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NLST update: CT sees twice the lung cancers of x-ray
By Eric Barnes, AuntMinnie.com staff writer
May 23, 2013 -- A new analysis of data from the landmark 2011 National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) found that low-dose CT detected twice as many early-stage lung cancers as x-ray on initial screening, cementing CT's promise as a tool that can reduce lung cancer mortality by 20% or more, according to results published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The new analysis shows exactly how many patients were positive and/or went on to further tests, and it offers a way to show patients what they can expect in a CT lung cancer screening program, the study team wrote (NEJM, May 23, 2013, Vol. 368:21, pp. 1980-1991).
It also drives a stake in the heart of x-ray-based lung screening.
"We know now that low-dose CT works at identifying lung cancers in the earlier stages -- chest x-ray does not work," said Dr. Caroline Chiles, professor of radiology at Wake Forest University and co-investigator in the original trial.
A deeper dive
NLST is a longitudinal clinical trial that randomized more than 53,000 participants equally to receive screening with either low-dose CT or standard chest x-ray in an effort to evaluate whether lung cancer screening saves lives in a high-risk population. Results published in 2011 demonstrated a 20% reduction in lung cancer deaths among study participants screened with CT.
The new paper provides a deeper dive into the data generated by the study. Similar to other large lung cancer screening trials that compared low-dose CT with x-ray, CT in NLST had more than four times the number of positive screening exams and caused more than three times as many diagnostic procedures, according to the analysis. CT also led to more biopsies and invasive procedures, and the modality found 100 more lung cancers during the first screening round.
For example, if 100 people are screened, 27 might get a letter saying they had a positive exam. But the vast majority of the follow-up procedures caused by CT lung screening are noninvasive, and most biopsies are performed on patients who later turn out to have cancer.
"Even if you get a letter saying we had a positive finding, most of the time we are able to [follow up] with repeat CT," Chiles said.
Study objectivity was a priority in NLST, and for that reason, researchers had no access to the data until the results showed that a mortality reduction existed, explained Chiles.
So while the results of this analysis were generally anticipated, a key reason to publish the data was to document the exact differences between the CT and x-ray arms of the study, the authors noted in a statement accompanying the release of the study.
New analysis of NLST cancer detection and follow-up procedures
No. of CT patients No. of x-ray patients
Positive screen results 7,191 2,387
Diagnostic procedures postscreening 6,369 2,176
Biopsies and invasive procedures postscreening 297 121
Lung cancers detected 292 190
By following the screening protocol, the number of invasive procedures can be reduced so patients aren't inconvenienced, and screening costs are kept as low as possible, Chiles said. For example, of the 297 biopsies and invasive procedures postscreening, 292 lung cancers were detected. Furthermore, 98.5% of the sites complied with the low-dose CT protocol, according to Dr. Denise Aberle, co-principal investigator for the NLST team at the University of California, Los Angeles.
The results strongly suggest that CT lung cancer screening programs with radiologists who have similar training and expertise to those who participated in NLST will see similar results in their screening programs, the authors noted.
The new analysis "helps us understand better what happens with just one round of screening," Chiles said, providing data that are helpful for both patients and providers in the process.
"I can reassure patients that even though they get a letter saying they have a positive finding, it doesn't mean they have lung cancer," she said. It means that "we have findings that aren't lung cancer, and we need to do follow-up to identify what's lung cancer and what isn't."


Takoma Park Friends Meeting-Preparative gathered on 4/22/2018 at the Dance Exchange in Takoma Park, Maryland. We heard queries and advices from the 2013 draft Baltimore Yearly Meeting Faith and Practice on diversity. We heard of a dream involving irritation at sending someone to a dangerous part of town, followed, on waking, by irritation that the dangerous part of town in the dream was Black—a deeply rooted bias. We heard of a remark by a person of color to someone being chosen last for a sports team: "Now you know how I feel." We heard of how it can be as uncomfortable to be wanted in a group because of your race as it is to not be wanted in a group because of your race, and of how being asked to speak for a group is impossible when they don't all want the same thing. We heard of a practice of using "all-age" rather than "intergenerational;" we can help build diversity by communicating in ways others can understand. We heard of how use of the term "people of color" may be inaccurate and divisive. We heard of how people with brain injuries and others with special needs also face prejudice and abandonment.


