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Govt has failed on all fronts: Omar
Bisnah, January 5
Sounding the bugle for the Assembly elections, the father-son duo of former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah and National Conference president Omar Abdullah with their barbed speeches have seemingly left the Congress-led coalition government bleeding, if not profusely.
Former chief minister Farooq Abdullah along with his son and NC president Omar Abdullah during a public rally at Bishnah, near Jammu.
— A Tribune photograph
CBI to probe phone bill scandal
Jammu, January 5
A CBI team has been sent to Srinagar to probe the telephone bill fudging scam, which has resulted in a huge loss to the BSNL.
Valley experiences rain, snow
Srinagar, January 5
Heavens finally answered to the prayers of Kashmiris today as rains and snow fell in the valley, bringing an end to a long run of cold and dry winter.
Tourists seem to enjoy during snowfall, pelting each other with snowballs, at Gulmarg, 51 km from Srinagar, on Saturday.
— Tribune photo by Mohd Amin War
Launch of The Tribune's Jammu Edition
After Poonch, Cong eyes Doda
Guru's Parkash Utsav draws sea of humanity
Elections: Political sloganeering begins
A year to polls, Azad expands ministry
Azad promises peaceful 2008
Congress activists go against government
Asst surgeon rapes teenager, held
4 jawans among 25 hurt in violence
Farooq rules out alliance with Cong, BJP; open to BSP
Food pilferage: Army served final notice
Heavy snowfalls elude valley
Though weather gods have come to the rescue of people in Kashmir with welcome downpours since last night after a prolonged dry spell of freezing cold, elders in the valley continue to miss chilling fascination with heavy snowfalls.
Kashmir highway closed due to snowfall
The traffic authorities today stopped the movement of vehicular traffic on the 300-km long Jammu-Srinagar national highway due to heavy snowfall around Jawahar tunnel and Shetani Nullah areas on the arterial road, the police said here.
Periodic checking of anganwari centres must: Minister
Minister for social welfare Abdul Ghani Vakil today called for periodic checking of anganwari centres to ensure that nutrition and benefits of other schemes reached the genuine beneficiaries.
India, Pak urged to end impasse
The All Party Hurriyat Conference led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has urged India and Pakistan to make the ongoing dialogue process meaningful and fruitful in view of the aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir to ensure peace in South Asia.
Gurpurab celebrated with fervour
The 342nd Parkash Utsav (birth anniversary) of the tenth Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh, was today celebrated with religious fervor and gaiety here. The main function was held at Gurdwara Chand Kaur where members of the Sikh community gathered to pay their obeisance to Guru Granth Sahib.
Sikhs pay obeisance at a gurdwara on the birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh in Jammu on Saturday. — A Tribune photo
Hospital or garbage dump?
Rajouri, January 5
Mismanagement rules the roost at the District Hospital here and patients seem to be facing a hard time due to the prevailing unhygienic conditions at the hospital. Patients seem to have forgotten about their treatment and the only thing they fear is that they might contract some infectious disease.
Steps to check HIV infection among expecting mothers
Every year on an average, at least 10 HIV-infected women give birth to infants at the Government SMGS Hospital, a nursing home in the city. On an average the hospital receives four to five cases of HIV infection every year.
Visitors look at a painting during an exhibition at the Kala Kendra in Jammu on Friday. — A Tribune photograph
Power crisis hits water supply
Residents in this border township seem to be facing a hard time. With no respite from the ongoing cold wave, now it is the erratic water supply, which is creating problems for them.
Raise level of debates, Azad tells ministers
Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has urged his cabinet colleagues to raise the level of debates during the budget session, which commences on Monday.
Azad doubles prize money for writers
Free travel facility for award winners
Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages has more than doubled the award money given annually for best books in different languages. This was decided at a meeting of the central committee of the academy, presided over by Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is also the ex officio president of the academy.
Youth killed
Twenty-year-old youth was knocked off by an over-speeding vehicle in Mendhar area of Poonch district today.
Sounding the bugle for the Assembly elections, the father-son duo of former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah and National Conference (NC) president Omar Abdullah with their barbed speeches have seemingly left the Congress-led coalition government bleeding, if not profusely.
Addressing a public rally organised to observe the sixth death anniversary of late Pandit Trilochan Dutt at Pandorian, Omar said, "When the coalition government took over the reins in 2002, it made tall claims of having "Khushal Kashmir" and we too want peace and prosperity. However, the tall claims of the present regime have turned out to be hollow slogans."
"People themselves should see the real face of the coalition government. We are not here to woo you for votes," he said, adding "This government is an utter failure on all fronts."
"Under the coalition rule, the state attained a dubious distinction of being the second most corrupt state after Bihar in the country," said Omar.
Omar said, "New Delhi had dished out a hefty sum of Rs 24,000 crore to the coalition government but I want to know whether Rs 240 crore, in every Assembly, had been spent by this government?"
Switching over to the issue of opening degree colleges which had sparked off a controversy in the state, Omar said, "Till date, colleges opened in the last five years were sans teaching faculty and requisite infrastructure."
He said, "The present dispensation has completely turned a blind eye to the problem of rising unemployment and if the government fails to adopt reconciliatory measures, the youth may go astray either picking up guns or falling prey to drugs."
Omar announced that if voted to power, the National Conference would conduct special recruitment drive for the youth of border areas with a minimum qualification of middle pass.
Taking a dig at finance minister Tariq Hamid Karra for coining an idea of having a separate currency in the state, Omar expressed regrets. "He took oath under the Constitution of India but he wants to have separate currency, might be with his own image on it," he said.
Describing it as yet another political gimmick to keep voters intact, he said, "Politics should be real and fair for the welfare of people. Politics with a jaundiced mind always casts serious ramifications." "Like PDP's self-rule and demilitarisation slogans, separate currency is yet another political gimmick," he added.
Later, Farooq in his address said if the NC was voted to power, it would frame a special commission for the Scheduled Castes so as to mitigate their sufferings. "The party is framing the election manifesto with a major thrust on unemployment." Farooq added that the NC would amend the Panchayati Raj Act to make it powerful so as to empower women in real sense.
Official sources said here today CBI agents have already reached the state's summer capital on receipt of information that some BSNL officials, in connivance with PCO owners, had fudged phone bills worth several lakhs of rupees.
The CBI team has been asked to identify those in the BSNL office and among the PCO owners, who had managed to fudge the password used for issuing phone bill and for receiving the payment.
The official sources said 30 to 40 BSNL officials and PCO owners have been identified who would be investigated. According to information, the BSNL office had accepted payment, 90 to 120 per cent less than the billed amount.
In one case, against the billed amount of Rs 10,000 only Rs 1000 was accepted to show zero balance against the subscriber.
The CBI team has been asked not to confine the probe to Srinagar city also but cover other towns because there are possibilities that the fudging of phone bills may have been extended to other areas in the valley.
It did not exactly lash Kashmir , but almost the entire valley received fitful rains, which started at night, and the higher reaches like Gulmarg had snow, though not in huge quantity. Srinagar got a miniscule amount of slit in the morning and snowflakes fell with drizzle and disappeared before they touched the ground. The Met department, which had been expecting rains for the past two days, said rains were likely to continue.
Srinagar received 1.4 mm rains today while Qazikund had 3 mm rains and tourist hot spot Pehalgam 3 mm. The Met department has predicted rains and snow for the valley in the next 24 hours.
Rains were preceded by rise in temperature and mercury level, which had been hovering around minus 7 degree Celsius, shot up to minus 0.2 last night. However, overcast conditions means that day temperature remained rather cold and sky would clear up once rains come down in substantial quantity, the residents said.
People expect that the rains would help overcome the looming danger of water crisis and electricity failure. Water levels in the valley's only river, the Jhelum, and its streams have receded alarmingly in the past few weeks, much to the chagrin of locals. Lack of rains in the winter so far would mean that there was not much ice formation in the glaciers, thus restricting the water flow when ice begins melting in spring.
Large number of locals had offered special prayers in mosques and shrines yesterday, which being a Friday is an auspicious day for Muslims.
Though weather gods have come to the rescue of people in Kashmir with welcome downpours since last night after a prolonged dry spell of freezing cold, elders in the valley continue to miss chilling fascination with heavy snowfalls. In their childhood they have witnessed heavy snowfalls achieving the heights between 1 ft to several, at least 5 to 6 ft., that would long till the onset of spring early in March.
They have also been witness to severe and freezing cold conditions cementing the serene waters of Dal lake to help not only an adventurous walk but playing cricket or cycling on its surface.
Over the past couple of decades, the global warming seems to have cast its impact on the landlocked Kashmir valley, surrounded by high Himalayan mountains. Except for the only heavy snowfall followed by freezing temperatures during the 1990-91 winter, there has hardly been any heavy snowfall in Kashmir valley. That snowfall had revived, among the elderly people, their age-old and sweet memories associated with the harsh winters. However, over the past several years the heavy snowfall has been elusive, though the temperatures have been on the lines of that in the past decades.
During the past one week, the valley has witnessed steep decline in the night temperature down to 7.4 degrees Celsius below zero. The downpour with snowfall in the mountains and rains in the planes since last night have brought a welcome change in the overall atmosphere in the valley with the temperature rising to around zero degree from minus 7.4 degrees Celsius.
The freezing temperature during the past over a week have been reminiscent of the old practices when it had led to the freezing of Dal waters a couple of times around 1960s.
One such experience was also in the early 1982 when the freezing temperature led to freezing of Dal waters with the people venturing to walk into the hard surface. Many elders are reminded of the adventurous jeep ride on the frozen Dal waters in early 1960s.
Many others had to enjoy walking on the hard frozen surface of the Dal Lake here in the 1960s and early 1982. However this time, though the parts of Dal lake were frozen the authorities had a word of caution for the people not to venture out walking on the lake's surface for it would be dangerous.
People in the valley have welcomed the change in the weather conditions with the hope that there would be much accumulation of snow in the mountains this winter to suffice the purposes of irrigation of crops fields, power generation in hydel projects and drinking water supplies.
The timely downpour in the mid of "Chillai Kalaan', the 40-days long peak winter that started on December 22 last, is also welcome in the valley for it has got relief in the coughs and colds among the elderly and the children alike.
Many people here prefer a special mutton preparation of "Harisa" to fight the chilly weather, while the have nots have to rely least on the Desi Achar, dry or leafy vegetables available in the markets and the charcoal filled Kangris to warm up under the long robe, known as "Pheran".
Accumulation of snow in certain stretches of highway between Banihal-Jawahar tunnel and Jawahar tunnel-Qazigund has made the road slippery, they said, adding vehicular movement was stopped as a precautionary measure.
