text:
In a perfectly timed move to kick Netflix when it's hurting, Blockbuster and Dish finally detailed their Blockbuster Movie Pass, which streams movies and TV shows to you, over the internet. Note that this is not their previous pay-per-view Blockbuster movie streaming program, which isn't that great.
The service will be for Dish customers at first, but will expand to everyone soon. At launch, BB&D will include "Starz, Epix, Sony Movie Channel, and Encore to Dish's on demand library that includes Fox, TBS, TNT, Discovery, AMC, CN, DIY, HGTV, FOOD and History," which comes at a total of 3,000 movies, or 4,000 if you watch on a computer. The price will be $10 on top of a regular Dish plan.
If you're wondering why Dish gets this first, remember that Dish bought Blockbuster half a year ago. You can watch the entire press conference here.
Blockbuster Movie Pass: Dish Network's $10/Month Answer To Netflix | TechCrunch


text:
Related: What's So Bad About The Shack?
Video: A Look Inside 'The Shack' - an interview with William Young
Read more about William Young and his novel, 'The Shack'
William Young's Personal Story
Willie's Blog
Order The Shack by William P. Young on Shop CBN
Order your copy of Finding God in 'The Shack' by Randal Rauser
More Discipleship
More from Spiritual Life
CBN.com William Young's The Shack, has become a runaway bestseller, and its story brings readers on a redemptive journey through the shacks of deepest pain and suffering in our lives, guided by the triune God of Christian faith. But even as lives have been transformed through this book, other readers have sternly denounced it as a hodgepodge of serious theological error, even heresy. With one pastor urging his congregation to read it and another forbidding his congregation to do so, many Christians have simply been left confused.
In his new book, Finding God in The Shack, theologian and author Randal Rauser takes readers on a fascinating journey through the pages of the story. Whether readers have been inspired, challenged, or even threatened by Young's novel, Finding God in The Shack is an essential tool for readers who want to better understand the Scriptural truths contained in the book's message and to apply those truths to their own lives. Each chapter concludes with a set of provocative discussion questions, making Finding God in The Shack an ideal vehicle for small group discussion.
Q: What motivated you to write Finding God in The Shack, a book that examines the theology of The Shack, William Young's best-selling novel?
A: In the short time since its publication, The Shack has ignited the church's interest in the Trinity more than the dozens of theology books that have been published by academic theologians over the last forty years. It is wonderful (if a bit humbling) for the theologian to witness a doctrine that has long been locked in the seminary classroom now emerging as a topic of lively conversations at the local coffee shop, and all because of a novel!
But while those conversations have not typically lacked for enthusiasm and conviction, many of them would benefit from some deeper background as to the theological issues at stake. I wrote Finding God in The Shack to provide that background and, hopefully, to inspire even more theological discussions among readers.
Q: What aspects of Young's book have inspired the most conversation and criticism?
A: One of my main purposes in writing Finding God in The Shack was to shed some light on—and bring some reason to—the debate surrounding some of the controversial details of Young's work. Perhaps one of the most striking aspects of The Shack is the manifestation of God the Father as "Papa," a large African-American woman, and of the Holy Spirit as an Asian woman named Sarayu. This portrayal has yielded some startling, even fantastic charges (including the frenzied charge that the book promotes goddess worship!). But even if those charges are overblown, one might still wonder whether the depiction is appropriate and what it implies about our knowledge of God.
On the point of how the three persons of the Trinity constitute the one God, critics have argued The Shack's depiction of God is seriously flawed, for it fails to distinguish the three persons. Finding God in The Shack addresses this and several other charges of heresy, using both excerpts from the book and Scripture passages to counter those accusations.
The problem of evil is central to the plot of The Shack. Readers must grapple with how a God who is all-loving and all-powerful would allow the horrific murder of young Missy, a child of whom He says He is especially fond. Finding God in The Shack delves further into the issue of theodicy (the problem of evil) and the atoning work of Christ, examining Young's choice to ignore (or bypass) the language of God's wrath against sin, instead describing the Father as suffering with the Son.
Q: How do you feel about the controversies and criticisms surrounding The Shack?
A: Most people who have read or heard about The Shack are aware of the controversies that swirl around the book. Although I appreciate the passion of the critics, I have been saddened by a frequent lack of clarity that has been shown to the book's author and its fans. And I have been especially disheartened by the advice of some influential leaders not to read the book. It is true that The Shack asks some hard questions and occasionally takes positions with which we might well disagree. But surely the answer is not found in shielding people from the conversation, but rather in leading them through it.
After all, it is through wrestling with new ideas that one learns to deal with the nuance and complexity that characterize an intellectually mature faith. Certainly, Young's book will not answer all our questions, nor does it aspire to. But we can be thankful that it has started a great conversation. I would encourage those who have avoided the novel because of these controversies to read Finding God in The Shack and discover the truth about the book's theology.
Q: What does Finding God in The Shack have to say about Young's choice to present a two-thirds female and ethnically diverse vision of God?
A: Young's vision of God brings us into the midst of some important and fascinating questions about the way that the transcendent God of all creation comes into our small world. When Mack arrives at the cabin he receives the jarring reminder that God is much more than any image: "two women and a man and none of them white? Then again, why had he naturally assumed God would be white?" When God shows up in this "unorthodox" form, Mack begins to realize how narrow his understanding of God has been: "all his visuals for God were very white and very male."
The Shack presents us with a rich picture of God's accommodation. Successful accommodators recognize that "one size does not fit all." The unfortunate reality is that many people have not had a loving human father, and Mack (the story's main character) was one of them. Because of the horrifying abuse he suffered during his childhood at the hands of his own father, an attempt to think of God as Father blasts Mack with feelings of pain, rage, and fear.
Aware of Mack's struggles and pain, "Papa" adopts the form of a loving mother to meet Mack in his dark prison. As she gently informs him: "If I choose to appear to you as a man or a woman, it's because I love you." Finding God in The Shack guides readers through several Scriptures that demonstrate Young's picture of God's accommodation is not heresy—it comes straight from God's word.
Related article: What's So Bad About The Shack?
From The 700 Club: Video: A Look Inside 'The Shack' - an interview with William Young
More from Paternoster Publishing
A caring friend will be there to pray with you in your time of need.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Varden Lodge, Sons of Norway, are holding a Partner Contract Bridge Tournament.
Date: Thursday February 27th, 2020
9am – Coffee, muffins and registration
10am – Play Bridge – five rounds
1pm – Hot lunch will be served
2pm – Bridge continues with five more rounds
Cost: $25 per person
Contact: Vivian or Helen 604 521-6714
All cash prizes.
Money raised to be used for educational grants and various sports activities. Everyone welcome.


text:
Community Baby Shower
The goal of our annual Community Baby Shower is to bring families who are currently expecting or have children ages 0-3 together with prenatal/early childhood service providers in Natrona County for an opportunity to connect and learn in a fun, welcoming atmosphere. Each booth features valuable resources from within the community offering interactive educational messages that promote healthy lifestyles, share knowledge of child and family development, and supports overall family well-being. There is no cost to attend.
In addition to valuable connections and information, attendees also have the chance to receive some baby essentials that they might need… for FREE! Past items have included diapers, wipes, diaper rash cream, nursing pads, breastmilk storage bags, bottles, bottle brushes, bibs, baby spoons, sippy cups, baby socks, onesies/gowns, fitted crib sheets, baby blankets/swaddle blankets, night lights, first aid kits, tummy time mats, baby toys, and much more!
We are currently accepting donations for the next Community Baby Shower, happening on May 7th 2022 from 10am-12pm. Donations can be dropped off at Mercer Family Resource Center (535 W Yellowstone) until Thursday, May 5th 2022.
To find out more about how YOU can get involved in our next Community Baby Shower, please call Anna La Torre at 307-233-2476, or email email@example.com


