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Loki Appreciation 2019
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Thread: Loki Appreciation 2019
Rosebunse
I'm worried for Loki. This is the first bit we have seen of him for WOTR. What's he doing behind the scenes?
Kinky Lil' Canine
Asgardians of the Space Zone #5 was the 26th best-selling issue on Comixology this week, right next to Black Panther. Since we were talking about sales recently.
Originally Posted by Franklin Richards
Fragile creatures, we are taught to fear the Reaper!
Ever running, we are dead before we meet Her!
Originally Posted by Valeria Richards
Fearless creatures, we all learn to fight the Reaper!
Can't defeat Her, so instead I'll have to be Her!
So I have been moving the past week, so i haven't had time to just sit down and read this thread or comics or pretty much anything. But I have a few minutes before i tear down my computer before moving it to the new place, so here we go.
Squirrel Girl sounds fun!
and the Thor tie-in, or at least the cover, would make me worry for Loki, but we know from previous buildup to this event that Loki s not exactly enthused for the War of the Realms and the damage it will cause the Earth, so I think that cover is kind of deceptive. the Squirrel Girl interview also kinda backs this up, since I don't think Doreen would be doing a mission for Loki if he was up to something bad. Of all the Marvel characters, her moral compass is one of the best. North also said Loki was 'trying' even if he slipped up sometimes. So I think his intentions in all this are still good, they just don't want to spoil that up front too much, since his actions and allegiances have been a bit murky in the leadup. Will be interesting to see what they do with his relationship with Laufey, tho. Seems to me this is the issue where all the teases finally start to get resolved, and we see why Loki wanted to keep him alive despite hating him, what information he was trying to get out of him, or whatever.
The cover that does worry me is the Asgardians of the Galaxy cover, just because, well, since why isn't he on it and all the rest are? hm.
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Yeah, the Squirrel Girl stuff looks fun. Doreen and her cast are going to make their book very interesting, especially given how big the attack force will be.
One interesting thing is that I'm wondering if the Wolverine involved is 616 Wolverine, who appears to be involved with AOX. Which might confirm that Loki isn't working with 616 Logan.
Also, I am pumped for Logan and Loki vs Darkhawk!
dr4conianlaw
Amazing Member
By the way, speaking of wild guesses, the solicit for issue 2 of WotR mentions Black Panther, Jane Foster and Doctor Strange making a desperate gamble. It could be anything, but considering who was mentioned... I'm not so sure about Jane, but the other two are probably some of the more likely candidates to make the gamble of trusting Loki.
We know that BP was eyeing him for a spot as one of his agents, while Strange has trusted Loki in the past. And Jane has always had some faith in him restored.
Also, I was really worried at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy today when I saw the Asgardian font. But thankfully it wasn't Loki!
I kinda hope that if Loki and Doreen do end up becoming friends, so he is friends with both her and Nancy, he may join their li'l band of Scoobies, become their Spike, I guess. so he'll show up more often, like her other friends, Koi Boi, Chipmunk Hunk etc. I mean, he will need something to occupy his time after War of the Realms, right? Maybe Ratatoskr can make a comeback as previously teased. But brom the interview and solicit, I do get the impression he may be using her, cus that's just what he does, so that may hamper that.
The desperate gamble was followed by 'Valhalla awaits' so I dunno, it may just be that they are going to pull a stunt similar to what Thor did in Hel, dying but not really kinda thing. Of course, Loki was a part of Thor's plan there, so...
So a couple interesting things in Asgardians of the Galaxy today in regards to Loki. First off, they didn't make actually finding Sera a story at all, it was just Loki snapping his fingers and *poof* there she is, though (and this is more to do with Angela than Loki, but still, while I'm on the topic) it seems she was just hanging out with Yondu and didn't come looking for Angela at all, and one of the mercenaries she was with referred to Angela as Sera's 'ex'. So it feels to me like Sera is kind of over Angela, but not the other way around, though she did greet Angela warmly. A little sad if that's the case, even if i did find her incredibly grating in Queen of Hel (but not here, I think she's fine here) but then, I kinda hated the entire run of that... anyway, so yeah, Loki just.... teleported them all to Sera, just like that, but it seemed to really drain him. And no one thanked him, (though a couple showed concern) and they kinda played up him being upset about that. It felt as though he felt unappreciated when he did good and kept his word. It was mostly in the art, just a lot of shots of him moping in the background, but he did say something odd, in all that. He said to Annabelle, when she asked if he was ok, that he was "becoming painfully aware of what becomes of a soul when it is no longer of use." This could be interpreted as him simply thinking that without a debt making it necessary for Angela to keep him around, they may just opt to ditch him. (and the upcoming cover for issue 8 seems to support this...) but the wording was kind of odd. Why use the word 'soul' there, for instance? I'm kinda thinking that may have been a hint as to his true nature, and possibly why he took the form of Kid Loki. What if Loki, knowing some terrible things would need to be done in the whole War of the Realms mess, separated his soul, or at least the part that seems to have given him his newfound morality of late, out into "Kid Loki" here? What if this is his separated soul wondering if Loki Prime has use of him any more? Also, it does reveal that this Loki does have some limits to his power, and is not just a walking deus ex machina as i was fearing, even if his power levels are quite high, since the port to Ego did drain him considerably, and he did seem completely exhausted afterward and wasn't even able to maintain a simple illusion to hide some fleeing refugees for more than a minute or so. We will have to see if he recovers, but if not, it may be that Loki simply gave this projection/soul or whatever he is a finite store of power to use up, and once it's gone, that's it. Remains to be seen if when the power is gone, he goes too.
He didn't look mopey to me. He looked sick. He even says that he doesn't feel much like himself, which is something someone normally says when they're sick or not feeling well.
So yeah, I'm in on this theory that he's sort of exhausting his own life force.
He is missing from the covers...
So yeah, I think it's confirmed that the Logan Loki is hanging out with might not be our Logan. 616 Logan has no cosmic powers and has some memory issues.
I can't wait for War of the Realms so we can have Loki stuff to talk about!
I think the Logan from that Infinity thing and the Avengers rescue from the Celestials is probably from the future. I'm thinking it's either that when he 'died' in Thor, he really traveled back in time, in order to prevent the bad future before it can happen, but that doesn't really explain why he doesn't look super old any more. So it may also be that he's from the future, but not as far in the future as the King Thor stuff is set. Of course, King Thor is thousands of years off, so that doesn't really narrow it down a whole lot, and would create a sort of paradox. I kinda lean towards the time traveled when he 'died' scenario, and he's just using the Phoenix Force to look younger for reasons.
And yeah Loki was definitely feeling bad, physically, but I also think there was some moping going on, like his little 'no need to thank me' gripe and stuff. either way though, yeah I think "Kid Loki" has not much time left, but my hope is that he can transfer his memories and such back into his Prime body/mind before he goes, so that he can get something from it, sort of like what happened with the time displaced X-Men. I also hope that, in that scenario, even if he takes a break for War of the Realms, he goes back to the team, though in his regular adult body, after it is done, and it's shown that they want or at least accept him being there without a debt forcing the issue.
Last edited by Raye; 02-06-2019 at 11:41 PM.
My problem with Asgardians of the Galaxy is just how directionless the book feels. Bunn obviously is having his fun and it's a great book, but I'm not seeing the point.
I think the point is just to tell some fun stories with some under utilized characters who either would not be able to support a solo book at all, or are kind of between books. I think Loki and Angela are the only ones who could carry a solo at all, and even there, it would probably be a low selling one in either case, unfortunately, judging by their past books. But put them together with a few others and it may be able to consolidate the audiences. Didn't seem to draw in a ton of readers though, unless it's huge in digital, but it was worth a shot. I don't think books necessarily have to have a 'point' to them, or be building to something big. Most of the time it's just telling stories that are fun and make good use of the characters involved, though they may have something to say beyond that, and i wouldn't really complain if it had something more to say, but sometimes fun is enough.
*that being said, I think Sif could have drawn in some readers, though she wouldn't have fit well with team theme of second chances and/or proving yourself when others underestimate you. But from a purely reader-grabbing perspective, i think she has a lot more draw than like, Skurge or Throg. And hiding Loki's presence for the first few issues probably didn't help on that front, even if i was pretty sure right from the first announcement that it was probably him in the Destroyer, not everyone would have thought that.
Last edited by Raye; 02-07-2019 at 12:05 AM.
Originally Posted by Raye
I just think most books do well to have an underlying plot. I'm not feeling that here.
Of course, it's still a great book and Bunn knows how to use these characters.