The traffic authorities were directed to ask vehicle owners to stop their vehicles at main station on the highway, the police added. — PTI
Vakil was addressing a high-level meeting with officers of the Social Welfare Department during his maiden visit to Kashmir after taking oath in Jammu on Tuesday last.
He said the present strength of anganwari centres would be increased by 6,000 to provide succour to the areas which had not been covered so far. He also informed that 17,000 new posts would be created in the department.
He said the administration would be made more accountable and responsive to the urges and aspirations of people. Reminding the officers of the department of their responsibilities and duties towards the people, particularly the physically challenged and destitute, the minister said they should be taken care of with more devotion, dedication and honesty. He said any lapse on the part of any officer in the implementation of social welfare schemes would be dealt with strictly and those performing well would earn accolades.
Vakil said officers working in the department were fortunate enough as they rendered services to widows, orphans, handicapped and other lower strata of the society. He stressed on maintaining transparency and accountability at all levels in the functioning of the department.
Meanwhile, talking on the Kashmir issue, he said no single political party could solve the issue. He said all parties, including the Hurriyat, should come forward on the round table to express views to solve the Kashmir imbroglio.
Vakil said the Congress had always kept its doors open for negotiation on any issue.
The All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has urged India and Pakistan to make the ongoing dialogue process meaningful and fruitful in view of the aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir to ensure peace in South Asia.
"We hope that India and Pakistan make the dialogue process which started in 2004, a meaningful and fruitful exercise, in view of the problems being faced by the people of Jammu and Kashmir over the past five decades. A forward movement in this direction would ensure peace in the South Asia," a spokesman of the moderate Hurriyat Conference said today.
The APHC has sought the resolution of the pending Kashmir issue as the United Nations (UN) had passed a resolution on January 5, 1949, in this regard. "The resolution continued to be an important milestone as on this day the UN had accepted that the people of Kashmir could decide their own future, the spokesman added.
He said the UN resolution was equally relevant in the present time since the people of state had been demanding its implementation for the past more than five decades. During this period the UN had resolved many more crucial issues, but the Kashmir issue continued to remain unresolved, he added.
The 342nd Parkash Utsav (birth anniversary) of the tenth Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh, was today celebrated with religious fervor and gaiety here.
The main function was held at Gurdwara Chand Kaur where members of the Sikh community gathered to pay their obeisance to Guru Granth Sahib.
The main attraction of the function was the Gurbani Kirtan by former Jathedar (head priest) of Akal Takht Prof Darshan Singh who had come especially for the occasion.
Harzoori ragis from the Darbar Sahib, Amritsar, also came to Jammu to recite shabad kirtan there.
Various Sikh speakers and historians threw light on the life and sacrifices made by Guru Gobind Singh.
In no history of the world you would find someone except Guru Gobind Singh who sacrificed his entire family, including father, children and whosoever he had, just to save the honour and dignity of others and the country, said one of the speakers.
Prof Darshan Singh said that the community was undergoing a hidden crisis where members of then community were fast deviating from the principles laid down by Guru Gobind Singh.
He said the majority of the Sikh community in Punjab was indulging in intoxication and other drug abuses and steps needed to be taken to prevent the community from becoming a complete victim to such practices which the Guru stood against.
Drug abuses and intoxication has become common in Punjab, Sikh community need to follow the principles of Guru Gobind Singh, as these principles are universal and would restore the glory and separate identity of Sikh community, he said.
Various Sikh speakers who spoke on the occasion uprised the congregation on various problems faced by Sikh community in Jammu and Kashmir.
A resolution was also passed in which main problems faced by the Sikh community were highlighted.
Sikhs even demanded a 10 per cent reservation for the deserving Sikh youth in the state services and public sector undertakings.
People also had langar on the occasion.
Shariq Majeed
Mismanagement rules the roost at the District Hospital here and patients seem to be facing a hard time due to the prevailing unhygienic conditions at the hospital.
Patients seem to have forgotten about their treatment and the only thing they fear is that they might contract some infectious disease, which could be more lethal, than the disease they are being treated for.
The hospital gives a look of a garbage dump with heaps of garbage and filth lying in the hospital premises. The inner wards, too, don't seem to be fit for housing patients. There are cracks in the floor and on the roof from where water oozes out, posing a great health hazard for patients.
Patients admitted in the hospital complain that not only are the wards in the worst of condition but the toilets, too, are a breeding ground for new diseases.
"The hospital administration doesn't seem to be interested in maintaining cleanliness in the hospital and are playing with the lives of patients. The wards are unhygienic and the condition of toilets is worse. One cannot stand the stench coming from these toilets," said Shabir Ahmed, a patient, admitted in the general ward.
"Forget about treatment, one can catch some infectious disease at the hospital," he rues.
Chief medical officer Dr T.R. Gupta admitted that a few wards were not hygienic, but added that the problem was only minor.
"There can be unhygienic conditions in some of the wards. This is because of the cracks in the floor and the roof," Dr Gupta said. "We have sought funds for the renovation of buildings," he added.
Hospital medical superintendent Dr Yashpal Sharma said, "Every year eight to 10 HIV-infected women deliver babies, while four to five HIV-infected children come to the paediatric department for treatment."
"In case of HIV-infected expecting women, we provide them the required medication so as to ensure that the baby is protected from the fatal infection," he said, adding, "With rising awareness level, people themselves are coming forward for HIV tests."
"The hospital has adequate arrangements to diagnose the infection and then adopt precautionary measures to protect the child from contracting HIV. The hospital has been provided with profile access kits that enable doctors to diagnose the infection," he added.
The Jammu and Kashmir state AIDS Prevention and Control Society (JKSAPCS) has initiated several measures to check the killer infection.
Talking to The Tribune, project director, Dr M.A. Wani said, "Annual HIV sentinel surveillance survey has been institutionalised over the years in order to monitor the trends of HIV infection in specific high-risk groups as well as low-risk groups".
"High-risk segments of the population include people attending STD clinics, MSM clinics and drug de-addiction centres," he said, adding "Low-risk segments include mothers attending antenatal clinics, and in fact this category is taken as proxy for the general population." He said, "Sentinel sites are located in each category among the clinics cited, so that blood samples are accessed both from high-risk groups as well from low-risk groups at regular intervals through an "unlinked anonymous" procedure", adding "The state today has Voluntary Counselling and Testing Centres (VCTCs) (four each in Jammu and Srinagar)."
Initially it was an uphill task for the AIDS society to create awareness among people due to the social stigma attached to the infection, low literacy rate, religious superstitions and different languages and dialects being spoken in the state.
However, the society to a considerable extent succeeded in convincing religious leaders to educate people about the killer infection and ways to keep it at bay. "Our endeavours have started paying rich dividends and religious leaders are no longer hesitant to talk about HIV/AIDS and safe sex," Dr Wani said.
"Initially, the programme to train religious leaders was implemented in Kashmir division but now it has been implemented in Jammu region as well," he added.
It may be recalled that the state, which had the lowest prevalence rate of infection in the country as of today, has an official figure of 1,130 HIV infected people.
Due to erratic power supply, water supply has also been badly affected in this frontier township.
Residents allege that in most of the areas, including the old city and DC Colony, water was being supplied after three days.
They said owing to water shortage they had to queue up for hours together to get water from hand pumps. Some of the residents complained that they had to get water from the Rajouri nullah.
"For the last two days, the Water Supply Department has not supplied water. I called their office to know the reason and they replied that erratic power supply has affected the water supply," said Imran Lone, a resident of ward number 10, who had to wait in a queue for an hour to fill a bucket of water.
Shagufta Begum, a resident of ward number two of DC Colony, while expressing her ire against the department said the department supplied water after three days.
"Since there is no water supply for the last two days, we are facing hardships. I hope the water supply is regularised and we are not made to suffer further," she added.
Meanwhile, superintendent engineer (SE), Hydraulic circle, Ashok Kumar Gupta admitted that the water supply had been affected. "Water supply has been affected due to erratic power supply," he said.
Holding a meeting with the ministers here today, the Chief Minister asked them to actively participate in the proceedings. He asked them to be present during the entire session.
The healthy debates and discussions, he said, were the essence of democracy and people's representatives were expected to come up to their expectations.
The Chief Minister hoped that both the ruling and opposition legislators would contribute to upholding the high democratic traditions and the ensuing session would help in adequately reflecting and addressing public grievances.
Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee president and education minister, Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed, minister for health and medical education Mangat Ram Sharma were among those present in the meeting.
Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages has more than doubled the award money given annually for best books in different languages.
This was decided at a meeting of the central committee of the academy, presided over by Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is also the ex officio president of the academy, here last evening.
Azad asked the premier cultural organisation of the state to hold a major cultural event as part of its ongoing golden jubilee celebrations this year and extend its activities to the countryside.
The Chief Minister said he would explore the possibility of roping in the union ministries of civil aviation and culture to invite a major foreign cultural group to perform in the state.
The event would form a part of the ongoing golden jubilee celebrations organised by the academy in connection with completing 50 eventful years of its activities.
Among several decisions taken at the Friday's meeting, the academy decided to raise the yearly award money for Best Books in different languages from Rs 25,000 to Rs 51,000. The decision would serve as a big boost to writers in the state.
At par with these awards, the institution of best short film/documentary and best photography awards for producers and photographers of the State was also decided to be given annually by the academy.
Free travel facility to academy award winners in state road transport buses was also agreed to and the Chief Minister said the government would necessary orders in this respect. In order to widen the area of academy's activities, opening of sub-offices at Shopian, Anantnag, Kishtwar, Udhampur and Kathua was also decided in the meeting.
The committee also approved annual grant of financial assistance to voluntary cultural and literary organisations and enhanced the upper slab of the aid from Rs one lakh to Rs 1.5 lakh.
Muhammad Nasir of Mendhar died on the spot after he was hit by a load carrier, which was on its way to Surankote from Mendhar. Nasir was buying some household goods after offering Friday prayers. — TNS