text:
How to be a mess
I haven't published a blog post in 11 months.
A bit before that, there was a gap of 16 months between posts.
Over the 6 years of this blog, I've published a grand total of 32 posts.
To say that I was inconsistent is an euphemism.
I tried to do well, I tried to follow the experts, I tried one thing and the other, in "business" and in life. But you know what?
I'm a mess.
I've spent the better part of last year very focused on my own personal growth, I followed multiple programs. I've grown a lot, and given that I value growth, I'm very happy about the internal results.
The external results, not so much.
And that didn't change the fact that for my birthday, a couple weeks ago, I felt like shit. Now, it's nothing new, pretty much every year I'm depressed around my birthday.
This year, I felt unappreciated, unloved, unworthy. If I'm not worthy, what is the point of celebrating my birthday, or me? Makes sense, right?
I could have tried to numb the pain (doesn't work), or simply hide it when it comes, pretend like I'm perfect, or say that I'm not but still hide it when something "wrong" comes up.
I'm very good at seeing what's not right, with people, systems, business.
Yet, I have no frickin idea what I'm doing.
And that's okay.
I've tried to do.
I've tried to figure out what I was meant to do.
I've read the books, did the trainings, attended the workshops.
I've beaten myself up, and I've taken care of myself.
I wanna do a million things, I wanna have an impact, I wanna love and I wanna be loved. I wanna create, I wanna help and I wanna have fun.
And I still don't know what I want to do… and I'm still a mess.
And that's still okay.
I realized it's not about what I do, it's about who I am, and who I am being.
By truly being me, I can do what matters. I can do what is the essence of me.
I've grown a lot along the years, and maybe, just maybe, sharing some of the process, being and showing who I am, might help someone.
Maybe I don't need to wait and wait and produce the perfect guide or answer or blog post.
Maybe it's more about showing who I truly am, and let others take whatever might help them or touch them.
Maybe I don't need to know what I want to do or be sure of what matters most before I take action, or create, or hit publish.
Maybe you don't either.
Yes, I'm a mess.
So what?
Maybe being truly human means being a mess, sometimes, or all the time.
Whoever I am, I am now.
Welcome to my world, I'm really glad you're here.


text:
Teatime Results
UK49s Teatime Results Monday 8 April 2024
Today UK49s Teatime Results Monday 8 April 2024, Teatime result for Today 08 April 2024, UK49 Lotto Results, 49s Teatime Booster Number, 49s Teatime Winning Numbers, UK 49s Winners, UK 49s Bonus Ball Number.
The latest UK49s Teatime Results are out, following the draw on Monday 8 April 2024 will be announced at 4:49 PM GMT:
6, 7, 11, 15, 23, 40 Bonus: 27
Hi users! Here are the UK Teatime Results for all of you. We update regularly all Afternoon Results on Monday 8 April 2024 which are holding 12:49 PM (UK).
Today's Teatime Lotto Predictions
For irregular playing balls, it might not be anything but difficult to foresee some careful rewards. In any case, not many numbers, and the following balls are all the more near the rewards. Along these lines, you only got to investigate those numbers and otherworldly balls. that's useful for the UK 49s lotto today the 2 draws.
Hot and cold balls
According to 49s Ltd, the most popular winning numbers, or hot and cold balls based on UK49 results over the years, remain pretty much the same. And they are 47, 37, 15, 19, 17 and 23 – with 18 bubbles underneath. The lowest number drawn is 4, which has been drawn 2294 times.
What is the difference between hot and cold balls? Hot balls are the most frequently drawn numbers and cold balls are the least frequently drawn numbers. We want you to win and make things easier for you.
We have a table showing what hot and cold balls are and we encourage you to take a look as this can dramatically increase your chances of winning.
The hot and cold sphere chart will update every two months. We recommend that you bookmark the page and check back every month to increase your chances of winning.
Hot and Cold Balls for the Previous Month
Meanwhile, the hot balls for the past four weeks are 48, 19 and 16 – which have been drawn 16, 13 and 12 times, respectively.
On the other hand, the cold balls for the past month are 15, 46, and 30 – which have been drawn 5, 5, and 3 times, respectively.
UK 49s Teatime winning numbers for Monday 8 April 2024
UK49s Teatime results announced, winning numbers are at 5:49 PM. GMT normally. Check out the Teatime Results for the day at some point as they will be updated here. The timing of Lottery 49 varies at times. While the time for the lunchtime Lottery results remains constant, the time for the teatime Lottery results changes. From October to February, the teatime lottery takes place at 4:49 p.m. And from February to October, it takes place at 5:49 p.m. GMT.
The previous Teatime Lottery was held on the 49th day of April 2, 2021. The time for this lottery was 5:49 PM. GMT. The winning numbers for this lottery were 17, 20, 21, 24, 30 and 4. The booster number was 3. We will also share details here on hot and cold numbers at tea time for those interested in knowledge. The hottest numbers or the numbers that appear most frequently are 37, 15, 4, 34, 47, and 23. The hottest numbers for numbers increased during tea time are 25, 9, 19, 35, 38, and 8.
How do you play the UK Teatime game?
Lottery 49 teatime is similar to many other lotteries out there
- The UK 49s Teatime Lottery is comparatively similar to all other lotteries
- You need to pick six numbers and one booster number from a lot of 1 to 49 numbers to play the UK 49s Teatime Lottery
- You can either play the 6 number draw or the 7 number draw in the UK 49s Teatime Lottery
- A Booster ball is included in the seven number draw that will improve the odds of winning the lottery.
- You can also pick your own numbers, or let the Lucky Dip randomly choose certain numbers for you.
Cost of the bet and prize money
The price per bet (minimum bet) at lunch or tea time is £ 1. For the six-digit draw, the numbers are selected and if one of the selected numbers matches the winning numbers, the winning prize will be £ 7 and if the same happens in Draw No. 7, it will be £ 6. To match two winning numbers in Draw # 6, the prize is £ 54 and for # 7, the draw is £ 39.
The winning prize for 3 numbers identical to the winning numbers is £ 601 for the 6-digit draw and for the withdrawal of the seven numbers £ 330 if all 4 numbers are identical, the prize will be £ 7,200 in the 6-digit draw and in number 7, the winning prize is £ 3,800. Finally, for a bet that matches 5 of the winning numbers from the 6-digit draw, the winning prize is £ 125,000, and Draw No.7, if the same occurs, the winning prize is £ 40,000.
How do UK49s Teatime Results work?
The Uk 49s is one of those lotteries that has been around for quite some time. This lottery also works like any other lottery with the bettor drawing 6 numbers and 1 booster ball. These numbers can range from 0 to 49. Bettors can also choose to draw a 7-digit booster ball. Drawing seven numbers increases the chances of winning a prize and therefore the prize money for those who chose to draw 7 numbers will be less compared to those who rolled 6 numbers.


text:
Gemini 11 took astronauts Dick Gordon and Pete Conrad into space, setting an altitude record of 850 miles (1,400 kilometers). This Gemini mission gave us the first view of Earth as a sphere, and was also the first American flight to have a computer-controlled reentry.
Gemini 11 capsule
Project Gemini bridged the gap between the Mercury program, the first project to put an astronaut in space, and the Apollo program, which landed humans on the moon. After two uncrewed test flights in 1964, ten crewed Gemini missions took place in 1965-66. Each of the crewed missions had a two-man crew, which inspired the name of the project. Gemini is the name of the constellation containing twin stars, Castor and Pollux.
The main goals of the Gemini project were developed to match the tasks that might come up on a trip to the moon. The official objectives of the program were:
- "To subject man and equipment to space flight up to two weeks in duration;
- To rendezvous and dock with orbiting vehicles and to maneuver the docked combination by using the target vehicle's propulsion system;
- To perfect methods of entering the atmosphere and landing at a predetermined point on land;
- To gain additional information concerning the effects of weightlessness on crew members and to record the physiological reactions of crew members during long duration flights."
The design for the Gemini capsule grew out of the basic tried and tested design of the Mercury capsules. However, the complexity of the new project called for two astronauts and many technological advances. The Gemini capsule had to hold two astronauts for flights lasting as long as two weeks, compared to the longest Mercury flight of 34 hours and 20 minutes. In addition, the capsule had to offer accessible storage for food and scientific equipment, and had to be maneuverable both in space and during reentry so the capsule could dock with another spacecraft in orbit and land in a specific place. As a result, the Gemini capsule was launched with a service module that carried supplies and some life support. The Gemini capsule also featured thrusters around the nose of the capsule that made it possible for the astronauts to fly around a target.
During the Gemini 11 mission, astronauts Dick Gordon and Pete Conrad spent three days in space, practicing the skills needed for the Apollo moon missions and carrying out the twelve experiments on board. In the first orbit of Gemini 11, the astronauts docked the capsule with the Agena, another orbiting craft. The astronauts used the Agena's propulsion system and fuel to boost the Gemini capsule into a higher orbit. Later in the flight, the astronauts undocked Gemini from Agena, and then tried to spin the two crafts which were then only connected by a tether line. The spinning experiment was designed to see if the rotation of the crafts could simulate a gravitational force.
Gordon also had two EVAs (Extravehicular Activities, also known as trips outside the capsule) during the mission, once on a 33-minute spacewalk and once standing in an open capsule hatch for about two hours. He used the time outside the capsule to take photos of Earth and the stars.
As with all Gemini flights, the health of the astronauts was continuously monitored and relayed back to Earth during the mission. Underneath their flight suits, the astronauts wore a biosensor suit that measured blood pressure, body temperature, respiration and heart rate. Film recorded during the flight was used for study of astronaut behavior in microgravity. However, only one of the twelve Gemini experiments addressed human life in space. The experiment examined the effects of radiation and microgravity on isolated human blood cells.
The inside of the Gemini capsule is very small—so small that the astronauts had to put on their space suits and open the capsule hatch if they wanted to stand up. While in space, they ate three freeze-dried meals a day, went to the bathroom using hoses and bags, and cleaned house just by opening the hatch—everything that wasn't attached was sucked out into space!
The Science Center's Gemini Capsule
The Gemini 11 on display in the Air and Space Gallery is the actual capsule that went out into space in September 1966, on loan to us from the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
On the bottom of the craft, you can see the pattern that was burned into the heat shield when the capsule reentered the Earth's atmosphere. During reentry, friction with the atmosphere heated the shield, made of fiberglass and resin, up to 3,500°F (1,900°C). The outer surface vaporized from a solid to a gas. As it boiled away, it carried away heat. The black pattern on the heat shield is made of the carbon residue left behind. The pattern isn't centered on the heat shield because the capsule came into the atmosphere at an angle. Entering at an angle gave the capsule some lift, like a wing. The commander could adjust the reentry flight path if needed.