I'm not sure Sif is really anymore of a draw anymore. Well, she's definitely more of a draw than those two lol
So, are there any Loki moments everyone is looking forward to in War of the Realms?
Dammit, I had this all typed out then lost power for a few seconds, and all gone, and no 'restore content' option, ugh. Well, here we go again...
Well, the first arc was tied into the Infinity stuff and was the team coming together due to those events, so there wasn't a lot to how they came together that bound them together thematically. But now that the horn has been found, and Sera was found in like, 1 issue, they will need a new reason to stay together, since the starting plot based reason has been resolved. And I think that's what we are getting into with the second arc, and have gotten into a bit already. But as I mentioned, there is already a theme to the team members, in that they are all in need of a chance to prove their worth, (aside from kinda Valkyrie, because she shares a body with Annabelle) and that has even been a plot point at times. Loki and Skurge are both ex villains who are trying to turn over a new leaf, and need a chance to be able to prove they are genuine in their desire to change. Angela needs a chance to prove she can be accepted as an Asgardian, after being raised by the angels, and needs a second chance after the whole kidnapping incident. Annabelle needs to prove she's not the frail damsel who can't defend herself, in need of constant protection from her stronger half. (and Loki gave her that chance last issue, though it is debatable how well she would have fared without the Nova helmet) Throg is a damn frog, and is not taken seriously as a result, despite having tremendous power and the mind of a man in that amphibious body. Thunderstrike has to prove he's worthy to take up his father's mantle, and as we saw in his flashback, people don't generally tend to think very highly of him right now. And the new recruit, the dwarf, who has a second chance after siding with Nebula (albeit, under duress). So I'd say that though it hasn't been explored a lot so far, the theme is proving your worth, and that everyone should get the chance to do so. Also maybe a side of doing what's needed, or doing your best, even if others don't think you're capable. That other people's opinions don't dictate your worth. And I am guessing it will delve more into this in the second arc onward, assuming it isn't cancelled after the second arc.
In War of the Realms, I'd like to see the teases and hints about Laufey and Loki, and whether Loki is really his son solidly resolved. I'd also like to see Loki backstab Malekith in a spectacular fashion.
And i was browsing Youtube, and came across this bit of interesting speculation:
It made me go hmmm... very interesting possibilities. Also, it mentioned something i had missed previously. You know the speculation that was going around to explain Loki's full on heel turn in Avengers was that he was himself being controlled by the Mind Gem, and that the 'puny god' beatdown snapped him out of it? apparently that's been confirmed! looked into it, and it seems that on the official websites, it mentions that he was in fact under control of the Mind Gem during Avengers. So that's good to know, but i do wish it was actually mentioned IN THE MOVIES. But maybe it will be in one of the flashback scenes they were filming for the next movie, there were set photos of Hiddleston in his Avengers costume, so there is definitely a flashback involving him.
On the War of the Realms thread, someone said that Infinity Watch takes place AFTER WotR and before Uncanny X-Men #11. So...yeah, this whole timeline is weird and fuck if anyone knows how to make sense out of it.
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Imprint: Transworld Digital
Not for Turning
The Life of Margaret Thatcher
Robin Harris
Formats & editions
Amazon Apple Books Google Play Kobo Booktopia eBooks.com
The complete life of Margaret Thatcher, written by a member of her inner circle
Margaret Thatcher is one of the most iconic politicians of the twentieth century. With the possible exception of Winston Churchill, no other Prime Minister has had such an impact on modern British history. Like it or not, her radical social and economic policies have made Britain the country it is today. Without Margaret Thatcher there could have been no New Labour, no Tony Blair and no David Cameron.
Now Robin Harris, for many years Thatcher's speechwriter, trusted adviser and the draftsman of two volumes of her autobiography, has written the defining book about this indomitable woman. He tells her extraordinary life story, from humble beginnings above her father's grocer's shop in Grantham, her early days as one of the first women in Westminster who became known as 'Thatcher milk-snatcher' during her days in the Ministry for Education and then as Prime Minister. We follow her through the 'Winter of Discontent', the tribulations of the miners' strike and the Falklands War. And Harris writes a stunning account of her exit from power and tells of her life after number 10.
Robin Harris began to work for the Conservative Party in 1978, becoming Director of the Conservative Research Department, a government political adviser and a member of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's Policy Unit. When Mrs Thatcher left Downing Street, so did he, going on to assist her with books and speeches. In recent years, he has written an authoritative history of the city state of Dubrovnik and an acclaimed biography of the French statesman Talleyrand. He is currently working on a biography of Margaret Thatcher. He lives in London.
Also by Robin Harris
Praise for Not for Turning
The political biography of the decade
No-holds-barred, well-written... contains the most authoritative account of her life after leaving office... a dramatic account.
Philip Webster, The Times
[a] lively and accessible insider's account
Peter Clarke, Financial Times
After all the eulogies, it is refreshing to read about an odd, driven, believable person – rather than some abstract national saviour or demon... Harris is like a long-faithful courtier freed by a monarch's death to speak the truth about them.
Andy Beckett, Guardian
Remarkable... A vivid and concise study in adversity, triumph and treachery.
Daniel Johnson, Standpoint
Readable and well-informed... detailed and fascinating
Philip Ziegler, Spectator
A pacy and entertaining book... well-sourced and packed with anecdotes. A first rate potted history.
Patrick O'Flynn, Express
Irresistible reading ... the brilliance of Harris's gift for narrative has not deserted him.
Ferdinand Mount, Times Literary Supplement
Andrew Gimson, Conservative Home
Insightful and very readable. Its strength lies in its personal approach.
Jack Carrigan, Catholic Herald
[Not for Turning] marries first-hand accounts from the subject with Mr Harris's own recollections as a key aide during the second half of her premiership. An enjoyable read.
Western Morning News
Barack Obama, Bruce Springsteen
Then She Was Gone
Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls
Elena Favilli
Rising Strong
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
Bryan Mealer, William Kamkwamba
The Spy and the Traitor
Lisa Chaney
Churchill's Shadow
Mr and Mrs Disraeli
Daisy Hay
The Mighty Totara: The Life and Times of Norman Kirk
David Grant
The Three Emperors
Miranda Carter
The Junior Officers' Reading Club
Patrick Hennessey
The Lion House
Christopher de Bellaigue
Spider Woman
Brenda Hale

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TCPAWorld
The World of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act
SPB's Unprecedented [VIDEO!] Podcast
TCPAWorld's Rolling ATDS Review
The Developments That Rocked TCPAWorld
TRACED ACT Implementation Timetable
SPB's Unprecedented [VIDEO!] PodcastEp. 18 Now Available!: Plaintiff's Lead Counsel Discusses Facebook SCOTUS ATDS Appeal!
Calls to Landlines May Still Be Calls to Cell Phones Under the TCPA?: First Circuit Court of Appeal Makes TCPA Compliance Impossible with Stunning New Ruling
Well folks, compliance with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act ("TCPA") just became even more difficult.
There is little unshakable bedrock in TCPAWorld but we had this: if a number is listed as a wireline by Neustar it is not a number "assigned to a wireless service" for purposes of the TCPA's automated telephone dialing system restrictions. Indeed, virtually every reputable business runs a regular scrub against Neustar to distinguish cell phones—which are treated with greater protection under the TCPA and related regulations—from landlines—which are subject to less protection.
While some issues related to number portability and assignment have arisen in TCPAWorld—for instance calls made to wirelines and forwarded to cell phones and VOIP services using wirelines—the base rule has always been that calls made to wireline numbers are not subject to the TCPA's heightened restrictions just because the Plaintiff made use of a service that resulted in a call being received on a cellular handset. (The rather thorny exception to this rule being where the claimant was charged per call for the service he or she was utilizing.)
With the advent of multi-channel communications providers, however, distinguishing calls made to wireless and wireline numbers just became more difficult—perhaps impossible—as demonstrated by the First Circuit's new ruling in Breda v. Cellco Partnership, LLC, Nos. 17-2196, 18-1010 (1st Cir. Aug. 15, 2019). The decision can be found here: Breda
In Breda the Plaintiff contended she received pre-recorded calls on her cell phone from Verizon Wireless intended for somebody else. Plaintiff's phone service was something called Republic Wireless. Although the phone service has the word "Wireless" in the name, Republic apparently did not actually serve as a wireless carrier. Instead it relied on something called Bandwidth.com to list Plaintiff's ported (previously) cellular number. One little problem—Bandwidth.com, apparently, only has the ability to provide numbers classified as "wireline" numbers, and Breda's telephone number was listed by Bandwidth as a "wireline," rather than "wireless," number on Neustar.