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As Fall Arrives and Pressures Mount, Harvard Medical Researchers Press Forward on Two COVID Vaccine Trials
Harvard Crimson – September 13, 2020
Dan Barouch, MD, PhD (Center for Virology and Vaccine Research, BIDMC) discusses a potential COVID-19 vaccine and the status of COVID-19 vaccine trials.
Researchers at Harvard Medical School's affiliated teaching hospitals are helping to design and test two major COVID-19 vaccines. By Melanie Y. Fu
As summer turns to fall with no immediate end in sight to the coronavirus pandemic, researchers at Harvard Medical School's affiliated teaching hospitals are working around the clock to help design and test two major COVID-19 vaccines.
The pressure to produce a vaccine is mounting as the United States and other nations continue struggling to contain the pandemic, which has closed businesses, disrupted education, and caused nearly one million deaths worldwide.
Much of the scientific community — as well as the general public — has reached the conclusion that only a vaccine will produce sufficient herd immunity and end the pandemic. Governments, pharmaceutical companies, and academic researchers are working to design, test, and manufacture vaccines in hopes that at least one will be effective.
At Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a Harvard Medical School teaching hospital, Dan H. Barouch is heading a COVID-19 vaccine effort in a partnership with pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson.
Barouch, who serves as Director of Beth Israel's Center for Virology and Vaccine Research, led the design effort for a vaccine which uses a common cold virus as a viral vector to deliver the coronavirus spike protein to host cells, stimulating the body to elicit an immune response. After successfully showing a robust immune response in adult rhesus monkeys, the team started phase one and phase two clinical trials at the end of July.
Barouch said the team is currently testing both a single-shot and two-shot vaccine regimen to determine the right balance between feasibility and potency.
"While a single shot would be immensely more practical and logistically feasible and deployable for a global vaccination campaign, a two shot regiment will likely be more potent," Barouch said.
The team is currently looking at early clinical trial data, according to Barouch. They hope to begin a large phase three trial this month, involving 30,000 to 60,000 people across the globe.
A key concern in the large-scale phase three trials will be ensuring a diverse enrollment that includes ample representation from minority groups, Barouch said. Previously, organizers of similar trials have created education outreach programs to tackle the issue.
"A lot of these trials are trying to increase representation from the Black and Latinx communities, because they are disproportionately affected by this disease and there's a lot of history and mistrust of medical research," Barouch said.
The effort between researchers at Beth Israel and Johnson & Johnson is one of seven supported by Operation Warp Speed, a Department of Health and Human Services funding program aimed at delivering vaccines to Americans by January 2021.
Another effort backed by Operation Warp Speed and tied to Harvard is the vaccine being developed at Moderna, a Cambridge-based biotechnology company.
Lindsey R. Baden, the Director of Clinical Research in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital, serves as the co-principal investigator for Moderna's phase three clinical trials, which are currently at two-thirds enrollment.
The vaccine is based on messenger RNA technology, which Baden said is an attractive method because it can be developed at a faster speed than other platforms.
While a number of vaccine candidates currently in clinical trials have shown promising preliminary results, Baden cautioned against drawing conclusions prematurely.
"I want us all to be very cautious about saying what does or does not work until we have high quality, phase three, efficacy data that we can all look at and be confident that there's a strong signal of protection or amelioration of disease without any safety concerns," Baden said.
Barouch said researchers must follow proper safety protocol to maintain public trust in the vaccine testing process.
"The goal of vaccine is twofold," Barouch said. "One is to protect the individual who received it — and that's important — but it's also to have enough herd immunity in a population that it ends the pandemic. There's an individual benefit, but the most important thing is the public health benefit. We will not achieve the public health benefit of a vaccine if a substantial number of people don't have faith in it."
Though some harbor concerns about the safety and feasibility of developing a vaccine on such a short timeline, Baden said developers are taking "no shortcuts on safety."
"Normally you do a phase one, and then you wait and do a phase two, and then you wait and do a phase three. You review data, you think about it, you debate," Baden said. "When it's finally ready, you go to the agency for approval, then you decide to manufacture and then another year goes by before you've manufactured to scale. So some of those elements that are normally done in sequence have been done in rapid sequence, and that costs a little more. But that's a financial risk, not safety risk."
Baden also said it is important to remember that ending the pandemic requires access to vaccination for all parts of the world.
"I would argue this is a global problem. An outbreak anywhere threatens everywhere, so we need seven million [doses]," Baden said. "We need to think broadly, and not just parochially, because this is a transmissible respiratory virus."
"We're not just solving the science," he added. "We need to go to scale for society."