text:
Today was another first for me.
Chloe the Rottweiler is way past due for her shots and we don't have a car in which to take her to the veterinarian. Yesterday we took the little chihuahua pups in to the vet for their vaccinations. We have a pet travel bag so it was no problem taking them in the taxi, but what taxi driver would allow us to load a Rottweiler into the back seat? Yeah, right.
I explained our dilemma to the vet and asked if he thought we could give her the shots. He explained very briefly how to do it and off we went.
I think it is not that uncommon for many Hondurans to give their animals shots because you can buy what you need at an agropecuaria (farm feed store). Not so with this gringa! I don't even like to watch. The vet laughs at me when I'm holding the dog for him crying "Eeew! Ouch! Oh, no!".
The rabies shot was ready to go but the other vaccination came in two bottles. I was supposed to mix the powder with the liquid. At first, I thought, "How do I get that powder up the needle?" Then I remembered that I saw him suck the liquid up the needle and then squirt it into the powder bottle and shake it to mix. That makes more sense! Duh!
El Jefe held Chloe while I pulled up the skin on her shoulder like I saw the vet do. I was afraid to stick the needle in too far, so of course, the first time I just jabbed her and the needle didn't go in at all. I tried again and got it in further but the vaccine wouldn't come out of the needle. It felt like as if I was trying to vaccinate a piece of leather. At that point, I said "You do it" to El Jefe, but he said, "No, YOU do it." So once again, I had to push the needle in further. Poor Chloe!
She was very good about it and has forgiven me. It is amazing the things you can do when you have to!
Sorry − no video! :-)


text: CRIME A crime is an act (or transgression or omission) that is in breach of the law, usually because it endangers or aggrieves individuals or society. JUSTICE Justice is the principal of balance and fairness brought to bear in the process of evaluating human behaviour and interaction. Thus it is closely associated with crime. CRIMINAL JUSTICE Criminal Justice is society's response to crime. While it often has the effect of balancing or redressing the negative effects of crime, its full range of operations, criminal justice also functions to prevent crime and promote community safety. CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM The criminal justice system consists of State and Commonwealth institutions, agencies, departments, and personnel responsible for dealing with the justice aspects of crime, victims of crime, persons accused of committing a crime, and other related issues and processes.


text:
At his pediatrics practice in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Dr. Alaa Al Nofal sees up to 10 patients a day. He's known some of them since they were born. Others, he still treats after they've graduated from high school.
"I treat these children for Type 1 diabetes, thyroid problems, thyroid cancer, puberty disorders and adrenal gland diseases," he said.
Al Nofal's expertise is critical. He is one of just five full-time pediatric endocrinologists in a 150,000 square-mile area that covers both South and North Dakota.
Like most of rural America, it's a region plagued by a shortage of doctors.
"We're very lucky to have Dr. Al Nofal here. We can't afford to lose someone with his specialization," said Cindy Morrison, chief marketing officer for Sanford Health, a non-profit health care system based in Sioux Falls that runs 300 hospitals and clinics in predominantly rural communities.
Related: Visa ban could make doctor shortage in rural America even worse
Yet, Sanford Health may lose Al Nofal and several other doctors who are crucial to its health care network.
A Syrian citizen, Al Nofal is in Sioux Falls through a special workforce development program called the Conrad 30 visa waiver — which basically waives the requirement that doctors who complete their residency on a J-1 exchange visitor visa must return to their country of origin for two years before applying for another American visa. The Conrad 30 waiver allows him to stay in the U.S. for a maximum of three years as long as he commits to practicing in an area where there is a doctor shortage.
After President Donald Trump issued a temporary immigration ban restricting people from seven Muslim-majority countries — including Syria — from entering the U.S., Al Nofal is unsure about his future in America.
"We agree that something more has to be done to protect the country, but this executive order will have a negative effect on physicians from these countries who are badly needed across America," said Al Nofal. "They may no longer want to practice in the United States." The action is currently in legal limbo after a federal appeals court temporarily halted the ban.
Related: Trump furious after court upholds block on travel ban
Over the last 15 years, the Conrad 30 visa waiver has funneled 15,000 foreign physicians into underserved communities.
Sanford Health has 75 physicians in total on these visa waivers and seven are from the countries listed in the executive order. "If we lost Dr. Al Nofal and our other J-1 physicians, we would be unable to fill critical gaps in access to health care for rural families," said Sanford Health's Morrison.
And the ban could hurt the pipeline of new doctors, too. The Conrad 30 visa waiver program is fed by medical school graduates holding J-1 non-immigrant visas who have completed their residencies in the U.S.
More than 6,000 medical trainees from foreign countries enroll every year in U.S. residency programs through J-1 visas. About 1,000 of these trainees are from countries caught up in the ban, according to the American Association of Medical Colleges. J-1 visa holders who were out of the country when the ban went into effect were prohibited from entering the U.S. and unable to start or finish school as long as the ban is in place.
The State Department told CNNMoney that the government may issue J-1 visas to people who are from one of the blocked countries if it is of "national interest," but would not confirm whether a doctor shortage would qualify for such consideration.
"The stress and concern generated by the short-term executive order could have long-term implications, with fewer physicians choosing training programs in the states and subsequently magnifying the deficit in providers willing to practice in underserved and rural areas," said Dr. Larry Dial, vice dean for clinical affairs at Marshall University's school of medicine in Huntington, West Virginia.
Related: Obamacare's impact on this Alaska town with only one doctor's office
Al Nofal went to medical school in Damascus, Syria's capital, and completed his residency at the University of Texas on a J-1 visa. He proceeded to a fellowship at the Mayo Clinic and then applied for a J-1 waiver, which placed him in Sioux Falls.
Nineteen months into his three-year commitment, Al Nofal is either directly treating or serving as a consulting physician to more than 400 pediatric patients a month on average.
He sees most of his patients at the Sanford Children's Specialty Clinic in Sioux Falls, where families often drive hours for an appointment. Once a month, he flies in a small plane to see patients in a clinic in Aberdeen, about 200 miles away.
"It's not easy being a doctor in this setting," said Al Nofal, citing the long hours and South Dakota's famously frigid winters. "But as a physician, I'm trained to help people whatever the circumstances and I'm proud of it."
It's one of the reasons why Al Nofal and his American wife Alyssa have struggled to come to terms with the visa ban.
"I have a 10-month old baby and I can't travel to Syria now. My family in Syria can't come here," he said. "Now my family can't meet their first grandson."
"I know if we leave I probably can never come back," he said. Neither does he want to travel anywhere in the country right now. "I'm afraid of how I will be treated," he said. He's also afraid he will be stopped at the airport — even if he's traveling to another state.
Related: Trump travel ban and what you need to know
Almatmed Abdelsalam, who's from Benghazi, Libya, had planned to start practicing as a family physician in Macon, Georgia, through the visa waiver program after he completed his residency at the University of Central Florida's College of Medicine in July.
Everything was going smoothly. Abdelsalam, who treats hospital patients and veterans, applied for the visa waiver and was accepted. He signed an employment contract with Magna Care, which provides physicians to three hospitals in the Macon area and he had started looking at houses to relocate himself, his wife and their two young kids over the summer.
But there was one last step. For his J-1 waiver application to be fully completed, it needs to get final approval from the State Department and the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.
"The executive order came in the middle of that process, stalling my application at the State Department," he said.
Because he's a Libyan citizen (Libya is also subject to the visa ban), Abdelsalam is fearful of the outcome.
"The hospital in Macon urgently needs doctors. Even though they've hired me, I'm not sure how long they can wait for me," he said.
"No one can argue it's necessary to keep the country safe, but we should also keep the country healthy," he said. "Doctors like me, trained in the U.S. at some of the best schools, are an asset not a liability."
CNNMoney (New York) First published February 10, 2017: 7:47 PM ET
Source link


text:
Welcome to our New Website!
Council #8337 Blog * Written by MN Knights
Welcome to the new official website for our council. Here you can find our latest events, photos, information about our programs, and more. The goal for this website is to become the go-to resource for our council members, as well as for potential new members!


