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Friday, April 26
Exodus 19: The Book of Exodus, having treated of Israel's deliverance, now speaks of Israel's election and the Covenant. Over the next six chapters two sections will emerge as especially prominent—the Decalogue (20:1-17) and the Book of the Covenant (20:22—23:19), the latter containing a detailed, practical application of the rules of the Covenant.
The things narrated in these chapters are not naked events, but events that received theological and liturgical elaboration reflected in the narrative. It is arguable that Israel devoted more attention to these events than to any other in its history.
The people have now arrived at Mount Sinai, where the rest of the Book of Exodus, and all of the Book of Leviticus, will take place. Indeed, the Israelites will not move from Sinai until Numbers 10:33.
The stories begin with Moses' scaling of Mount Sinai (verse 3), still known among the local Arabs as Jebel Musa. This peak, 7467 feet high, can be climbed in under two hours. When Moses ascends to speak with God, the people wait below at the base of the mountain, the plain of er-Raha (verses 2,17).
God's election of Israel (verses 5-6) is an invitation to become His chosen people, an invitation that marks Israel's history until the end of the world, because God will never reject the descendents of those with whom He made Covenant at Mount Sinai (cf. Romans 11:1). What God proposes, however, is only an invitation, requiring Israel's ratification of His choice and the resolve to abide by its conditions and strictures (verses 7-8). Moses mediates this Covenant (verses 9,25).
The people of God are to be a "royal priesthood, a holy nation" (verse 6). Both the kingship and the priesthood of the Old Testament are prophetic preparations fulfilled in Jesus. Like Melchizedek of old, Jesus Christ is both king and priest (cf. Hebrews 7:1-3). Moreover, because of their awareness of sharing in the royal and priestly dignity and ministries of the risen Jesus, the early Christians were prompt to see this Exodus promise as fulfilled in the Church (cf. 1 Peter 2:9; Revelation 1:6; 5:10; 20:6).
The subsequent terrifying scene on Mount Sinai (verses 9-25 and 20:18-20) is contrasted with the invitation to Christians to "draw near" to God (Hebrews 12:18-24). The theme of a bold "drawing near to" or "approaching" the divine presence is an important one in the Epistle to the Hebrews, serving as part of its sustained contrast of Christ with Moses (cf. Hebrews 4:16; 7:19; 10:1,22).
Saturday, April 27
Exodus 20: We come now to the Decalogue, or Ten Commandments, a code the Bible contains in two forms: the one here and the other in Deuteronomy 5:6-21. Unlike the earlier legal codes of ancient civilizations, the Decalogue uses the apodictic form, simply stating the laws, not explaining them. Thus, each component is treated as an absolute principle.
Inasmuch as the latter part of the Decalogue contains elements from Natural Law (the right to life, the right to property, etc.), it is not surprising that these have their parallels in other ancient legal codes.
More to the point, however, is the entirely new theological foundation, on which all the elements of the Decalogue are based—namely, God's self-revelation in the first commandment: "You shall have no other gods in My stead" (verse 3). This commandment is not the "first" simply in the sense of being the earliest in the sequence. It is not as though the order within the Decalogue could be switched around, so that it might begin with the prohibition of murder, say, or the injunction of the Sabbath. This lex prima is not prima inter pares.
The first of the Ten Commandments is the first, rather, in the sense that it is the source and fountainhead of the other nine. The commandments are not equal, and the first is formally different from the others. Its priority, that is to say, is not just material but qualitative. Its "firstness" pertains to its essence, not merely to its assigned place in the Decalogue's sequential disposition. It is not only first, but the first.
The first commandment of God's Law is analogous to the way that the number "one" is the first of the numbers. "One" is not simply the numeral that precedes "two"; "one" is, rather, the number out of which, and by reason of which, that second number comes. "One" is the cause and necessary condition of "two" and all the subsequent numbers. "One" is logically one, then, before it is first. "One" becomes "first" only by the emergence of a second.
One (to hen) is the root and font determining the identity of two and the subsequent numbers. "One" is what we call a principle, an arche. The principle of something is that which confers its qualitative and identifying form. In this sense, there is a formal, and not merely material, disparity between the "one" and all other numbers.
Analogously, the first commandment of the Decalogue is the arche, the principle of the other commandments. Perhaps this truth will be clearer if we examine that commandment in its entirety: "I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods in My stead."
Unlike the other commandments, this first commandment commences with God's self-identification; only then does there follow the immediate prohibition against idolatry.
Sunday, April 28
Exodus 21: The material in these next three chapters is often called "the book of the covenant," a term suggested by Exodus 24:7. In substance this code is largely identical with the core section of the Book of Deuteronomy (and hence the name of the latter, which means "second law").
Whereas Chapter 20 enunciated universal legal principles, Chapter 21 commences a series of specific "judgments" (mishpotim — verse 1), or "case laws." The latter are particular applications of the earlier legal principles. Thus, the judgments in the present chapter are concrete applications of the established principle, "You shall not steal" (20:15).
The prescriptions in these chapters come under the heading of "case laws" or casuistry, because they deal with the practical applications of laws to certain hypothetical cases. This is the legal style we find in our most ancient legal codes, such as the formulations of Ur-Nammu, composed in Sumerian about 2050 B.C. and named for the ruler of Ur in southern Mesopotamia (cf. Genesis 11:31).
The accumulation of such case laws serves to indicate certain directions in which future ethical cases—not specifically covered by these laws—might be appropriately judged, by rational recourse to comparison and analogy. The study of such case laws is also intended to give a proper contour to our moral sentiment, a certain "feeling" about moral situations that may arise. By the sustained examination of God's judgments (mishpotim) in the various hypothetical situations described in these passages, the moral imagination is given a godly shape in order to make proper moral decisions in the future.
The laws in these next few chapters are civil (21:1—22:14), liturgical (20:22-26; 22:28-30; 23:10-19), and moral (22:16-27; 23:1-9).
The present chapter begins with slavery (verses 1-11), the state from which the Israelites have just been delivered. The functioning principle here, through all the hypothetical cases reviewed, is that no man may be enslaved against his own will beyond six years.
In verses 22-36 we have what is the Bible's first and perhaps clearest enunciation of the legal principle of equity, quid pro quo. Thus, "eye for eye, tooth for tooth," and so on (cf. Leviticus 24:17-20; Deuteronomy 19:21). All such laws are founded on the perception of proportions. Justice, that is to say, has something to do with the principles of mathematics (symbolized in the scales that often appear in artistic representations of Justice), a proper conformity to correct measure. Moral truth is perceived like mathematics or any other truth, by the correct application of the properly reasoning mind.
Monday, April 29
Exodus 22: This chapter begins with some more applications of the commandment, "Thou shalt not steal." Whereas Chapter 21 presumed situations in which the harm inflicted was unintentional, and thus involved only commensurate restitution, the present chapter looks more closely at situations in which the harm inflicted is deliberate and intentional. In this chapter, then, we are dealing, not only with laws of compensation but also with punitive laws. The penalties in these latter, one will notice, are quite a bit harsher. They are obviously designed to discourage certain sorts of behavior!
The Bible takes very seriously the concept of ownership, a fact that explains the serious penalties imposed for theft. These include a manifold restitution for stolen or damaged property, and the lack of a guaranteed protection for a thief taken in the act (verses 1-4).
Whereas modern philosophy tends to distinguish public from private property, the Bible is more interested in what we may call family property—property as a family's substance of labor and inheritance. That is to say, in the Bible property is more closely associated with the experience of tradition, including respect for the labor of one's ancestors. Property is regarded as an extension of family; it is that component that binds the generations of a family together.
For this reason there is a close alliance between "Honor thy father and thy mother" and "Thou shalt not steal." It is hardly surprising, then, that those who disregard the claims of tradition are more likely to be thieves. Of this latter phenomenon we have a good illustration in the case of Ahab and Jezebel in the instance of Naboth's vineyard (1 Kings 21).
Family property, moreover, is a community concern, over which the newly appointed judges (18:13-26) have jurisdiction and the right of determination (verse 9).
Community concern is also directed to another important dimension of social life: sexuality. In the present context, however, this concern pertains to the (consensual) defilement of a virgin (verses 16-17), a situation in which the offense directly affects the financial worth of the father of the girl. This is the reason for its inclusion in the present section of Exodus.
This brief consideration of a sexual matter, however, prompts the inclusion of another sexual offense, bestiality (verse 19). Perhaps even this inclusion is prompted by the consideration of property, inasmuch as the animal must be slain.
By an association difficult to follow, the subject of bestiality leads in turn to rules about sorcery and idolatry (verses 18,20). Perhaps the common element in all these rules is the prescription of the death penalty.
There next follows a concern for sojourners and others deprived of a normal domestic life (verses 21-24)—those with whom the Israelites, remembering their own sojourn, are to commiserate (cf 23:9; Leviticus 19:33-34; Deuteronomy 1:16; 10:17-19; 14:28-29; 16:11-14; Jeremiah 7:6). Sins in violation of this concern are included in this section because of their social nature.
Laws concerning pledges and usufruct are characterized by a concern for the disadvantaged party (verses 25-27).
Tuesday, April 30
Exodus 23: Pursuant to the Decalogue's prohibition against false witness (20:16), the present chapter opens with directions about judicial proceedings (1-3,7-8).
Because it appeared unlikely that a poor man (dal), in ancient times, would be favored in court, some textual historians suspect that verse 3 has been corrupted in the transmission. They suggest a slight emendation (the supply of one letter in Hebrew), causing this verse to read, "Thou shalt not favor a great man (gadol) in his cause." This appears to be a responsible emendation that renders the text more understandable in the historical context.
Nonetheless, in more recent times we have seen the rise of political ideologies that have tended in exactly the opposite direction, favoring the poorer, disadvantaged classes as a matter of principle, sometimes at the expense of specific determinations of justice. It is not unknown, in modern times, for the courts to be used in an activist way, to rectify general social inequities, instead of simply adjudicating individual cases on their just merits. It is not the business of the courts to rectify social ills, but to punish evildoers. This is the reason that Justice is portrayed as blindfolded.
The sacred text moves on to treat of the effective charity a believer owes even to his enemies, out of an elementary sense of humane compassion (verses 4-5; Leviticus 19:17-19). This motive also prompts concern for the stranger and sojourner (verse 9), the same motive given earlier (22:21-24).
In conformance with the stated solicitude for the poor and disadvantaged, attention is given to the "Sabbath rest" of the cultivated fields, because this practice, too, serves a kind and humane purpose (verses 10-11, Leviticus 25:2-5; Deuteronomy 15:1-3; Nehemiah 10:31; 1 Maccabees 6:49,53).
From this metaphorical application of the Sabbath rest, the text takes up the literal Sabbath rest, enunciated in the Decalogue (20:8-11). Once again the motive given here is more humane than theological (verse 12).
Continuing the theme of consecrated time, Exodus goes on to treat the three annual feasts (verses 14-17), Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. Each of these is here briefly explained, not in relation to its specific meaning in salvation history (deliverance, covenant, and desert journey), but with respect to its place in the annual agrarian cycle. Both aspects of these feast days remain in something of a tension throughout the Old Testament.
Transferred to the Christian Church these three feasts became Easter, Pentecost, and the Exaltation of the Holy Cross; but one notices that Christians too are reluctant to separate these feast days from an agrarian setting in the calendar. They became the occasion for the Ember Days, at which it was customary to bless the fields and harvests.
The recent mention of unleavened bread (verse 15), leads to more reflection on the same subject (verses 18-19). This prohibition of leaven in the sacrificial rites is analogous to the exclusion of polished stones in the construction of the altar (20:25). That is to say, in both cases there is a concern to preserve the elements of the worship in their more primitive and undeveloped state, in keeping with the sparse conditions of the exodus itself. It seems likely that this liturgical concern (for simplicity) was inspired by a reaction against certain features of Canaanite religion.
Thus ends "the book of the covenant," which is now followed by a general exhortation that fills the rest of the chapter.
Verse 20 is one of our earliest texts to introduce that spiritual presence that an ancient Christian litany calls "an angel of peace, a faithful guide, a guardian of our souls and bodies." Indeed, among the many blessings given to men by God to guide their sojourn in the world, the Liturgy of St. Basil lists the ministry of the guardian angels, a traditional doctrine supported by such texts as Matthew 18:10, Acts 12:15, several passages in Daniel, and the entire Book of Tobit.
Early Christian liturgical texts identify Israel's guardian angel during the Exodus as St. Michael. In the context of the exodus and wandering, this guardian angel is portrayed as the specific enemy of idolatry (verses 23-24), and surely this danger of the idols (1 John 5:21) remains the reason why God links a guardian angel to the lives of those who, at the exodus of their own baptism, have renounced the false gods. These enemies of the true God are served by the nations that are to be driven out of the Promised Land itself.
With respect to the dimensions of the original Promised Land, it is worth noting that not until the tenth century (1 Kings 4:24), and never afterwards, did it assume the vast dimensions indicated in verse 31.
Wednesday, May 1
Exodus 24: As we have considered in our comments on Exodus 19, God does not impose the Sinai covenant on Israel. He does not force them to become His elect people; rather, He invites them. The covenant is to be ratified by Israel, and in the present chapter, which follows the Decalogue and the Book of the Covenant, we come to Israel's ratification (verse 7).
This narrative seems to be derived from two accounts of the event, joined, but not entirely reconciled, with respect to some details. For instance, it is not entirely clear which actions take place on the mountain and which on the plain. The ratification itself is marked by both a sacrificial meal and by the sprinkling of sacrificial blood (verses 8,11). We find references to this ratification in Zechariah 9:11 and Hebrews 9:18-20.
Indeed, our earliest Christian reflection on verses 3-8 is found in the Epistle to the Hebrews 9:16-23, in a context emphasizing that the deep significance of the sacrificial blood in the Old Testament is its prophetic reference to the redeeming blood of Jesus, shed on the cross for the salvation of mankind. The blood of Jesus is called the "blood of the covenant" also in Hebrews 10:29 and Mark 14:24.
Moreover, in quoting Exodus 24:8, the Epistle to the Hebrews (9:20) slightly, but very significantly, alters the wording of it. Whereas Exodus reads "Behold (idou) the blood of the covenant," the author of Hebrews wrote: "This (touto) is the blood of the covenant." There is no doubt that his wording reflects the traditional words of Jesus with respect to the cup of His blood at the Last Supper (cf. Matthew 26:28).
Moses ascended the mountain with three men (verses 9-18), two of whom were brothers, and there was a six-day delay. Compare the remarkable parallel to both points in Mark 9:2. In the scene of the Lord's Transfiguration, He is joined by the two figures most clearly associated with revelations given on Mount Sinai/Horeb: Moses and Elijah (cf. 1 Kings 19:8-18).
Moses is again summoned to ascend the mountain in order to receive the stone tablets and certain liturgical regulations (verse 12). The engraving of laws on stone was characteristic of many ancient legal codes, all the way from the Decree of Hammurabi to the inscriptions on the walls of the temple of Apollo at Delphi. Law, that is to say, represents inheritance, binding one generation to the next. Hence, it is appropriate to write laws on stone, a substance that does not quickly pass away.
The chapter ends with Moses on the mountain for forty days and nights.
Thursday, May 2
Exodus 25: Here begin lengthy and detailed orders about the construction of the tabernacle, the instruments of worship, the ordination and vestments of the priests, and so forth (chapters 25-31). Meanwhile, as all of this important instruction is taking place, Aaron and the Israelites do a bit of liturgical experimentation on their own (chapters 32-34)! The juxtaposition of these two scenes will constitute one of the great examples of narrative irony in the Bible. After the story of the golden calf, the narrative of Exodus will continue in chapters 35-40 with the enactment of the earlier prescriptions.
Chapters 21—31 are composed of seven prescriptive oracles ("the Lord spoke unto Moses, say . . ."), each with its own introduction (25:1; 30:11,17,22,34; 31:1,12). In some of these oracles we recognize points of correspondence with the different days of creation. Thus, the first oracle, which speaks of the candelabrum and of Aaron's custody of the sacred fire, corresponds to the creation of light on the first day. The third oracle (30:17-21), which describes the brazen sea in the tabernacle, corresponds to the third day's creation of the seas. The fourth, which prescribes the oil for the lamps (30:22-33), is parallel to the fourth day of creation, when the various lights were placed in the heavens. Thus, finally, this "sabbath" of oracles ends with the Sabbath itself and appeals to God's own rest after the works of creation (31:12-17; cf. Psalms 89 [88]:21).
Prior to describing all of these matters in detail, the author outlines the subjects that will be treated in the ensuing chapters (verses 3-8). Then Moses is given a vision of the archetypal tabernacle (verse 9,40)—that tabernacle not made with hands—the everlasting holy place into which, in due course, the eternal high priest and one mediator between God and men will enter, having obtained eternal redemption for us (cf. Hebrews 8:1-5).
The ark's dimensions (verses 10-15) are about 45 inches long, and 27 inches in height and depth. The permanent poles indicate that it must always be ready to travel, and it did move around quite a bit even after the Israelites settled in the Promised Land. Eventually it came to rest in Jerusalem, where Solomon built his temple around it. The ark was lost when the temple was destroyed. Originally it contained the tables of the Decalogue, but it seems to have been the receptacle of other sacred objects at certain periods (cf. Hebrews 9:2-4).
The hylasterion (translated variously as "propitiatory" or "mercy seat") in verses 16-17 will be the place where the high priest sprinkles the expiatory blood on Yom Kippur, thus symbolizing the reconciliation between God and man. As the meeting place of God and humanity, it is a symbol of the Incarnation, where God and humanity are bound together forever. Jesus Himself is called the hylasterion (cf. Romans 3:25). Israel came to think of this hylasterion, overshadowed by the cherubic wings (verses 18-20), as God's throne in this world (cf. Psalm 79.1; Hebrews 9:5). One is reminded also of the two angelic figures seated on the empty resting place of the risen Lord, suggesting that the empty tomb is the great symbol of the reconciliation of God and man (cf. John 20:12).
Twelve loaves of fresh bread, representing the full assembly of Israel, are to be kept on the table in God's presence in the tabernacle (verses 23-30). This "holy bread" (1 Samuel 21:4)—"bread of the presence" (21:6)—and "continual bread" (Numbers 4:7) was a type of the Holy Eucharist, the mystical bread of God's presence, contained in all the tabernacles of the Church throughout the world, until the end of time.
Friday, May 3
Exodus 26: The construction of the Tabernacle is described in the first part (verses 1-14) of this chapter. It had four coverings, divided into workable sections. The first covering was made of linen, over which were coverings of goats' hair, rams' skins dyed red, and dugongs' skins. Two things are noteworthy about this last: First, the dugong, or sea cow, is a native of the Indian Ocean. The availability of this product indicates the extensive trade carried on through the Red Sea. One speculates that the sea-going power of Sheba was the medium by which this product reached Egypt. Second, the skin of the dugong, which sat uppermost over the Tabernacle, rendered it rainproof.
Next are described the wooden side-frames of the Tabernacle (verses 15-30), indicating that this shrine stood about 14 feet high, was 62 feet long, and measured over 42 feet wide.
Finally comes the internal division of the Tabernacle between the holy place and the Holy of Holies (31-37), the latter measuring about 14 feet square. It contained the Ark of the Covenant and the tablets of the Decalogue (cf. Hebrews 9:3-4).
The division within the tabernacle was later duplicated and further developed within the Jerusalem temple. Indeed, the sense of separated space is intrinsic to the very notion of a "temple," a word derived from the Greek temno, meaning "to divide." A shrine of any kind is already a section of space devoted to the things of God, and divisions within a shrine are related to the ordered structure of the community that worships there. The building reflects the congregation's conception of itself. In the case of Israel and the Christian Church, the ordered structure of the worshipping community is "hierarchical," meaning that its organizational structure is holy and reflects a divinely-appointed order.
This hierarchical aspect of biblical worship, that is to say, is enacted even in architecture. (Indeed, if one looks closely, both "hierarchy" and "architecture" are formed of a common root, a Greek word meaning, roughly, "a principle that gives structure and explanation to reality."