Despite the fact that Republic somehow ported Breda's cellular number to a service that only provides wireline numbers, Republic turned around and connected many (but not all) calls to Breda's cell phone using cellular networks offered by other companies. Notably it is not unusual for third-party wireless providers to rent traffic from carriers to connect calls using their networks (these services are called mobile virtual network operators—and there are a bunch of them) but it appears to be highly unusual—and unprecedented in the case law—for such a MVNO to route calls over third-party cellular networks to a wireline number. But that is what happened in Breda.
Making matters even more interesting, Republic actually prefers to connect calls via VOIP rather than using its borrowed cellular network traffic. So Breda did not even receive all of the calls at issue via the cellular network—anytime Breda was connected to WIFI the calls were made via VOIP and not using the MVNO cellular network.
And here's where things get really delicious. Verizon just happened to be Plaintiff's previous cellular service provider. So Plaintiff ported her number from Verizon, to Republic who, in turn, ported it to Bandwidth.com as a wireline number. Verizon then placed calls to the number in an effort to reach a different customer who had, apparently, inaccurately supplied the number as an alternate contact number for his account to begin with.
What result?
Well faced with this cascade of telecommunication wonders, the district court held, readily-enough, that the TCPA's consent requirements for informational calls do not apply to Verizon's calls because it was placing calls to a landline and not a cell phone number. Since Plaintiff did not pay for each call, the TCPA's heightened consent restrictions did not apply to these landline calls and the district court granted summary judgment to Verizon.
Focusing on the method of transmission of the call—rather than on the assignment of the number to a wireless service—the First Circuit reversed in Breda. In its view the calls were made to a cellular phone because cellular service was used to connect the calls. And Neustar listing the number as a wireline number does not change the result.
But we'll get to that in a minute. First, we have to address Verizon's arbitration motion. Yes, it sought to compel arbitration using its old agreement with the customer for the very phone number it allegedly called without consent. How fun.
While the argument in favor of arbitration feels weak at first blush—after all the calls were made after the contract with Verizon terminated and regarding an entirely different account—the case for arbitration was strengthened by a bizarre argument apparently (but not really) made by the Plaintiff in opposing summary judgment. I'll try to explain. In Verizon's view, Plaintiff's core argument was, in essence, that her phone was "assigned to a wireless service" under the TCPA because it was the same phone number she had used while with Verizon. That argument makes little sense—just because the number was previously assigned to a wireless carrier is non-probative on the issue of whether the number is currently assigned to such a carrier— but Verizon took the argument at face value and contended that her claim necessarily "arose out of" Verizon's wireless services agreement and was, hence, subject to arbitration.
Verizon would probably have been right about arbitration if it had been right about Plaintiff's argument in the first place but, apparently, it wasn't because words are tricky. The Appellate Court was unpersuaded that Plaintiff had ever made such a senseless argument to begin with—in the Court's view the Plaintiff was just using some careless language in framing an otherwise proper argument. In its words: "we recognize that a few of Breda's statements in her opposition to summary judgment could be read in isolation as essentially arguing that her number was assigned to a cellular telephone service at the time of VZW's calls because she had the same number when she was a customer of VZW's cellular telephone service… But, read in context, it is clear that Breda has never made this argument." Oh ok. So the First Circuit Court of Appeal panel re-packaged the Plaintiff's brief to find that she never made an argument that the language of her brief suggests she made so as to avoid compelling arbitration.
Talk about a bail out.
But let's leave that aside and get back to the good stuff—how a wireline number can also somehow be assigned to a wireless service for TCPA purposes.
First, in the appellate court's view the district court and Verizon had been too focused on VOIP cases and distinguishing VOIP from cellular service. In the appellate court's view the VOIP issue was a red herring because cellular networks were also used to connect calls to the Plaintiff's cell phone. So it rejected Verizon's (apparent) argument that the use of VOIP by Republic necessarily thwarted a finding that cellular service was also used. In the appellate court's view a number does not have to be assigned "exclusively" to a cellular telephone service to be subject to the TCPA's heightened restrictions—any use of cellular service will do. This is so because the TCPA is a consumer protection statute so the statute needs to be read broadly and nonsensically. (Ok I added in that last part.)
But here's where things get really interesting. After batting around whether Republic's offerings even qualify as a "cellular service" the Court addresses the key statutory phrase: "assigned to." Remember—the TCPA's special restrictions only apply where a number is actually assigned to a cellular service. Here, Breda's number was classified as a wireline number by the very service offering the number—so no possible way it was "assigned" to a cellular service, right?
In the Court's view, the phrase "assigned to" does not have "any specific, technical meaning under the TCPA…" Wow. So, playing this out, just because a number is "classified" as a wireline number by the company providing the number—and listed as a wireline number by Neustar (the vendor responsible for keeping track of this stuff)—doesn't mean that the number isn't actually "assigned" to cellular service after all. As the Court puts it, "the pertinent question is not how Bandwidth, or any entity, 'classifies' Breda's number, but whether her telephone number is in fact 'being used in connection with' a 'cellular telephone service.'" So, the Breda court rules:
to determine whether a telephone number is 'assigned to a . . . cellular telephone service,' we need only consider whether the number is being used in connection with such service.
Notice, the court's literal holding is that the phrase "assigned to" has no meaning in the TCPA. Yep. The words of a statute really are meaningless these days. The question is not how the number is assigned, classified, packaged, sold, or displayed by Neustar, therefore. The question is solely whether it is being used in connection with a cellular service. And to be clear—the court was fully aware of the impact of its ruling on industry-participants relying on Neustar. In its view:
the fact that Neustar is a tool that can assist compliance with the TCPA does not mean that Neustar listings are dispositive as to whether a telephone number is 'assigned to a . . . cellular telephone service' under the TCPA.
So there you have it friends. Just when you thought TCPA compliance couldn't get any tougher—it becomes impossible. Without Neustar serving as a reliable guide for callers seeking to avoid unlawful calls to cell phones, there is no guide at all– leaving callers with no way to know whether a landline might actually be receiving calls via a cellular conduit.
And this is the key takeaway here folks. Don't get bogged down with VOIP or the "hybrid" nature of the service offered by Republic. Ultimately that doesn't matter. The key component of Breda is that if calls are connected to a number "classified" as a wireline number via a cellular service that number is "assigned to" a cellular service for TCPA purposes. That is just a shocking result that essentially obliterates the distinction between calls to wireless and wireline numbers that Congress and the FCC have carefully preserved for nearly three decades. Now callers must now treat all calls as if they are being made to cell phones or risk TCPA exposure under Breda.
And making matters far worse—courts following Breda will likely give the ruling retroactive impact. (The normal rule is that court decisions clarifying existing law are retroactive in application.) So not only must callers now abate calling numbers that appear to be wireline numbers to avoid future liability, they need to borrow the TCPAWorld.com time machine to go back in time and begin preventing those calls starting four years ago.
This is just brutal. I wish I had better news for you TCPAWorld. Happy to discuss.
Published by Eric J. Troutman
The Czar of TCPAWorld Eric Troutman is one of the country's prominent class action defense lawyers and is nationally recognized in Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) litigation and compliance. He has served as lead defense counsel in more than 70 national TCPA class actions and has litigated nearly a thousand individual TCPA cases in his role as national strategic litigation counsel for major banks and finance companies. He also helps industry participants build TCPA-compliant processes, policies, and systems. Eric has built a national litigation practice based upon deep experience, rigorous analysis and extraordinary responsiveness. Eric and his team feel equally at home litigating multibillion dollar telecommunications class actions in federal court as they do developing and executing national litigation strategies for institutions facing an onslaught of individual TCPA matters. They thrive in each of these roles – delivering consistently excellent results – while never losing sight of the client experience. While many firms now tout TCPA expertise, Eric has been there from the beginning. He built one of the country's first TCPA-only defense teams and began serving as national TCPA counsel for his clients nearly a decade ago. This perspective allows him to swiftly develop the right litigation strategies for dealing with recurring problems, without wasting time on tactics that are bound to fail. Eric's rich historical perspective and encyclopedic knowledge of the TCPA landscape also make him an invaluable resource to institutional compliance teams struggling to comply with the shifting regulatory landscape. No task is too small – or too big. Indeed, Eric and his team have helped build TCPA-compliant systems and processes for some of the largest and most complex corporate entities in the country. He commonly works with in-house compliance counsel to build and implement enterprise and business-line specific TCPA solutions, performs TCPA audits and drafts and reviews proposed TCPA policies and procedures. He and his team also have the technical expertise necessary to assist call centers seeking to develop TCPA-resistant call path architecture or to modify existing telephony and software integration to better insulate from potential TCPA exposure. Eric has built a reputation for thought leadership. An avid blogger and speaker, he has been at the forefront of the industry's effort to push for clarity and a return to sanity for the TCPA for years. He was selected to advocate for the financial services industry on important TCPA issues before the Federal Communications Commission and co-authored the nation's only comprehensive practice guide on TCPA defense. In his spare time, Eric leads defense teams representing banks and other financial services companies in consumer finance litigation matters. He has experience representing clients in UCC, TILA, RESPA FCRA, CCRA, CLRA, FDCPA, RFDCPA and FCCPA claims, as well as in fraud and bank operations issues.	View all posts by Eric J. Troutman
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Its lonely at the top.