text:
Apple Watch Series 4 - 6 (44MM) Full Cover Glass Screen Protector
Regular price
with Free Delivery
Sale Ends
24 Hour Delivery
Free Delivery
UK Based
Express Delivery
people are looking right now
Specifically designed for your device this cover offers edge to edge full screen protection. Constructed from tempered glass with 9H hardness rating it effectively reduces the force of any impact and will prevent the screen from cracking or scratching by any sharp object. This is accomplished at just 0.33mm thickness, alongside an oleophobic coating protecting your screen from smudges, fingerprints, water, oil without leading any bubbles or residue.


text:
Worth Saving the Planet Sticker - 6x3.5in - White - Oval
Passionate about stopping climate change? Frustrated by the growing culture of climate silence? Us too! Global warming is the issue of our time!
This durable vinyl sticker is just what you need to get the message out that CLIMATE CHANGE is REAL and the planet is WORTH SAVING. It is 6 X 3.5 inches, and is great for car windows, bumpers, doors, surfboards, skateboards, laptops, scooters, coolers, fridges and much more.
It is thoughtfully designed to be highly visible from a distance and priced to be affordable. Adhere it somewhere visible or give one to a friend or colleague so they can amplify the message. This sticker is just what you need to let people know you care!
Key Features
Looking for a way to tell the world you're tired of climate inaction?
Frustrated that more people aren't yelling climate justice from the treetops!
This climate change sticker is just for you!
Let's face it, people don't talk enough about climate change. Academic studies from Yale, George Mason, EcoAmerica, and others have shown that although people are concerned, they just don't talk about the issue. The emerging 'climate of silence' is as serious an issue as finding a way to stop big oil.
Raising awareness - i.e. letting people know that you care - is possibly the single most important thing you can do to take climate action.
With a climate change sticker, the next time you fire up your laptop for your 8-hour session at Starbucks, the library, or wherever you hang, you will be continuously demonstrating to the rest of the world that real people - like you - actually think about, care, and most likely vote for the climate!
The possible locations for this sticker are limitless and include: laptops, desktop computers, car bumpers, iPads, doors, phone carriers, luggage rollers, office environments, helmets, refrigerators, whiteboards, cabinet doors, indoor windows, motorcycles, bikes, surfboards, and skateboards; the list goes on and on.
- Individual Die Cut Sticker
- Oval Design
- 6x3.5 inches
- High-Quality Vinyl Stock
- Highly durable
- UV finish
- Outdoor Use
- Water/weather resistant
- Standard Tac Adhesive Peel-Off Back
Yes, we design and provision these stickers ourselves!
Have a suggestion about a climate action design we should carry? Send us a note at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Climate Action at It's Best
This product helps raise awareness about the climate crisis, global warming, and its immense human and ecological impact.
When you use this Sticker you are sending a lot of amazing messages to others. Here's what they might be thinking when they see yours:
- You care about the climate, oceans, reefs, the planet and all of its ecosystems and inhabitants.
- You probably think the issue is urgent and the time to act is now.
- You care enough to want to let other people know it's important to you.
- You believe the climate science - in opposition to the deniers.
- You believe there is still time to take action.
- You support renewable energy, carbon pricing, and smart policies like a carbon fee-and-dividend program.
- You're a compassionate person who cares about future generations.
Thanks for caring about the climate, taking action, and raising awareness for smart solutions!
Weight | 0.007140 |
Brand | ClimateStore |
Shape | oval |
Size (inches) | 6x3.5 in |
Color | White |
Climate Message | Worth Saving |
Indoor/Outdoor | Outdoor (UV coat) |


text:
It continues to be competitive for companies to attract and retain workers.
The pandemic now has more businesses changing their time-off policies long-term.
Many people have had to take time off over the last year for family obligations with schools or child care closed, or to care for aging family members.
"Employers are looking at that, in particular, because they see that there is a need for people to take time off, and so, and this is important, and I think that's why they're looking at these benefits around, particularly, families. But again, you know, across the board, looking at other benefits that might be appealing to their employees," said Amber Clayton, Director of the SHRM HR Knowledge Center.
Paid parental leave has grown sharply so far this year. About 60% of the more than 400 employers in a new survey from asset management company Mercer are offering this benefit now for new birth and non-birth parents. That's up from 40% in 2018.
Bed Bath & Beyond is one of the latest companies to say it's adding paid parental leave for new parents.
"If the employer doesn't have these policies available now, there's no harm in and asking their managers, asking HR if that's something that the employer is looking into. It's very possible that they are, and the employee might not be aware of it yet," said Clayton.
Worst case scenario is they say no and then you have to decide if it's worth staying with the company or not.
Paid parental leave isn't the only benefit we're seeing more of now. Help with child care expenses and on-site child care are also becoming more common.


