicated much of his career to funding the success of countless other online ventures.
In 2016, Ohanian co-founded Initialized Capital—a seed-stage venture fund with over $770M under management and a portfolio with $100B in market value, which invested in companies like Hubspot, Instacart, and Coinbase. He has also been instrumental in other successful online ventures, including HipMunk and BreadPig. He's invested in and advised over two hundred tech startups and was a partner at Y Combinator.
With his passion for inclusion and a fervent commitment to Founders, Ohanian left Initialized Capital to establish the venture firm, Seven Seven Six, which recently closed its first fund with $150M. And, in whatever free time he manages to have, Ohanian launched the Business Dad podcast in 2020, interviewing fellow fathers about what it means to be a dad in today's world and how they balance their careers and families.
At the Acronis #CyberFit Summit in Miami Ohanian will share this wealth of experience to our community, offering guidance on how your IT business can continue to grow and succeed based on the many modern success stories he's helped to create.
Chris Voss is the CEO and Founder of The Black Swan Group Ltd., a former FBI hostage negotiator, and the author of Never Split The Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It. Previously, Voss was the lead international kidnapping negotiator for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as the FBI's hostage negotiation representative for the National Security Council's Hostage Working Group.
Working to share his skills in the art of negotiation, Voss has taught business negotiation in the MBA program as an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business, and at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business. He has taught business negotiation at Harvard University, guest lectured at The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and The Goethe School of Business in Frankfurt, Germany.
Voss has leveraged all of these experiences – gathered over a storied career responding to international crises and managing high-stakes negotiations – to develop a unique program that applies globally proven negotiation and leadership training techniques to the business world.
As a guest keynote speaker for the Acronis #CyberFit Summit, Voss will share these techniques with MSPs, resellers, and hosting service providers from around the world. Through his keynote address, attendees will learn proven methods for achieving better business outcomes – including better client relationships and more profitability.
Brooke Baldwin
A fierce advocate for women's strength, solidarity, and empowerment, Brooke Baldwin is an award-winning journalist and author. For 13 years she reported on some of the biggest stories in the world at CNN, covering natural disasters, mass shootings, and terror attacks and interviewing former first ladies, astronauts, actors, activists, rock stars, and ordinary Americans in extraordinary circumstances.
In addition to hosting CNN Newsroom with Brooke Baldwin, Baldwin created and hosted the inspiring CNN Digital series American Woman. This interview series extended Baldwin's passion for female empowerment to a global audience as she sat down with eight trailblazing and glass-ceiling-shattering women from the worlds of music, fashion, and film to explore their experiences and inspire women around the world to continue to strive for fairness and equality in their careers, lives, and society.
This inspirational work continued for Baldwin in 2021, when she left her position at CNN to focus on her new book Huddle: How Women Unlock Their Collective Power. Now a Wall Street Journal Bestseller, Huddle offers an exploration of the support, empowerment, inspiration, and strength that women facing adversity from modern and systemic challenges can find by coming together in "huddles".
At the Acronis #CyberFit Summit in Miami this October, Baldwin will bring all of this passion and experience to hosting Acronis' dedicated Women in Tech Breakfast. A favorite event of the Acronis community, this panel gathers fearless female leaders from the historically male-dominated IT industry to share their stories, celebrate their triumphs, and offer support and guidance for all attendees looking to create a more diverse and equitable future for IT professionals.
Patrick Pulvermueller and SB (Serguei Beloussov)
This year's Acronis #CyberFit Summit kicks off virtually and in Miami with a can't-miss keynote address from Acronis' Founder and Chairman, SB, and its new Chief Executive Officer, Patrick Pulvermueller.
Pulvermueller, taking part in his first Acronis #CyberFit Summit since being named CEO, joined Acronis from hosting leader GoDaddy. In this role, he has committed himself to applying his passion and expertise in channel-centric business development to create expanded opportunities for the existing Acronis partner community, supporting and accelerating the growth and success of the thousands of businesses in the IT channel today who rely on Acronis Cyber Protection Solutions. The Acronis #CyberFit Summit World Tour represents a global opportunity to do just that.
Pulvermueller will be joined on-stage by Acronis' previous CEO and current Chief Research Officer and Chairman of the Board, SB.