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Alok Nath, is an Indian film actor known for his works in Hindi cinema and television. He was born in Khagaria district of Bihar. He made his film debut with the 1982 film Gandhi which won the Academy Award for Best Picture that year. He appeared in the soap opera Buniyad which took the country by a storm in 1982. He was also in Rishtey, which aired from 1999-2001. He appeared in the Star Plus serial Sapna Babul Ka...Bidaai. He later worked in Yahaaan Main Ghar Ghar Kheli and Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai. He is also known for the father roles in Rajshri's super hit movies - Maine Pyaar Kiya, Hum Aapke Hai Kaun and Hum Saath-Saath Hain.
KNOWN FOR | All Movies...
Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety
(Hindi - 2018)
Thanks Maa
Second Hand Husband
Na Tum Jaano Na Hum
Dil Hai Tumhaara
Ek Vivaah Aisa Bhi
Sargoshiyan
De De Pyaar De
Life Mein Hungama Hai
Rivaaz
Anugrahithan Antony Trailer
The Priest Teaser
Vakeel Saab Teaser
The Girl On The Train Teaser
Manju Warrier in 'The Priest'
Vellam Trailer


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Charter School Cherry-Picking From Admission to Expulsion
Carol Burris, a principal at South Side High School in Rockville Centre, N.Y., is the author of "On the Same Track: How Schools Can Join the Twenty-First-Century Struggle against Resegregation" and co-author of "Detracking for Excellence and Equity."
Many charter schools enroll a neighborhood's strongest and most motivated students, making the job of the local public school even more difficult. Families who apply to charters are often seeking a highly disciplined learning environment, with a longer school day and year. Few students with significant learning, emotional or behavioral challenges, or English language learners, even apply. As stronger students enter charters, those who struggle are left behind in increased concentrations in the public school.
When students are pushed out or leave their charter school, they enter the public schools discouraged and further behind.
Charter schools often cherry-pick through attrition. When students leave because the schools are too demanding, the charters are not obligated to fill the empty seats. New York's Harlem Success 1 Academy had 127 first graders in 2009. When those students arrived in grade six last year, only 82 remained. As students moved through the grades, Success 1 lost over 35 percent of the cohort. In comparison, a nearby neighborhood school, P.S. 191 Amsterdam, saw its 2008-09 first grade cohort increase from 39 students to 55 by grade six. We who teach in open-enrollment public schools must take every student that moves in – regardless of their age, learning disability, the time of entrance or when they last attended school.
What accounts for the high attrition rates at charters? Their strict discipline codes and higher rates of suspension, retention and expulsion are well documented. In 2013, the SUNY Charter Institute, which authorizes charters, reported problems with disciplinary practices, including suspensions, at several Harlem Success Academies. When students are pushed out or leave their charter school, they enter the public schools discouraged and further behind.
Finally, charter schools are accelerating the resegregation of our schools. A recent A.C.L.U. complaint alleges that the charters of Wilmington, Del., have distinct patterns of racial segregation, due in part to entrance criteria.
Charters were designed to spur innovation and competition, not to stratify our schools or have selective student entrance. Although some students may thrive in charters, the price of the current approach has become too high.
Join Opinion on Facebook and follow updates on twitter.com/roomfordebate.
Topics: Education, charter schools, standardized tests
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Keeping Only the Best Behaved
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Doing What's Best for Students Who Care
Michael J. Petrilli, Thomas B. Fordham Institute
Getting Results by Inspiring Students
Tim King, Urban Prep Academies
High-Suspension Rates Don't Help Students
Luis Huerta, Teachers College
Marilyn Rhames, charter school teacher
Cherry-Picking From Admission to Expulsion
Carol Burris, School principal
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Review Finds Evidence Lacking for Dry Mouth Remedies
Source: Medscape Today
December 28, 2011 — There is not enough evidence to recommend any topical therapies for dry mouth, but that does not mean that they do not work, according to investigators who published a review of research on the therapies online December 4 in the Cochrane Library.
"There was very little evidence," said Helen Worthington, PhD, a professor of evidence-based care at the University of Manchester, United Kingdom.
Dr. Worthington and colleagues scoured the literature for randomized controlled trials of topical therapies for dry mouth, or xerostomia. They found 36 studies of treatments such as lozenges, sprays, mouth rinses, gels, oils, chewing gum, and toothpaste.
Xerostomia often results from treatments for head and neck cancer that damage the salivary glands, as well as from Sjögren's syndrome, an autoimmune disorder that also damages these glands. It is also a common adverse effect of many medications.
The authors cite an estimated prevalence of dry mouth of about 20% in the general population. This percentage may be increasing because people are living longer and suffering from more chronic illnesses for which the treatments can have xerostomia as an adverse effect.
It is possible to feel the sensation of dry mouth without having a clinically reduced saliva flow, the researchers point out.
The treatments in the review broke down into 2 broad categories: saliva substitutes, in which some other substance is intended to perform the role of the patient's own saliva, and saliva stimulants, which are intended to activate the patient's own mechanism for producing saliva.
Two of the trials compared saliva stimulants with placebos, 9 compared saliva substitutes with placebos, 5 compared saliva stimulants with saliva substitutes, 18 compared 2 or more saliva substitutes with each other, and 2 compared 2 or more saliva stimulants with each other.
The researchers found convincing evidence that 1 saliva substitute, oxygenated glycerol triester saliva spray, was more effective than another, an electrolyte spray (standardized mean difference, 0.77; 95% confidence interval, 0.38 – 1.15). This corresponded to an approximate mean difference of 2 points on a 10-point visual analog scale in which patients rate their mouth dryness.
However, this evidence did not actually prove that either substitute was useful for treating dry mouth, Dr. Worthington said.
The researchers concluded that an integrated mouth care system (toothpaste, gel, and mouthwash) looked promising, as did oral reservoir devices. Here again, however, the evidence was not quite strong enough to recommend either one.
Asked to comment on the review, Joel Napeñas, DDS, a specialist in saliva disorders at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, told Medscape Medical News that it is still possible to treat dry mouth despite the lack of evidence for a particular therapy.
"There are a lot of nonrandomized controlled trials that do show variable results," said Dr. Napeñas, who was not involved in the Cochrane review. "Since there is no strong evidence for any individual agent, we are left with trial and error on an individualized basis."
Dr. Napeñas begins by measuring saliva flow: He has the patient spit into a cup and then asks the patient to suck on something like a piece of wax and spit again to see whether the sucking action increases the patient's saliva flow.
If the saliva flow increases, this suggests that saliva stimulants may work. Barring contraindications, therefore, Dr. Napeñas prescribes systemic saliva stimulants, usually pilocarpine or cevimeline, often in combination with topical stimulants.
If the experiment does not increase saliva flow, Dr. Napeñas instead recommends various saliva substitutes. He also typically recommends that patients try a variety of topical therapies to see what works best. "Biotene-type products are some of the first we would go to," he said.
Frequently sipping water and sucking on ice can help many patients, he said. He advises patients to avoid caffeine and alcohol, which can worsen symptoms, and he pointed out that patients with xerostomia should avoid many commercial mouth rinses because they contain alcohol.
Dr. Napeñas also initiates preventive measures to prevent caries, including topical fluoride, prescription fluoride products, and frequent recalls, because patients with low saliva flow are at high risk for caries.
"It's a very difficult condition to treat," he said. "The way I approach it is to throw everything I can at it."
This news story was resourced by the Oral Cancer Foundation, and vetted for appropriateness and accuracy.
Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A	2011-12-28T15:56:36+00:00	December, 2011|Oral Cancer News|