Good thing I have my team with me up here.
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iFollow FREEVIEW: Danny Mayor and Jay O'Shea on their awards and nominations!
After the Shakers' fantastic run of form in January, Ryan Lowe and Jay O'Shea have been nominated for the January awards for Manager of the Month and Player of the Month respectively.
Ryan Lowe & Jay O'Shea named Sky Bet League Two Manager of the Month and Player of the Month respectively.


This is for a set of wheels. 5Zigen FN01R-C in Bronze. 5 x 144.5 bolt pattern.
17 x 9 for the front. 5.5" backspacing.
17 x 10 for the rear. 7" Backspacing.
I've had these about a year and half and have been sitting in the shop. They came as an extra set for a racecar and I have not used them since I've had them except to drive around town on them for two days to check them out. They have racing rubber on them which is a bit dated, but the wheels are great. The R compound tires are Kuhmo V710's but are old, the previous owner used them. I do not have the center caps. The ad is for the wheels and tires only.
I'm in Albany, GA. Asking $700.


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Environmental Extremes
Climate Change Is Making Antarctica's Snow Green
No, that's not grass.
by Koh Ewe
May 21, 2020, 8:12am
A handout picture taken in 2018 and released on May 19, 2020 by the University of Cambridge and Matthew Davey shows researcher Andrew Gray geo-tagging snow algae blooming on Anchorage Island, near Davis Station, Antarctica. Photo by MATTHEW DAVEY / SAMS / UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE / AFP.
Penguins and snow. That's the image that comes to people's minds when they think of Antarctica. Search for photos online and you get glacial landscapes that are mostly white. But it turns out that the southernmost continent isn't as monochromatic as we think, at least not anymore. It's turning green, and all because of climate change.
Apart from melting ice sheets and dying penguins, global warming is now also causing snow in Antarctica to turn green, a new report published in the scientific journal Nature Communications on Wednesday, May 20, says. In some areas, the green hue is even visible from space. This is a result of algae bloom — as rising temperatures turn solid ice into slush, aquatic organisms like algae thrive in the melting snow.
Antarctica Was a Lush Rainforest 90M Years Ago, Scientists Discover
Becky Ferreira
Despite being the most barren continent, there's actually some plant life in Antarctica. Mosses and lichens are the two largest visible kinds of photosynthesising organisms there. They're also the most studied. While past explorers have observed the presence of algae in Antarctica, they were never the subject of large-scale research, until now.
Using satellite imagery collected over two years by the European Space Agency's Sentinel-2, as well as on-the-ground observation, researchers from the University of Cambridge and the British Antarctic Survey observed 1,679 separate green algae blooms across the Antarctic peninsula, amounting to a total surface area of 1.9 square kilometres.
While 1.9 square kilometres of land mass doesn't seem that significant, Matt Davey, an algal physiologist at the University of Cambridge, told AFP that "in Antarctica where you have such a small amount of plant life, that amount of biomass is highly significant."
Compared to the rest of the planet, polar regions like Antarctica are experiencing way more rapid heating. As global temperatures continue to rise, the amount of algae bloom will likely increase as well. This means even more green snow.
NASA Reveals Shocking Ice Cap Melt in Antarctica After Record Heat
The new report suggests that microscopic algae can help reduce carbon dioxide levels in Antarctica (estimating the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by the algae to be equivalent to 875,000 average UK petrol car journeys), but experts believe the effect won't be significant.
The increase of algae blooms could also reduce local albedo, a measure of how well a surface reflects radiation from the sun. While white snow can reflect 80 percent of radiation on its surface, green snow only reflects around 45 percent. Reduced albedo means more radiation is absorbed, which will cause temperatures to increase. However, researchers do not think this will significantly impact Antarctica's climate.
Handout picture taken in 2018 and released by the University of Cambridge on May 20, 2020 showing green snow algae near Rothera Research Station, at Rothera Point, in Antarctica. Photo by MATTHEW DAVEY / SAMS / UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE / AFP.
What the proliferation of algae can do is create new habitats or even a new ecosystem, due to their interaction with existing organisms. The team of researchers found that the algae have already formed close bonds with some fungal spores and bacteria, and that the majority of algae blooms are located near penguin colonies, where bird excrement serves as fertiliser.
Coronavirus Proves Only Structural Changes Can Avert Climate Apocalypse
Edward Ongweso Jr
"Studies like ours are really important as they increase our understanding of complex connections between these species and the more we understand, the more we can protect our planet and these fragile ecosystems that could be lost or changed forever," Davey said in a YouTube video posted by Cambridge University.
The researchers plan to carry out similar studies for red and orange algae in the future to map the blooms across the whole continent.
Tagged:climate changeEnvironmentantarcticaScienceGLOBAL WARMINGworldnewsworld climate


The city is our daily stage. What role do buildings play in the unfolding narrative? Among Buildings is a book by photographer Tom Ross, architect Michael Roper and graphic designer Stuart Geddes reflecting on twenty-six examples of significant Melbourne architecture through photography and poetry. The publication explores the complimentary tensions of the written word and the photographic image, engaging both the perceiving eye and the reflective mind. It builds an imaginative space between photography, poetry and buildings. For this MTalks panel discussion, Tom, Michael and Stuart are joined by their collaborators: poet and poetry editor Micaela Sahhar and architect/artist/poet and mentor to the project, Alex Selenitsch.
Copies of Among Buildings will be available for purchase at this talk for $49, and eventually, from Among Buildings official site and Uro Publications. You can now revisit this talk over at MPavilion's library page.
Note: this event time has been altered to accomodate a double-bill of talks on this evening. It will now be followed by an MTalks with Sir David Adjaye OBE in conversation with Michael Williams.


When it comes time to hire a content marketing agency, you're looking for someone who will help you succeed. Ideally, you find an agency that's as invested in your success as you are – an agency that cares about more than how much you're paying it.
However, whether or not you succeed isn't just about the agency you choose. It's also about how well you work with the agency. It needs to be a partnership. And, yes, everybody says that, but the cliché is true.
That means not only do they have to be a good agency… you have to be a good client. You can hire the greatest agency in the world, but if you don't help them help you, it just isn't going to work.
In our experience, here are the qualities that the best clients bring to the table.
For content marketing to work, you need to maintain a certain cadence – if you go too long between efforts, you won't be top of mind with the audience. To establish and keep a winning pace, you need to be responsive to your agency – providing answers to their questions, making SMEs available for interviews, and with timely approvals. When a content marketing initiative starts to drag, it's the beginning of the end. Responsiveness is vitally important for achieving success.
The best content marketing is unabashedly audience-centric. Sometimes that can get uncomfortable for your brand – will you create content around a much-discussed conversation in your industry, even if it bleeds past the boundaries of your company's offering? Too many companies are fearful of writing about things they don't sell, even if they've bought into the concept of not pushing product all the time with their marketing. The best content marketing efforts don't get bogged down by this apparent conundrum. They are journalistic efforts that seek to provide answers to the audience's questions… even if those answers don't directly lead to sales.
Be honest with your agency. Tell them when things are going well, tell them when they aren't. Be forthcoming when discussing your company's strengths and weaknesses – it will help them understand the context in which they're operating.
A smart agency will frequently bring new ideas to you, and possible new directions. Content marketing is evolving rapidly, so it's important to not simply keep doing things a certain way just because that's what you've always done. For your success, you need to be willing to change course occasionally. On the other hand, there can be a tendency to chase whatever new marketing trend emerges, and that's problematic. You want an agency that knows when it's time to make a smart change. And when they do, you need to be a client open to change – it will help you succeed.
If you've hired the right agency, you need to trust them. They're professionals, and if they're good at what they do, they should be leading you forward. If you question everything they do and wonder about their motives, you'll never achieve the success you're looking for. You also need to trust the process and be patient – content marketing success won't happen overnight. Expect to take six to nine months before your audience starts to turn into leads, prospects and clients.