text:
The Baker Street Journal Gets a Makeover
"perfectly fresh" [SPEC]
One of the mainstays of scholarship of the world of Sherlock Holmes has always been the The Baker Street Journal. Since 1946, this "Irregular" quarterly has been consistently offering the best of Holmesian essays, commentary, news and activity. And while it is published by the Baker Street Irregulars, you don't need to be a member of the BSI to subscribe - it's open to anyone who has a passing interest in the world of Sherlock Holmes.
If you're a subscriber and you received your Spring 2010 issue (Vol. 60, No. 1) of the BSJ, you may find that the old cliché "the more things change, the more they stay the same" can now applies to the Journal, as a few changes were recently instituted - and change is not something that's been welcomed at the BSJ.
Last year, under the able guidance of the team at Wessex Press, the cover of the Journal got a much-needed update when the traditional profile of Holmes by Frederic Dorr Steele was replaced by an ever-rotating image that was consistent with the content inside each issue. That has been continued with the latest issue, featuring Jude Law and Robert Downey, Jr. as Watson and Holmes:
In addition, an enclosed letter from the publisher enumerates some of the differences at the Baker Street Journal:
Dear Baker Street Journal Subscriber:
As you undoubtedly realize, this Spring 2010 issue of the BSJ arrives in your mailbox approximately six weeks later than usual. We thank all our subscribers for their patience.
We have been undergoing some changes here at the Journal. Times change, technology changes, and as inconvenient as this can sometimes be, these changes also bring new opportunities. This year, we have changed printers after a long 18-year run with our Sheridan Press.It seemed like a good time to make other changes as well, including returning The Baker Street Journal to the perfect binding of the Original Series, as well as an upgrade in the typesetting and production of the interior changes. This all begins with this issue at hand, but it took a little extra time to get in place. We trust you find it all worth the wait.
One thing that hasn't changed is the quality of the contents. Steven Rothman is still the guiding spirit of The Baker Street Journal and his leadership insures that the BSJ remains the Sherlockian publication of record.
Here you can see the difference between the Winter 2009 issue and the Spring 2010 issue:
We've also given you a side view of what a perfect binding means - something especially essential for you collectors (or accumulators) who like to put the BSJ on your bookshelf.
As to the content of the Spring 2010, you can check that out on the Baker Street Journal site (Current Contents). This link changes quarterly, always giving you the table of contents of the most current issue, as well as the Editor's Gas-Lamp to read online. And if you'd like to see what some of the best articles have been, check out the links on the Morley-Montgomery Award section, where some of the decade's most recent highly acclaimed scholarship lives.
If all of this moves you, we encourage you to subscribe to the Journal. This is the premier publication of Sherlockian scholarship, and you get five issues - all four quarterly issues plus the Christmas Annual - for just $37.50 a year in the U.S. and $47.50 outside of the U.S.
And now the Baker Street Journal has an official Facebook page at http://facebook.com/BakerStreetJournal. If you're so inclined, please "like" it here:
The more people we encourage to recommend or like the BSJ Facebook page, the more we'll be able to share our unique and singular hobby with the world and encourage the next generation of Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts to join the Game.
"perfectly fresh" [SPEC] One of the mainstays of scholarship of the world of Sherlock Holmes has always been the The Baker...
+ Read more »
by Scott Monty
blog, BSJ, News
News About Sherlock Holmes in the Comics
"this comic interlude" [3GAB]
For those of you who are interested in Sherlock Holmes in the realm of comic books, this should grab your attention. As you are no doubt aware, we recently reported that the Muppets would have a role in a new Sherlock Holmes-themed comic book ("The Muppets Do Sherlock Holmes"). If your tastes in the graphic arts are a little more refined, fear not! We noticed some early quivers across the web that may indicate some additional publications that you may wish to note.
Some History
There are a great many instances of Holmes in the comics over the years. While we haven't yet provided a comprehensive review or compilation of all of the titles at this point, we point you to Bully Comics, who has a nice retrospective from the month of January, 2008.
The British comics blog downthetubes.net re-posted a Del Rey interview with Tony Lee, the British comics creator, who appeared at the Bristol Comics Expo last weekend. For those of you who may not know Tony, he has recently completed Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Graphic Novel . [Side note: we mentioned the original book Pride and Prejudice and Zombies in Episode 22 of I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere].
The reason it caught our eye is that last month, Bleeding Cool first reported Tony and his writing partner Dan Boultwood had their photo taken at the Sherlock Holmes set of the London Film Museum earlier this year. An interesting tease, for certain.
But thanks to the Del Ray interview, we have it straight from Tony that he's "working on and pitching a graphic novel series of books on the Baker Street Irregulars, another childhood love."
So we began to piece some of the other bits of the puzzle together to see if we could find more information. It turns out we didn't have to look very far, as Bleeding Cool followed up with a post this weekend that clinched it: Tony Lee and Dan Boultwood's Irregular Graphic Novels. The only information we have is that Sherlock Holmes is dead and it looks like the Irregulars are poised to replace him; but of the assortment of ragtag street urchins, who will it be? No specifics on the plot, a publisher or anything other than a series of images from flyers that were handed out at the London MCM Expo:
We're glad to see that at least Wiggins gets an appearance.
"this comic interlude" [3GAB] For those of you who are interested in Sherlock Holmes in the realm of comic books, this should...
blog, books, collecting, fun, News
Can Sherlock Holmes Land You a Job?
"self-willed for the job" [LAST]
One never knows where an interest in Sherlock Holmes will lead or when it will come in handy. In the case of Rhiannon Paine, it meant a job offer.
On her blog Crooks by the Book, Ms. Paine recounts the story in "Sherlock Holmes got me a job," in which she describes responding to a job posting for an assistant editor at The San Francisco Chronicle. You can read all about her own chronicle of the adventure by clicking the link above.
We won't give away how it all came about. But the hiring manager in the story? None other than a Baker Street Irregular—Robert Frier, BSI ("Colonel Upwood").
The moral of the story: Sherlock Holmes pops up in the strangest of places. Having a hobby such as ours may not only be enjoyable, but it may lead to other exciting opportunities. It's best to prepare in advance.
"self-willed for the job" [LAST] One never knows where an interest in Sherlock Holmes will lead or when it will come in handy...
blog, fun
Interview with Fritz Weaver
"tell a weaver" [COPP]
The latest episode of the audio show I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere has been posted. Episode 26 is an interview with Fritz Weaver, Tony Award-winning star of the 1965 Broadway play "Baker Street: A Musical Adventure of Sherlock Holmes ." Spend 30 minutes or so with Fritz to hear his perspectives on on the making of the musical, his co-stars and a fairly impressive knowledge of the Canon.
You can click through to Episode 26: A Musical Stroll Down Baker Street, or you can listen right here by clicking the play button below.
Above all, we hope you'll become a regular subscriber or listener to the show, where Burt Wolder and Scott Monty gather Irregularly to discuss goings-on in the world of Sherlock Holmes. The show is available on iTunes and other major listening networks, so it will automatically load to your phone
And if you're interested in the musical, you can find it on Amazon.
"tell a weaver" [COPP] The latest episode of the audio show I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere has been posted. Episode 26 is an ...
audio, blog, News
Episode 26: A Musical Stroll Down Baker Street
It isn't often that one gets an opportunity to chat with an accomplished actor, either from the big screen, small screen, or the stage. Burt and Scott were joined by one that has crossed all three, but whom is certainly known for his musical turn as Sherlock Holmes in the 1965 musical "Baker Street: A Musical Adventure of Sherlock Holmes:: none other than Tony Award-winning actor Fritz Weaver.
Fritz Weaver is a veteran of the stage and an accomplished voice over artist, so you'll no doubt enjoy his booming baritone throughout this interview. Over the course of this 30-minute chat with Fritz, we cover a range of material, including some commentary on William Shatner's singing style; some behind-the-scenes information - and funny at that - about Martin Gabel, who played Moriarty in the musical; references to My Fair Lady; lovely reminiscences of Inga Swenson; and even a Twilight Zone reference.
But we mostly focus on "Baker Street," the memories of the production, and even include some of the musical tracks from "Baker Street," bringing Mr. Weaver "down memory lane," as he fondly states.
Cold Clear World (Holmes & Adler)
I Shall Miss You (Moriarty)
Pursuit (Holmes)
After the interview, Burt shares with us how he was able to land an interview with our very special and remarkable guest. Tune in to hear how he managed it!
We close with a reading from The Baker Street Journal, Vol. 15, No. 2 (June 1965) titled "How a Baker Street Irregular Looks at Baker Street."
Download [Save As] | File size: 38.7 MB, 42:15
Purchase Baker Street: A Musical Adventure of Sherlock Holmes from Amazon.com.
The Baker Street Journal online
"tell a weaver" [COPP] It isn't often that one gets an opportunity to chat with an accomplished actor, either from...
episodes, interview, stage
Remembering Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"recalled recollections" [STUD]
As you may know, today marks the 151st anniversary of the birth of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. We won't spend too much time on the subject this year (because frankly, we did that last year), but we'll provide you with a few links to honor his memory. Often regarded tongue-in-cheek by the Baker Street Irregulars as the "literary agent" for Dr. John Watson, he is was a man of great talent in a variety of areas, most notably in his writing.
Here's a rare interview with Sir Arthur:
And if you'd like to educate yourself, we're glad to share a few sites with more information on Sir Arthur:
Previous entries on our site labeled "Conan Doyle." From our other birthday greetings, to biographies, to the issues surrounding his fabled home, you'll find it here.
A comprehensive page of links, laid out in narrative and list styles from Sherlockian.net.
The May 22nd entry from This Day in History.
The Arthur Conan Doyle Society
Friends of the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection, Toronto Public Library
The Conan Doyle Crowborough Establishment
And what would a list of references be, without the obligatory Wikipedia entry for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle?
Do you have any favorite links or sites that you'd like to share? Please add them in as a comment below.
"recalled recollections" [STUD] As you may know, today marks the 151st anniversary of the birth of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle...
blog, Conan Doyle, News
"Most Intense Application" [BLAC]
With all of the recent publicity around Apple's iPad (as of the date of this posting, there have been more than 1 million sold), we've seen a rise in the number of apps that have been developed for it, the iPhone and the iPod Touch . Naturally, some of those have been Sherlock Holmes-related apps (which we've previously covered).
Since that time, there have been quite a few apps for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, and as a service to you, dear reader, we've assembled some (many were near duplicates, so we chose the most interesting or attractive), categorized them, and provided the prices and average ratings (on a 4- or 5-star scale). We haven't downloaded them all, so we can't provide reviews for each. We'll try to update this post with additional apps as they become available.
Perhaps our readers would like to download them and provide feedback in the comments section below - we'll keep this post hotlinked to the front page of the Baker Street Blog so viewers can easily find them and read what you've had to say. And if you'd care to let us know when new apps of interest are available, we'll add those as well.
In order to get a glimpse of each of these, simply click on the iTunes icon next to each to see it launched in iTunes, complete with a full description, reviews and screenshots.
Sherlock Holmes iPad / iPhone / iPod apps
iVerse Media has all five volumes of the graphic novel The Trial of Sherlock Holmes . Each is $0.99 and has a rating of 3 1/2 to 4 stars:
Sherlock Holmes #1
The first of a number of apps that offer most of the Canon in electronic form, The Sherlock Holmes Collection by Fee Tan is a straightforward approach to letting you put most of the stories in your pocket. Some of the features of this app: full pagination, like the original printed editions; each title includes page numbers; Table of Contents incorporates one click navigation; remember your reading progress; swipe to turn the page; add bookmark progress.
It seemingly includes the entire Canon: A Study In Scarlet, The Sign Of The Four, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, His Last Bow, The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes, The Hound Of The Baskervilles, The Valley Of Fear
The Sherlock Holmes Collection (Fee Tan) - FREE, rated 4 stars
KiwiTech offers a handsome and sophisticated interface to its one-stop app that includes most of the Canon that has cleared copyright (The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes seems to be the only portion not yet available in the public domain). Included are: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge and Other Stories, The Hound of Baskervilles, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, The Sign of the Four, A Study in Scarlet, The Valley of Fear.
The cover art provides a hint of Leslie Howard as Sherlock Holmes and the pages "turn" when you scroll through the text.
The Sherlock Holmes Collection Classique (KiwiTech) - FREE, 4 stars
PublishThis, LLC offers a few apps - some in individual format, and one as a compilation. The compilation, titled "Sherlock Holmes Classics," contains A Study In Scarlet, The Sign Of The Four, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, His Last Bow, The Hound Of The Baskervilles, The Valley Of Fear
Sherlock Holmes Classics - $0.99, 3 1/2 stars
The Adventure (sic) of Sherlock Holmes - $0.99, 4 stars
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes - $0.99, 4 1/2 stars
The Return of Sherlock Holmes - $0.99, 4 1/2 stars
His Last Bow - $0.99, 4 stars
Probably one of the handiest reference guides-cum-Canon you can find for electronic devices, the Sherlock Holmes app from Andrews UK Ltd. is like an electronic Sherlock Holmes Handbook or Sherlock Holmes Companion (which are also highly recommended). The app is described as follows:
This Book includes the original 60 stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle examined in detail; brief biographies of Doyle and his famous duo; an A-Z of every actor to have portrayed Holmes on stage, film, radio and television; pastiches and spoofs; appendices that include an in depth bibliography and a look at the best Sherlock Holmes websites around.
"Sherlock Holmes" (Andrews UK Ltd.) - $7.99, no ratings yet.
You can take a few selections from the Basil Rathbone / Nigel Bruce classics from the 1940s with you, as Procypher Software released four different titles, each priced at $0.99. No ratings, but then again, you're most likely familiar with these films by now.
App features: Play, stop, pause, continue, volume control, progress bar, and moviemark controls. Moviemarks let you mark your favorite places in the movie so you can return to them fast and easily! The Continue feature starts the movie where you paused it even after closing the movie player.
Terror by Night
The Woman in Green
Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon
Andrews UK Limited and Films4Phone bring us one of Arthur Wontner's appearances as the master from the 1930s. Synopsis: Holmes is now retired. However, he gets one last call about a case involving arch enemy Professor Moriarty who has got involved with an American gang end the life of a, John Douglas, a country gentleman with a mysterious past.
Functionally, once downloaded this self-contained 'film in an app' does not require a Wi-Fi or 3G connection to be viewed; fully functioning film within the app; synopsis page / information page function within the app; director biography page.
The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes (Andrews UK Ltd) - $0.99, no rating
Vook has developed an interactive reading experience - kind of like a hypertext annotated version - called The Sherlock Holmes Experience. And it's quite an experience. According to its creators, "Vook is an entirely new way to read -- it's an application that integrates video and text into one complete experience. With this vook, you can read two gripping Sherlock Holmes mystery stories and watch informative videos that pull you deep into the colorful world of 19th century London, immersing you in the spirit of detective fiction and Baker Street."
The Sherlock Holmes Experience (Vook) - $2.99, 3 1/2 stars.
BeamItDown Software provides a number of titles to read, but they take a slightly different approach from other publishers. In their words:
Other reader applications display the text of the book you are reading in individual pages. The number of words that can be displayed on the screen at one time is determined by the size of the font used. This forces you to choose between reading with a very small font size or using a large font and changing pages every few seconds. The problem is that reading with a very small font induces eye strain, while frequent paging disrupts concentration.
The BeamItDown iFlow Reader solves this problem by using an entirely new approach to reading. Instead of paging, the BeamItDown iFlow Reader scrolls text much like a teleprompter. Large, easy to read text scrolls by smoothly as you read. The precise scrolling speed is controlled by subtly tilting the device, which quickly becomes very intuitive and natural. You can personalize your reading experience by selecting the paper color, text color, text size, and the font that you prefer to create a truly enjoyable reading experience.
Titles from BeamItDown are $0.99 and are universally rated at 4 stars:
The Sherlock Holmes Collection - the entire Canon within copyright: A Study in Scarlet, His Last Bow, The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans, The Adventure of the Devil's Foot, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, The Sign of the Four, The Valley of Fear
Mystery Classics - a number of interesting titles and authors in the detective fiction genre: The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart; The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe; The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie; The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens; The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie; The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan; Trent's Last Case by E. C. Bentley
Warner Bros., the studio that brought you Robert Downey, Jr. in Sherlock Holmes , has its own app. This is an interactive game that invites the user to play detective:
Once inside the shoes of the World's Greatest Detective, you must use Sherlock's keen wit and persuasive charm to prove a man innocent of murder, without revealing your sources. The investigation will take you into the seedy, gritty side of Victorian London, overflowing with deceit and disregard for basic codes of decent behavior as you traverse the deadly back alleys. Scour the environments… Uncover the Clues… Reveal the truth in "The Case of the Innocent Man".
Sherlock Holmes Mysteries (Warner Bros.) - $0.99 and rated 3 1/2 stars.
The game's afoot with this app from Mobile Deluxe. Put your examination skills to the test and solve 6 mysteries based on the original Sir Arthur Conan Doyle mysteries. BONUS eBook downloads with every case you crack. Scour the world hunting for hidden clues in two immersive gameplay modes that let you become the detective. Test your skills of deduction within 30 unique environments.
The Game's Afoot (Mobile Deluxe) - $2.99, rated 3 stars
Test your knowledge of the stories - both in written and film form - with the Sherlock Holmes Quiz. The most erudite Sherlockian should be able to answer most of the questions without much help, although there may be a few obscure or arcane items that only the truest devotee will know. The newbies will have enough to keep them interested without feeling ostracized, as the first level contains questions that are basic without being entirely vapid. You'll find over 400 questions and four levels of play to keep your interest and to challenge you.
Sherlock Holmes Quiz (Super Monko) - FREE, 3 stars
Do you like The Annotated Sherlock Holmes ? Do you miss the ability to scrawl notes in the margins of your hard copy edition of the Canon? Here's an opportunity to have both. This app from ZyngRule only includes The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, but the list of features is impressive. Among them:
Autoscrolling - scroll through the book without touching the screen; easy built-in dictionary - expand your vocabulary by simply swiping across a word; fast text search; annotate sections of the book using the Text Bookmarks and Notes features, email the notes for further editing; stylish, animated graphics and a plethora of fonts and colors; realistic paper texture backgrounds for book pages; sound effects; night mode support.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes eBook (ZyngRule) - $0.99, no ratings yet.
The Sherlock Holmes Guide to London is a great way to combine your interest in the character with a walking tour of some of the famous sites in the stories. There are plenty of photographs of the locations and attractions. For example, the first 40 locations from Leicester Square to Baker Street cover four miles and include walking directions as well as Tube stops and other transportation.
The Sherlock Holmes Guide to London (Clay) - $2.99, no ratings yet.
Don't forget: If you'd like to download any of the above apps and provide feedback in the comments section below, we'd appreciate it. Also, if you know of any other worthy of inclusion, please let us know. This post will remain on the front page of the Baker Street Blog so viewers can easily find them and read what you've had to say.
With all of the recent publicity around Apple's iPad (as of the date of this posting, there have been more than 1 million sold), we'...
blog, fun, Multimedia, News, reader participation
The Muppets Do Sherlock Holmes