Practice of Nursing: CRNAs provide anesthesia in collaboration with surgeons, anesthesiologists, dentists, podiatrists, and other qualified healthcare professionals. When anesthesia is administered by a nurse anesthetist, it is recognized as the practice of nursing; when administered by an anesthesiologist, it is recognized as the practice of medicine. Regardless of whether their educational background is in nursing or medicine, all anesthesia professionals give anesthesia the same way.
Supervision Opt-Out: In 2001, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) changed the federal physician supervision rule for nurse anesthetists to allow state governors to opt out of this facility reimbursement requirement (which applies to hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers) by meeting three criteria: 1) consult the state boards of medicine and nursing about issues related to access to and the quality of anesthesia services in the state, 2) determine that opting out is consistent with state law, and 3) determine that opting out is in the best interests of the state's citizens. To date, 17 states have opted out of the federal physician supervision requirement, most recently Kentucky (April 2012). Additional states do not have supervision requirements in state law and are eligible to opt out should the governors elect to do so.


Newly created Technical Business Analyst role for a Start Up in the City. It doesn't get much better than that!
They are a SaaS (Software as a Service) platform, so if you have worked on SaaS, or web/portal or online projects and products that would be fantastic!
You will of course need to be well versed in Agile practices also.


text:
Q: creating a function for processing my dataframe calculations I am doing systematic calculations for my created dataframe. I have the code for the calculations but I would like to:
1) Wite it as a function and calling it for the dataframe I created.
2) reset the calculations for next ID in the dataframe.
I would appreciate your help and advice on this.
The dataframe is created in R using the following code:
#Create a dataframe
dosetimes <- c(0,6,12,18)

df <- data.frame("ID"=1,"TIME"=sort(unique(c(seq(0,30,1),dosetimes))),"AMT"=0,"A1"=NA,"WT"=NA)
doserows <- subset(df, TIME%in%dosetimes)

doserows$AMT[doserows$TIME==dosetimes[1]] <- 100
doserows$AMT[doserows$TIME==dosetimes[2]] <- 100
doserows$AMT[doserows$TIME==dosetimes[3]] <- 100
doserows$AMT[doserows$TIME==dosetimes[4]] <- 100

#Add back dose information
df <- rbind(df,doserows)
df <- df[order(df$TIME,-df$AMT),]
df <- subset(df, (TIME==0 & AMT==0)==F)

df$A1[(df$TIME==0)] <- df$AMT[(df$TIME ==0)]