text:
American advocates of imperialism have been few and far between, and we have to go all the way back to the latter years of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th to unearth the most explicit. Theodore Roosevelt is perhaps the best known, but there were others: notably, Capt. Alfred T. Mahan, who advocated a big American Navy with island possessions to serve as bases, and Commodore Matthew C. Perry, who forced Japan to submit to Western intrusion, a turn of events that both sides would later have good reason to regret. Other champions of Empire included Henry Adams, Brooks Adams, Massachusetts Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge, Charles A. Conant, and Jeremiah W. Jenks.
These influential men, some associated with or directly employed by the Morgan financial interests, argued that American capitalism could not sustain itself without forcibly opening up foreign markets. They argued that America must become, like the monarchies of Europe, an imperial power on a world scale: it was either that or economic ruination.
This, of course, is the Leninist theory of imperialism: since capitalist markets must either expand or collapse completely, the system requires an imperialistic foreign policy. The ruling class, having commandeered the state, uses its armed fist to smash overseas competition, bust open foreign markets, and loot conquered lands. Instead of condemning this policy, however, as predatory and immoral, the "right-wing Leninists," as Joe Stromberg dubbed them in a perceptive piece on this site, advocated it as the only right and proper course.
Yet the "right-wing Leninists" turned out to be wrong. The costs of imperialism, as the war in the Philippines made clear, far outweighed the benefits which were narrowly distributed, at any rate. The major American critics of Rooseveltian imperialism, who advocated an international division of labor and free trade between nations the doctrine of economic liberalism were disdained equally by the House of Morgan and the Leninists. Yet their analysis of the probable course of empire that it would end in bankruptcy, tyranny, and the end of the old republic has been confirmed by events.
If our leaders should ever trade in their republican cloth coats for the imperial purple, the leaders of the Anti-Imperialist League such as Edward Atkinson averred, it would signal the decline and fall of our civilization. If bankruptcy is the first symptom of that decline, then the looming prospect of economic catastrophe that seems to hang over us these days augurs ill: they're already calling it the "Iraq recession," and, indeed, MoveOn.org and allied groups are mounting a campaign around this theme. They might as well call it the Imperial Depression, because it's all about the tremendous drain on otherwise productive resources down the rat-hole of "nation-building." The Bush administration is boasting about how many schools they've built in Iraq! Yet our own schools are overcrowded, under-funded, and downright dangerous.
America's road to empire has taken quite a different turn than that imagined by the early advocates of American imperialism. It turns out that imperialism benefits the imperialists (i.e., the citizens of the aggressor state) not at all: it is the undeveloped nations, competing with the "dominant" West, that now have the advantage. Without Chinese investors buying into our debt, the U.S. economy would sink like a stone. Chinese workers are increasingly the source of a wide range of products we no longer have the capacity to make: as the industrial core of the U.S. is hollowed out, China grows fat with massive capital investments.
In this context, it is instructive to recall the words of Roosevelt before an audience in Chicago, in praise of what he called "the strenuous life":
"We cannot, if we would, play the part of China, and be content to rot by inches in ignoble ease within our borders, taking no interest in what goes on beyond them, sunk in a scrambling commercialism; heedless of the higher life, the life of aspiration, of toil and risk, busying ourselves only with the wants of our bodies for the day, until suddenly we should find, beyond a shadow of question, what China has already found, that in this world the nation that has trained itself to a career of unwarlike and isolated ease is bound, in the end, to go down before other nations which have not lost the manly and adventurous qualities."
If ever a stance has been discredited by history, then surely it is the Rooseveltian disdain for China's alleged "scrambling commercialism." If Beijing decided to cut our purse-strings tomorrow, the mighty American Empire would fall quicker than its Soviet counterpart, albeit with a much louder crash. The strenuous life leads to exhaustion. In the life of a nation, this means economic exhaustion, otherwise known as bankruptcy.
Yet "the strenuous life" has its contemporary advocates in the "national greatness" school of neoconservatism, and specifically in the person of John McCain, Teddy Roosevelt's modern incarnation. In a 2002 speech at the University of Southern California, McCain specifically invoked Roosevelt's strenuous imperialism as his political credo:
"Theodore Roosevelt is one of my greatest political heroes. The 'strenuous life' was T.R.'s definition of Americanism, a celebration of America's pioneer ethos, the virtues that had won the West and inspired our belief in ourselves as the New Jerusalem, bound by sacred duty to suffer hardship and risk danger to protect the values of our civilization and impart them to humanity. 'We cannot sit huddled within our borders,' he warned, 'and avow ourselves merely an assemblage of well-to-do hucksters who care nothing for what happens beyond.'"
Putting the phrases McCain cites in context, let us see what else T.R. brayed that day:
"We cannot sit huddled within our own borders and avow ourselves merely an assemblage of well-to-do hucksters who care nothing for what happens beyond. Such a policy would defeat even its own end; for as the nations grow to have ever wider and wider interests, and are brought into closer and closer contact, if we are to hold our own in the struggle for naval and commercial supremacy, we must build up our power without our own borders. We must build the isthmian canal, and we must grasp the points of vantage which will enable us to have our say in deciding the destiny of the oceans of the East and the West.
"So much for the commercial side. From the standpoint of international honor the argument is even stronger ."
The ideology of T.R. and his academic and political acolytes was crude mercantilism: "grasp" those markets, boys! This "grasp and grab" foreign policy was carried out by the U.S. military, from Panama to Nicaragua and outward to Cuba, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and even the distant Philippines where the dream of empire expired, albeit only temporarily, in a paroxysm of bloody resistance.
The policy of imperialism, far from being the cause of riches descending on the nation, was an expensive and divisive "solution" to the alleged crisis of American capitalism, one that could not be sustained then any more than it cannot be sustained now. As underscored by the costs involved in setting up and defending our newly conquered Iraqi province, our empire is not a gain, economically, but a drain although a new, rising class of war profiteers, colonial administrators, and investment bankers underwriting the whole imperial project directly benefits from our policies. McCain is their voice and their champion.
Republican critics of McCain's immigration stance will see in his 2002 speech the origins of his peculiar indifference to the concept of American sovereignty peculiar, that is, in an apparent American nationalist. Yet McCain's nationalism is not the inward-looking sort but an aggressively extroverted variety that seeks to impose itself and its will as far as the eye can see. As McCain puts it in his 2002 paean to Roosevelt:
"His Americanism was not fidelity to a tribal identity. Nor was it limited to a sentimental attachment to our 'amber waves of grain' or 'purple mountains majesty.' Roosevelt's Americanism exalted the political values of a nation where the people were sovereign, recognizing not only the inherent justice of self-determination, not only that freedom empowered individuals to decide their destiny for themselves, but that it empowered them to choose a common destiny. And for Roosevelt that common destiny surpassed material gain and self-interest. Our freedom and our industry must aspire to more than acquisition and luxury. We must live out the true meaning of freedom, and accept 'that we have duties to others and duties to ourselves; and we can shirk neither.'"
Those who would shirk their "duty" to uplift the world the enemies of the strenuous life were excoriated by Roosevelt in thunderous tones, a heavy fusillade of self-righteous fury that only McCain, in our own day, could match:
"The timid man, the lazy man, the man who distrusts his country, the over-civilized man, who has lost the great fighting, masterful virtues, the ignorant man, and the man of dull mind, whose soul is incapable of feeling the mighty lift that thrills 'stern men with empires in their brains' all these, of course, shrink from seeing the nation undertake its new duties; shrink from seeing us build a navy and an army adequate to our needs; shrink from seeing us do our share of the world's work, by bringing order out of chaos in the great, fair tropic islands from which the valor of our soldiers and sailors has driven the Spanish flag. These are the men who fear the strenuous life."
The bluster, the boasting, the volcanic anger barely suppressed, the stern admonition to "bring order out of chaos" as if he were a god, or God Himself! The megalomania, the posturing, the call to empire it all sounds like McCain. As The Atlantic's Matthew Yglesias put it in his commentary on McCain channeling Roosevelt, the putative GOP presidential nominee "is, among practical politicians, perhaps the single most committed advocate of an imperial vision of American foreign policy out there." Yglesias very smartly points out that
"To McCain, a commitment to universalism requires American expansionism. Indeed, to McCain it is precisely commitment to this imperial vision that makes American patriotism superior to other brands of nationalism. Our own patriotism would become compromised by stinginess and selfishness were we to show more restraint in world affairs."
The economic argument for expansionism having been long ago discredited, McCain must lean on what T.R. deemed "the standpoint of international honor":
"Some critics, in his day and ours, saw in Roosevelt's patriotism only flag-waving chauvinism, not all that dissimilar to Old World ancestral allegiances that incited one people to subjugate another and plunged whole continents into war. But they did not see the universality of the ideals that formed his creed."
Republicans are not rallying around McCain's ascetic militarism, as they were expected to, and conservatives distrust him on a wide range of issues. This distrust is rooted in the very universalism so beloved by McCain: it accounts for his de facto open borders position, as well as his foreign policy. After all, if America is to be the center of a world empire, then we can hardly deny entry to our foreign subjects, who will be linked to us in myriad legal, social, political, and administrative networks all this, in addition to the normal commercial ties. The policy of imperialism, carried to its end, means the de facto abolition of borders.
This same militant universalism means the creation of a warrior caste as its priesthood, and McCain is the living symbol of this type. The differences with the traditional bourgeois Republican were underscored by McCain during the Republican debates, where the candidate's disdain for Mitt Romney's career as a successful entrepreneur was all too plain. This made a large part of the Republican base distinctly uncomfortable: after all, what's wrong with being a businessman, anyway?
Romney's career trajectory is held in contempt by McCain because it violates the precepts of the warrior ethic he brings to public life. It is selfish, self-serving, and has nothing to do with "national greatness," that concept so beloved by T.R. and his current imitator. Tax cuts? Why, the very idea is wedded to as Teddy put it "that base spirit of gain and greed which recognizes in commercialism the be-all and end-all of national life, instead of realizing that, though an indispensable element, it is, after all, but one of the many elements that go to make up true national greatness."
This is going to be a very interesting presidential election year. For the first time, a presidential candidate is going to campaign on a platform of open, out-of-the-closet imperialism. A war-weary nation will be hectored endlessly by McCain, and exhorted to "sacrifice" when their homes are being foreclosed. The Republicans' only hope, it seems to me, is copying the Clintons' smear campaign against Barack Obama and hoping that America will never elect a black man with a middle name like "Hussein" and a last name that rhymes with "Osama." That photo of Obama in what one Clintonite referred to as "his native garb" will come in handy, I'm sure.
I see on Amazon that the official publication date of Reclaiming the American Right: The Lost Legacy of the Conservative Movement is May 30. You can pre-order, though, either through Amazon or through the Web site recently set up by the publisher, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute.
I wrote Reclaiming in 1992, and it was published the next year by the Center for Libertarian Studies, went through two editions, and then went out of print. It is an alternative, and admittedly polemical, history of conservatism in America, seen through the prism of changing foreign policy perspectives, from the "isolationism" of the Old Right to the openly imperialistic doctrines of neoconservatism.
ISI is bringing it back, with a new introduction by George W. Carey and commentaries by Scott Richert and David Gordon, as well as the original introduction by Pat Buchanan. The book's reissue could not be more timely. Certainly the rise of the neoconservatives predicted in the book along with the rise of the Ron Paul movement, have confirmed the book's thesis and its relevance for today. I see that word is already getting out, so get your copies while they last.