SB served as Acronis' Chief Executive Officer from 2013-2021. SB was also Acronis' first Chairman of the Board from 2003-2007 and again from 2019 to present-day. Before founding Acronis, SB served as Parallels' CEO until 2011, a company that operates as a global leader in virtualization and automation software. SB still provides leadership to Parallels today as the company's Executive Chairman. SB is also the co-founder and Executive Chairman of Acumatica, and a Senior Partner at Runa Capital, a global technology-focused venture capital firm he co-founded with university colleagues in 2010.
The two will deliver this year's Acronis #CyberFit Summit opening keynote address, exploring the current state of cyber protection for the Acronis partner community and the IT channel, at large before offering a look ahead at their vision for the growing cyber protection movement in the year to come.
Whether you're joining the Summit live and in-person in Miami or you'll be attending virtually from your home, office, or home office anywhere in the world, these three events are essential viewing for IT professionals looking to grow and succeed in the modern age.
Stay tuned for more exciting announcements about the Acronis #Cyberfit Summit in Miami, and remember – if you haven't registered yet, sign up now!
Dave Kostos
CybersecurityCyber protectionData protectionEndpoint protection
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What is a Pith Helmet?
Pith helmets may be worn to provide protection from the sun.
Sometimes referred to as a topi or solar topee, the pith helmet has a long history as both fashion and as part of military wear. Dating from the middle of the 19th century, the helmet was first considered to be an essential part of military garb in tropical areas and later became an element in more formal military dress. Today, the pith helmet is still around, serving as part of the uniform for several professions as well as being worn for fun.
Pith helmets were first developed for use by military personnel who were stationed in the tropics of Africa and South America. To some degree, the earliest helmet was patterned after a traditional head covering used in the Philippines. Known as a salacot, the device served as an effective protection from the sun. The helmet was constructed with the use of pith or cork, which provided a light frame for the headwear. Often, the frame was covered with a sheer white fabric that also helped to repel the sun's rays.
Over time, the design for the pith helmet was refined to provide greater protection in different situations. British troops who had adopted the pith helmet as part of the uniform worn at the battlefront began to dye the cloth covers with tea, which helped them blend in with local foliage in tropical areas. Over time, camouflage versions emerged when blending into the surrounding terrain was considered essential. As a sun helmet, it continued to be popular wear for anyone exploring the wilds of the jungle, or living in tropical areas.
The pith helmet also emerged as a sartorial element during the 20th century. Along toward the middle of the century, children and teenagers became fascinated with them, partially owing to the new medium of television. Many of the early action heroes in the new medium wore pith helmets during their adventures. Fans who wanted to emulate their heroes would often adopt simple plastic versions of the helmet during play.
Today, the helmet is still included in the military garb of many countries, as well as considered a practical element of living in a tropical area. In the United States, the headgear has become a standard element in the uniform for postal workers in many parts of the country. These helmets may be purchased at many sporting goods stores, and today come in a wide variety of colors.
What Is a Mining Helmet?
What is an LED Headlamp?
What are Puttees?
What is a Derby Hat?
What are Epaulettes?
What is a Hard Hat?
What are Different Types of Hats?
Qohe1et
The sun helmet of the Thai royal army is a form of Pith Helmet which still includes the Pickelhaube. The Thai army made a conscious effort early on to incorporate British and German garb in its military.
FitzMaurice
The Pith Helmet is believed to have been influenced by the earlier German helmets, the Pickelhaube, which were noticeable due to the distinctive spike on the top. Pith Helmets have a similar design, minus the spike, and came to be made with a lighter substance for hot climates. Afrikaners settling in South Africa would have used this like a Western American would use a cowboy hat.


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A Mission for All of Us
Overcoming health disparities is one of our most pressing challenges.
We can make faster progress — and deliver on our mission — with your support.
Invest in a More Equitable World
A person's race or ethnic background, gender or zip code shouldn't determine whether they live or die from cancer, COVID-19 or any other disease. With your support of Fred Hutch, we can ensure all people get the prevention, treatment — and cures — they need.
Lifesaving research demands curiosity, creativity and varied perspectives. That's why diversity is a core Fred Hutch value and integral to our work. We were the first U.S. cancer center to pledge commitment to CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion, we cultivate a workplace that welcomes diverse perspectives and experiences, and we are committed to eliminating health disparities.
For more than two decades, Fred Hutch researchers have been making inroads against inequities in treatment and outcomes for people with cancer and other diseases, including COVID-19. But more significant investments are needed if we are to achieve our mission: ending the suffering caused by cancer and other diseases — not just for some people, but for everyone.