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


After 2 years of design and fabrication, Redox Tech's new In Situ Soil Blender was put to test at a construction site in Cambridge, Mass. The new soil blender, designed to provide a more powerful and efficient mode of soil blending, was used to mix 52,000lbs of ABC+ into 27,000 cubic feet of soil, targeting depths from ground surface to 15 feet bgs. The purpose of this work was to treat 1,2-dichloroethane (1,2-DCA) in soil and groundwater (concentrations between 18 and 1200ppm).
The treatment approach was performed during active construction of a new 6-story office building in a busy part of downtown Cambridge, Mass. No disruption of the on-going construction efforts was allowed. Other logistical issues included limited access and maneuverability, as well as an existing foundation wall which bounded one side of the treatment area, and a buried fiber optic cable which bounded the other side of the treatment area. Despite these work limitations, the in situ soil blending was completed on schedule over a 4 day period with no safety or performance issues. For more information please contact Jay Romano (Redox Tech NE).


text:
2017-04-14 2017-09-24 Rock
I Used to Own Every Album (Vol 1) – Rush
Sometime in the early 1980s, I first heard Rush's Moving Pictures album, and I was, like, "Whaaaaa...?"
There are four or five bands/artists that stand out in my music-lover journey with the distinction that I used to own all of their albums. Each one will get their own dedicated blog post. Here is the first…
Once upon a time, I loved Rush. I mean I really loved Rush. I owned every Rush album through 1982's Signals. Then, I departed for boarding school in 10th grade, and my music tastes changed dramatically.
But before then, sometime in the early 1980s, I first heard Rush's Moving Pictures album, and I was, like, "Whaaaaa…?" (I think I bought the tape through the Columbia House mail-order tape of the month club before I defaulted on my account). I was hooked by the song "Tom Sawyer" because it was a seemingly familiar subject from my middle school literature studies; however, I had absolutely no idea what the song's lyrics meant.* That didn't matter. The song was powerful, and it made me feel powerful. The protagonist was some kind of badass who didn't take crap from anyone, caught spit, and still hit the river.
Rush's music transported me to worlds beyond my Houston Texas adolescent existence. I was in 7th or 8th grade still governed by my parents but knowing that the great wide world was out there just a few years away. For example, during this same period of time, I read J. R. R. Tolkien's most famous works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. So, I totally dug Rush's prog tendencies — from epic fantasy battles like "By-Tor and the Snow Dog" to dystopian futures like "2112" to mellow thoughtful pieces like "Rivendell" to immortal quests like "Xanadu."
Oh yeah, then there was MTV, which was most certainly a major influence on me and my generation. Several Rush songs–I mean videos–made heavy rotation in those early MTV days. These videos cemented Rush's lasting impression on my life and gave me permission to imagine.
Thanks Rush. I put away childish things and got off the ride many years ago, but I carry with me fond memories.
Here they are in their mid-Seventies glory with platform shoes about to make it very big with "2112":
*A recurring theme to be covered some other time.
Tags: 1980s, Childhood, Prog, Rock, Rush
Love Potion No. 9