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A couple of years ago, the Celtics turned their office on Causeway Street, near TD Garden, into a pseudo museum detailing the franchise's history, with pictures and memorabilia covering nearly every square inch of space.
And down one hallway, all the Celtics logos dating to the team's founding in 1946 were splashed on the wall, each carrying the story behind its origin.
Those stories sparked an idea for something new with a touch of the past, and after 18 months of work, that idea will debut this week: a new alternate logo.
Created in-house, the logo, which is known as the "Lucky Alternate," pays homage to the early 1960s illustration created by Celtics patriarch Red Auerbach's brother, Zang, a former editorial and sports artist for newspapers in Washington.
It features the classic image of Lucky the leprechaun spinning the ball on his finger, only in white silhouette against a green backdrop, encircled by the words "BOSTON" and "CELTICS" in white.
"It's such an iconic silhouette that people, when they see it, they'll know exactly what it is," said Shawn Sullivan, the team's chief marketing officer.
The logo will first be used on adidas team apparel and merchandise on sale through the team's online store beginning this month.
Celtics season ticket-holders and corporate partners can also buy apparel featuring the new alternate logo two days before products are released to the general public.
Keith Sliney, the Celtics' creative director and the logo's designer, stressed that it won't be replacing their main logo, nor are there immediate plans to place it on game jerseys.
"We think of it more as extending the Celtics brand," Sliney said. "Our existing logos are not changing. This alternate is an additional emblem for us to use on everything from print to web to fabric. It's very flexible."
One of the reasons the Celtics decided to create a new logo was, Sliney said, it had been 16 years since the team had debuted its last new logo, a secondary shamrock.
"We thought it was a good time to create a mark, something new, something fresh, yet with a lot of history behind it," he said.
They settled on re-creating the 1960s logo — Zang's creation, featuring the leprechaun wearing a bowler, smoking a pipe, holding a shillelagh — only with a contemporary spin on a classic image.
Baxter Holmes can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com. Follow him on Twitter @BaxterHolmes.