Fred Hutch Initiatives to Increase Diversity and Health Equity
Clinical Trials and Genetic Studies
Prevention, Screening and Treatment
Educating Future Scientists
A Diverse and Innovative Workforce
Precision medicine is imprecise when it comes to racial and ethnic minorities. Because these communities are underrepresented in most clinical trials and genetic studies, we're missing opportunities to identify risk factors and develop effective treatments. By boosting inclusion, we are speeding our mission to find cures for all cancers in all people.
People from racial and ethnic minorities have higher rates of cancer and are more likely to die from the disease, while those who survive carry a heavier burden of negative health and economic impacts. To reduce these tremendous personal and economic costs, Fred Hutch researchers are using science to understand the factors that contribute to disparities and developing strategies to close the gaps.
Educating the next generation of researchers is mission-critical. We have developed inclusive and culturally relevant programs that attract students who are the first in their families to attend college, people with disabilities, veterans and those who belong to underrepresented racial or ethnic groups. By investing in education at Fred Hutch, you stoke dreams, strengthen science and lay the groundwork for future breakthroughs in cancer, HIV and other diseases.
Studies show that a lack of diversity among researchers contributes to cancer health disparities. Conversely, a diversity of experiences and perspectives unlocks wider-reaching and more innovative science. To ensure we're doing the best research possible, and to better reflect the communities we serve, we are proactively building a more diverse workforce. Your support will help us become the employer of choice for people with new viewpoints and ideas who will help us achieve our mission faster.
Hispanics are twice as likely to die from stomach cancer than non-Hispanics.
Black women have a 40% higher risk of dying from breast cancer than white women.
In the U.S., 80% of children who have died from COVID-19 were children of color.
Our mission is to eliminate cancer and related diseases as causes of suffering and death for everyone.
Your support will empower researchers and communities to create a healthier and more equitable world.
Dr. Veena Shankaran
Oncologist and health economist Dr. Veena Shankaran is shedding light on the financial impacts of cancer and guiding new programs and policies to mitigate cancer's worst impacts on patient finances.
Dr. Jay Mendoza
Health disparities researcher Dr. Jay Mendoza is tackling longstanding, difficult health inequities to improve the health of underrepresented minorities, especially kids.
Dr. Rachel Ceballos
Dr. Rachel Ceballos is developing interventions to understand and mitigate the toxic stress that disproportionately affects Black, Indigenous and Latino communities.
Dr. Chris Li
Dr. Chris Li is identifying risk factors for breast cancer, such as medications and alcohol, and is at the forefront of efforts to ensure cancer research benefits all patients.
"It's incumbent on us to develop a strong, caring relationship with all the communities we work with, especially those experiencing disparities."
— Dr. Paul Buckley, Fred Hutch vice president and chief diversity and inclusion officer
A Community Approach
The Office of Community Outreach and Engagement is reducing health disparities and addressing high rates of cancer and cancer mortality among underrpresented communities in Western Washington and the Yakima Valley.
Reducing the Burden
The Hutchinson Institute for Cancer Outcomes Research works to improve cancer prevention, detection and treatment in ways that will reduce the economic and human burden of cancer — and ultimately lead to better outcomes for patients.
Dozens of Fred Hutch researchers are untangling causes of health disparities and developing solutions. Dr. Rachel Issaka is focused on reducing colorectal cancer deaths, especially for African-Americans, who are 40 percent more likely to die from the disease than whites.
"For too long, society and science have treated human beings with disparate levels of respect. It must be our work to move beyond words to action."
— Dr. Thomas J. Lynch Jr., Fred Hutch president and director and holder of the Raisbeck Endowed Chair
Email: philanthropy@fredhutch.org
Last Modified, September 30, 2022


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Overhead Cranes From Street Crane Vital to Troop Supply Chain in Afghanistan
Camp Bastion in Afghanistan will not remind many people of home. Nevertheless, during a tour of the maintenance workshops, High Peak MP Andrew Bingham came across two overhead cranes manufactured in Chapel-en-le Frith by Street Crane Company.
Street Crane produces over 400 complete cranes per year, the majority of which are for the UK market. The installation at Camp Bastion is exceptional as most of the company's export sales are of the major electro-mechanical components such as hoists, bogies and controls. Only when a customer needs complete cranes like the British Army or a contractor has a major capital project, such as a power station, is it practical and economic to ship the whole crane package from the UK.