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Produced in 2014, the Grey Bruce Community Picture Update adds to the report below.
Produced in 2011, the Grey Bruce Healthy Community Picture is a collection of health status, environment, and sociodemographic information on the people of Bruce and Grey Counties. More recent information can be found on various pages of this website.
Produced in 2018, this two-part report presents health indicators for Grey Bruce from the Canadian Community Health Survey from 2015/16.
Produced in 2016, this report presents over a decade of rate trends for cases of reportable diseases in Grey Bruce.
Produced in 2014, this report presents trends in cancer incidence (new diagnoses) and deaths among people in Bruce County and Grey County.
Produced in 2013, this report presents recent rates and twenty-five-year trends on various reproductive health indicators for Bruce County and Grey County.
Produced in 2012, this report presents trends in cardiovascular disease hospitalizations and deaths among people in Bruce County and Grey County.
Produced in 2011, this report presents nearly a decade of rate trends about unintentional injury emergency department visits, hospitalizations and deaths among people in Bruce County and Grey County.


Due to the massive size and weight of semi trucks, truck accidents result in severe injury and death more often than other types of motor vehicle accidents. Passenger vehicles are designed to withstand impact with 80,000-pound trucks. Therefore, truck accidents often result in catastrophic injuries and death to occupants of other vehicles involved in the crash. Catastrophic injuries, such as spinal cord injury or brain damage, can have a devastating impact on accident victims and their families. These types of injuries can leave you permanently disabled and unable to return to work or enjoy once-loved activities after the accident.
Most large truck accidents occur because of a truck driver's or trucking company's negligence. A trucker who fails to act in a reasonable manner to prevent the risk of foreseeable harm to other motorists may be legally liable for negligence. Truck drivers are required by law to exercise a minimum standard of care when loading, inspecting, and operating a commercial vehicle. Drivers who fail to exercise this care may be liable for negligence. A driver is also obligated to use extreme caution when operating large trucks because of the inherent hazards involved in commercial vehicle operation. In addition, driver fatigue or criminal behavior may give rise to liability for a truck accident.
Trucking companies are often held liable for negligence in truck accident cases when they fail to maintain their fleet in reasonable condition or fail to verify the qualifications of their drivers. Trucking companies are responsible for ensuring that their drivers are properly certified and have demonstrated both competence and ability to operate large trucks. These companies are also required to meet the minimum standards for the proper maintenance of their fleets set forth in the Code of Federal Regulations. Failure to adequately meet these standards may give rise to a negligence claim if it results in a truck accident. The professional truck accident attorneys at Levenbaum Trachtenberg will work diligently to ensure that all liable parties are held fully accountable for causing your injuries. Call us at 602-271-0183 today for a free consultation regarding your truck accident case.


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MasterCard, Russian Standard Bank Strike MoneySend Deal
PaymentsSource / By Maria Korolov
Russian Standard Bank has become the first European bank to offer person-to-person funds transfers through MasterCard Worldwide's MoneySend platform, the companies announced Dec. 6.
Russian Standard customers who have MasterCard- and Maestro-branded payment cards may send funds directly to other holders of such cards at the bank or to those with MasterCard accounts at other banks in Russia.
The initiative represents the first MasterCard-based person-to-person remittance service in Russia, according to the card brand.
The MoneySend service is available through the bank's network of more than 2,500 ATMs and through the bank's Internet and mobile-banking service. Senders must know the recipient's MasterCard number, and funds transfers are limited to15,000 rubles (US$488 or 368 euros) for ATM transactions and to 5,000 rubles for online and mobile transactions.
"We've already seen our MoneySend platform leveraged in both the U.S.A. and our Asian-Pacific region, but I am particularly delighted that today, with our partners from the Russia Standard Bank, we can mark the first European implementation of our MoneySend platform," Ilya Riaby, MasterCard general manager for Russia, said in a statement.
Russian Standard Bank is the largest bankcard issuer in Russia, according to Kamal Boushi, the institution's executive director of acquiring and strategic initiatives. It has more than 25 million bankcards on issue and has a presence in more then 1,800 cities across Russia.
Read full article at PaymentsSource (paid subscription required).
China Bullish on Card Readiness for Olympic Games
CardLine Global, PaymentsSource / By Maria Korolov
Chinese Making More Inquiries About Credit Records


You are visiting the placeholder page for Virginia Rees. This page is here because someone used our placeholder utility to look for Virginia Rees. We created this page automatically in hopes Virginia Rees would find it. If you are not Virginia Rees, but are an alumni of West Laurens High School, register on this site for free now.


The best experience I could have asked for from a realtor. We sold and purchased a home with Lorraine she is very knowledgeable and is always available. Lorraine is dedicated to her clients. We will always recommend her.


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Bill Clinton slams ObamaCare as 'craziest thing in the world'
By Daniel Halper and Marisa Schultz
October 4, 2016 | 6:44am
Bill Clinton has blasted President Obama's signature piece of legislation — ObamaCare — as "the craziest thing in the world."
"You've got this crazy system where all of a sudden, 25 million more people have health care, and then the people who are out there busting it, sometimes 60 hours a week, wind up with their premiums doubled and their coverage cut in half and it's the craziest thing in the world," the former president railed at a rally in Michigan on Monday.
Clinton also said the system is hurting moderately successful small businesses — ones that aren't doing poorly enough to be subsidized and fall just above the line.
"On the other hand, the current system works fine if you're eligible for Medicaid, if you're a lower-income working person, if you're already on Medicare or if you get enough subsidies on a modest income that you can afford your health care," Clinton said.
"But the people getting killed in this deal are the small-business people and individuals who make just a little bit too much to get any of these subsidies," he added.
After the scathing attack, Clinton sought to tone down some of his ObamaCare criticism while stumping for his wife in Ohio on Tuesday. Like Hillary, he said the health-care law is a positive first step that needs improving.
"The Affordable Health Care Act did a world of good and the 50-something efforts to repeal it that the Republicans have staged were a terrible mistake," Clinton said.
"But there's a group of people — mostly small-business owners, and employees who make just a little too much money to qualify for Medicaid expansion or for the tax incentives — who can't get affordable health-insurance premiums in a lot of places," he said.
"[Hillary] has proposed to take the next step in this and do what the president tried to do the first time and she supported, which is to allow people 55 and over to buy into Medicare and allow others to have a public option that looks like expansion of Medicaid they can afford. It's the right thing to do."
But in quelling one firestorm, Bill Clinton ignited another — throwing Bernie Sanders under the bus in an improptu response to a Black Lives Matter heckler as he defended his own controversial 1994 crime bill.
Clinton was interrupted by a protester shouting that he won't vote for someone who sends thousands of people to prison.
"Hillary didn't vote for the '94 crime bill even though Senator Sanders did," the former president shot back, as the heckler was removed from the rally.
Sanders has been campaigning for Clinton after losing the Democratic nomination to her.
The former president said it was his wife who was the first candidate to speak up about changing incarceration policies.
"The facts are difficult there," Clinton said in his rebuttal. "You ought to think about it. If you're really upset, that means you're also upset that we had a 25-year low in the crime rate, a 33-year low in the murder rate — and, listen to this: a 67-year low in the rate of people being killed by illegal gun violence. I'm pretty proud of that, and I think that was worth fighting for."
With Wire Services
Filed under 2016 presidential election	, barack obama	, bill clinton	, hillary clinton	, obamacare	, 10/4/16
Assange: WikiLeaks to release weekly US election documents
Mike Pence fights back tears, thanks Trump in farewell speech
Clyburn says Bush called him 'the savior' for Biden endorsement
Biden put on a show of 'unity' — will he stick to it?: Devine
Mitch McConnell's betrayal hurts the nation: Goodwin
Meghan McCain Kicks Off the Biden Admin by Complaining About Democrats' Tone: "Stop Referring to Us as Enemies!" Meghan McCain Kicks Off the Biden Admin by Complaining About Democrats' Tone: "Stop Referring to Us as Enemies!"


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Justice Truc T. Do is the first Asian American woman justice on the Fourth District Court of Appeal.
SAN FRANCISCO—Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye, chair of the Commission on Judicial Appointments, announced that the commission today confirmed four appointments to the Courts of Appeal.
Court of Appeal, Fifth Appellate District
Court of Appeal, Sixth Appellate District
Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye, Chair of the Commission on Judicial Appointments, announced that the commission today confirmed two appointees to the Courts of Appeal.