text:
Archive for the 'YouTube' tag
P&G Slashed Digital Ad Spending by $200 Million Last Year
Be A Better Lover
More signs that the bottom hasn't yet been reached for the advertising industry, as we've mentioned previously…
The consumer products giant says that its push for more transparency over the past year revealed such spending had been largely wasteful and that eliminating it helped the company reach more consumers in more effective ways.
P&G , PG +0.18% whose brands include Crest, Tide and Pampers, says it cut its digital ad budget by more than $100 million from July through December. Those reductions were on top of the more than $100 million in digital marketing spending the company had already cut in the June quarter, which P&G said had little impact on the business.
The ad dollars were pulled back from a long list of digital channels but also included reducing spending with "several big digital players" by 20% to 50% last year, according to Marc Pritchard, P&G's chief brand officer. He has been leading the charge among marketers as a vocal critic of digital advertising clutter, ad fraud and brand safety issues on platforms like YouTube.
Once armed with more measurement data, P&G discovered that the average view time for a mobile ad appearing in a news feed, on platforms such as Facebook , was only 1.7 seconds. The Cincinnati-based company also realized some people were seeing P&G ads far too many times.
"Once we got transparency, it illuminated what reality was," said Mr. Pritchard. P&G then took matters into its owns hands and voted with its dollars, he said.
Long the biggest advertiser in the world, P&G carries significant weight among marketers and its efforts are closely tracked.
(click here to continue reading P&G Slashed Digital Ad Spending by $200 Million Last Year – WSJ.)
Translated, Facebook and YouTube ads were fairly useless for P&G, so they cut back on spending on them, without noticing much of a difference on sales. If P&G, with its sophisticated marketing analysis teams thinks digital/mobile ads are missing the mark, what about other businesses? I'd assume many will follow in P&Gs footsteps, and the digital ad world is about to have revenues sliced drastically.
Large advertising holding corporation WPP is already feeling the pinch:
Advertising's digital upheaval took a heavy toll on WPP LLC as the world's largest ad company Thursday logged its worst performance since the financial crisis, triggering jitters among investors across the sector.
On Thursday, WPP said net sales fell 0.9% on a like-for-like basis last year, spooking investors who were expecting signs of recovery after the company cut its forecast three times, predicting a "broadly flat" 2017. The firm also said it is setting budgets for 2018 on the assumption of no growth in revenue and net sales.
WPP shares tumbled 9%, and the fallout quickly spread to rival ad giants like Publicis Groupe SA, which fell 4%.
Digital disruption is leading Unilever PLC, Procter & Gamble Co. and other consumer-goods giants that once splurged on ad agency-led campaigns to redirect their spending. That is saddling ad firms with their slowest revenue growth in a decade and pressuring agency holding companies to revamp organizational structures that are out of step with the digital age. Advertisers are demanding agencies provide services that target consumers relentlessly over the internet as well as coming up with traditional campaigns for print and TV.
The question is whether the big ad companies can evolve fast enough. P&G, long the biggest advertiser in the world, has said that it is looking to cut an additional $400 million in agency and production costs by 2021, having already saved around a combined $750 million in recent year. Unilever, meanwhile, has also been slashing agency fees and production costs, in part by reducing the number of traditional ads it makes and bringing more of its marketing work in-house.
(click here to continue reading Ad Industry's Digital Upheaval Rocks WPP; Shares Fall 14% – WSJ.)
The packaged-goods sector, which accounts for close to a third of WPP's sales, is the key problem. Big advertisers like Procter & Gamble have been driving hard bargains with their suppliers as they trim and reallocate ad budgets in response to new consumption patterns and new media.
This malaise could spread to other industries challenged by new tastes and technology. Car makers, for example, are trying to work out how their approach to advertising needs to adapt if, as many expect, individual car ownership gives way to "mobility as a service"—renting cars by the hour through tech platforms. They accounted for 12% of WPP's revenue last year.
Then there is the question of whether the ad industry itself is challenged by new technology. This is far from clear in the data: WPP's 19% margins in media buying—the ad business most vulnerable to a more digital approach—haven't slipped. Such high margins could also be a reason to worry at a time when clients are seeking big savings.
(click here to continue reading Is WPP Cheap Enough to Own? – WSJ.)
Interesting times. And like the Chinese proverb says,1 to live in interesting times is not actually fun.
or doesn't actually say [↩]
March 1st, 2018 at 10:09 am
Posted in Advertising,Business
Tagged with facebook, marketing, YouTube
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert uses my photo called Wieners Circle Rages At The Dying Of the Light
The title says it all. And I even got compensated!
Here's the clip from the opening of last night's show:
I should have asked how LSSC found my photo out of the gazillion images of Wieners Circle. Maybe they liked the title (partially nicked from Dylan Thomas)?
Posted in humor,Photography
Tagged with Colbert, North Korea, republished, YouTube
Sign in To YouTube Using an iOS Device Like an iPhone
Electric Shocking Power!
For perhaps the five hundredth time this decade,1 I spent a long time trying to login to YouTube to upload a video, and my password was not accepted, even though I'd copied it right out of 1 Password. After wasting about ten minutes trying to figure it out, I remembered that because I have set up a 2-Step Verification for my Google account, I have to generate an App specific password for logging into YouTube. I'm not sure why YouTube is different than other 2-Step Verification services2, but at least the solution is easy enough, once you remember that is why your password keeps failing. You'd think Google could update YouTube to at least give a hint that enabling 2-Step verification means a user can't login simply with email and password. I mean, would it be that hard for the YouTube iOS App to add a footer to the login page? Or at least a suggestion to look to the App passwords page if a password fails a few times?
Anyway, after I did the proper Google search, I ended up here, with these instructions.
Sign in using App Passwords
An App password is a 16-digit passcode that gives an app or device permission to access your Google Account. If you use 2-Step-Verification and are seeing a "password incorrect" error when trying to access your Google Account, an App password may solve the problem. Most of the time, you'll only have to enter an App password once per app or device, so don't worry about memorizing it.
Visit your App passwords page. You may be asked to sign in to your Google Account.
At the bottom, click Select app and choose the app you're using.
Click Select device and choose the device you're using.
Click Generate.
Follow the instructions to enter the App password (the 16 character code in the yellow bar) on your device.
(click here to continue reading Sign in using App Passwords – Accounts Help.)
That's pretty clear, and simple, once you know that is what you are required to do.
Perhaps since I'm writing a post about this procedure, I'll remember next time I'm uploading a video from a new iOS device, or a new app that uses YouTube.
Also, the video was pretty dark, I'll have to retry with better lighting next time I have a can of Nuclear Winter beer by Finch's Beer…
My app specific list looks like this3
Google App specific passwords, a partial list
Vimeo version…
Nuclear Winter Boilermaker- Finch's Beer from Seth Anderson on Vimeo.
With a name like Nuclear Winter, what else could I do?
update, damn, this post became a spam comment magnet so we're disabling comments for a while. Sorry.
every time I get a new iPhone or iPad, or Apple TV basically. Though some apps use YouTube as well, I'm guessing this has happened more than three million times since I've enabled 2-Step Verification [↩]
for instance, I use 2-Step Verification for Tumblr, for Twitter, for Buffer, and probably some others too [↩]
not all shown [↩]
December 3rd, 2014 at 9:51 pm
Posted in Apple
Tagged with Google, iOS, iPhone, YouTube
Free Congress From Grover Norquist
Interesting discussion from Professor Robert Thurman, attempting to start a meme, questioning why signing Grover Norquist's pledge to destroy the government is not a subversive, impeachable act. The professor has a point: signing an oath to an unelected organization whose sole purpose is to starve the "beast" of government is akin to signing an oath to violently overthrow the US Constitution. Unpatriotic at the very least, and maybe an impeachable offense. Why should we hire (i.e., elect) people who hate the country so much?
Give a listen to his ten minute speech, what do you think?
The Oath of office1 reads:
I, [name], do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.
Americans For Tax Reforms oath against the interest of the United States Government reads:
I, ________________________, pledge to the taxpayers of the state of _______________________, and to the American people that I will:
ONE, oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rates for individuals and/or businesses;
and TWO, oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates.
full name is United States Uniformed Services Oath of Office [↩]
Tagged with impeachment, tax, YouTube
Snow Gomper
Spring might be close, but Chicago is still in the snow zone…
Money Isn't The Only Answer
March 5th, 2013 at 12:22 pm
Posted in Narcipost
Tagged with Chicago, snow, YouTube
The Modern Lovers -Roadrunner – Official State Song of Massachusetts
Some politician wants to make Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lover's seminal tune, Roadrunner, into the Official State Song. I could agree with that. I remember listening to this song back in the stone age, before CDs, and I always loved it. Maybe because it is so much a descendant of the Velvet Underground sound, or just because it is cool. I had forgotten that John Cale produced the song.
One of these days I'll be a tourist in Boston…
Roadrunner, filmed in Boston, circa 1976
I've never been to Massachusetts, but this song evokes what MA is, to me anyway.
Richman's band The Modern Lovers first recorded "Roadrunner" with producer John Cale (previously of the Velvet Underground) in 1972. This version was first released as single and in 1976 on The Modern Lovers' long-delayed but highly acclaimed debut album (originally Home of the Hits HH019). Later in 1972, the group recorded two more versions with Kim Fowley, which were released in 1981 on the album, The Original Modern Lovers (Bomp BLP 4021). A live version from 1973 was also later officially released on the album, Live At Longbranch Saloon. The most commercially successful version of the song, credited to Richman as a solo artist, was recorded for Beserkley Records in late 1974, produced by label boss Matthew King Kaufman, featured Jonathan backed by The Greg Kihn Band and released at the time on a single (Beserkley B-34701) with a B-side by the band Earth Quake. Kaufman stated: "To record "Roadrunner" took the 3 minutes 35 seconds for the performance, about another 30 minutes to dump the background vocals on, and another 90 minutes to mix it". Actually Kaufman was mistaken – this version is listed on the UK release of the single as being 4:40. This version was reissued in 1975 on the album Beserkley Chartbusters Vol. 1(Beserkley JBZ-0044). In the UK, where Richman had received substantial and very positive publicity in the music press, it was released in 1977 as a single (Beserkley BZZ 1), known as "Roadrunner (Once)" and credited to Jonathan Richman, with the Cale-produced "Roadrunner (Twice)" on the B-side, credited to The Modern Lovers, and lasting approximately 4:06. This single reached number 11 in the UK singles chart in August 1977. The differences among all these versions are in the lyrics, the duration, the instrumentation (electric garage rock vs. acoustic rock) and the way Jonathan sings them.
(click here to continue reading Roadrunner (Jonathan Richman song) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.)
and from Rolling Stone:
Jonathan Richman used to describe "Roadrunner," the best-known song by his band the Modern Lovers, as a "geographical love song." Now his affection for his home state is on the verge of being institutionalized: there is a movement underway to make the classic song – an ode to the singer's native Massachusetts as it appeared through his windshield ("Gonna drive past the Stop and Shop with the radio on") – the state's official rock song.
Last week, Massachusetts State Representative Marty Walsh filed a bill proposing as much. Jerry Harrison, who joined Talking Heads after the first recorded lineup of the Modern Lovers split, tells Rolling Stone he's pleased. "I can't tell you how many congratulatory emails I've gotten," he says.
The push to designate "Roadrunner" as the official rock song of Massachusetts began with Joyce Linehan, a Boston publicist who did A&R for Sub Pop Records and now has a record label with Joe Pernice. She has political connections, too: she worked closely with Elizabeth Warren on her successful campaign for the U.S. Senate.
(click here to continue reading Modern Lovers' 'Roadrunner' Proposed as Massachusetts' Official Rock Song | Music News | Rolling Stone.)
one two three four five six
Roadrunner, roadrunner
Going faster miles an hour
Gonna drive past the Stop 'n' Shop
With the radio on
I'm in love with Massachusetts
And the neon when it's cold outside
And the highway when it's late at night
Got the radio on
I'm like the roadrunner
I'm in love with modern moonlight
128 when it's dark outside
I'm in love with the radio on
It helps me from being alone late at night
It helps me from being lonely late at night
I don't feel so bad now in the car
Don't feel so alone, got the radio on
Like the roadrunner
Said welcome to the spirit of 1956
Patient in the bushes next to '57
The highway is your girlfriend as you go by quick
Suburban trees, suburban speed
And it smells like heaven(thunder)
And I say roadrunner once
Roadrunner twice
I'm in love with rock & roll and I'll be out all night
Well now
Gonna drive to the Stop 'n' Shop
With the radio on at night
And me in love with modern moonlight
Me in love with modern rock & roll
Modern girls and modern rock & roll
O.K., now you sing Modern Lovers
(Radio On!)
I got the AM
Got the car, got the AM
Got the AM sound, got the
Got the rockin' modern neon sound
I got the car from Massachusetts, got the
I got the power of Massachusetts when it's late at night
I got the modern sounds of modern Massachusetts
I've got the world, got the turnpike, got the
I've got the, got the power of the AM
Got the, late at night, (?), rock & roll late at night
The factories and the auto signs got the power of modern sounds
Right, bye bye!
More reasons to love this song:
Roadrunner is one of the most magical songs in existence. It is a song about what it means to be young, and behind the wheel of an automobile, with the radio on and the night and the highway stretched out before you. It is a paean to the modern world, to the urban landscape, to the Plymouth Roadrunner car, to roadside restaurants, neon lights, suburbia, the highway, the darkness, pine trees and supermarkets. As Greil Marcus put it in his book Lipstick Traces: "Roadrunner was the most obvious song in the world, and the strangest."