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Common diseases - Could this be cancer in my pet?
Dogs and cats share our everyday environment and live longer than they used to, thanks in part to preventive veterinary medicine and dedicated owners. Therefore, it should not come as a surprise that certain chronic conditions, including cancer, are commonly diagnosed in pets.
Unfortunately, cancer is one of the most common causes of death in pets above 10 years of age. Once a diagnosis of cancer has been made, treatment options exist that, in addition to prolonging the life of these pets, can greatly improve their quality of life, as this remains the main goal in veterinary oncology. The treatment options are similar to those used for people with cancer and include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, immunotherapy, targeted therapy, and palliative therapy. It is important to realize that, because the goals of therapy are centered on quality of life, unpleasant side effects in cancer-bearing pets are much less frequent and less severe than what is known to occur in human cancer patients.
Nobody wants to discover that his/her pet has cancer. However, it is important to be able to recognize some warning signs that are relatively typical, though not specific, as it may lead to early diagnosis and possibly a better chance of survival with appropriate therapy. Below are some signs commonly seen in pets with cancer.* the presence of one or more of these signs is reason enough to recommend a more thorough exam and some diagnostic tests:
- Discharge (blood or other) from any body orifice;
- Lumps or bumps that persist or continue to grow over time;
- Wounds that do not appear to heal completely;
- Unexplained weight loss or decreased muscle mass;
- Decreased appetite or anorexia;
- Foul smell;
- Difficulty chewing or swallowing;
- Difficulty chewing or swallowing;
- Unexplained behavior changes;
- Persistent lameness or stiffness;
- Difficulty breathing, urinating, or defecating;
- Facial or muzzle deformity/asymmetry (new or progressing);
- Abdominal distension; unexplained swelling of any body part (limb, face, etc.);
- Signs of pain.
These signs can be recognized by an observant owner. Intervening quickly when they are noticed is a good example of the team formed by the pet, the caretaker, and the animal health professionals!
*Adapted from an American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) document.