Sixth Appellate District
(-) Commission On Judicial Appointments
News Release 24
(-) Commission On Judicial Appointments 13


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The New York Review of Science Fiction
Reading science fiction like it matters since 1989.
Editorials & TOCs
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« Issue 350 Table of Contents | Main | Victor Grech: The Battle for New York: Disaster Movies and the Ongoing COVID-19 Onslaught »
Victor Grech: Pandemics: Known Unknowns and Our Failure to Prevent Our Unwilling Participation in a Dystopian SF Scenario
Everybody knows that pestilences have a way of recurring in the world; yet somehow we find it hard to believe in ones that crash down on our heads from a blue sky.
—Albert Camus, The Plague, 1948.
COVID-19 is currently a global pandemic. A pandemic is a disease outbreak that is prevalent over a wide area, from a group of countries to the entire world. The current pandemic disease, COVID-19, is caused by a novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. The global spread is following an approximately exponential curve: it took 67 days to reach the first 100,000 cases; 11 more days to reach 200,000; and just 4 more to reach 300,000 cases. This virus's deadliness lies in its stealth, spreading silently with an incubation period of weeks. It kills slowly, weeks after infection (Chen et al., Ferguson et al.).
This essay will briefly review the literature vis-à-vis epidemic disease in myth, in literature, and in science fiction. Real-life pandemic preparations will be outlined. The current pandemic will also be reviewed both from a local (the author's country of origin, Malta) and from the global health and mortality perspectives. Economic consequences will also be briefly discussed. Despite preparations at national, international, and global levels, and despite cautionary tales copiously meted out by virologists, epidemiologists, and science-fiction authors, humanity has failed miserably in containing loss and maintaining quality of life during this evolving human tragedy. Indeed, it is almost as if we are in a dystopian science fiction novel with no resolution (a là typical science-fictional closure with a [usually] happy ending) in sight.
Legend, Myth, and Antiquity
Girard has noted that in myth and legend, plagues induce chaos in society, eliminate wealth, and elide or eliminate social classes. Such events were sent by the gods and terminated by the gods. This is echoed in the Bible, the most famous examples being the Ten Plagues of Egypt inflicted by Yahweh in order to force the Exodus; while some of these were bizarre events (the Nile turning to blood), many were pestilential.
Hippocrates (c. 370–460 bce), the father of modern medicine, was fascinated by the nature of infections, hygiene,, and epidemiology. His writings included an extensive assessment of the symptoms and spread of epidemics (Pappas). In Asia around two millennia ago the Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor (c. 200 bce) took note of periods when everyone was infected with symptoms that were similar regardless of their age and said the most important way to dampen epidemics was to reduce the circulation of populations (Lu).
The unknown and presumed divine nature of epidemics led to Europeans beseeching St. Sebastian or (the appropriately named) St. Corona for intercession with God. Other religions also implored their respective deities, with South Asian texts such as the Sadhanamala advising offerings to Parnasavari, an enlightened being in Buddhism associated with deliverance from epidemic diseases. During the Black Death, Arabic texts recommended the recitation of verses pertaining to the life of Muhammad, and some European Christian sects took to marching barefoot in hair shirts while flagellating themselves and simultaneously asking for forgiveness and protection from God (Pappas).
Fiction and Science Fiction
Mainstream literature written by non-science-fiction writers tends to emphasize the ineffectiveness of medicine. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's The Last Man (1826) introduced a plot device that would eventually be reused by a string of writers: an apocalyptic plague that threatens to destroy humanity. The medical field appears powerless to help out except to provide hospitals for the terminally ill. The infectious agent in question is not specified but were it was yellow fever or plague, the epidemic displayed a virulence previously unfelt. Over the seven-year course of the epidemic, there is only one survivor: the narrator.
Similarly and more recently, in Albert Camus's La Peste, not only are doctors completely incapable of arresting an outbreak of bubonic plague in Algerian Oran, but incredibly, they take considerable time to realize that a fatal epidemic is sweeping their city and to organize quarantine measures. This delay was despite rats dying bizarrely and en masse, followed by large numbers of the populace coming down with obvious signs of bubonic plague. Camus also emphasizes that nature is hostile or at best indifferent to humanity and suffering.
A search using the term [epidemic] or [epidemics] on The Internet Speculative Fiction Database yielded 27 narratives, and a few will be discussed. In Earth Abides, George R. Stewart postulated a novel virus, "some new and unknown disease of unparalleled rapidity," a kind of super-measles. The protagonist finds himself inadvertently immune due to a snake bite while more than 90% of the population dies. This was the first novel to implicate rapid global spread (just two weeks) aided by airplane travel to appear almost simultaneously in every center of civilization, outrunning all attempts at quarantine—precisely the current scenario.
Epidemics have also been engineered in science fiction as forms of biological warfare. For example, Stephen King's The Stand introduces a military-engineered superflu with a 100% communicability and 99.4% fatality. The epidemic spreads rapidly since the U.S. government refuses to acknowledge the existence of the virus and its inability to contain it—shades of Wuhan Province earlier this year. The Georgia flu, which explodes like a neutron bomb over the surface of the earth in Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven, has a 99.99% communicability and fatality, and the narrative describes precisely what we have witnessed in recent days: panic buying, locking oneself away, and even looting.
Movies have also demonstrated the possible outcomes of a pandemic, and an early example is The Andromeda Strain (1971, based on Michael Crichton's 1969 novel). However, more plausible and prescient depictions include Contagion (2011), wherein a bat drops a piece of a fruit, which is eaten by a pig. That pig is then slaughtered for consumption, and a woman who eats it is infected. When she returns to Minnesota from Hong Kong, she becomes patient zero and dies as the disease spreads widely despite quarantines and the breakdown of the rule of law.
Pandemics are diseases waiting to unfold. They are typically zoonoses—human infections of animal origin—and political and economic forces have increased the risks of these events. Industrial-scale farming in China (with significant foreign investment) has marginalized millions of smallholder farmers, forcing their shift into the market for more exotic species that were formerly eaten only for subsistence. Geographically, industrial-scale farming in China has taken up prime land forcing these smallholders closer to nonarable zones such as forests in proximity to bats, known reservoirs for coronaviruses. The holes in the Swiss cheese model align: bat viruses through intermediate mammalian hosts such as pangolins and thence into humans. A similar scenario has also played out several times over the decades; influenza pandemics repeatedly arise from poultry and pig factory farms abounding globally (Morens and Taubenberger).
Intensive logging, mining, road building, and rapid urbanization exacerbate the situation, also globally. We have created a single, human-dominated ecosystem that serves as a playground for the host switching of animal viruses, resulting in the emergence of local, devastating diseases such as Ebola and Zika viruses but also occasional global pandemics (Morens and Taubenberger).
The U.S. intelligence community in its annual worldwide threat assessment warned almost us annually from 2009 to 2014 of the devastating consequences of a viral pandemic:
Health security threats arise unpredictably from ... the emergence and spread of new or reemerging microbes; the globalization of travel and the food supply.... Infectious diseases, whether naturally caused, intentionally produced, or accidentally released, are still among the foremost health security threats. A more crowded and interconnected world is increasing the opportunities for human, animal, or zoonotic diseases to emerge and spread globally.... Human and livestock population growth results in increased human and animal intermingling and hastens crossover of diseases from one population to the other. No one can predict which pathogen will be the next to spread to humans or when or where this will occur. However, humans remain vulnerable, especially when a pathogen with the potential to cause a pandemic emerges.... If ... influenza or any other novel respiratory pathogen that kills or incapacitates more than 1 percent of its victims were to become easily transmissible, the outcome would be among the most disruptive events possible. Uncontrolled, such an outbreak would result in a global pandemic with suffering and death spreading globally in fewer than six months and would persist for approximately two years. (Clapper 11–12)
The medical community has also frequently warned of the need
to create a preparedness plan for Disease X. Disease X is caused by Pathogen X, an infectious agent that is not currently known to cause human disease, but an aetiologic agent of a future outbreak with epidemic or pandemic potential. We have identified crucial areas for acceleration in medical countermeasure product development and international coordination. We have also reviewed novel platforms and process improvements related to manufacturing, which could revolutionize the response to the next pandemic. Finally, we created several coordination and engagement guides. These guides range from the rational design of an intervention target product profile, to the key facets of vaccine and therapeutic development, to accelerated manufacturing and regulatory mechanisms. (Simpson et al.)