text:
We are open from 9.00am to 5.00pm, Monday to Saturday. Local Delivery (S40/S41) and "Click & Collect" are available when you order via the website.
Novelty palm tree buttons in 3 colours.
Sold individually.
Coats Moon Polyester Sewing Thread
Elastic Flat Corded 4mm - 12mm
Elastic Flat woven
Soft Flat Elastic (4mm)
Herringbone Tape (Acrylic webbing)


text:
Original post:
Still crazy after all these years (1821).
From the Guardian:
Cannes Lions Awards, June 2012
The Guardian's Three Little Pigs TV campaign was among the material honoured at this year's Cannes Lions awards, which took place last week during 17 - 23 June. The campaign, by Bartle Bogle Hegarty London, won a gold lion in the Film category, one gold and five silver lions in the Film Craft category and a silver in the Titanium and Integrated category. Andrea Stillacci, one of the judges of the Film section, praised the campaign calling it very "today."...
...The Guardian was also rewarded in the Outdoor Lions category, scooping seven silver lions for Bartle Bogle Hegarty's campaigns 'egg', 'pyramid', 'gold coin', 'pill', 'record', 'orange' and 'pie chart.'...MOREHT chain: Freakonomics>Poynter>AdWeek


text:
Your personal information
Bosayne web site does not automatically capture or store personal information, other than logging the user's IP address and session info such as the duration of the visit and the type of browser used. This is recognised by the Web server and is only used for system administration and to provide statistics, which Bosayne uses to evaluate use of the site. We do not use cookies for collecting user information from the site. You may be asked for personal information if you would require further information on our services or if you wish us to contact you. In each case we will only use the personal information you provide to deliver the information you have told us you require. This privacy policy only covers Bosayne. Links within this site to other websites are not covered by this policy but by their own policies where appropriate.
How we use cookies
We use a number of different cookies on our site. If you do not know what cookies are, or how to control or delete them, then we recommend you visit http://www.aboutcookies.org for detailed guidance. The list below describes the cookies we use on this site and what we use them for. Currently, we operate an 'implied consent' policy which means that we assume you are happy with this usage. If you are not happy, then you should either not use this site, or you should delete the cookies having visited the site, or you should browse the site using your browser's anonymous usage setting (called "Incognito" in Chrome, "InPrivate" for Internet Explorer, "Private Browsing" in Firefox and Safari etc.)
Our website runs the popular WordPress CMS and cookies are used to store basic data on your interactions with WordPress, and whether you have logged into WordPress. We use a session cookie to remember your log-in for you if you are a registered user and we deem these as being strictly necessary to the working of the website. If these are disabled then various functionality on the site will be broken. More information on session cookies and what they are used for at http://www.allaboutcookies.org/cookies/session-cookies-used-for.html
Google Analytics:
We use Google Analytics to collect information about visitor behaviour on our website. Google Analytics stores information about what pages you visit, how long you are on the site, how you got here and what you click on. This Analytics data is collected via a JavaScript tag in the pages of our site and is not tied to personally identifiable information. We, therefore, do not collect or store your personal information (e.g. your name or address) so this information cannot be used to identify who you are. You can find out more about Google's position on privacy as regards its analytics service at http://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/analytics/privacyoverview.html


text:
Benjamin Neuman, Professor of Biology, Texas A&M University-Texarkana
COVID-19 is caused by a coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2. Coronaviruses belong to a group of viruses that infect animals, from peacocks to whales. They're named for the bulb-tipped spikes that project from the virus's surface and give the appearance of a corona surrounding it.
A coronavirus infection usually plays out one of two ways: as an infection in the lungs that includes some cases of what people would call the common cold, or as an infection in the gut that causes diarrhea. COVID-19 starts out in the lungs like the common cold coronaviruses, but then causes havoc with the immune system that can lead to long-term lung damage or death.
SARS-CoV-2 is genetically very similar to other human respiratory coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV. However, the subtle genetic differences translate to significant differences in how readily a coronavirus infects people and how it makes them sick.
SARS-CoV-2 has all the same genetic equipment as the original SARS-CoV, which caused a global outbreak in 2003, but with around 6,000 mutations sprinkled around in the usual places where coronaviruses change. Think whole milk versus skim milk.
Compared to other human coronaviruses like MERS-CoV, which emerged in the Middle East in 2012, the new virus has customized versions of the same general equipment for invading cells and copying itself. However, SARS-CoV-2 has a totally different set of genes called accessories, which give this new virus a little advantage in specific situations. For example, MERS has a particular protein that shuts down a cell's ability to sound the alarm about a viral intruder. SARS-CoV-2 has an unrelated gene with an as-yet unknown function in that position in its genome. Think cow milk versus almond milk.
How the virus infects
Every coronavirus infection starts with a virus particle, a spherical shell that protects a single long string of genetic material and inserts it into a human cell. The genetic material instructs the cell to make around 30 different parts of the virus, allowing the virus to reproduce. The cells that SARS-CoV-2 prefers to infect have a protein called ACE2 on the outside that is important for regulating blood pressure.
The infection begins when the long spike proteins that protrude from the virus particle latch on to the cell's ACE2 protein. From that point, the spike transforms, unfolding and refolding itself using coiled spring-like parts that start out buried at the core of the spike. The reconfigured spike hooks into the cell and crashes the virus particle and cell together. This forms a channel where the string of viral genetic material can snake its way into the unsuspecting cell.
SARS-CoV-2 spreads from person to person by close contact. The Shincheonji Church outbreak in South Korea in February provides a good demonstration of how and how quickly SARS-CoV-2 spreads. It seems one or two people with the virus sat face to face very close to uninfected people for several minutes at a time in a crowded room. Within two weeks, several thousand people in the country were infected, and more than half of the infections at that point were attributable to the church. The outbreak got to a fast start because public health authorities were unaware of the potential outbreak and were not testing widely at that stage. Since then, authorities have worked hard and the number of new cases in South Korea has been falling steadily.
How the virus makes people sick
SARS-CoV-2 grows in type II lung cells, which secrete a soap-like substance that helps air slip deep into the lungs, and in cells lining the throat. As with SARS, most of the damage in COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus, is caused by the immune system carrying out a scorched earth defense to stop the virus from spreading. Millions of cells from the immune system invade the infected lung tissue and cause massive amounts of damage in the process of cleaning out the virus and any infected cells.
Each COVID-19 lesion ranges from the size of a grape to the size of a grapefruit. The challenge for health care workers treating patients is to support the body and keep the blood oxygenated while the lung is repairing itself.
SARS-CoV-2 has a sliding scale of severity. Patients under age 10 seem to clear the virus easily, most people under 40 seem to bounce back quickly, but older people suffer from increasingly severe COVID-19. The ACE2 protein that SARS-CoV-2 uses as a door to enter cells is also important for regulating blood pressure, and it does not do its job when the virus gets there first. This is one reason COVID-19 is more severe in people with high blood pressure.
SARS-CoV-2 is more severe than seasonal influenza in part because it has many more ways to stop cells from calling out to the immune system for help. For example, one way that cells try to respond to infection is by making interferon, the alarm signaling protein. SARS-CoV-2 blocks this by a combination of camouflage, snipping off protein markers from the cell that serve as distress beacons and finally shredding any anti-viral instructions that the cell makes before they can be used. As a result, COVID-19 can fester for a month, causing a little damage each day, while most people get over a case of the flu in less than a week.
At present, the transmission rate of SARS-CoV-2 is a little higher than that of the pandemic 2009 H1N1 influenza virus, but SARS-CoV-2 is at least 10 times as deadly. From the data that is available now, COVID-19 seems a lot like severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), though it's less likely than SARS to be severe.
What isn't known
There are still many mysteries about this virus and coronaviruses in general – the nuances of how they cause disease, the way they interact with proteins inside the cell, the structure of the proteins that form new viruses and how some of the basic virus-copying machinery works.
Another unknown is how COVID-19 will respond to changes in the seasons. The flu tends to follow cold weather, both in the northern and southern hemispheres. Some other human coronaviruses spread at a low level year-round, but then seem to peak in the spring. But nobody really knows for sure why these viruses vary with the seasons.
What is amazing so far in this outbreak is all the good science that has come out so quickly. The research community learned about structures of the virus spike protein and the ACE2 protein with part of the spike protein attached just a little over a month after the genetic sequence became available. I spent my first 20 or so years working on coronaviruses without the benefit of either. This bodes well for better understanding, preventing and treating COVID-19.
[Get facts about coronavirus and the latest research. Sign up for our newsletter.]
Author: Benjamin Neuman, Professor of Biology, Texas A&M University-Texarkana
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Picture: Colorized scanning electron micrograph of an apoptotic cell (greenish brown) heavily infected with SARS-COV-2 virus particles (pink), isolated from a patient sample. Image captured and color-enhanced at the NIAID Integrated Research Facility (IRF) in Fort Detrick, Maryland. Credit: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH. Public domain.