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Skin and Gill Flukes in Tropical Fish
While parasites of various types are often responsible for fish rubbing themselves against objects in the tank, sometimes to the point of causing raw skin, it can be difficult to identify which parasite it is, unless you have a very good visual of it.
In the case of skin fluke, which is a parasitic flatworm, they are unlikely to show themselves to the extent where you would be able to remove them manually as you can with leeches or fish lice. One of the common denominators they have with other parasite infections, is they can cause redness of skin, but so can rubbing against stones and wood. However, skin fluke also causes a fading of color, and because the treatment is common to other types of parasites, you are best to go with a general medication, such as Droncit or formalin baths, when unsure whether it is skin fluke or not. Remove severely affected fish to a hospital tank.
The standard treatments of adding 1 tbs. of aquarium salt to a daily change of water in the home aquarium, and raising the tank temperature by four degrees also applies. This is used for most parasites, including gill fluke, which has more obvious and visual symptoms.
Gill fluke is a worm that specifically attacks the gill membranes, causing them to turn red and acquire a coating of slime that makes it difficult to breathe. Fish will hang at the water's surface, gasp, and lose weight rapidly. The same tank treatments as skin fluke can be used, but with gill fluke, removing to a hospital tank and adding short baths in either formalin, salt or ammonium hydroxide to the regimen will help kill what is on the fish, and you can then treat their environment.


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Causeway Bay
What to do in Causeway Bay
Causeway Bay is one of the largest shopping hubs in Hong Kong, with shopping malls and local markets selling a whole range of goods. But the modern shopping malls in this area of downtown Hong Kong offers more than just shopping, as you'll also find historical attractions, upscale and budget restaurants, and even rooftop bars overlooking the city.
If shopping features high on your list of priorities while in Hong Kong, then Causeway Bay will certainly feature in your itinerary. Among the many things to see in Causeway Bay include Hong Kong Central Library and Victoria Park, both of which are popular with families looking to take a break from shopping.


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Google promises to release 'tablet of the highest quality' in 6 months
Schmidt's comments, in which he said the device will be "a tablet of the highest quality," came in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera (via Slash Gear). The comments signal that Google plans to make another push to counter Apple's iPad.
Google's first formal attempt to break into the tablet market came earlier this year with the Motorola Xoom, which ran a tablet-exclusive operating system in Android 3.0. But the Xoom failed to catch on while Apple continued to see record sales of the iPad.
The latest version of the Android, dubbed "Ice Cream Sandwich," unites Honeycomb, the tablet-specific variant of the mobile operating system, with Gingerbread, which was designed for smartphones. It debuted last month on the Galaxy Nexus smartphone.
The Nexus branding is used by Google to highlight "pure" Android devices that ship with the stock version of the operating system. Though Google championed Motorola's Xoom at launch, it did not gain the Nexus branding.
Android tablets have struggled thus far, and even failed to outsell HP's discontinued TouchPad, which saw its sales bolstered by a $99 fire sale. Recent reports have suggested that Amazon's Kindle Fire, which runs a heavily modified version of Android and grants users access to Amazon's own application store, has taken the number two spot in tablet sales since it debuted last month.
Schmidt also confirmed in the interview that Google plans to leverage its own voice recognition technology to compete with Apple's Siri, found in the iPhone 4S. One rumor published last week claimed that Google is preparing its own voice assistant, code-named "Majel," to counter Siri.


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Protocol Acronyms
Test your knowledge of the most common network protocol acronyms.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence is intelligence exhibited by machines, rather than humans.
Network Basics
Basic Internet concepts for kids
IT: CompTIA A+ Review
This game helps you review for the CompTIA A+ test
The Internet: DNS, IP Addresses, Packets & Routing


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Commissioners from Kitsap County and Pierce County council members meet Thursday morning to choose a replacement for Derek Kilmer in the state Legislature.
Kilmer resigned the 26th Legislative District state Senate seat after being elected to Congress.
Following the rules set by the state constitution, 26th District Democratic precinct committee officers picked a ranked list of three nominees from which the county leaders will choose a senator.
In the most recent cases in Kitsap the commissioners have gone with the party's top pick. On Dec. 27 that was Nathan Schlicher, an emergency room doctor in Gig Harbor. Schlicher also has a law degree. He came in first, but it was close. He had a plurality of votes on the first ballot and the second ballot was a tie with Todd Iverson, a longshoreman and member of the PenMet Parks board in Gig Harbor. Schlicher won on the third ballot with a 12-11 vote. Iverson was ranked second. Gerry Baldwin, former district party chairman and airline analyst, was ranked third.
Each county gets 50 percent of the vote on Thursday, according to Kitsap County Clerk Dave Peterson. Kitsap has three commissioners and Pierce has seven council members.
The selection is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Thursday at Gig Harbor City Hall, 3510 Grandview St.


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Bradley wins PGA Championship
Published 12:00 am Sunday, August 14, 2011
By Paul Newberry
Associated Press
JOHNS CREEK, Ga. — Keegan Bradley has won the PGA Championship with one of the greatest comebacks in major championship history.
Bradley was down by five strokes after making a triple bogey at the 15th hole of regulation. Jason Dufner appeared to have the title wrapped up, but Bradley rallied and Dufner collapsed.
The leader put his tee shot in the water at 15, setting up the first of three straight bogeys. Bradley made birdies at 16 and 17, going to the final hole suddenly tied for the lead.
Both players made par on the 72nd hole, but Bradley won the three-hole playoff by a single stroke. He tapped in for par at the 18th hole and lifted the Wanamaker Trophy.
"I can't believe it," Bradley said. "
In the playoff, Bradley made a 4-foot birdie at the 16th hole to gain the upper hand. Dufner nearly holed out from the fairway with his approach, then missed a 6-foot birdie try.
Bradley was in command when Dufner three-putted the 17th for a bogey, going to the final hole with a two-stroke edge. Dufner rolled in a 20-footer for birdie but it didn't matter. Bradley two-putted from 18 feet for the win, tapping in the final one from about a foot away.
The players were tied at 8-under 272 at the end of regulation.
"A lot of experience to be gained from that," a dejected Dufner said.
The 25-year-old Bradley, the nephew of LPGA Hall of Famer Pat Bradley, won the PGA in his very first appearance at a major championship. Dufner was denied his first tour win.
Going to the playoff, the U.S. was assured of breaking its longest drought in the modern Grand Slam era, having gone six straight majors without winning since Phil Mickelson captured the 2010 Masters.
Anders Hansen of Denmark closed with a 4-under 66 but finished one stroke out of the playoff at 273.
Robert Karlsson of Sweden, David Toms and Scott Verplank tied for fourth at 275.


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Book page Image 4 (1)
24 May
In a world made by a perfect Creator, why do bad things happen to us? Why are so many people lost to domestic violence, shootings, and drug addictions? Why have human interactions become rife with lies and selfishness, and why are we continuing to poison our planet? In other words, how did these evils enter our otherwise beautiful Earth?


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Understanding Code Access Security in Reporting Services
The Microsoft .NET Framework provides a robust security system that can run code in tightly constrained, administrator-defined security contexts. Reporting Services uses the .NET Framework security system, known as code access security (or evidence-based security). Under code access security, a user may be trusted to access a resource, but if the code the user executes is not trusted, access to the resource will be denied.
Security based on code, as opposed to specific users, permits security to be expressed for custom assemblies or data, delivery, rendering, and security extensions that you develop for Reporting Services. Your extension code may be executed by any number of Reporting Services users, all of whom are unknown at development time. The custom assemblies or extensions that you develop require specific security policies in Reporting Services. These security policies are represented as types in the .NET Framework. For a more information about code access security, see "Code Access Security" in the .NET Framework documentation.
In This Section
Introduces code access security and policy configuration for custom assemblies and extensions in Reporting Services.
Describes the various assembly types in Reporting Services and how code access security affects code permissions.
Describes the different Reporting Services components and the corresponding policy configuration files.
See Also
Reporting Services Programming Reference
Other Resources
Reporting Services Programming