"I already knew that Street Crane exported around the world, but to actually see their cranes in action away from High Peak really brought home how far afield they go and how much of a global exporter they are," Andrew Bingham commented.
Street Crane Company is the UK's largest manufacturer of factory cranes and hoists. The company can supply hoists and cranes to meet all handling needs from below 125 Kilos up to 200 tonnes. Street Crane lifting equipment is used in all branches of industry from primary producers of steel, aluminium and glass through the distribution chain to manufacturers of engineering, aerospace and construction products. As family owned company it has grown by reinvestment in the business to produce a range or world-class products and a network of international distributors.
The overhead cranes are used in the workshops at Camp Bastion for the servicing and repair of armoured cars and other heavy equipment. The camp is home to 30,000 British military personnel and support staff and covers an area the size of Wigan or Reading. Besides troop accommodation, it has a major airport and heliport with all the associated service workshops, warehousing and infrastructure.
Exports make up around seventy five percent of Street Crane Company's business. Managing director Andrew Pimblett explained, "We now have over 60 overseas distributors, the majority of who manufacture cranes for their own local market. We made a commitment to export over 15 years ago, a move that has been very successful. Our customers make the major structures such as crane beams and gantries and we supply from the UK higher value engineering components that we can manufacture to a consistent quality and at a scale that makes them competitive."
Andrew Pimblett, Tel. +44 (0)1298 812456 Fax. +44 (0)1298 814 945
Street Crane Company, Chapel-en-le-Frith, High Peak, SK23 0PH, UK
E-Mail: admin@streetcrane.co.uk Web: www.streetcrane.co.uk
High resolution images are on the web at www.ainsmag.co.uk/st165/4997st1a-afghan-cranes.htm
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Home News Tisbury selectmen take up Beach Road redesign tonight
Tisbury selectmen take up Beach Road redesign tonight
Selectmen will discuss three potential plans for the Beach Road project that has been in the works for over a year.
Cathryn McCann
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation plans a makeover of Beach Road. — File photo by Michael Cummo
Tisbury selectmen will hold what could be the final discussion of the Beach Road renovation project when they meet at 5:30 pm in town hall. Last week, selectmen said members of the public would be given time to talk about the project before the board takes action.
Following more than one year of discussion by selectmen, the planning board, Martha's Vineyard Commission, Tisbury transportation subcommittee and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT), three plans for a comprehensive redesign of the road corridor from Five Corners to the drawbridge remain on the table.
One plan is a "symmetrical" road, with two 10.5-foot travel lanes, 4.5-foot bicycle lanes, and 5.5-foot sidewalks on either side extending as far as the Lagoon Pond drawbridge, which requires bicyclists remain in the road.
A second possibility is a "hybrid" design, which has the same design as the "symmetrical" plan from the Five Corners intersection to the Tisbury marketplace, with an eventual transition to a section with a 10-foot SUP that would connect to the existing SUP between Winds Up and the Lagoon Pond drawbridge and a future 10-foot SUP crossing over the bridge into Oak Bluffs. The asymmetrical hybrid design is an attempt to accommodate bicyclists both on- and off-road.
A third "hybrid hybrid" plan surfaced on Sept. 22 at a meeting of the selectmen and strays from the initial "hybrid" design by continuing a sidewalk on the harbor side of the road to Packer's wharf, where the cruise ships dock. That sidewalk extension would require a reduction on the south side of the road. The 10-foot SUP would be reduced to 9 feet, and the 4-foot buffer reduced to 1.5 feet.
Wrong right-of-way
Last Thursday, the only element of the ongoing Beach Road project that seemed to be widely accepted was put into question at a meeting of the Tisbury vision council. Several speakers expressed an interest in returning to the 43-foot right-of-way initially proposed by the MassDOT.
Planning board and vision council member Ben Robinson said the MassDOT came to the town with three possible options last July. Two were 43-foot rights-of-way, and one was a 46-foot right-of-way. He said at that time many members of the town, especially abutters, were not interested in the wider rights-of-way and wanted to keep the road as tight as possible.
"Through lots of negotiations with the state, the town has managed to take that 43 feet down to 41, and that's sort of where the state said 'Okay, we're not going any less than that, we need the 41 to do anything,' and that's where we're at now," he said. "The reality of it is that we've gone from 40 to 41 feet, and that extra foot has been given to the sidewalks."