One version of Roadrunner – Roadrunner (Twice) – reached No 11 in the UK charts, but the song's influence would extend much further. Its first incarnation, Roadrunner (Once), recorded in 1972 and produced by John Cale, but not released until 1976, was described by film director Richard Linklater as "the first punk song"; he placed it on the soundtrack to his film School of Rock. As punk took shape in London, Roadrunner was one of the songs the Sex Pistols covered at their early rehearsals. Another 20 years on and Cornershop would cite it as the inspiration behind their No 1 single Brimful of Asha, and a few years later, Rolling Stone put it at 269 on their list of the 500 greatest songs of all time. Its impact would be felt in other ways, too: musicians playing on this song included keyboard player Jerry Harrison, who would later join Talking Heads, and drummer David Robinson, who went on to join the Cars. Its power was in the simplicity both of its music – a drone of guitar, organ, bass and drums around a simple two-chord structure – and of its message that it's great to be alive.
(click here to continue reading The car, the radio, the night – and rock's most thrilling song | Music | The Guardian.)
Posted in Music,Suggestions
Tagged with Boston, music_history, YouTube
Did Anonymous stop Karl Rove from Stealing Ohio Like What Happened in 2004?
A conspiracy theory you might enjoy: did Anonymous thwart Turdblossom from subverting democracy? If so, they should get a Congressional Medal of Freedom, or a Nobel Prize, or something. Free beer? Something. Anonymous should also publish their findings so that Karl Rove gets that jail term he so deserves…
Thom Hartmann discusses an article that says the hacker group, Anonymous may have been involved in stopping GOP mastermind Karl Rove from stealing the election in Ohio this year.
The letter itself is currently at Scribd (as PDF), read it yourself
John Kerry at Austin Bergstrom Airport
via Crooks and Liars
who add:
I'm especially interested in 2004. Remember when all the corporate media people were chiding bloggers, who reported the exit poll info, for leaking inaccurate raw data? What I remember that the exit polls were only off in a few counties. Gee, I wonder why?
The other thing I've always wondered is why John Kerry collected donations for his legal fund, swearing he would fight for every last vote — and then didn't. I guess we'll never know.
Tagged with 2012_Election, Karl_Rove, Ohio, YouTube
Bob Dylan and Van Morrison In Athens
Via Rolling Stone:
Bob Dylan's 1989 summer European tour wrapped up with a pair of shows in Greece. During an off-day, Dylan and Van Morrison climbed onto the picturesque Hill of the Muses in Athens for a stunning four-song acoustic set that thankfully was captured by cameras for the BBC documentary Arena: One Irish Rover – Van Morrison in Performances. They began with Morrison classics "Crazy Love" and "And It Stoned Me," but the clear highlight was the 1986 Morrison obscurity "Foreign Window," featuring Dylan on harmonica and Van on guitar and vocals. They wrapped up the set with a duet on "One Irish Rover." Check out both songs in this incredible video.
Tagged with Bob_Dylan, Greece, YouTube
Swanksalot's Solipsism
I Don't Wanna Look Down
I finally found a use for my long-standing Blogger account – all of my photos from Flickr and Instagram end up there. Thanks to the magic of IFTTT (If this than that, a great service if you have a few different online accounts), every photo that I upload to Flickr, every photo I upload to Instagram, every photo I "like" on Flickr, every photo I "like" on Instagram, every YouTube video I "favorite", and so on is automatically uploaded into a Blogger post. If you are ever bored, you can browse this page for visual stimulation…
(click here to continue reading Swanksalot's Solipsism.)
Whatever it is called when you add a pickled pepper to a martini
Posted in Blogtopia,Narcipost
Tagged with blogs, flickr, Instagram, YouTube
A Brief Rain Storm
A Sunday night rain storm; my soundtrack was Townes Van Zandt and bottle of decent enough red wine. And the sound of falling water.
30 Seconds of a Rainy Night in Chicago
and the actual 30 second video, theoretically… (Flash, sorry)
Not Wishing To Intrude
Rain Bokeh Number 2169
Out The Window Blues
Absinthe Verte in the Rain
Listen to The Falling Rain
Inside A Broken Clock
Youtube version:
Posted in Chicago-esque,Photography
Tagged with rain, West_Loop, YouTube
Tom Waits – Hell Broke Luce
A surreal yet intriguing music video of the Tom Waits song, Hell Broke Luce, from his 2011 album, Bad as Me.1
Directed and photographed by Matt Mahurin, and only recently released, as far as I can tell… ((as of right now, only 307 views, despite being linked from TomWaits.com ))
Wikipedia [↩]
August 7th, 2012 at 11:44 am
Posted in Film,Music,Suggestions
Tagged with Tom_Waits, YouTube
When Jimmy Page Debuted With the Yardbirds
I've always loved this clip of The Yardbirds playing Stroll On from Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow Up.
Before Jimmy Page became the quintessential guitar player with mystique, he was a bass player with ambition.
In 1966, Page joined one of the most influential and up-and-coming British bands of his era, the Yardbirds. At only 22 years old, he was already a respected session musician in London – in fact, the blues-leaning rock band had approached him two years earlier to replace then-guitarist Eric Clapton, but Page declined in loyalty to his pal. A year later, when Clapton quit, the group solicited Page again, who in turn recommended another friend, Jeff Beck (because Page was raking in the cash sitting in with Decca Records artists, including the Rolling Stones).
Page finally joined the group in 1966 as a replacement for bassist Paul Samwell-Smith. At his first show with the Yardbirds, at the Marquee Club in London, he played electric bass. The venue was a significant one for the Yardbirds, as they'd held their first residency there in February 1964, and the show celebrated Page's hard-won presence. Page kept up four-string duties for a bit before switching to twin lead guitar alongside Beck – until Beck left the tumultuous group too, and the Yardbirds became a quartet with Page at lone lead guitar. It was with this lineup that they released their final album, 1967's Little Games.
All three guitarists of the Yardbirds – Clapton, Page, Beck – would become guitar superstars. However, the Yardbirds proved an especially strong catalyst for Page's future glory: When singer Keith Relf and drummer Jim McCarty left the quarreling group in 1968, Page rebranded the band as "the New Yardbirds" and recruited vocalist Robert Plant and drummer John Bonham. Bassist John Paul Jones came into the fold soon after – and with him, the one and only lineup of Led Zeppelin was cemented.
(click here to continue reading When Jimmy Page Debuted With the Yardbirds and Steely Dan Broke Up | Rolling Stone Music.)
Tagged with film_history, music_history, YouTube
Reggae the sound that revolutionized Britain
Reminded me once again that Eric Clapton is an asshole:
The summer of 1976 brought another pivotal event, Eric Clapton's drunken rant on stage at Birmingham, in which he acclaimed Enoch Powell as the politician who would "stop Britain from becoming a black colony… the black wogs and coons and fucking Jamaicans don't belong here". From a man which had topped the US charts with a cover of Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff", this was shocking stuff and inspired the formation of Rock Against Racism (RAR).
British reggae swiftly acquired a new militancy and ubiquity. Steel Pulse sang "Ku Klux Klan" with the Klan's white hoods on their heads. Linton Kwesi Johnson proclaimed it was "Dread Inna Inglan" and warned "get ready for war". The growing roster of home-grown acts – Misty in Roots, Reggae Regular, Black Slate – found exposure on RAR stages and, after John Peel's conversion from prog rock, on his Radio 1 show and its live sessions.
Aside from its social commentary, reggae became chic due to its sonic radicalism, with its dub, rap and special disco mixes picked up by rock and soul. "Reggae taught us about space, leaving gaps. It was such a relief after the strictness and minimalism of punk," says Viv Albertine, guitarist with the Slits, whose 1979 album, Cut, was produced by Dennis Bovell.
In the post-punk era, the Clash, the Members and the Ruts were other rock bands incorporating reggae into their sound, along with the Police, who deftly integrated reggae on hits 'Message in a Bottle" and "Walking on the Moon". "We plundered reggae mercilessly," acknowledges drummer Stewart Copeland on Reggae Britannia.
(click to continue reading Reggae: the sound that revolutionised Britain | Music | Music | The Observer.)
And always a good excuse to play music by Linton Kwesi Johnson, the political, poetical reggae master.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ji4hdnCEEUM
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fU2yFsW9NI
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4QCYQfov6I
Here's a transcript of what Eric Clapton said, btw.
Do we have any foreigners in the audience tonight? If so, please put up your hands. Wogs I mean, I'm looking at you. Where are you? I'm sorry but some fucking wog…Arab grabbed my wife's bum, you know? Surely got to be said, yeah this is what all the fucking foreigners and wogs over here are like, just disgusting, that's just the truth, yeah. So where are you?
Well wherever you all are, I think you should all just leave. Not just leave the hall, leave our country. You fucking (indecipherable). I don't want you here, in the room or in my country. Listen to me, man! I think we should vote for Enoch Powell. Enoch's our man. I think Enoch's right, I think we should send them all back. Stop Britain from becoming a black colony. Get the foreigners out. Get the wogs out. Get the coons out. Keep Britain white. I used to be into dope, now I'm into racism. It's much heavier, man.
Fucking wogs, man. Fucking Saudis taking over London. Bastard wogs. Britain is becoming overcrowded and Enoch will stop it and send them all back. The black wogs and coons and Arabs and fucking Jamaicans and fucking (indecipherable) don't belong here, we don't want them here. This is England, this is a white country, we don't want any black wogs and coons living here. We need to make clear to them they are not welcome. England is for white people, man. We are a white country. I don't want fucking wogs living next to me with their standards.
This is Great Britain, a white country, what is happening to us, for fuck's sake? We need to vote for Enoch Powell, he's a great man, speaking truth. Vote for Enoch, he's our man, he's on our side, he'll look after us. I want all of you here to vote for Enoch, support him, he's on our side. Enoch for Prime Minister! Throw the wogs out! Keep Britain white!
Tagged with music_history, UK, YouTube
Put This On • In 1964, Lyndon Johnson needed pants, so he called…
In 1964, Lyndon Johnson needed pants, so he called the Haggar clothing company and asked for some. The call was recorded (like all White House calls at the time), and has since become the stuff of legend. Johnson's anatomically specific directions to Mr. Haggar are some of the most intimate words we've ever heard from the mouth of a President.
We at Put This On took the historic original audio and gave it to animator Tawd Dorenfeld, who created this majestic fantasia of bungholiana.
(tags: youtube LBJ humor)
The Soul of a Man/ Wim Wenders – The Official Site
In "The Soul of A Man," director Wim Wenders looks at the dramatic tension in the blues between the sacred and the profane by exploring the music and lives of three of his favorite blues artists: Skip James, Blind Willie Johnson and J. B. Lenoir. Part history, part personal pilgrimage, the film tells the story of these lives in music through an extended fictional film sequence (recreations of '20s and '30s events – shot in silent-film, hand-crank style), rare archival footage, present-day documentary scenes and covers of their songs by contemporary musicians such as Shemekia Copeland, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Garland Jeffreys, Chris Thomas King, Cassandra Wilson, Nick Cave, Los Lobos, Eagle Eye Cherry, Vernon Reid, James "Blood" Ulmer, Lou Reed, Bonnie Raitt, Marc Ribot, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Lucinda Williams and T-Bone Burnett.
(tags: music music_history blues film)
Johnny Marr Considers Writing Tell-All Book About The Smiths | Rolling Stone Music
Former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr tweeted on Thursday that he is planning to write an autobiography. According to Marr, no deal has been made but he has been approached with a serious offer to pen a tell-all about his time in the Smiths.
(tags: music_history)
Sam Peckinpah's Long-Lost Script for The Texans Unearthed — and Vulture Has the First Fifteen Pages! — Vulture
How's this for true grit? Famously combative, alcoholic, and drug-addled filmmaker Sam Peckinpah (The Wild Bunch, Straw Dogs) is, as Chevy Chase might joke, "still dead" (he passed away in 1984 at the age of 59) — but that doesn't mean Bloody Sam can't make a comeback. Vulture has learned exclusively that producer Al Ruddy (The Godfather, Million Dollar Baby) recently unearthed a script for a Western called The Texans that Peckinpah wrote in 1980 but never got around to making.
(tags: film)
Antonio McDyess is cool
Antonio McDyess is the chillest chill bro in the Association. He's Serge Gainsbourg, stubbled, disheveled, and in love. McDyess is the serpentine rise of smoke from Tom Waits' cigarette. He's Chet Baker's My Funny Valentine—the especially long version that forgets you're listening. Antonio McDyess is all these things and a Quitman smile.
(tags: NBA San_Antonio_Spurs)
Inky Lautman of the Philadelphia SPHAs, circa 1939-40
The Southerner > Peter Bogdanovich
Orson Welles and I were talking one time about the relative merits of John Ford and Howard Hawks at their best, and finally Welles summed it up: "Hawks is great prose; Ford is poetry." There haven't really been very many poets in pictures, but the one pretty much everybody agrees about now is the Frenchman Jean Renoir. He was also Orson's favorite director—as he is mine—and Ford was so impressed by Renoir's Grand Illusion (l937) that he wanted to remake it in English. Luckily, studio-head Darryl Zanuck told him to forget it; he would "just fuck it up."
(tags: film_history film)
Posted in Film,humor,Links
Tagged with Film, humor, music_history, NBA, YouTube
Bukka White – Aberdeen Mississippi Blues
Amazing tune, really, from an amazing guitarist. Sounds simple, but yet it isn't.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsMpHHSLSlc
I've studied this song for a long time, and cannot get this phenomenal right hand rhythm string-slapping pattern down. Probably why Bukka White is a guitar god, and I am not.
Bonus: Poor Boy Long Way From Home, lap style.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0jRX69mxcE
And since I looked it up, since it is Booker T. Washington White's hometown:
Aberdeen is a city in Monroe County in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The population was 6,415 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Monroe County.Located on the banks of the Tombigbee River, Aberdeen was one of the busiest Mississippi ports of the nineteenth century. Cotton was heavily traded in town, and for a time Aberdeen was Mississippi's second largest city. Today Aberdeen retains many historic structures from this period, with over 200 buildings on the National Register of Historic Places. In the spring of each year, Aberdeen hosts pilgrimages to its historic antebellum homes. The most prominent of these antebellum homes is The Magnolias, which was built in 1850.
(click to continue reading Aberdeen, Mississippi – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.)
One version of the lyrics goes something like this (but not the song above, some is the same, not all):
I was over in Aberdeen
On my way to New Orlean
Them Aberdeen women told me
Will buy my gasoline
Hey, two little women
That I ain't ever seen
They has two little women
That I ain't never seen
These two little women
Just from New Orlean
Ooh, sittin' down in Aberdeen
With New Orlean on my mind
I'm sittin' down in Aberdeen
Well, I believe them Aberdeen women
Gonna make me lose my mind, yeah
(Slide guitar & washboard)
Aber-deen is my home
But the mens don't want me around
Aberdeen is my home But the men don't want me around
They know I will take these women
An take them outta town
Listen, you Aberdeen women
You know I ain't got no dime
Oh-oh listen you women
You know'd I ain't got no dime
They been had the po' boy
All up and down.
Tagged with blues, music_history, YouTube
The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends.