These warnings have not only been enshrined in medical papers or intelligence reports. They have been popularized by public talks, including TED Talks such as "Help Me Stop Pandemics" in 2006 by Larry Brilliant, an American epidemiologist who helped eradicate smallpox and served as a consultant for the 2011 film Contagion. He averred that a pandemic would have almost unthinkable consequences, including millions of deaths and a global economic depression.
Additional prominent figures have reiterated this possibility, including Bill Gates, who noted on his blog in January 2010 that "the real story isn't how bad H1N1 [influenza] was. The real story is that we are lucky it wasn't worse because we were almost completely unprepared for it." He called for investment in better capabilities to track and manage a deadly epidemic because more epidemics will come in the decades ahead and there is no guarantee we will be lucky next time (Toussaint).
Gates also in a 2015 TED Talk, "The Next Outbreak? We're Not Ready," stated that "if anything kills over 10 million people in the next few decades, it's most likely to be a highly infectious virus rather than a war.... [Y]ou can have a virus where people feel well enough while they're infectious that they get on a plane or they go to a market." In a BBC interview in 2016, Gates said he frequently crosses his fingers against the possibility that some epidemic like a big flu comes along in the next 10 years. Again, at the Munich Security Conference in 2017, he noted that our worlds are more tightly linked than most people realize and that epidemiologists reiterate that
a fast-moving airborne pathogen could kill more than 30 million people in less than a year, and that this could occur in the next 10 to 15 years. I view the threat of deadly pandemics right up there with nuclear war and climate change.... Getting ready for a global pandemic is every bit as important as nuclear deterrence and avoiding a climate catastrophe. (Toussaint)
Once more, at the Massachusetts Medical Society's annual Shattuck Lecture in April 2018, Gates noted that while life has kept getting better for most of the world, "There is one area, though, where the world isn't making much progress, and that's pandemic preparedness ... because if history has taught us anything, it's that there will be another deadly global pandemic ... The world needs to prepare for pandemics the way the military prepares for war." Indeed, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has funded multiple grants and research programs geared toward developing new vaccines to prevent pandemic influenza and has invested in the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, an international coalition that launched at Davos in 2017. Gates had even laid out a master plan to stop the next outbreak in its tracks (Toussaint).
Pandemic preparedness plans were also primed by epidemiologists and virologists who were equally strident (if more scientific) in their admonitions:
Pandemics, whether mild, moderate, or severe, affect a large proportion of the population and require a multisectoral response over several months or even years. For this reason, countries develop plans describing their strategies for responding to a pandemic supported by operational plans at national and subnational levels. Preparing for an influenza pandemic is a continuous process of planning, exercising, revising, and translating into action national and subnational pandemic preparedness and response plans. A pandemic plan is thus a living document which is reviewed at intervals and revised if there is a change in global guidance or evidence-base; lessons learned from a pandemic, an exercise, or other relevant outbreak; or changes to national or international legislation related to communicable disease prevention and control. (ECDC)
Documents on websites of the ECDC, CDC, and WHO are replete with similarly worded and identical content (cf. ECDC, CDC, and WHO documents in the bibliography).
Malta Hospital Admission and Mortality Extrapolations
Malta, one of the smallest countries in the world, is a small archipelago in the center of the Mediterranean Sea with a total population of circa 492,000, a land area of 316 km², and the seventh-highest population density in the world. There is only one hospital with intensive care facilities (Mater Dei Hospital) along with a few other smaller facilities and private hospitals. The government of Malta has instituted an escalating series of steps that attempt to slow down COVID-19 infection rates in the hope that the Health Service will not be overwhelmed by the sheer number of severe cases as was the case in Northern Italy in recent days (Remuzzi and Remuzzi). Cognizant of the virus's propensity to cause severe pneumonias, the country escalated its intensive-care ventilator capacity from 20 to potentially 100. A World Health Organization (WHO) report based on the Chinese experience estimated that circa
• 14% of infected cases are severe and require hospitalization.
• 5% of infected cases are very severe and require intensive care admission, mostly for ventilation with mean length of stay in intensive care of 10 days (Ferguson et al.).
• 2-4% of infected die (WHO).
Assuming infections continue to increase (whatever the rate) with patients requiring ventilation in a steady-state situation, if mean length of stay on ventilator is 10 days, and 100 ventilators are available and fully utilized, then each day, 10 patients come off ventilation (recovery or death). Since intensive care cases represent 5% of total infections, a simple proportion calculation shows that if local rates are as quoted by WHO and Ferguson, when daily infections exceed 200, there will not be enough ventilators to cope with demand as these will exceed 10 daily intensive care admissions, i.e., more than 70 new ventilator cases per week.
Figure 1 demonstrates overall potential total population infection rates (20, 40, 60, and 80% scenarios over a 14-week period). Totals are averaged for a week. Calculations are based on a population estimate of 492,000. It must be reiterated that these are best guesses and estimates that preclude the discovery of effective treatment and/or vaccination (Grech, "Covid").
Infected %
Infected 98,400 196,800 295,200 393,600
In hospital 13,776 27,552 41,328 55,104
Hospital per week 984	1,968 2,952 3,936
In ICU 4,920 9,840 14,760 19,680
ICU per week 351 703 1,054 1,406
Dead 3,936 7,872 11,808 15,744
Dead per week 281 562 843 1125
Figure 1: Infection and Mortality prejections for Malta
Global Mortality Extrapolations
Figure 2 shows estimates of potential deaths from COVID-19 using available data and current observations. There is naturally uncertainty over many of values ascribed but where in doubt, more conservative numbers have been assigned.
Continent 1 is Asia. China may have contained the disease and has been assigned a potential infection rate of 10% with normal mortality of 4%. The rest of Asia is assumed to become up to 80% infected, with 10% mortality due to healthcare services being overwhelmed.
Continent 2 is Africa, which is assumed to behave like Asia other than China.
Continent 3 is Europe, which has so far shown overall too few and too late responses to the disease. For this reason, Europe has been assigned a 60% overall infection rate and a (perhaps) optimistic 4% normal mortality.
Continent 4 is North America. The United States has reacted very poorly to date, and hospitals are already filling up. This country also has issues pertaining to insurance and undocumented immigrants, and for this reason, a 10% mortality has been assigned in anticipation of healthcare services becoming overwhelmed. Canada has also acted late and the same conditions have been applied. For Mexico, it has been assumed that physical distancing strictures will be at least as difficult to enforce as in Europe, in the setting of a poorer healthcare system.
Continent 5 is South America, which has somewhat arbitrarily been assigned a 60% infection rate.
Continent 6 is Oceania (including Australia). The population here has already responded poorly to physical distancing measures, so a 60% infection rate has been assigned to this region with a normal mortality rate.
In the absence of the speedy breakthrough of a successful treatment or the discovery of an effective vaccine that can be mass produced and widely distributed, this pandemic may cause close to half a billion deaths, i.e., 6% of the global population. It must be reiterated that these are estimates in the absence of the discovery of effective treatment and/or vaccination (Grech, "Unknown").
Inf. %
Number Infected
Mor. %
Number Dead
1 India 1,339,000,000 80 1,071,200,000 10 107,120,000
1 China 1,386,000,000 10 138,600,000 4 5,544,000
1 Rest 1,856,757,408 80 1,485,405,926 10 148,540,593
2 Africa 1,216,130,000 80 972,904,000 10 97,290,400
3 Europe 738,849,000 60 443,309,400 4 17,732,376
4 USA 327,096,265 60 196,257,759 10 19,625,776
4 Canada 37,064,562 60 22,238,737 10 2,223,874
4 Mexico 126,190,788 80 100,952,630 10 10,095,263
4 Rest 88,672,385 60 53,203,431 10 5,320,343
5 South America 422,535,000 60 253,521,000 10 25,352,100
6 Oceania 38,304,000 60 22,982,400 4 919,296
7,576,599,408 62% 4,760,575,284 6% 439,764,020
Figure 2: Infection and Mortality projections for the world
Known or Unknown Unknowns?
The Roman poet Juvenal (first/second century ce) despaired of finding a wife with his desired qualities, averring that such a woman was rara avis in terris, nigroque simillima cygno—"in this world a rare bird, very much like a black swan." For the next two millennia, this term was used to refer to the mythical—but a species of black swans was discovered in Australia in 1697. The expression thus came to refer to a rare and unknowable event, a term formalized in economic theory by the American economist Frank Knight (1885–1972): There are things we know that we don't know—the known unknowns. And there are unknown unknowns: the things we do not yet know that we do not know. These forms of risks were popularized by the economist Nassim Taleb this century. Based on what has been shown to date, the unfolding events are arguably known (not unknown) unknowns, and the unfolding disaster could have been averted in whole or in part.