#Time-dependent covariate
df$WT <- 70
df$WT[df$TIME >= 12] <- 120

#The calculations are done in a for-loop. Here is the code for it:
#values needed for the calculation
C <- 2
V  <- 10
k <- C/V

#I would like this part to be written as a function

for(i in 2:nrow(df))
{

t <- df$TIME[i]-df$TIME[i-1]
A1last <- df$A1[i-1]

df$A1[i] = df$AMT[i]+ A1last*exp(-t*k)
}

head(df)

plot(A1~TIME, data=df, type="b", col="blue", ylim=c(0,150))

The other thing is that the previous code assumes the subject ID=1 for all time points. If subject ID=2 when the WT (weight) changes to 120. How can I reset the calculations and make it automated for all subject IDs in the dataframe? In this case the original dataframe  would be like this:
#code:
rm(list=ls(all=TRUE))
dosetimes <- c(0,6,12,18)
df <- data.frame("ID"=1,"TIME"=sort(unique(c(seq(0,30,1),dosetimes))),"AMT"=0,"A1"=NA,"WT"=NA)
doserows <- subset(df, TIME%in%dosetimes)
doserows$AMT[doserows$TIME==dosetimes[1]] <- 100
doserows$AMT[doserows$TIME==dosetimes[2]] <- 100
doserows$AMT[doserows$TIME==dosetimes[3]] <- 100
doserows$AMT[doserows$TIME==dosetimes[4]] <- 100
df <- rbind(df,doserows)
df <- df[order(df$TIME,-df$AMT),]
df <- subset(df, (TIME==0 & AMT==0)==F)
df$A1[(df$TIME==0)] <- df$AMT[(df$TIME ==0)]
df$WT <- 70
df$WT[df$TIME >= 12] <- 120
df$ID[(df$WT>=120)==T] <- 2
df$TIME[df$ID==2] <- c(seq(0,20,1))

Thank you in advance!

A: Do you want this:
ddf <- data.frame("ID"=1,"TIME"=sort(unique(c(seq(0,30,1),dosetimes))),"AMT"=0,"A1"=NA,"WT"=NA)

myfn = function(df){

    dosetimes <- c(0,6,12,18)
    doserows <- subset(df, TIME%in%dosetimes)

    doserows$AMT[doserows$TIME==dosetimes[1]] <- 100
    doserows$AMT[doserows$TIME==dosetimes[2]] <- 100
    doserows$AMT[doserows$TIME==dosetimes[3]] <- 100
    doserows$AMT[doserows$TIME==dosetimes[4]] <- 100

    #Add back dose information
    df <- rbind(df,doserows)
    df <- df[order(df$TIME,-df$AMT),]
    df <- subset(df, (TIME==0 & AMT==0)==F)

    df$A1[(df$TIME==0)] <- df$AMT[(df$TIME ==0)]

    #Time-dependent covariate
    df$WT <- 70
    df$WT[df$TIME >= 12] <- 120

    #The calculations are done in a for-loop. Here is the code for it:
    #values needed for the calculation
    C <- 2
    V  <- 10
    k <- C/V

    #I would like this part to be written as a function

    for(i in 2:nrow(df))
    {

    t <- df$TIME[i]-df$TIME[i-1]
    A1last <- df$A1[i-1]

    df$A1[i] = df$AMT[i]+ A1last*exp(-t*k)
    }

    head(df)

    plot(A1~TIME, data=df, type="b", col="blue", ylim=c(0,150))

}

myfn(ddf)

For multiple calls:
for(i in 1:N) {
    myfn(ddf[ddf$ID==i,])
    readline(prompt="Press <Enter> to continue...")
}

A: In general, when doing calculations on different subject's data, I like to split the dataframe by ID, pass the vector of individual subject data into a for loop, do all the calculations, build a vector containing all the newly calculated data and then collapse the resultant and return the dataframe with all the numbers you want. This allows for a lot of control over what you do for each subject
subjects = split(df, df$ID)
forResults = vector("list", length=length(subjects))

# initialize these constants
C <- 2
V  <- 10
k <- C/V

myFunc = function(data, resultsArray){
  for(k in seq_along(subjects)){
    df = subjects[[k]]
    df$A1 = 100 # I assume this should be 100 for t=0 for each subject?

    # you could vectorize this nested for loop..
    for(i in 2:nrow(df)) {

      t <- df$TIME[i]-df$TIME[i-1]
      A1last <- df$A1[i-1]

      df$A1[i] = df$AMT[i]+ A1last*exp(-t*k)
    }

    head(df)

    # you can add all sorts of other calculations you want to do on each subject's data

    # when you're done doing calculations, put the resultant into
    # the resultsArray and we'll rebuild the dataframe with all the new variables
    resultsArray[[k]] = df

    # if you're not using RStudio, then you want to use dev.new() to instantiate a new plot canvas
    # dev.new()   # dont need this if you're using RStudio (which doesnt allow multiple plots open)
    plot(A1~TIME, data=df, type="b", col="blue", ylim=c(0,150))

  }

  # collapse the results vector into a dataframe
  resultsDF = do.call(rbind, resultsArray)
  return(resultsDF)
}

results = myFunc(subjects, forResults)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Construction of boards of conservators.
21.—(1) There shall be a board of conservators for each fishery district to fulfil the functions assigned to it by this Act.
(d) such number (if any) of representatives of holders of trout rod licences as is mentioned in section 39.