Time for tea: inscribed with vintage lace and finished with gold detailing, this handmade ceramic range is ideal for the perfect cup of tea or coffee after a busy day.
Stand back and admire these distinctive mugs, bowls, dishes and jugs for their quirky originality and depth of design. Each piece is completely unique!
Earthenware clay handcrafted by lady potters at their studio in Dorset.


text:
← CHRIS LOWNEY. How Pope Francis Can Revitalize a Church in Crisis
ERNST WILLHEIM. The saga of Bernard Collaery and Witness K continues. →
BOB DEBUS. Must Prisoner Numbers Grow Forever? (an edited version of a lecture given to the Law Society of New South Wales, 22 August)
By Bob Debus | On 28 August 2019
We can all accept imprisonment as the appropriate response for serious and violent crimes. Nevertheless there is a plethora of studies confirming the common sense conclusion that prison is damaging for individuals at a psychological level, especially in the absence of rehabilitative services; that rates of recidivism, however measured, remain persistently over 50 per cent and up to 75 per cent for Indigenous prisoners; that somewhere around half of prisoners have a mental illness or cognitive impairment; that a high proportion the prison population is received from a very small number of socially disadvantaged postcodes; that the over-imprisonment of Indigenous men, women and children is a continuing national tragedy; and critically, that rates of imprisonment are mostly quite unrelated to the rate of crime.
The national rate of imprisonment measured by the Bureau of Statistics census has more than doubled in 40 years. In 1982 the crude rate of incarceration was 89 per 100,000 of the population. It rose to 112 in 1990, 150 in 2000, 172 in 2010 and 221 in 2018. Over the same period,
and despite high profile inquires and interventions, indigenous incarceration worsened: increasing from 19 per cent of the prison population in 2000 to 28 per cent in 2018.
For the first half of those forty years rates of crime were growing, a background to the tabloid campaigns of fear and outrage inseparable from the 'law and order' politics of the day. For the second half of that time crime rates in all but a few exceptional categories like sexual assault have been falling dramatically. Nevertheless, the entirely mistaken assumption that punitive policies reduce the rate of crime remains widespread in politics and undiminished in popular media.
Harsh law and order expectations have a continuing effect upon the administration of bail and parole laws. They stifle discussion about rights. They encourage indifference to the circumstances of the mentally ill and cognitively impaired. They sustain populist bias against particular ethnic groups. They are present as the Police budget in New South Wales systematically escapes cuts suffered by other portfolios, while the budget for Legal Aid has not increased since 2007.
The lazy and fearful assumptions of law and order politics will only be diminished if people of goodwill inside and outside of Parliament organise themselves to do far more on a bipartisan basis to counter them – as they are now doing across the political spectrum in the United States.
But of course there are also concrete measures that must be take if we are to stop the endless growth of inmate numbers:
First, we must acknowledge that the proportion of unsentenced prisoners has risen greatly over time. About half are released without having to serve further time.. This is the easiest problem to fix -– through appropriate attention to bail laws, especially as they apply to the cultural circumstances of Indigenous people, to parole conditions and to the resources provided for the administration of justice.
Next, the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research showed us in a famous 2009 paper that the reduction of reoffending is by some distance the fastest way to reduce the prison population. Internationally validated data tells us that tailored, culturally sensitive through-care and back of prison sentence programs to help prisoners to re-join the community are effective in reducing recidivism. But you must invest in them and you can't run them properly if the system is constantly afflicted with overcrowding. As ours is.
It is also widely understood that at the front end, community supervision combined with well-designed treatment –a substitute for prison — is one of the most effective ways to reduce recidivism. Yet national provision for diversion remains intermittent, underfunded and uneven.
And finally: if the crude national rate of imprisonment per100,000 of the population is at present 220, the rate for the two per cent of the Australian population who are Indigenous is 2480. Inevitably special attention has to be paid to Indigenous and other groups who are over-represented in the justice system. In December 2017 the Australian Law Reform Commission published Pathways to Justice – An Inquiry into the Incarceration Rate of Aboriginal andTorres Strait Islander Peoples. Commissioner Matthew Myers' recommendations admirably consolidate and refine decades of research and official inquiry across the technically detailed spectrum of legal issues.
The Law Reform Commission Report more broadly recommends the promotion of substantive equality before the law, for instance by the institution of provisions that consistently take account of systemic background factors affecting Indigenous people as well as the circumstances of an individual offender. It asserts the fundamental importance of Indigenous leadership and participation in the delivery of programs for Indigenous people in contact with the legal system. Its first recommendation however goes to a more far-reaching question: the reduction the number of people coming into the prison in the first place through an approach known as "justice reinvestment".
We have long understood that a large proportion of offenders come from a small number of disadvantaged communities; that the underlying causes of crime are varied and complex; that individuals who come into contact with the criminal justice system are highly likely to experience multiple and severe social and economic disadvantage including poverty and inter-generational trauma. In the circumstances, the idea that we should generate savings in the justice system by reallocating resources into programs designed to keep people who are at risk of offending out of gaol seems like the most elementary common sense.
Nevertheless in practise that is difficult to achieve through conventional government service delivery — as anybody with experience of in the area will know. Problems of program coordination are intractable and programs need to be implemented consistently with painstaking attention to detail over many years if they are to be successful.
However the program in Bourke, planned by the organisation JustReinvest NSW (http://www.justreinvest.org.au) in partnership with the Tribal Council and supported by the agencies of government shows how these problems can be overcome. Its considerable and measurable success in the reduction of offending behaviour and days spent in custody, achieved by careful work over a number of years, has saved money within the justice system and showed other communities a pathway to improvement.
There can be no reasonable doubt at all that the implementation of the suite of Law Reform Commission recommendations through a purposeful, competent, federally-coordinated government program would cause a dramatic long term reduction in Indigenous incarceration. Neither can there be any doubt about the meaning of the complete absence of response by the Federal Government since the Report was submitted eighteen months ago.
There is not much difference between those within the Federal Government who successfully oppose useful action on climate change and those who believe that special laws for Indigenous people offend the principle of equality before the law. However, the former Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia has recently answered that argument.
"Does the Constitution treat Indigenous people in the same way as everyone else?" asks the Honourable Murray Gleeson. "Hardly. The race power, by its very existence, calls into question the assumption of equality… It has been suggested that it is divisive to treat Indigenous people in a special way. [Yet] the division between Indigenous people and others in this land was made in 1788. Indigenous people did not make it. The race power of the Constitution is now used in practice .to make special laws for them … a response to the consequences of that division."
The failure to deal with the tragedy of over-imprisonment is a scandal.
Bob Debus is a former Attorney General and Minister for Corrective Services in New South Wales.
Bob Debus
Robert Debus AM is a former Australian politician, has been a member of the Australian House of Representatives and the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, representing the Labor Party. Debus has been a minister in both the Australian and New South Wales governments.
This entry was posted in Indigenous affairs, Infrastructure. Bookmark the permalink.