Systems Failures
This section reads like a science fiction novel—how things went wrong. COVID-19 is a slow-motion disaster, fueled by a litany of incorrect decisions by various authorities. Lack of information informed the debacle, and the ultimate lacuna was unavailability of testing, which would have instantly revealed the state of play.
The first known cases centered at a seafood market in Wuhan, China, a city of 11 million—and, significantly, a transportation hub. The initial four cases of a new kind of viral pneumonia became dozens by the end of December (Ding et al.). The true size of the outbreak is estimated as at least 1000 cases, with each person infecting around three more. Even a perfect response might not have worked. However, Chinese officials did not inform the public, and they alerted the World Health Organization with a reassuring statement on 31 December: the disease is preventable and controllable. The timing was appalling, with hundreds of millions about to return to their hometowns for the Lunar New Year (Wu et al.).
At least 175,000 people left Wuhan just on January 1. By the time China acknowledged human-to-human transmission on 21 January, outbreaks had seeded in Beijing, Shanghai, and other major cities. Two days later, Wuhan was locked down, and many cities followed in the next weeks. Travel across China nearly stopped, but international travel continued, thousands flying out of Wuhan to cities all over the globe. Over 900 people went to New York on average every month. It is thought that about 85% of infected travelers went undetected, but they were contagious. By 1 March, thousands of cases were reported in Italy, Iran, and South Korea. By this time, the virus had settled in Seattle, in New York City, and across the United States (Wu et al.).
In January, Trevor Bedford, an American expert on the evolution and infectiousness of viruses, observed that the genomes of the virus found in various parts of China, and then in Thailand, showed clear signs of person-to-person transfer. The virus was not contained in China anymore, implying that it easily spread from person to person and was highly contagious. He alerted every public health official, to no avail. And yet, this was the moment that virologists and epidemiologists had spent years dreading and preparing for. Virtually all countries have pandemic-preparedness plans (Madrigal and Meyer).
Had this information been known, systems prepared over decades of pandemic planning would have swung into action, containing the illness and saving lives. The USA was further plagued by malfunctioning CDC testing kits, and the Food and Drug Administration held up tests made by independent labs. When community transmission was established, the initially restrictive rules allowed the scarce tests to be used only on patients who had traveled internationally or who had been exposed to a known case. The number infected doubled every six days. Without testing, the only way to estimate the severity of the epidemic was by counting the dead, and by the first death, at the end of February 2020, it was too late to contain the disease in the States (Madrigal and Meyer).
Pandemic preparedness plans had gamed out all potential scenarios including closing schools for months, social distancing, curfews, and more, but the algorithms were based on a test that would reveal and monitor the situation in real time before it spread and was too late to control. In short, these plans depended on that all-important public-health approach known as surveillance (Madrigal and Meyer). This was not available, and quite a few countries continue to lag in this at the time of writing.
At the start of February, Bedford believes, the U.S. had circa 430 infections; if so, up to a quarter of a million are infected by now. On 26 February, the CDC confirmed that community transmission had begun among Americans who had not travelled abroad or encountered a confirmed case. Viral studies from different areas showed that genomes were too similar to have arrived in the US at different times from different people, but they were also too varied to have arrived recently. On 7 March, as the severity of the outbreak in Seattle was becoming evident, large public events continued. For example, more than 30,000 people attended a Seattle Sounders game that night (Madrigal and Meyer).
The situation is out of hand with Louisiana now a hot spot, probably due to widespread infection during Mardi Gras, a week long, city wide celebration in crowded living rooms, ballrooms, and city streets which this year culminated on 25 February (Reckdahl, Robertson, and Fausset).
The Imperial College Report by Ferguson and colleagues estimated that unmitigated, deaths would reach half a million in the United Kingdom and exceed a million in the States. Mitigated (ny mild measures), UK mortality was estimated at half that number, and with full suppression (the current attempted course of action), deaths would be lower than 20,000. Many deaths in the former two scenarios would be due to severely ill COVID-19 patients who could not be receive breathing assistance simply due to insufficient ventilators (demand outstripping supply by a factor of 8:1), along with a breakdown in ordinary healthcare as hospitals are overwhelmed. The ability of health services to cope depends entirely on how well people observe lockdown measures.
Poor leadership has not helped, and Bergamo, Italy, where the outbreak has devastated the healthcare system, is just the forerunner (Giwa). In the States similar scenarios will play out, and as the
pandemic intensifies, shortages of ventilators have occurred in Italy and are likely imminent in parts of the US. In ordinary clinical circumstances, all patients in need of mechanical ventilation because of potentially reversible conditions receive it, unless they or their surrogates decline. However, there are mounting concerns in many countries that this will not be possible and that patients who otherwise would likely survive if they received ventilator support will die because no ventilator is available. In this type of public-health emergency, the ethical obligation of physicians to prioritize the well-being of individual patients may be overridden by public health policies that prioritize doing the greatest good for the greatest number of patients. (White and Bernard)
Pandemic Termination
This pandemic may eventually burn itself out if enough individuals contract and survive the disease, providing "herd immunity." It is also possible, albeit unlikely, that the disease might be affected by climatic conditions, such as in Philadelphia in 1793 when an outbreak of yellow fever was terminated by cold weather that killed the disease-carrying mosquitoes (Eckert). Other relief from the current pandemic could come from a tight lockdown—imposition of quarantine, or similar practices that reduce the spread of infection. Or it could be checked or even eliminated with the development of medical interventions such as effective vaccines or antivirals.
Economic Consequences
The economic risks of a severe pandemic have been estimated at $3 trillion, a global threat to poverty with the poorest nations faring worst (Contributing to One World, One Health, 2008). Furthermore, the challenge for governments around the world will be to manage interventions so that the recession that is now inevitable is not significantly worse than that following the 2007–2009 financial crash (Thomas). There is a clear link between gross domestic product (GDP) and life expectancy. This is multifactorial and partly because wealthier countries are able to spend more on healthcare, safety, and environmental regulations. A reduction in GDP can thus be used to estimate the health effects on a population. This is not to say that lives can be traded for money but that money can save lives. The cost of controlling a pandemic and the resultant "high spending is likely to come up against ... GDP constraint, whereby the measure should not so decrease GDP per head that the national population loses more life as a result of the countermeasure than it gains" (Thomas 1). He estimates that letting the epidemic run its complete course would lead to the epidemic being over by September 2020, but such an approach would lead to a loss of life in the UK little less than that it suffered in the Second World War. For Thomas, the tipping point is a GDP fall of 6.4%, at which point more years of life will be lost due to recession than will be gained through beating the virus.
This is not an Aldissian cozy catastrophe. The media ensures that we can see all of the gory details: desolate public places, depressed and suffering humanity, patients in intensive care with invasive medical paraphernalia, exhausted and devastated healthcare workers, stacked coffins, and grieving relatives. We are unwillingly sharing a dystopian science-fiction scenario with no obvious short- or medium-term end to the inevitable deaths. Furthermore, the ensuing effects will result in significant economic hardship for all, especially those in developing countries. Moreover—at the risk of sounding melodramatic but with an extreme sense of realism since this author is a medical doctor with a special interest in epidemiology—our hospitals risk being plunged into chaos and plunged into the Middle Ages if the public does not do its part. Infection cannot occur in the absence of contact. The only way to mitigate these numbers is to apply physical distancing and take the precautions outlined by our public health specialists. Furthermore, there are no assurances that another pandemic by a different virus may not afflict us in future, especially if we do not learn the lessons that these three months have inflicted.
Victor Grech is a consultant cardiology pediatrician at Mater Dei Hospital, Malta.
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It's tempting to dismiss that last point, maybe. Who cares if your content is fun? Does fun make the cash register ring? And, anyway, what if you're a B2B company selling dead-serious stuff? Won't it undermine your credibility, marginalize your message, and disrespect your products if you don't approach your marketing with solemn gravity?
In business, it's tempting (and easier) to use the same boring words everyone else uses. But you'll be far more approachable (and a whole lot more engaging) if you lighten up a little.
Approaching your content with a sense of fun and personality doesn't mean you don't sell something dead-serious, or even what some might consider boring. Consider Eloqua, a company based in Vienna, Virginia, that makes marketing software.
Eloqua created The Conversation as an interactive sales tool for companies that want to make their online marketing more effective. This week, during a meeting with the Boston marketing team, I noticed the 2009 Groundswell award the company won for The Conversation's humorous, smart, engaging approach.
What great content ideas have you seen? We'd love to highlight other companies who live by the Content Rules.
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