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Favre is back in football, serving as the offensive coordinator for a Hattiesburg high school. It's nice that he's keeping busy, especially as he isn't yet allowed to forget some of the nasty stuff that popped up during his stint with the Jets. No, not this woman. The other women.
Massage therapists Christina Scavo and Shannon O'Toole sued Favre and the Jets claiming he had propositioned them, sent them harassing text messages, and the Jets allowed it all to happen, letting the women go when they complained. In April, a judge rejected Favre's request to dismiss the suit, and that was big news: it meant that Favre would be required to testify under oath, something he never had to do during the NFL's investigation of the Jenn Sterger incident.
The case hasn't hit a courtroom yet, but Favre's lawyers are already fighting for their client. After the two women submitted a list of questions they intend to ask, a routine procedural step, Favre's lawyers filed papers trying to get out of answering some of them: specifically, the sexual ones.
Favre's attorneys filed papers this week asking a court to say he doesn't have to answer. They say some of the requests are irrelevant and inappropriate, including a bid to get him to acknowledge that a lewd photo that appeared on a sports gossip* website depicts his own anatomy.
From the brief, filed on Monday in a Manhattan Supreme Court, the Honorable Justice Tingling presiding,
"Plaintiffs seek admissions related to graphic images that have nothing to do with this lawsuit and are simply Plaintiffs' latest attempt to harass and embarrass Defendant Favre. For example, "Exhibit A" of Plaintiff's Notice to Admit annexes two pictures of someon's penis that were evidently copied and pasted from the website Deadspin (www.deadspin.com), and asks Favre to confirm that these are images of his penis... This is plainly an attempt to harass and embarrass Defendant Favre (and frankly, all of the Defendants' counsel). Despite Plaintiffs' efforts, this is simply not an issue in this proceeding."
Scavo's and O'Toole's attorney call the filing a delaying tactic. But even if their notice to admit isn't succesful, this one appears headed to trial sooner or later. Favre's attorneys' memorandum in law is below.
* Ouch, AP.


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Between 2010 and 2014, over 14 percent of young Dutch between the ages of 12 and 20 were smoking. This percentage is particularly high in the north of the Netherlands. The share of young people smoking is highest in the province of Drenthe (19 percent), followed by the province of Groningen and the northern Netherlands region, each with 18 percent. The lowest share of smokers aged 12 to 20 is found in the middle region of the country. The municipal health care regions of Amsterdam, Utrecht and the Gooi- en Vecht area report a percentage share of 11 percent young smokers.Read publication
Many municipalities in Groningen province have a very low employment rate among young people aged 15 to 27. Likewise, many young people in the larger cities in the provinces of South and North Holland are unemployed. Labour participation rates among young people in Amsterdam, The Hague and Rotterdam are 59 percent, 52 percent and 53 percent respectively, considerably lower than the national average of over 62 percent.Read publication
Nearly half of the 15-year-olds in the Netherlands are attending a form of pre-vocationalsecondary education (vmbo) in the academic year 2014/'15. The share is particularly large in the provinces of Groningen and Friesland. The number of vmbo students provides an indication of the educational level of young people in a municipality.Read publication
At the end of 2014, the Netherlands had almost 230 thousand children aged 0 to 18 years in families relying on income support benefits, which equals 6.5 percent of all children living with their parents. The percentage shares were considerably higher in Rotterdam (18.2 percent) and Amsterdam (14.4 percent). The Hague also featured in the top 10 of municipalities with children raised on income support, 12.3 percent. Utrecht was not included in the top 10, but ranked above average with 8.1 percent.Read publication
Nearly one in three 18-24 year-olds smoke, and one in five of this age group are overweight. At the same time, nearly 91 percent report their own health as good or very good. Young people who smoke and those who are overweight are less positive about their health than those who do not smoke and those who are not overweight.Read publication
If they are not at home, a smartphone is by far the most popular mobile device for young people to access the internet. Once online, they spend most of their time playing video games, watching films and accessing social networks. They also buy tickets for upcoming events.Read publication
The school dropout rate in the Netherlands was reduced in recent years to 8.8 percent in 2012. The rate across the EU was also gradually reduced. The reduction of school dropouts is high on the national and international policy agenda.Read publication
Youth unemployment among 15-22 year-olds has risen more substantially in 2009 than among 23-64 year-olds. Unemployment rose rapidly among young people without a basic qualification.Read publication
Relative to other European countries, many young people in the Netherlands attend some form of education. The number of young people leaving school without a basic qualification is also below the European Union (EU) average.Read publication
Compared with a few years ago, the situation in which young people with a non-western foreign background in the Netherlands find themselves has improved in a number of areas. They are better educated and more of them have jobs. In spite of this, they still have some catching up to do with respect to native Dutch young people.Read publication


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So we've talked about how Marian doctrine taught me to celebrate my womanhood and how the Catholic idea of vocation honors women. But I want to share with you how learning about the saints and doctors of the Church taught me to love the diversity and strength of women in the communion of saints.
In Part II I shared how before converting to Catholicism, I felt that my gifts didn't fit in anywhere in the church. It wasn't until I started learning about the saints that I discovered that there is a place for everyone. Just because the Church teaches that men and women have different roles, that doesn't mean that Catholic women are rigidly boxed into a narrow "type." There are holy women that are completely different from each other and each Christian is called to display Christ's love in a unique and beautiful way. If each of us were a stained glass window, we would have our own unique image to display the light of Christ.
So what kind of women are honored as saints of the Church?
There are warriors. St. Joan of Arc certainly didn't fit into a traditional female role. Born a peasant, she was not a homemaker, mother, wife, or nun. She was a fearless military leader. Yet, she is held up as a model of Christian devotion. An interesting choice for a Church criticized for wanting all it's women barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen.
There are mothers. A striking juxtaposition to St. Joan is St. Elizabeth Anne Seton, a fellow convert, loving wife and mother, and a lover of literature that was devoted to education and service. The first native-born American to be declared a saint! There's also St. Monica, the holy mother of St. Augustine whose faithful prayers ushered him into the faith. Or St. Gwen, my confirmation saint, who gave birth to three saints, was kidnapped by Anglo-Saxon pagans, escaped twice, and was later martyred.
There are holy virgins. Take St. Lucy, for example, who fiercely defied being bullied into an unwanted marriage with a pagan Roman, undergoing the cruelest tortures her persecutors could imagine. She remained devoted to her Christian faith despite her torturers attempts to blind her, burn her, and send her to a brothel and was martyred for her faith.
No story is the same. No woman is the same. By holding up these amazing women for all Christians to emulate, the Church affirms that women are courageous, strong, persevering, faithful, intelligent, influential, and valuable.
Perhaps even more astonishing than the diversity of female saints, especially considering the inequality in education that women have encountered throughout history, there are four women who are named Doctors of the Church, a rare title that elevates their writings as greatly influential works that are helpful to the Church. To put this in perspective, there are only two popes who are named Doctors of the Church. I always thought that only folks like St. Thomas Aquinas, highly educated dead white guys, held that sort of honor. Not so. I think this speaks volumes to the respect the Church has for a woman's mind. There's certainly a higher percentage of women included here than I encountered in the texts studied in any of my Philosophy classes.
One of these amazing Doctors of the Church, St. Catherine of Siena, refused to accept the role her family had in mind for her: to marry well in medieval Italy. Instead, this holy woman devoted herself to a life of consecrated virginity. She was illiterate (until later in life when she was given the ability to read and write by supernatural means) but became the advisor of popes and political leaders. During a time of great turmoil for the Church, this strong and brave woman held great sway and blessed the Church with her holy guidance.
St. Therese of Lisieux, on the other hand, wasn't a public figure by any stretch of the imagination and her desire was to serve God through "the little way" or the ordinary, every day tasks of one's life. She lived a cloistered life and died very young of tuberculosis. Yet, the writings she left behind are honored next to those of popes and bishops. She is, in fact, the youngest of all the Doctors of the Church.
St. Hildegard of Bingen was a medieval abbess and a polymath, musician, poet, illuminator, philosopher, theologian, and visionary. During the era misnamed the "dark age," St. Hildegard's stunning intellect and writings shone with her vibrant faith. Even as a little girl, decades before my conversion, I was intrigued by St. Hildegard's fascinating life and intelligence.
St. Teresa of Avila was a Carmelite nun, mystic, and influential writer of the Counter Reformation era. Her great works, such as The Interior Castle, are prized for their insights on the contemplative life and mental prayer.
Warriors, mothers, martyrs, aristocrats, peasants, academics or illiterate, there is room for everyone. Getting to know the saints has given me a new perspective of a "woman's role" in the Church. It is not narrow. It is not rigid. There is a place for everyone to be celebrated for the gifts God has given them and the unique way they can serve his Holy Church.
The end of this series, Part IV, on Church teachings about marriage, fertility, and contraception coming soon.
(image source: lenarpoetry.blogspot.com, from Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Dover, NJ)