text:
Treatment Selection for Painful Chronic Pancreatitis
A review of studies comparing the Beger and Frey procedures for duodenum-preserving pancreatic head resection found that both operations produced similar rates of exocrine pancreatic insufficiency — and nearly every other outcome — in patients with painful chronic pancreatitis.
A review of studies comparing the Beger and Frey procedures for duodenum-preserving pancreatic head resection found that both operations produced similar rates of exocrine pancreatic insufficiency — and nearly every other outcome — in patients with painful chronic pancreatitis.
Researchers from London combed several databases to find 5 papers that reported results of different resection procedures. A total of 323 pancreatitis patients underwent some sort of surgery. Of those, 138 underwent the Beger procedure, 99 underwent the original Frey procedure, 32 underwent a minimal Frey procedure, 25 underwent a modified Frey procedure and 29 underwent a Berne's modification.
All of the procedures appeared similarly effective in managing pain associated with chronic pancreatitis and similarly likely to produce significant problems such as exocrine pancreatic insufficiency. Indeed, the authors of the new study performed a meta-analysis of the 2 papers that directly compared the Beger and Frey procedures and found no significant differences in any outcome.
Post-operative pain levels were virtually identical (relative difference [RD], 0.06; 95% confidence interval [CI], -0.21 to 0.09), as was mortality (RD, 0.01; 95% CI, −0.03 to 0.05), morbidity (RD, 0.12; 95% CI, −0.00 to 0.24), exocrine insufficiency (RD, 0.04; 95% CI, −0.10 to 0.18) and endocrine insufficiency (RD, −0.14; 95% CI, −0.28 to 0.01).
"All procedures are equally effective for the management of pain for chronic pancreatitis," the authors of the review wrote in HPB. The choice of procedure should be determined by other factors including the presence of secondary complications of pancreatitis and intra-operative findings."
The purpose of both procedures is to provide an organ-sparing alternative to pancreaticoduodenectomy, but neither procedure tends to spare pancreatic function. A randomized trial undertaken in Germany and published less than 2 years ago in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons reported endocrine insufficiency in 87% of 38 patients who underwent the Beger procedure and 86% of 36 patients who underwent the Frey procedure (p = 0.953). Exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, moreover, was developed in 77% of the Beger patients and 83% of the Frey patients (p = 0.655) during a lengthy follow-up period.
That analysis also found that mortality rates 16 years after surgery were 39% among Beger patients and 34% among Frey patients while postoperative survivals averaged 13.0 ± 1.1 years and 13.3 ± 0.9 years, respectively (p = 0.660).
"Duodenum-preserving resections of the pancreatic head offered good and permanent pain relief and substantially increased quality of life in chronic pancreatitis," the German investigators wrote. "Overall, a 16-year long-term follow-up found comparable outcomes for the Beger and Frey procedures."
The Beger procedure excavates the pancreatic head but preserves the duodenum and a layer of pancreatic tissue. The reconstruction is performed by 2 anastomoses with a jejunal loop to drain what remains of the pancreas and to cover and drain the defect in the pancreatic head. The technically difficult procedure has become common in Europe but not in the US.
The less demanding Frey procedure combines partial resection of the head of the pancreas with lateral pancreatico-jejunostomy for drainage. This hybrid procedure improves the overall pancreatic ductal drainage by decompressing both the duct of Santorini and ducts in the uncinate process. It also removes the pancreatic head that is thought to be the epicenter of pancreatitis pain and allows for removal of calculi.
Exocrine Pancreatic InsufficiencySurgeryGastroenterologyPain
Yasha S. Modi, MD: Defining The Utility and Durability Of Faricimab
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I arrived a bit later for registration and the line was really super long! The main bathroom would quickly have lines outside it and so I had found a more private one off the pool side that was just for one person. So while all went to the large one, I would duck back down the hallway towards the pool and go there.
Now something interesting about that particular bathroom and why I am mentioning it here. A funny story happened!
This bathroom had one of those automated faucets that was sensitive to light and motion. I had already noticed that and of course, didn't think twice more about it. Who would, right? Well there I am, standing in line and waiting to register for the event and get my badge, talking to people in front of me and behind me. Aaron Goodwin from Ghost Adventures came up to the lady in front of me and struck up a conversation as I kinda hung in there too. He was very pleasant, jovial and down to earth, very friendly! He made us laugh and then went on down the line to greet other people. now there was a lady behind me from CA who was really super excited about this event! It was her first one and she could hardly wait! She had not purchased the full event ghost hunt ticket however, just the meet and greet portion and that would include the lectures, so it was more of a half ticket. She needed to go to the bathroom so I told her about my private find and sent her off, holding her spot in line for her.
When she came back, she was bursting! She told me, "Hey Dude! It's happening already!!" I was like what is? She goes on to tell me that the bathroom is haunted! She said when she walked in, the faucet turned on all by itself! I was like really? Wow! I then got to thinking, not wanting to burst her bubble, but I asked her, is it an automatic faucet? She was like no, she didn't think so! But wow! she goes on to say, how exciting that things are happening already and we haven't even started! I was like, yea, wow! But something nagged at me that something was wrong about this.
So later on, we get thru the line and I choose the 2nd night to ghost hunt as I get told that it's the better night with more chance of things happening and so were to meet back there for the meet and greet in a couple hours.
And why the 2nd night over the 1st? Some do believe that the 2nd night is better because on the first one, all those people have stirred things up already for you. Plus, there are usually less people than on the 1st night.
Well this whole faucet thing really kinda bothered me. Something told me...that no...so I went and checked it out.
Sure enough, the faucet would come on whenever I opened the door and the light or your shadow hit it just right. It was an automatic faucet. There was a play of shadows whenever you opened the door and stepped in so it was quite obvious as to what was going on. I later saw the lady and let her know about it and she thought it was really cool that I debunked that.
But that goes to show you that when you go to an event, be careful not to get too hyped up or excited so much that you see ghosts everywhere or you believe every odd thing is paranormal. It happens to us all because it is what you are wanting to see and expecting but most things can be easily debunked. It would have been really neat to have had it be something paranormal! But, when you go to these events, you really need to be grounded and wearing your skeptic hat more so and check things out fully.


text:
from  ubuntu
maintainer David Bain <david@alteroo.com>

# based on niallo/strider by Niall O'Higgins <niallo@frozenridge.co>
# do this as single-line run until https://github.com/dotcloud/docker/issues/1171 is fixed
run  \
    echo "PATH=$PATH:/src/appengine" ;\
    useradd -m strider ;\
    CUSTOM_PACKAGES="libxslt-dev libjpeg8-dev poppler-utils language-pack-en-base python-virtualenv python-lxml python-imaging tmux wv libgeos-c1 libpcre3-dev pkg-config libncurses-dev autotools-dev automake1.9 libtool autoconf phantomjs ";\
    dpkg-divert --local --rename --add /sbin/initctl ;\
    ln -s /bin/true /sbin/initctl ;\
    echo "deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu quantal main universe" > /etc/apt/sources.list ;\
    echo 'deb http://downloads-distro.mongodb.org/repo/ubuntu-upstart dist 10gen' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/10gen.list ;\
    apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv 7F0CEB10 ;\
    apt-get update ;\
    apt-get install -y curl wget supervisor openssh-server make build-essential libssl-dev python python-dev git default-jre-headless mongodb-10gen ;\
    apt-get install -y $CUSTOM_PACKAGES ;\
    locale-gen en_US en_US.UTF-8 ;\
    mkdir -p /var/run/sshd ;\
    mkdir -p /var/log/supervisor ;\
    mkdir -p /data/db ;\
    locale-gen en_US en_US.UTF-8 ;\
    curl https://raw.github.com/isaacs/nave/master/nave.sh > /bin/nave && chmod a+x /bin/nave ;\
    nave usemain stable ;\
    echo 'root:str!der' | chpasswd ;\
    git clone -b master https://github.com/Strider-CD/strider.git /src ;\
    cd /src; (rm -rf node_modules || exit 0) && npm install ;\
    /usr/bin/mongod --smallfiles --fork --logpath mongo.log ;\
    sleep 2 ;\
    /src/bin/strider addUser --email test@example.com --password dontlook --admin true ;\
    /usr/bin/mongod --shutdown ;\
    /usr/bin/mongod --smallfiles --fork --logpath mongo.log ;\
    sleep 2 ;\
    echo "db.users.find()" | mongo localhost/strider-foss | grep test@example.com ;\
    chown -R strider /src ;\

#inject appengine files
add docker/appengine /src/appengine
add docker/etc/bash /etc/

# inject supervisord.conf
add  docker/supervisord.conf /etc/supervisor/conf.d/supervisord.conf

# supervisord will run ssh, and strider, and restart them if they crash
cmd  ["/usr/bin/supervisord", "-n"]

# 22 is ssh server
# 3000 is strider
# You can find out what ports they are mapped to on your host by running `docker ps`
expose 22 3000