Over the course of the discussion the Tisbury transportation committee has gone back and forth with the MassDOT design team in an attempt to satisfy the initial effort by the Martha's Vineyard Commission for the project to provide bicycle and pedestrian safety and provide a link between down-Island towns via a network of shared-use paths (SUP), off-road paths for bicyclists and pedestrians.
Last Thursday, many speakers expressed dissatisfaction with the compromises made in an effort to stay within the 41-foot right- of-way.
"When people decided they didn't want the wider road, the abutters particularly, did they know what they were giving up when they said that?" former planning board member Henry Stephenson said. "So take the same old road and put in a bike path and put in shoulders and put in sidewalks, but find a way to make it all fit into the existing right of way. It doesn't fit."
"What's the point of shrinking it up?" Tisbury vision plan advisory committee member Caroline Little said. "Then you've spent all this money and it's inadequate. A lot of people want to go from the ferry in Vineyard Haven with kids on the back of their bikes to Oak Bluffs, and they can't do it because these bike lanes are just too narrow. And on the sidewalks, it's nice to be able to walk two-by-two comfortably."
"We're talking about the main road between Vineyard Haven and Oak Bluffs and the hospital and the two ferry terminals," Holly Stephenson said. "If the state comes in with their safety regulators and their experts and they think that 43 feet is something that they need to have, and they're willing to do it, why in heaven's name do we turn them down? Safety is the primary thing here."
Several speakers brought up eminent domain as a means to complete the road with a 43-foot right-of-way.
Duane Case pointed out that could be an expensive and drawn-out affair. Mr. Robinson said that it would be handled by the state.
"We talked to them extensively about eminent domain," he said. "They said they go through it all the time with projects. There's a whole wing of MassDOT that deals with eminent domain."
Mr. Robinson asked how many people were interested in the wider right-of-way. Almost everyone raised their hands.
Bill Veno, senior planner for the Martha's Vineyard Commission, pointed out no roads on the Island are wider than 40 feet, with the exception of the three lanes of traffic on Edgartown Road coming into the Look Street intersection. He questioned whether having two more feet would make a big difference. "Mass Highway has said that all of these options are safe," he said.
Mary Ellen Larsen, Tisbury finance committee member, pointed out the futility of discussing a 43-foot right-of-way at this point in the process.
"I feel like tonight what I'm hearing has totally undone all the work and negotiations that have been done," she said, adding that selectmen are voting between the hybrid, "hybrid hybrid," and symmetrical road plans.
Selectmen Melinda Loberg asked people to consider what they would like to see for a design if the 41-foot right-of-way is the only option, and attend the selectmen's meeting on Tuesday. "I think the conversation tonight has been very useful and very interesting to me," she said.
Following the meeting, Ms. Loberg said that although there was a previous decision among town officials to utilize a 41-foot right-of-way, MassDOT is still open to other plans and widths. She said the goal remains to move forward with a plan that considers the safety of all modes of traffic.
Beach Road resident Frank Brunelle, a vocal opponent to the shared-use path concept, walked out 25 minutes into the two hour meeting Thursday. In an email Friday he said "If Tristan votes for the SUP and they put it in, it will be a tragedy for cyclists, for pedestrians, for people who live in Tisbury, for motor vehicles, for walkers, for handicapped people. It will be a victory for the Martha's Vineyard Commission."
Friday, Mr. Robinson said it would have been nice to have meetings like Thursday's earlier on in the Beach Road project process, but the council, recently established "to focus on the attainment of vision goals, coordinate community outreach, and develop collaborative partnerships that foster broad community involvement," has only just begun.
"The vision council is not a decision making body; it best functions or we hope it will function as a way to better inform the public, so that their feedback to elected officials is helpful and instructive," he said. "But it was nice to see that it did facilitate a good information session, as well as broaden everyone's understanding of all the issues involved in the project. It also provided some clarity and different ways to see the issues."
He said the hope is that the council will serve as a helpful venue as other projects come through the town.
"It allows for a more free flowing discussion, something that is harder to do within the setting of official public meetings," he said.
In other business, the vision council discussed initiatives they hope to undertake. Goals include re-evaluating maintenance of Owen Park, strengthening other town parks and "turning them into real assets," working in conjunction with the Department of Public Works to look at the condition of town buildings, and evaluating a survey done this summer on the condition of town sidewalks.
"I think there's some really exciting pieces," planning board member and vision council coordinator Cheryl Doble said. The vision council meets next on Thursday, Oct. 8.
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