What a week! Seriously, I'm sitting in the garden reflecting not only on the unusually good weather, but the most amazing week of learning and connecting about improvement research and practice.
This time last week, I arrived in Montreal for the international conference in organisational behaviour in healthcare (OBHC), (thank you, as always, Health Foundation for funding my PhD and its dissemination). It's a super conference covering many aspects of improvement, and strategic and organisational theory. The event started for me as last time by (losing my luggage and) meeting many early career researchers and PhDs. In what can only be described as a shouting frenzy, we enthusiastically participated in a round of speed networking, fantastically facilitated by Prof. Cathy Pope, where amongst other things we were asked to discuss our superpowers and our best teacher. The best part about this is that we all made many new friends, learnt about each other's research and we were not at risk of being lonely at the conference.
After a hike up Mont Royal, the following day the conference opened with a plenary about crossing paradigmatic boundaries. This included reflecting on the current state of the field including the need for pragmatic and real world trials, and the need for much more ethnography to develop insights to explain and influence organisational behaviour in healthcare. After this was a torrent of breakout sessions, for me the strength of this conference, with such a diversity of topics. I heard sessions about organisational change capability in Wales, knowledge mobilisation using boundary objects (I didn't know what they were to begin with), leadership for quality improvement development programmes, the negative impact of leadership churn on quality improvement, the role of middle management in improvement, improvement sustainability, second victims in patient safety and so on. I was also delighted to present my theorisation of improvement capability.
I especially loved hearing from A.Prof Liz Wiggins and colleagues about their work to understand and develop the leadership of improvement via the GenerationQ programme (I am a former participant). This work (in press) describes leading improvement as 'surfing the waves' between perspectives, relationships and world's; taking a complexity perspective to influence learning and practice in healthcare, one conversation at a time through leadership gestures and responses.
Two main highlights were a keynote from Prof. Henry Mintzburg speaking on managing the myths of healthcare; and the work from Prof. Stephen Shortell at CLEAR and colleagues to evaluate lean programmes in North America. I find this work very exciting. First, was research to evaluate the audacious lean programme in Saskatchewan province in Canada followed by a national lean survey in the USA. Shortell et al's survey and analysis begins to demonstrate much needed research evidence of the positive [self reported] impact of lean (and other robust improvement) programmes especially after they begin to mature (warning for those looking to lean for a fast fix, this study shows impact really only starting after about 8 years of implementation). Whereas, the Satskatchewan story is rather depressing to hear, but nevertheless, there is much learning from the programme for other national and large scale lean programmes, to learn from. Not least ensuring early engagement of physicians, not being too fast/aggressive, being careful with jargon, the need for continuity and commitments from leaders particularly CEOs and being thoughtful about the personal and political risk leaders take. Thinking about our research which demonstrates a tendency of national orgs to focus on the 'doing', i.e. improvement tools, governance and data, the Saskatchewan story perhaps also a re-emphasises a cautionary tale, that lean programmes, particularly large national ones, must listen to stakeholders and patients from the beginning and pay as much, if not more attention to culture and leadership, and the political risks of such an endeavour.
Which brings me neatly to the end of the week, where I crossed back over the Atlantic boundary and joined the NHS Improvement (where I work) lean conference, (as far as I know, this was the first ever NHS led national lean conference). It was brilliant to reconnect with so many friends and colleagues from lean work, from the Virginia Mason partnership with 5 trusts, the NHS Improvement seven trusts embarking on the Vital Signs lean programme, and colleagues from NETS, CLIC, and from the Bolton Improving Care System (BICS). I was so proud to be there and I loved it. It was exciting, inspiring, energetic, and connected to research and practice, and so in a way for me, it felt like home.
Dr John Toussaint, from Catalysis and former CEO of Thedacare, from where Bolton learnt so many lean lessons, opened with a keynote discussing his personal lean leadership journey and shared 5 leadership lessons from organisations that he and colleagues have worked with. His keynote echoed the research lessons about the significance of culture and leadership, especially that of the CEO, from earlier in the week at OBHC. 'Surfing' between research and practice, he also shared Shortell et al. work and commented on the implications for practitioners and healthcare policy makers.
So after 'surfing' between improvement theory and practice this week – between two different world's, associated paradigms, with seemingly different aims and remits, different communities and identities and many epistemic boundaries, there seems much to share and learn from both.
It is reported in an article by Prof. Jeffrey Braithwaite, that: only 50-60% of healthcare meets level 1 guidelines; healthcare expenditure seems to be 30% wasted; and adverse events remain stubbornly at a rate of approximately 1/10. In addition, much healthcare improvement continues to be challenged by a lack of scaling, magic bullets and a lack of evidence (Dixon-Woods and Martin, 2016). Following the OBHC research theme, more boundary crossing is going to be needed by researchers and practitioners alike to help ensure 'we' know how to improve healthcare. It does seem that 'we', improvers and researchers, might have to change and become more sophisticated, not only in how we think and learn about healthcare improvement, but also how we practice it. To me it seems much more 'surfing', and many more 'surfers', will be required to cross professional, organisational/geographical and paradigmic boundaries.
When will we be opening the surf school?


Once you have installed a database for the ETL_Temp database, you need to configure AppFabric.
AppFabric works by creating a distributed cache that is shared by the various servers that need it. This can speed up access to frequently accessed information such as session data.
AppFabric is installed as a service. The AppFabric service needs to be granted permission to send data through the firewall.
In Windows Server 2008, navigate to Start | Administrative Tools | Windows Firewall with Advanced Security.
In Windows Server 2012, open Server Manager and select Windows Firewall with Advanced Security from the Tools menu.
Select Inbound Rules from the tree menu on the left.
In the Inbound Rules pane, locate AppFabric Caching Service (TCP-In).
Right-click on it, and select Properties.
On the General tab, select the Enabled option.
Select the Advanced tab, and make sure that the Domain, Private, and Public options are selected.
Now select Outbound Rules from the tree menu on the left.
In the Outbound Rules pane, locate AppFabric Caching Service (TCP-Out).
Create a folder on your server. Choose a convenient location and name.
Right-click on the folder, and select Properties from Windows Explorer.
The File Sharing window displays. Add the user Network Service or a local user if you are not connected to a domain. If you are setting up a load-balanced environment, ensure each node has the same username/password.
Set the Permissions Level as Read/Write.
Click Share, followed by Close.
In Windows Server 2008, click Start | Windows Server AppFabric | Configure AppFabric.
In Windows Server 2012, there will be a Configure AppFabric icon pinned to the Start menu.
On the Configure Hosting Service page, click Next (Perception does not use hosting services). This screen doesn't exist in Windows Server 2012, so you'll be taken to the Configure Caching Service screen.
On the Configure Caching Service screen, enable the Set Caching Service configuration option.
Set a Caching Service account. If your computer is part of a domain, you cannot change the Caching Service account from the default of "Network Service." If your computer is part of a workgroup, you must change the Caching Service account from "Network Service" and use a local account. If you are using a local account, do not use an account with administrator privileges. The local account used for the Caching Service account only needs permissions to generate security audits (granted explicitly by adding the account to the policy in the Local Security Policy dialog box) and the right to bypass traverse checking (granted through membership in the Everyone group).
From the Caching Service configuration provider drop-down list, select XML.
In the File share field, enter the UNC address for the folder you created above. This will be in the format \\<UNC-Share-Name>.
Select the appropriate value from the Cluster size drop-down list. The value you select will be determined by the number of computers you are going to have in your cluster, which in turn is dependant on which components are installed. Questionmark recommends that you set this to Small Cluster (1-5) unless you are installing a load-balanced system with over 5 machines.
Make sure you have defined the appropriate ports for AppFabric. You will need to use the default ports for Questionmark Perception.
The Cache port needs to be accessible by the application and the other AppFabric servers, if more than one.
The Cluster port, Arbitration port, and Replication port need to be open between the AppFabric servers, if more than one.
On the Start Menu, click All Programs, Windows Server AppFabric, and then click Caching Administration Windows PowerShell. In Windows Server 2012, there will be a Caching Administration Windows PowerShell icon pinned to the Start menu.
Please note you have to start PowerShell as an administrative user. If you are not already logged in as an administrator, right-click the PowerShell icon and select Run as administrator.
Please note that the cache name is case sensitive and must be called questionmark.
Click Start | Windows Server AppFabric | Cache Administration PowerShell Console.
If you are using SQL Server as your cache configuration provider, you can also change the Startup Type in Services for AppFabric to Automatic, although it can take ten to fifteen minutes for AppFabric to restart after a reboot through this method.
If you are using XML as your cache configuration provider or the delayed start is not acceptable for your purposes, you can use a PowerShell script and a scheduled Windows task to start AppFabric automatically. See the Knowledge Base article How can I automatically start the Windows Server AppFabric Caching Service? for instructions on how to do this.
After you have completed the above steps, continue on to step 7 using the link below.