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
NYC Schools Delay Opening as Mayor, Union Reach Deal to Avert Teacher Strike
New York City schools will no longer start their hybrid year on Sept. 10 as planned; that will be pushed back until Sept. 21
By Jennifer Millman	• Published September 1, 2020 • Updated on September 2, 2020 at 2:19 am
NBC Universal, Inc.
City Hall and New York City's largest teachers' union reached a deal Tuesday on a plan to safely reopen schools, potentially averting the first teachers strike in the five boroughs in 45 years
As part of the deal, the planned hybrid start of school will be delayed from Sept. 10 to Sept. 21; teachers will use Sept. 10-Sept. 15 for additional preparation. A three-day transitional remote period will follow for students
The head of the United Federation of Teachers joined de Blasio at his briefing and said the new plan assures New York City public schools have the most aggressive policies and safeguards of any system in the U.S.
New York City's largest teachers' union and City Hall have reached an agreement over a plan to safely reopen schools for part-time in-person learning, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Tuesday. The deal averts a potential strike authorization vote, which could have brought about the city's first teachers' strike since 1975.
Under the new plan, the start of hybrid learning will be delayed by a few days to allow preparation time for teachers and staff. School will not start Sept. 10 as planned. Teachers will be in the buildings starting Sept. 8 and use that Thursday (9/10), along with the following Friday (9/11), Monday (9/14) and Tuesday (9/15), for additional prep. A three-day transitional period of remote instruction for students will begin on Wednesday, Sept. 16.
On Monday, Sept. 21, the school buildings open "full strength" for blended learning as described previously, de Blasio said.
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"One of the things we've affirmed in these discussions is nothing replaces in-person learning," de Blasio said. "It's a very complex moment in history to say the least. We have a common deep concern for this city. We also believe profoundly in the New York City public schools and the meaning of public education."
In a later interview on CNN, the mayor also ruled out any chances of further delays.
"It's going to happen. We have the agreement with all the key labor unions, we have the PPE and the cleaning supplies in place, we're doing the final run-throughs on the buildings; we're ready," de Blasio said.
Earlier this month, the city's largest teachers' union threatened to strike -- and that could still on the table if its agreements with de Blasio on how to safely welcome educators and kids back to in-person learning disintegrate further.The union's at-time fractious relationship with City Hall has been made that much more tense by looming layoffs -- 22,000 city workers, many of them teachers -- made necessary by the COVID budget crisis and lack of direct federal aid. Katherine Creag reports.
Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, sat near de Blasio for the briefing Tuesday and expressed his full support for the new plan, calling it the most aggressive and safest of any school system in the country.
"This is what I would hold up as an example for other places on how people are supposed to get things done. They are not easy," Mulgrew said. "But I sit here today talking to parents, all of my members ... and I can say to you now that independent medical experts have stamped this plan, that New York City's public school system has the most aggressive policies and safeguards of any school system in the United States of America."
Much work remains to be done to ensure an equitable start to the year across the city's 1,800 school buildings in all five boroughs, the city and union agree. Both pledged to work together to resolve school-specific needs as they emerge.
The 3,200-member UFT Delegate Assembly endorsed the agreement in a vote Tuesday afternoon. The union had previously said the city's back-to-school plan lacked transparency, specifics and critical standards on testing -- like ensuring every adult and child who steps foot in a school building has been tested for COVID -- among other requirements.
Daily Percentage of Positive Tests by New York Region
Gov. Andrew Cuomo breaks the state into 10 regions for testing purposes and tracks positivity rates to identify potential hotspots. Here's the latest tracking data by region and for the five boroughs. For the latest county-level results statewide, click here
Source: ny.gov
On the testing front, the city will make free testing available every month at every school in a way that "maximizes the ease" of getting tested, de Blasio said. That will be part of a "rigorous" monthly medical monitoring program where 10 to 20 percent of students and staff at every school are tested each month, with results within 48 hours. Kids will be given a more gentle swab test, rather than the more uncomfortable nasal passage test.
Parental consent is required to test anyone who is younger than 18. Anyone who tests positive will be isolated and test and trace efforts will kick in. Should a parent deny consent, de Blasio said that child may not be permitted in school for a time, but he says he feels that parents will overwhelmingly agree to testing.
Electrostatic cleaning, social distancing, mask mandates and a host of other measures that had already been discussed will remain in place going forward. Certified nurses will also be present in every single school, the mayor says, and there will be a well-stocked supply of PPE.
Both de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza have repeatedly said their multi-layered framework draws from the most successful school reopening strategies across the globe. They've also repeatedly said they would not reopen a school building or even an individual classroom unless it were safe.
Are teachers allowed to strike in New York City?
As a matter of law, no, they are not. The Public Employees' Fair Employment Act, better known as the Taylor Law, went into effect in 1967 and prohibits strikes by public employees, including teachers.
Are there penalties for violating the Taylor Law?
There are, and they can be substantial. A union member who goes on strike in violation of the law can be docked two days' pay for each day they strike, and the union can lose the right to have dues automatically deducted from members' salaries. Union leaders can also be arrested and jailed, as happened to the head of the Transit Workers Union after they walked out in Dec. 2005
Do teachers know it's illegal for them to strike?
They do, and their union has said as much. "The members of the UFT know that public employee strikes are illegal, but we are determined to do what is necessary to protect our students and the families of New York City," union head Michael Mulgrew said in an Aug. 31 statement.
Have NYC teachers gone on strike before?
They have. Following the founding of the UFT in 1960, the union struck five times between 1960 and 1975 (though not since then). The 1968 strike in particular, which closed schools for two months, is considered a major event in the history of labor and race relations.
As de Blasio said, the union and City Hall had agreed from the start that in-person was ultimately the best option. The union just wasn't sold on the safety elements. The goal is to not just get students back to some form of safe in-person learning this month. It's to ensure that safety continues through the entire academic year. Having to close schools again over outbreaks would only cause more disruption.
The city is expected to complete inspections of all its school buildings by mid-week. It will then publish a rolling list of each school's outstanding issues, if any. Those inspections include assessments to ensure appropriate ventilation.
While New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson cheered the decision, calling it a "step in the right direction," he said it should have come far sooner.
"This common-sense measure should have been announced sooner to better allow school staff and families to plan properly for the academic year, ... Instead, Mayor de Blasio dragged his feet while parents and educators fretted about how to make the impossible work, waiting until a week before school is scheduled to provide clarity for our school community," Johnson said in a statement. "We know our City's principals and teachers will work very hard to ensure schools are ready by September 21st, but they will need better guidance from the Department of Education (DOE) to adequately prepare and best protect our students."
Even with the strict inspections and other safety precautions, some parents still have concerns over whether it's safe to start in person right now. As of Tuesday, more than a third -- 37 percent -- of families with children in public schools opted out of the default hybrid model, with 366,553 requests made for all-remote learning. That is a sharp uptick from when de Blasio said only about a quarter of parents were choosing that option earlier in August. Those parents will have the opportunity to opt back in to blended learning on a quarterly basis.
"We have to be careful. New York is very much the exception to what is going on around the world with COVID. But we have to protect that progress," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on a teleconference Sunday. NBC New York's Katherine Creag reports.
De Blasio insisted, however, that the "overwhelming majority" of parents wanted in-person schooling.
"We gave parents the opportunity to opt out of they wanted to and do all-remote — the vast majority said no, remote doesn't work as well as in-person learning, particularly for kids who have the greatest needs," the mayor said. "What we found in so many of our communities, particularly less-privileged, less-advantaged communities, is they knew that they're kids being back in school meant not just teaching. It meant physical health support, mental health support, nutrition programs — parents want their kids to experience that again."
New York City, the nation's largest public school district with more than 1.1 million students, had been the only district of America's biggest 10 to say it would begin the year with a blended approach. The rest -- from Chicago to Los Angeles to Houston -- have chosen to start the 2020-21 academic year fully remotely.
Pharmaceutical companies are looking for people to join Phase III trials of experimental COVID-19 vaccines. Sarah Wallace reports.
Many districts have been moved to at least reconsider options in the wake of outbreaks on college campuses across America, including in New York state. Gov. Andrew Cuomo raised the warning flag for schools over the weekend and again Monday, saying that K-12 will almost certainly, inevitably see some degree of the COVID-19 clusters popping up in instutions of higher learning nationwide.
"School districts would be well advised to look at colleges. The basic dynamic is the same," the governor said Monday.
Cuomo also seemed to suggest that New York City's baseline positivity rate for re-closing its public schools -- 3 percent -- was too high.
"A 3 percent infection rate, you know, that's a high infection rate in a congregate situation. Three percent is high in a dense environment, like a dense urban environment where you have people taking public transportation; it's a crowded environment," Cuomo said. "Three percent is high."
Mayor de Blasio's 3 percent threshold to re-close New York City schools is stricter than Cuomo's is for the rest of the state (9 percent, once K-12 schools open -- or 5 percent for instituions of higher learning). The city has maintained an infection rate around 1 percent or lower for more than a month, but once people start returning more to some semblance of an out-of-home routine, that may change.
New York City students had their last day of in-class instruction March 13. All schools statewide were closed by March 18.
"We have to be careful. New York is very much the exception to what is going on around the world with COVID. But we have to protect that progress," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on a teleconference Sunday. NBC New York's Anjali Hemphill reports.
The union had threatened to strike because it was concerned the previous back-to-school plan did not account sufficiently for potential upticks in COVID cases that could endanger the safety of its members and public school students.
The last teachers strike in the city came in 1975 amid a financial crisis for New York City. The latest threats came amid another financial crisis, this one magnified exponentially by a global pandemic.
The union's at-time fractious relationship with City Hall has been made that much more tense by looming layoffs -- 22,000 city workers, many of them teachers -- made necessary by the COVID budget crisis and lack of direct federal aid.
Layoff notices were scheduled to begin going out Monday, but de Blasio said they would be delayed on a day-to-day basis after unions asked for time to convince the state to reconvene legislators to approve long-term borrowing power.
That would provide the sustenance to avert the layoffs immediately, de Blasio said, and assure critical city workers would remain on hand to continue fighting the ongoing war against coronavirus.
Copyright NBC New York
SchoolsCOVID-19reopeningStrikeuft