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Previous | Showing reviews 16-23 of 23
Posted by Arkansas Resident on 10th Jul 2012
I received my baby Hermanns Tortoise today, and I am very pleased it. It was very active, and ate the food we put out for it. The breeders obviously take really good care of the tortoises, and I feel they do this because they truly love what they do. I would definitely recommend them to anyone that wants to purchase a tortoise! Thank you, and I hope you know that my tortoise will get a good home!
Posted by Abby D. on 9th Jul 2012
Thor is SO ENERGETIC!He loves climbing,exploring,and eating! Right when I took him out of his box when I got him, he toured his tank then started eating, I ABSOLUTELY LOVE HIM AND I MIGHT GET ANOTHER ONE!
Posted by Abigail on 29th Feb 2012
My Hermann's tortoise arrived safe and sound all the way to Alaska. The heat pack was still warm, and I was really impressed with how well the little fella was packaged. I was surprised at how active it was right away. It is very healthy and has a great appetite. It is very curious and friendly! It sure has been a blessing!
Posted by Unknown on 22nd May 2011
As a college student, i can't really have a loud/smelly/big pet...so i got this herman's. Its really great. He is active during daytime. I love feeding him he is so cute. If you are thinking of starting a pet tortoise because of those limitations like mine, go for it! its a perfect choice.
Posted by TORTOISE LOVER on 2nd Apr 2011
The tortoise came the same day i ordered it! strange... Well, GREAT SERVICE GUYS! i don't even know how that happened but this company is GREAT!!!!!! I really hope everyone buys their tortoises here!
Posted by Cayla on 10th Feb 2011
She/he just arrived and doesn't seem so shy! Already is getting used to me. SUPER fast shipping, prompt and packaged excellent! Thanks so much!
Posted by Pollyana on 27th Aug 2010
Well, My tortoise arrived in perfect condition, and as soon as I got it out of the box it started munching away happily. Very good condition, you can see that it was very well cared for.
Tyler answered all my questions and concern, and did I ask him many of questions. :]
I would recommend the Hermann's tortoise to everyone who wants a tortoise, and definitely buy it from Tortoise Supply!
Posted by Cindy on 11th Jun 2010
My tortoise arrived in wonderful condition, and has been healthy and happy since the day he/she arrived on my doorstep. This little one has been a very enjoyable addition to our family. :)
Previous | Showing reviews 16-23 of 23
Common Name: Eastern Hermanns Tortoise
Scientific Name: Testudo Hermanii Boettgeri
Current Size: 1.5-2"
Average Adult Size: 6-9" (females larger)
Area of Origin: Greece, Macedonia, Bulgaria and Albania
Description: Light brown color with brown to black bands around each scute of the shell. These pretty tortoises are very similar in look to some localities of Greek tortoises, but lack the spurs on the rear thighs that Greeks have, as well as different colorations on the belly.
Habitat: Mediterranean tortoises, these animals live in grassy meadows and scrubland where they come and go from their burrows in order to maintain the ideal temperatures. They do hibernate naturally, and will hibernate in captivity if proper conditions are given. Our hermanns are some of the earliest Testudo to go down in the fall, and last to rise in the spring. As adults, they can safely handle body temperatures as low as 35 degrees during hibernation, and on cold spring, summer or fall months, they will retreat underground to maintain some warmth. Summer highs up to 110 degrees can be tolerated as long as there is a cooler, underground retreat the tortoise can get into. In hot climates, they will spend much of the summer days in burrows or simply buried under an inch or two of earth.
Diet: This tortoise is naturally a browser, eating broadleaf weeds and low leaves from bushes and shrubs. In captivity, Hermanns tortoises will graze on leafy weeds, dandelion, clover, and most other leafy greens provided to them. As babies, we focus more on feeding them a wide mix of leafy greens (spring mix). Vegetables can be added to the diet for variety, but fruit should generally be avoided or given as no more than 5-10% of the diet.
Adult Behavior: Adult hermanns tortoises are active, busy tortoises when the temperatures are in their ideal ranges (60-85 degrees). They are un-aggressive towards eachother in most cases, and can be kept in small groups. The mating habits can create some problems as males will occasionally bite at the females to subdue them, and sometimes will ram at each other to establish dominance through the ranks. Most will eagerly come to their keepers looking for food once they are comfortable in their environments. They are good climbers and will make attempts to escape, so perimeter fences should be buried at least 6-12" underground, and sidewalls 12-16" above ground will normally contain them.
Our Current Care: During cooler weather or indoors, these tortoises are kept indoors on a cypress and/or coco coir substrate with a humid hidebox that they can get into at night. We raise them in cheap, simple plastic tubs that can be purchased at WalMart or Target, generally 3 to 4 square feet in size for babies. Temperatures in the room fluctuate between 75 at night up to 85 during the day, but we keep the hidebox heated to around 80-85 at night with a heat pad beind it, or a red bulb placed overhead.
Diet consists of spring mix greens with many other leafy greens offered in rotation to that (mulberry, endive, grape leaves, hibiscus leaves, diced cactus pad and we use globe mallow leaves pretty regularly). We like to also add moistened Mazuri LS tortoise diet as well as ZooMed's Gourmet Tortoise Food a few times a week, usually mixed and mashed into the leafy greens. The addition of the commercial diets take care of most or all of the supplementation needs, or you can sprinkle the food lightly with a calcium supplement 2 or 3 times a week and a multivitamin supplement 1-2 times a week. We also throw a pinch of our herbal hay on top of whatever they are eating almost daily, which adds variety and flavor and scent to everything.
The tortoises are removed from their enclosure and soaked in a separate 1/4" deep pan of warm water daily or almost daily for 30 minutes each time. We don't generally use water dishes in the enclosures because of the risk of drowning (yes, we have lost babies to drowning when they flipped over in 1/4" of water).
Being a desert species, they should have intense lighting, and they need lights on during the day and off at night to maintain a normal day/night cycle. We use full spectrum UVB lights, which we suggest for the growth of pretty, healthy tortoises, and use a ZooMed Powersun bulb in a small part of the enclosure to give them a "hot spot" around 95-100 degrees that they can get into if they want to warm up.
We don't use the "closed chamber" method (keeping airflow very restricted to increase humidity to the point that clouds form in the enclosure). It is very risky if/when temperatures get below about 80, and mold, shell rot, and respiratory problems become a lot more common in those conditions. We keep them open top in the warm area, and enclosed, warm and humid within the hide (like they would be in the wild). They are free to choose the conditions, temperatures, and humidity levels they want within that setup.


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Zyr Vodka 750ML - 6 is backordered. We will ship it separately in 10 to 15 days.
Zyr Vodka 750ML
If the item details above aren't accurate or complete, we want to know about it. Please report incorrect product info. We will not ship the products with the original boxes in order to securely pack the product.


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Shinzo Abe isn't the only one stirring up Japanese-Chinese tensions.
Japan's National Information Security Center has asked government ministries to wean themselves off foreign-made typing apps that make it easy to use English-language keyboard to input Japanese characters. These apps are made by Microsoft, Google, and China's Baidu.
The NISC's suggestion makes sense. If you are using a free cloud-based service, your data is not secure. This should be self-evident by now. It's foolish for any government department to use insecure lines of communication for confidential documents. Companies such as China's Huawei and Lenovo are looked upon with suspicion in the west and, after Edward Snowden's revelations, American companies can hardly claim to be bathed in milk, either.
Another stick to beat China with
But in Japan, the reports shifted from sensible to scaremongering. The Asahi Shimbun newspaper, referring to Baidu, headlined its piece, "Free Chinese software secretly transmitting Japanese users' data."
Baidu's app is used by some 2 million people (link in Japanese). It responded to a request for comment from Tech in Asia, a popular blog, explaining that of course the app connects to servers. It has to in order to work.
This manufactured scandal, which comes on the same day as China's outrage of Shinzo Abe's visit to a controversial war memorial, is similar to one about Facebook a couple of weeks ago. A widely-cited piece in Slate used a research paper from Facebook employees to makes the case that "Facebook still knows what you typed—even if you decide not to publish it." A closer reading of the paper (pdf) would have shown that Facebook knows only that you typed, not what you typed. There is a big difference.
Messaging apps do the same thing. That's how you know that the person at the other is typing something. Search engines do it, too. That's how they offer suggestions or bring up instant results. This is the nature of the web. We may not all be comfortable with it, in which case it is perfectly legitimate to not use it. But to call it a conspiracy is silly—or opportunistic.