text:
Skip to product information
Turok is an epic, story-driven FPS game set on a dark, mysterious planet in the near future. Players take on the role of Joseph Turok, a former Black Ops commando, now part of an elite Special Forces squad on a mission to take down a war criminal on a genetically-altered planet. After the ship is shot down while approaching the planet, Joseph Turok must use his instincts and elite military training to elude an army of well-trained soldiers, and the ravenous, unpredictable creatures that populate the dangerous environment.


text:
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly rejected an amendment that would allow states to require labeling of genetically modified foods.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, said his amendment was an attempt to clarify that states can require the labels, as several legislatures have moved toward putting such laws into place. Both the Vermont House and Connecticut Senate voted this month to make food companies declare genetically modified ingredients on their packages.
The Senate rejected the amendment on a 71-27 vote during debate on a wide-ranging, five-year farm bill that includes generous supports for crops like corn and soybeans that often are genetically modified varieties. Senators from farm states that use a lot of genetically modified crops strongly opposed the amendment, saying the issue should be left up to the federal government and that labels could raise costs for consumers.
The Food and Drug Administration does not require the labeling, but organic food companies and some consumer groups have stepped up their efforts to lobby for labels, arguing that the modified seeds are floating from field to field and contaminating pure crops. The groups have been bolstered by a growing network of consumers who are wary of processed and modified foods.
Genetically modified plants are grown from seeds that are engineered to resist insecticides and herbicides, add nutritional benefits or otherwise improve crop yields. Most corn, soybean and cotton crops grown in the United States today have been genetically modified.
Agribusiness and seed companies say their products help boost crop production, lower prices at the grocery store and feed the world, particularly in developing countries. The FDA and Agriculture Department say the engineered foods they have approved are safe — so safe, they do not even need to be labeled as such — and cannot be significantly distinguished from conventional varieties.
Sanders said he is going to continue to push the issue in Congress. He said he offered the amendment to protect states that approve labeling laws from lawsuits by major biotech companies like Monsanto that engineer the seeds.
"The people of Vermont and the people of America have a right to know what's in the food that they eat," Sanders said.
The Senate may consider more amendments to the farm bill this week, including others dealing with genetically modified foods. The legislation sets policy for farm subsidies, other rural programs and domestic food aid.
The Senate passed a similar farm bill last year, but the House did not consider it. The House Agriculture Committee approved its version of the farm bill last week, and the full House is expected to vote on the bill this summer.
Find Mary Clare Jalonick on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mcjalonick


text:
Quality And Warranty Policies
Quality And Warranty Policies for Mining Equipment - miningequipment.in
Quality And Warranty Policies for miningequipment.in Mining Equipment, from India
1. Product Compability
All vikay replacement parts and materials are manufactured and tested in strict accordance with internationally recognized quality assurance standards. We guarantee that all replacement parts which supplied are totally compatible and interchangeable with the corresponding original part and all critical dimensions and tolerances are in accordance with original equipment specifications and will perform equally or better than the equivalent original part, when operating under the same working and environmental conditions.
2. Quality Policy
We at Vikay Mining Equipments are committed to Export of Air Compressor, Instrumentation Valves & Fittings, Mining, Drilling, Quarry Equipments & its Spare Parts, to meet statutory requirements so as to consistently achieve continual Improvement of Quality Management System and customer satisfaction.
3. Terms of Warranty for Spare Parts – PC /5/ 2011
Vikay Mining Equipments warrants that its spares parts will be free from defects in material and workmanship. Vikay makes no other warranty express or implied. This warranty shall be effective for a period of 60 days from the date of purchase. But shall not be effective unless Vikay has received the non-conforming product from the purchaser at our works, with transportation and other charges prepaid, within the said period.
This warranty shall not apply to any Vikay products which shall have been altered, or modified in anyway. The purchaser's exclusive and sole remedy for breach of contract (including breach of any express or implied warranty other than the above), shall be limited to repair, modification, or replacement at the sole discretion of Vikay, of the non-conforming product. Vikay shall not in any event be liable for the cost of any special, indirect or consequential damages to anyone. Merchandise may not be returned without written authorization of Vikay Mining Equipments.
All disputes are subject to Mumbai Jurisdiction, India Only.
4.Terms of Warranty for Equipment – PC /4/ 2011
Vikay Product are warranted against manufacturing defect and workmanship for a period of 6 months from the date of dispatch or 3 months from the date of commissioning whichever event shall occur first. If any defect(s) should be detected in the Product within term stipulated above, Company's obligation is to repair or replace any part at its sole discretion at no cost to the owner, but buyer agrees to pay the Freight, Duties and other charges for the respective parts. We shall not in any event be liable for the cost of any special, indirect or consequential damage to anyone.
All disputes are subject to Mumbai Jurisdiction, India Only.
This Warranty shall not apply to:
1. The replacement of normal wear parts.
2. Any repair or replacement required as a result at accident or collision.
3. Any defect caused by misuse, mishandling, negligence, abnormal use or insufficient care.
4. Product which is modified or altered.
5. Any Product which has not been operated in accordance with the maintenance instruction schedule


text:
Breast Reduction Surgery
Also known as reduction mammaplasty, breast reduction removes excess breast fat, glandular tissue and skin to achieve a breast size in proportion with your body and to alleviate the discomfort associated with overly large breasts.
Table of Contents
- Why Breast Reduction Surgery?
- Procedural Steps
- Important facts about the safety and risks of breast reduction
- My recovery
- The results will be long-lasting
- How much will breast reduction surgery cost?
- Words to know
Why Breast Reduction Surgery?
Enhancing your appearance with breast reduction surgery
Overly large breasts can cause some women to have both health and emotional problems. In addition to self image issues, you may also experience physical pain and discomfort.
The weight of excess breast tissue can impair your ability to lead an active life. The emotional discomfort and self-consciousness often associated with having large pendulous breasts is as important an issue to many women as the physical discomfort and pain.
Also known as reduction mammaplasty, this procedure removes excess breast fat, glandular tissue and skin to achieve a breast size in proportion with your body and to alleviate the discomfort associated with overly large breasts.
Is it right for me?
Breast reduction is a highly individualized procedure and you should do it for yourself, not to fulfill someone else's desires or to try to fit any sort of ideal image.
Breast reduction is a good option for you if:
- You are physically healthy
- You have realistic expectations
- You don't smoke
- You are bothered by the feeling that your breasts are too large
- Your breasts limit your physical activity
- You experience back, neck and shoulder pain caused by the weight of your breasts
- You have regular indentations from bra straps that support heavy, pendulous breasts
- You have skin irritation beneath the breast crease
- Your breasts hang low and have stretched skin
- Your nipples rest below the breast crease when your breasts are unsupported
- You have enlarged areolas caused by stretched skin
Procedural Steps:
What happens during breast reduction surgery?
Breast reduction is usually performed through incisions on your breasts with surgical removal of the excess fat, glandular tissue and skin.
In some cases, excess fat may be removed through liposuction in conjunction with the excision techniques described below. If breast size is largely due to fatty tissue and excess skin is not a factor, liposuction alone may be used for breast reduction.
The technique used to reduce the size of your breasts will be determined by your individual condition, breast composition, amount of reduction desired, your personal preferences and the surgeon's advice.
Step 1 – Anesthesia
Medications are administered for your comfort during the surgical procedure. The choices include intravenous sedation and general anesthesia. Your doctor will recommend the best choice for you.
Step 2 – The incision
Incision options include:
- A circular pattern around the areola
The incision lines that remain are visible and permanent scars, although usually well concealed beneath a swimsuit or bra.
- A keyhole or racquet-shaped pattern with an incision around the areola and vertically down to the breast crease
- An inverted T or anchor-shaped incision pattern
Step 3 – Removing tissue and repositioning
After the incision is made, the nipple-which remains tethered to its original blood and nerve supply-is then repositioned. The areola is reduced by excising skin at the perimeter, if necessary.
Underlying breast tissue is reduced, lifted and shaped. Occasionally, for extremely large pendulous breasts, the nipple and areola may need to be removed and transplanted to a higher position on the breast (free nipple graft).
Step 4 – Closing the incisions
The incisions are brought together to reshape the now smaller breast. Sutures are layered deep within the breast tissue to create and support the newly shaped breasts; sutures, skin adhesives and/or surgical tape close the skin. Incision lines are permanent, but in most cases will fade and significantly improve over time.
Step 5 – See the results
The results of your breast reduction surgery are immediately visible. Over time, post-surgical swelling will resolve and incision lines will fade. Satisfaction with your new image should continue to grow as you recover.
Important facts about the safety and risks of breast reduction
The decision to have breast reduction surgery is extremely personal and you'll have to decide if the benefits will achieve your goals and if the risks and potential complications are acceptable.
Your plastic surgeon and/or staff will explain in detail the risks associated with surgery. You will be asked to sign consent forms to ensure that you fully understand the procedure you will undergo and any risks or potential complications.
The risks include:
- Unfavorable scarring
- Infection
- Changes in nipple or breast sensation, which may be temporary or permanent
- Anesthesia risks
- Bleeding (hematoma)
- Blood clots
- Poor wound healing
- Breast contour and shape irregularities
- Skin discoloration, permanent pigmentation changes, swelling and bruising
- Damage to deeper structures – such as nerves, blood vessels, muscles, and lungs – can occur and may be temporary or permanent
- Breast asymmetry
- Fluid accumulation
- Excessive firmness of the breast
- Potential inability to breastfeed
- Potential loss of skin/tissue of breast where incisions meet each other
- Potential partial or total loss of nipple and areola
- Deep vein thrombosis, cardiac and pulmonary complications
- Pain, which may persist
- Allergies to tape, suture materials and glues, blood products, topical preparations or injectable agents.
- Fatty tissue deep in the skin could die (fat necrosis)
- Possibility of revisional surgery
You should know that:
- Breast reduction surgery can interfere with certain diagnostic procedures
- Breast and nipple piercing can cause an infection
- Your ability to breastfeed following reduction mammaplasty may be limited; talk to your doctor if you are planning to nurse a baby
- The procedure can be performed at any age, but is best done when your breasts are fully developed
- Changes in the breasts during pregnancy can alter the outcomes of previous breast reduction surgery, as can significant weight fluctuations
Where will my surgery be performed?
Breast reduction may be performed in your plastic surgeon's accredited office-based surgical facility, an ambulatory surgical facility or a hospital. Your plastic surgeon and the assisting staff will fully attend to your comfort and safety.
When you go home
If you experience shortness of breath, chest pains, or unusual heart beats, seek medical attention immediately. Should any of these complications occur, you may require hospitalization and additional treatment.
The practice of medicine and surgery is not an exact science. Although good results are expected, there is no guarantee. In some situations, it may not be possible to achieve optimal results with a single surgical procedures and another surgery may be necessary.
Be careful
Following your physician's instructions is key to the success of your surgery. It is important that the surgical incisions are not subjected to excessive force, abrasion, or motion during the time of healing. Your doctor will give you specific instructions on how to care for yourself.
Be sure to ask questions: It's very important to address all your questions directly with your plastic surgeon. It is natural to feel some anxiety, whether excitement for the anticipated outcome or preoperative stress. Discuss these feelings with your plastic surgeon.
My recovery
When your procedure is complete, dressings or bandages will be applied to the incisions. An elastic bandage or support bra may be worn to minimize swelling and support the breasts as they heal.
A small, thin tube may be temporarily placed under the skin to drain any excess blood or fluid that may collect.
You will be given specific instructions that may include: How to care for your surgical site(s) following surgery, medications to apply or take orally to aid healing and reduce the risk of infection, specific concerns to look for at the surgical site or in your general health, and when to follow up with your plastic surgeon.
The results will be long-lasting
The results of breast reduction surgery will be long-lasting. Your new breast size should help relieve you from the pain and physical limitations experienced prior to breast reduction.
Your better proportioned figure will likely enhance your self image and boost your self-confidence.
However, over time your breasts can change due to aging, weight fluctuations, hormonal factors and gravity.
How much will breast reduction surgery cost?
Cost is always a consideration in elective surgery. Prices for breast reduction can vary widely. A surgeon's cost for breast reduction may vary based on his or her experience as well as geographic office location.
Many plastic surgeons offer patient financing plans, so be sure to ask.
Cost may include:
- Surgeon's fee
- Hospital or surgical facility costs
- Anesthesia fees
- Prescriptions for medication
- Post-surgery garments, and
- Medical tests
Breast reduction surgery is generally considered a reconstructive procedure and may be covered by health insurance when it is performed to relieve medical symptoms.
Many insurers define breast reduction surgery as reconstructive based on the amount of tissue that will be removed.
However, pre-certification is required for reimbursement or coverage. Each insurance policy varies greatly. Carefully review your policy to determine coverage.
Your satisfaction involves more than a fee
When choosing a plastic surgeon for breast reduction, remember that the surgeon's experience and your comfort with him or her are just as important as the final cost of the surgery.
Words to know
- Areola: Pigmented skin surrounding the nipple.
- Breast reduction: Also known as reduction mammaplasty, the surgical removal of breast tissue to reduce the size of breasts.
- General anesthesia: Drugs and/or gases used during an operation to relieve pain and alter consciousness.
- Hematoma: Blood pooling beneath the skin.
- Intravenous sedation: Sedatives administered by injection into a vein to help you relax.
- Liposuction: Also called lipoplasty or suction lipectomy, this procedure vacuums out fat from beneath the skin's surface to reduce fullness.
- Local anesthesia: A drug injected directly to the site of an incision during an operation to relieve pain.
- Mammogram: An x-ray image of the breast.
- MRI: Magnetic Resonance Imaging; a painless test to view tissue similar to an x-ray.
- Reduction mammaplasty: The surgical removal of breast tissue to reduce the size of breasts.
- Sutures: Stitches used by surgeons to hold skin and tissue together.


text:
Leaders of high-tech companies, including Google and Facebook, descended on the White House Friday for a meeting with President Obama on the subject of privacy. The meeting itself was private. But aides say Obama wanted to hear from the CEOs about their concerns with the government's high-tech surveillance.
High-tech CEOs are not the obvious messengers to be delivering a privacy lecture to the government. After all, they make their money by scanning customers' emails and tracking their movements, all with the goal of serving up more targeted ads. Just a few years ago, Google's Eric Schmidt told an interviewer, "If you have something you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place."
But Marc Rotenberg, who directs the Electronic Privacy Information Center, says the titans of Silicon Valley have suddenly gotten religion.
"The Internet leaders who might have said a few years ago that privacy is a thing of the past, today they're at the White House telling the president we need to find a way to protect privacy. And that's a remarkable turn of events," he said.
What changed, of course, is the revelation by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden of just how widespread the government's snooping has been, often with the help, knowingly or unknowingly, of those same high-tech companies.
"Mr. Snowden has done more to raise the level of public awareness about privacy issues than probably anyone else I can think of," Rotenberg said.
And that has the potential to hurt the companies' bottom lines. Since the Snowden leaks began last summer, public opinion towards government surveillance has steadily soured. Fifty-three percent of Americans now disapprove of the NSA's spying. Pollster Carroll Doherty of the Pew Research Center says this is the rare issue that unites Tea Party Republicans and liberal Democrats.
"It's really an area on which you do find common ground between conservatives and liberals. Consistently across these polls, liberals and conservatives are expressing the most concern about it whereas people in the middle of the electorate are somewhat less concerned," he said.
Disapproval of government surveillance is strongest among people under the age of 30. While this generation shows little reluctance to document their every movement on electronic devices, Doherty says they don't like the government looking over their shoulder.
"They are concerned about privacy. They really are. And this issue has clicked a bit with young people," he said.
The White House meeting comes one week before the administration has to make some decisions about how to reform its collection of bulk telephone data.
President Obama has promised to make some adjustments — particularly to the program under which the NSA has been stockpiling telephone records. The legal authorization for that program expires next week and Obama wants to replace it with something different, though he hasn't said what. Obama insists that government workers who carry out survillance do take privacy concerns seriously.
"They have kids on Facebook and Instagram, and they know, more than most of us, the vulnerabilities to privacy that exist in a world where transactions are recorded, and emails and text and messages are stored, and even our movements can increasingly be tracked through the GPS on our phones," he said.
Privacy advocate Rotenberg says Internet companies could reduce the temptation for government spying if they simply stopped storing years' worth of personal data about their customers.
So far though, the companies haven't been willing to take that step.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.