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Story highlights
The patient will be cared for in an area isolated from other patients, officials say
One of the two infected Americans will be taken to hospital in Atlanta, officials say
Medical charter flight leaves Georgia to evacuate infected Americans, source says
Two American charity workers are described in stable, but grave condition
The fear began just after news broke Thursday that a long-range business jet with an isolation pod left the United States for Liberia, where it will evacuate two Americans infected with Ebola.
Twitter exploded with questions about the deadly virus, which according to the World Health Organization is believed to have killed hundreds in four West African nations. And with reaction to news that two infected Americans would soon be on their way back to the United States.
"Why are they doing this?" Robin Hunter asked in a post on Twitter.
While U.S. officials have remained mum on the issue, a source told CNN that a medical charter flight left from Cartersville, Georgia, on Thursday evening.
A CNN crew saw the plane depart shortly after 5 p.m. ET. The plane matched the description provided by the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
It was not immediately known when the two Americans – identified by the source as Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol – would arrive in the United States, or where the plane would land.
At least one of the two will be taken to a hospital at Emory University, near the headquarters of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, hospital officials told CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
The patient will be cared for in an isolation unit at the hospital that is separate from patient areas, Gupta said.
With the return of Brantly and Writebol to the United States, it will be the first time that patients diagnosed with Ebola will be known to be in the country.
Brantly and Writebol are described as being in stable-but-grave conditions, with both reportedly taking a turn for the worse overnight, according to statements released Thursday by the faith-based charity Samaritan's Purse.
No known cure
There is no known cure or vaccine for Ebola, which the World Health Organization says is believed to have infected 1,323 people in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria between March and July 27.
Of those suspected cases, it is believed to have been fatal in at least 729 cases, according to the health organization.
In the United States, the National Institutes of Health announced it will begin testing an experimental Ebola vaccine in people as early as September.
The federal agency has been working on the vaccine over the last few years and says they've seen positive results when they tested it on primates.
The NIH announcement came the same day as the CDC issued a Level 3 alert for Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, warning against any nonessential travel to the region.
As of now, the outbreak has been confined to West Africa. But it could spread via travel, especially since people who have Ebola may not know it; symptoms usually manifest two to 21 days.
The symptoms include fever, headaches, weakness and vomiting, and at an advanced stage there is internal and external bleeding.
The Eboloa outbreak is believed to be the worst in history, and even in a best-case scenario, it could take three to six months to stem the epidemic in West Africa, Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the CDC, told reporters on Thursday.
Writebol gets 'experimental serum'
Both Brantly, a 33-year-old who last lived in Texas, and Writebol were caring for Ebola patients in Liberia.
An experimental serum was administered to Writebol this week. Only one dose of the serum was available, and Brantly asked that it be given to his colleague, said Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan's Purse.
Samaritan's Purse said it did not have any additional detail about the serum.
At the same time, Brantly received a unit of blood from a 14-year-old boy who survived Ebola, the statement said. Brantly had treated the teen, it said.
It was not immediately clear what doctors hoped the blood transfusion would do for Brantly.
While blood transfusions have been tried before, Frieden told reporters no one really knows why some people survive and some don't.
There have been questions about the the health of Brantly's wife and his children, who left for Texas prior to his diagnosis.
In a statement released Thursday, Amber Brantly said she and her children "are physically fine."
"We had left Liberia prior to Kent's exposure to the virus," she said. "I am always anxiously awaiting any news from Liberia regarding Kent's condition."
Meanwhile, Writebol's husband, David, who like his wife is with Samaritan's Purse, is near her, said their son Jeremy, who spoke with CNN's Chris Cuomo from the United States.
But she is isolated from him, and he has to wear head-to-toe protective clothing similar to a hazmat suit so that he does not contract a disease that starts out with similar symptoms as a strong flu but can end in internal bleeding and death.
"Mom continues in stable condition but it's very serious, and she's still fighting," her son said. "She's weak, but she's working through it."
Liberian Information Minister Lewis Brown said his country could ill afford to lose health care workers like Writebol and Brantly.
"We join the families in prayers that they can come through this and become … shining examples that, if care is taken, one can come out of this."
Another physician in West Africa was not so fortunate; Dr. Sheik Humarr Khan fell ill early last week while overseeing Ebola treatment at a Sierra Leone hospital and died days later.
Rate of infection
The rate of infection has slowed in Guinea, but it has increased in neighboring Sierra Leone and Liberia.
As infection accelerates, some aid groups are pulling out to protect their own.
Samaritan's Purse and the missionary group Serving in Mission have recalled all nonessential personnel from Liberia.
The Peace Corps announced Wednesday it is doing the same, removing its 340 volunteers from the three severely affected nations.
While there are no confirmed cases, a Peace Corps spokeswoman said two volunteers came into contact with someone who ended up dying from the virus.
Those Americans haven't shown signs of Ebola but are being isolated just in case. The spokeswoman said they can't return home until they get medical clearance.
Meanwhile, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Sierra Leone's President Ernest Koroma both canceled trips to the United States, and Koroma declared a state of emergency. Koroma announced an action plan to tear down many barriers that international medical workers say they face while fighting disease.
Sirleaf said on CNN's "The Lead with Jake Tapper" that the country is in desperate need of people with expertise in treating and dealing with Ebola.
Some residents in affected villages have accused medical workers of bringing the disease into the country and have barricaded their towns or otherwise blocked access to Ebola victims.
Koroma said he will deploy police and military to accompany the aid workers.
They will search house to house for the infirm and enforce orders designed to curb the virus' spread.
American dies in Nigeria
One American, 40-year-old Patrick Sawyer, died in a Nigerian hospital earlier this month – having come from Liberia. He was in a plane to Lagos, when he became violently ill. He was planning to go back home to Minnesota to celebrate his daughters' birthdays, but the disease took his life before he could.
The Nigerian government said Thursday it has located 10 more people who had contact with Sawyer, the first American who died in the Ebola outbreak. Meanwhile, none of the 67 people under surveillance and the two people in quarantine have shown symptoms of the disease, Nigerian Minister of Information Labaran Maku said.
A naturalized American citizen who worked in Liberia, Sawyer flew to Nigeria intending to attend a conference.
After exhibiting symptoms upon arrival July 20, he was hospitalized and died on July 25.
Nigeria's Minister of Health Onyebuchi Chukwu says the government is still searching for more people that had contact with Sawyer on his journey on a plane that stopped in Accra, Ghana and Lome, Togo, before traveling on to Lagos.
Ebola doctor in Sierra Leone dies
CNN's Millicent Smith, Caleb Hellerman, Jason Hanna, Jonathan Helman, Pamela Brown, Nana Karikari-apau and journalist Heather Murdock in Abuja, Nigeria, contributed to this report.


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Commercial property price indicator
Euro area 19 (fixed composition) as of 1 January 2015; Whole country; Transaction value; Commercial property, All types
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Experimental indicators on commercial property prices: Table in chapter 01, section 01 (T0101)
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2023-08-23 14:55
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Commercial property price indicator
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One of the most effective scare techniques employed to preserve our grotesquely inefficient, overpriced health care system has been to invoke the red peril of "socialized medicine". Never mind that foreigners in advanced economies fail to recognize the caricatures scaremongers supply, or that Americans who need emergency care while overseas are almost without exception impressed with the caliber of care and astonished by the low (sometimes no) cost to them. After all, Americans live in the best of all possible worlds, and consumer and business freedom are always better.
In fact, business freedom here increasingly means the God-given right to exploit the vulnerability of the public. The example slouching into view is more corporate control over the practice of medicine. And based on the previews, it will make the horrors falsely attributed to socialized medicine look pale.
Two accounts last week bring the issue home. The first came in the Health Care Renewal blog (hat tip Lysa). It's a reminder of how the current institutional efforts to regiment doctors undermine the caliber of medical care. It has become distressingly common for HMOs and other medical enterprises to have business-school trained managers putting factory-style production parameters on doctor visits. Outside of foreclosure mills, it's hard to find similar approaches in other professions.
The post describes how a pediatrician, Pauline, who has developed a reputation for treating chronic conditions is at loggerheads with her for-profit practice. The suits don't like her patient mix. She gets too many tough cases, when they'd rather have basically healthy kids who are there for a cold or ear infection. Mind you, this is only partly a money issue. These visits can be "up coded" so as to get larger insurance/patient payments, but she gets a higher level of patients in less-generous state insurance programs. But some of the pushback is that her practice is perceived as disruptive, since she uses what is perceived as too much of her and staff time, separate and apart from the economics. She's constantly breaking management's precious guidelines. One of her turf struggles:
She had set up a visit to see a new medically complex patient and had blocked off 40 minutes, the amount of time she felt she needed to do a good job. The child had a complex genetic disorder, cerebral palsy, and heart, lung, and kidney problems. Both the cardiologist and the nephrologist had called asking her to take this patient. She agreed. After she had scheduled the visit, a manager called her and told her that she was being allowed only 15 minutes to see that patient. After some fruitless discussion with him, Pauline finally said, "Okay, I guess that means that you'll be seeing the patient instead of me, right?" The shocked voice at the other end of the phone line replied, "What do you mean? I don't know how to take care of patients." "That's exactly my point," Pauline put in.
Pauline explained that this manager assigned to her office is not even a college graduate. Physicians cannot access the schedule electronically and have no control over scheduling. These functions are controlled by the office manager and (amazingly) by some of the medical assistants who have received some "leadership" training. These medical assistants are even allowed to evaluate the clinical competency and skills of the physicians.
And to add insult to injury, how long did this discussion take? All those minutes the doctor spent fighting with a petty bureaucrat come at the expense of patient care.
As an aside, it's hard to stress enough that this sort of demoralizing micromanagement and unwillingness to listen to and learn from workers, is a widespread shortcoming of management American-style. And it has weirdly been airbrushed out of the media. When I was a kid in business school, US manufacturers were having their clocks cleaned by Germans and the Japanese. There was a good deal of critical self examination back then. One source of foreign ascendancy was that they had newer factories, so you couldn't really blame American management for that one. But the second was that it was widely acknowledged that US managers were generally poor at dealing with labor. And this wasn't "labor" in the union sense, but at having productive relationships with factory workers (note that there has been massive revisionist history since then. When I was in Bschool, none of my classmates, nearly half of whom had worked in major manufacturing companies, had bad things to say about unions.) Now you'll often see the decline of American manufacturing attributed to unions in an "everybody knows that" tone.
Now before you come running to the defense of management against the doctor, think twice:
So let me add a further nugget about Pauline's background. In one of her previous jobs, she was made the manager of a pediatric outpatient center within a county hospital caring for a largely indigent population. This center had been running in the red for a good while. Pauline took over and within 28 months she'd streamlined the place and had them running well in the black, while still administering a quality of care that Pauline and her colleagues could be proud of. In short, Pauline could probably tell the managers of her current practice a thing or two about how to optimize patient scheduling without compromising care or cost —if they'd listen.
As bad as that is, most patients are unware of how much their care has been fitted to a Procrustean bed. The deliberate degradation in the name of profits is going to become more obvious, at least if the health care industry has its way.
I strongly encourage you to read this post from Whole Health Chicago (hat tip Lambert) in full. It shows how the future of American medicine is to fire the ones who are unhealthy. No, I am not making that up. The writer, Dr. David Edelberg, describes a recent presentation by a large insurance company. They've apparently been hosting similar sessions with physicians in the Chicago area in large medical practices. Here are the key bits (emphasis original):
The speaker at these evenings is always a physician employed by the insurance company. His/her title is medical director (I begin to think there must be dozens and dozens on their payroll) and he always begins by reassuring the audience that he was in clinical practice himself so he understands something of what physicians–especially primary care physicians–are facing. I view this physician more as a "Judas steer," the animal that leads an innocent but doomed herd of cattle through the slaughterhouse corridors to the killing floor.
• The health industry hopes that individual medical practices and small medical groups will ultimately disappear from the landscape by being financially absorbed into larger groups owned by hospital systems.
And why do the powers that be regard this as desirable? Although the article does not stress this point, doctors have an established revenue stream. So the acquirers buy them out and impose discipline on those artistic, freewheeling doctors. The "practice style," which used to mean the independence that doctors once enjoyed, is now an Orwellianism and includes hewing to corporate guidelines as to how to operate.
And here's what to expect:
Physicians are expected to spend a limited amount of time with each patient, and are encouraged to see as many patients as possible during a workday. The insurance companies, sometimes with the token cooperation of a few physician-employees, create vast books of patient-care guidelines to which they believe their physicians must be "accountable" (remember this word, it will crop up again). These guidelines might mean documented Pap smear and mammogram frequency, weight management and exercise, colonoscopies for patients over 50, and getting that evil LDL (bad cholesterol) below 99 by any means possible…
If the chart audit system discovers that a physician, for whatever reason, is an "outlier"–that she's either not following the guidelines exactly or not getting the results anticipated for her patient population—she'll be financially penalized. A quick example of what might occur: if your LDL is 115, you may be on the receiving end of a statin sales pitch from your doctor, not because bringing it down to 99 will improve your longevity, but because your refusal to do so will impact her financial bottom line.
Now of course, you might say, "Well, in fairness, medicine is too much of a cottage industry. Look at how many doctors give unnecessary annual EKGs to patients in low risk groups. How else are we going to get to evidence-based medicine?" The problem is that what we as patients will get isn't driven by best outcomes, it's driven by profits. Edelberg explains:
…the subtext of "standardized" always includes the unspoken "spend less money on the patient." Thus, a doctor might be financially penalized for recommending nutritional counseling to lower cholesterol ("counseling is expensive") instead of writing a generic statin drug (cheap). Or recommending psychotherapy ("therapy is very expensive") instead of generic Prozac (cheaper than M&M's). Or referring patients for massage, acupuncture, or even chiropractic ("expensive, expensive, expensive!") instead of pushing an over-the-counter antiinflammatory (free to the insurance company, as it's OTC).
And I shudder to think what becomes of patients who don't hew to standard templates: the person who had a high body mass but not due to dangerous abdominal fat (which is what creates the health risk) who is pushed to take the latest, greatest diet drug. What about people who don't buy into the religion of getting your LDL down to below 100 (one reader argued that while it may lower your risk of heart disease, it increases your all-factor death risk by reducing your ability to fight MRSA)? Will they face penalties if they fail to comply?
No, you just will find it nearly impossible to get a doctor to take you:
• Let me close with a best-as-I-recall quote from an insurance company medical director. "We can no longer afford to pay for health care under the PPO model. Our plan is to phase out all fee-for-service care during the next few years. We'll pay you doctors a finite amount of money to take care of a defined population. We tell doctors, 'Don't spend much money and you can keep the difference. Period. Don't follow guidelines, and you'll be leaving behind some serious money on the table and we'll just take it back.'"
In case you think I overstated the implications, Edelberg recapped the discussion that ensued:
One physician piped up…. "But what about the non-compliant patients who won't take the meds, don't eat well, don't have mammograms, continue to smoke? And what about super-health-conscious patients who want their vitamin levels measured and want referrals to acupuncturists?"
Another physician answered wearily for the medical director (who didn't disagree): "You've got to fire patients like that. Get the non-compliant and the super-demanding out of your system. They'll drag your numbers down. Hit your personal bottom line."
Hey you, patient. Yes, I mean YOU. Pink slip time! Canned! Take your medical records and don't let the frosted glass door hit you in the…on the way out.
In other words, if you are high maintenance because you don't do what your doctor says (and remember, "non-compliant" includes people who don't follow orders because they think the cookie-cutter approach isn't right for them) or want higher service or per the example of the pediatrician Patricia's 40 minute case, have a complicated set of ailments, you'll be shunted. The brave new world of corporate medicine will eject you.
The rich are unlikely even to know that this change is occurring. There will be a tier of doctors on the high end to cater to patients who want more personalized, cutting edge treatment and might need some prodding. And they can always go abroad if they can't find what they need here. But for ordinary schlubs, expect to find the doctor's office become more hostile as the brave new world of corporatized medicine becomes entrenched.