text:
Discover the history of America's museums: the Charleston Museum, Barnum's American Museum, and the Smithsonian
An overview of museums in the United States, from the documentary Riches, Rivals,...
Great Museums Television (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
Article media libraries that feature this video: museum
SUSAN STAMBERG: There may be more museums per square inch right here than anywhere else on earth. Here on our National Mall in Washington DC is the heart of the Smithsonian Institution, the world's biggest museum complex. In fact, America is a land of museums.
Coast to coast, right in the middle of the mad dash of life, America's museums are places of solitude, sanctuary, and discovery. Our museums reflect who we were, who we are, and who we hope to be. I'm Susan Stamberg. Welcome to the World of America's Museums.
The history of America's museum world is filled with all kinds of charismatic commanding characters. Focused, sometimes obsessed people whose passions fueled the building of a veritable museum empire.
MARJORIE SCHWARZER: Americans are a very acquisitive people. We like our stuff. And the kind of stuff that we like and that kind of stuff that we collect has changed as our society has developed. And so, too, have museums.
STAMBERG: The first museum on American soil was started in 1773. The Charleston Museum is older than the nation. The idea was to capture the natural and material history of the low country.
Two hundred years later, the museum's archaeologists are still digging history right out of the dirt.
ARCHAEOLOGIST: As we get deeper, hopefully we'll get a separate 19th-century layer and a separate 18th-century layer.
ELAINE HEUMANN GURIAN: Museums are not all the same.
LONNIE BUNCH: There are some that are so traditional, that are ripe with objects and long labels.
TECHNICIAN: The light reflects off of me.
BUNCH: There are others that are really driven by technology and innovation.
NEIL HARRIS: Each museum is like a person. How the collections came to be, who the trustees were.
SCHWARZER: There are museums on buses. There are museums on trains. There are museums on boats.
BUNCH: What you don't ever want to do is say there's one goal, there's one path, there's one museum.
STAMBERG: Before the Civil War, P.T. Barnum's American Museum on Broadway in New York was probably the most popular museum in America. In 1865, after the building went up in flames, Barnum took his show on the road.
SCHWARZER: P.T. Barnum had objects like mermaid skeletons. I mean, it was real show business.
STAMBERG: The business of politics propelled the Smithsonian Institution, signed into law by President Polk in 1846. The founding donor, James Smithson, was an English scientist who never even visited the United States.
PAMELA HENSON: It is a classic American political compromise. Very broad in its mandate.
STAMBERG: And today, more than a dozen separate national museums, each providing a piece of the mosaic that is the American identity. That's the Smithsonian.
HENSON: We are the Museum of the United States, so we have a responsibility to the American people. Initially, there was simply one museum at the Smithsonian, a single United States National Museum.
STAMBERG: Now called the Arts and Industries Building, at one time it housed all of the Smithsonian's collections.
HENSON: And one of my more favorite photographs are some of the airplanes over the top of the presidential china collection.
STAMBERG: With the 1976 bicentennial, the planes got their own home at the National Museum of Air and Space.
BUNCH: Going from the Wright brothers through Lindbergh through the X-15 through the Apollo landing on the moon, you make me realize that it's not that far a leap from when we were only up there from 15 seconds with the Wright Flyer to getting to the moon. But this is not about great forces, it's about individuals bringing creativity, science, hard work, and a bit of luck to the table.
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text:
Ouse Bridge Safety Mock Up
We're currently underway with a major bearing replacement scheme on Ouse Bridge which carries the M62 over River Ouse at Goole. The original structure was built over three years starting in January 1973, spans 1.6km, carries a maximum height at mid-span of 30m and is the final part of the M62 opened in 1976.
Ouse Bridge at Goole
As an ageing structure, maintenance is required, and we're replacing 208 original bridge bearings. New jacking points are being created by fabricating and lifting 832 steel outstands, weighing half a tonne each and bolting these onto the existing bridge beams 25m above ground level, allowing the structure to be jacked off the sub-structure at each of the 26 piers in-turn providing temporary support to the bridge during bearing replacement.
Bearings at end of life
With the many repetitive lifting operations and working at height issues identified as major risks, our objective was creating and embedding a safe operational environment with the potential to increase productivity to reduce the total number of working-hours and exposure to risks.
We designed a full-size mock-up constructed on site at our partner In-spec Manufacturing's Middlesbrough steel fabrication plant, replicating every detail of the working area.
Against usual construction procedure, the fabricators and welders from In-spec alongside bearing fitters from supply partner Freyssinet UK worked through the installation and working at height risks together with us, developing a bespoke fit-for-purpose process and methodology and assessing fabrication measurements.
Life size mock up
While it is standard practice to use mock models or off-site training in large-scale projects to develop cutting edge techniques it is not usually considered for routine maintenance works to develop safe systems of work and increase quality control.
The mock up made it easy to train operators, develop methodology and unite the delivery team with safety and productivity goals. As a result, the design phase produced detailed fabrication drawings and an agreed set of defined objectives which results in no waste or rework, saving time, resource and carbon footprint. Another sustainable benefit is that the outstands will remain in situ following this scheme for any future maintenance, saving valuable resource and exposure to risk in years to come.
Developing the methodology on the mock-up up for such a high-risk, long lasting and repetitive scheme has provided an opportunity for operatives to develop safe working methods that work, as well as a training area for future installers and providing a jig to assess fit of fabricated steelwork.
The mock-up was also used to promote concepts to reduce vehicle movements for material deliveries and fabricators and provide much need protection against the elements during the development of ideas and practices. Last minute changes were easily accommodated due to its location and no lost time was incurred during the fabrication.
Feedback on the initiative has been positive throughout. Our front-line delivery team are fully bought into the methodology that they developed. Sub-contractors' value safe working practices being discussed and developed during pricing. Our client is pleased, as early completion secures safer journeys for road users and parent companies have been impressed with the concept and the obvious benefits it offers with similar initiative being explored in other areas of engineering.
Since then we have used the mock-up to train all our steel erectors before they are permitted to work on the bridge, we have also undertaken trial erections of six different outstands to check fit prior to painting and identified improvements to drilling and hydrodemolition operations prior to commencement on site.
The mock-up will be available throughout the entirety of the scheme allowing the team to collaboratively improve methods and practices so that continuous workplace health and safety improvements are realised.
Scaffold in place at start of work
The success of the trial has in no small part attributed to the excellent safety statistics being recorded by the scheme at zero AFR, an overall reduction in exposure to high-risk lifting operations by 50% and a 3-week reduction in the overall programme duration.
For an initial outlay of £140K to construct and develop the mock-up, the 5-weeks programme period set aside for the erection of the steelwork was reduced to 2-weeks because of the methodology we developed, saving the scheme £270K in preliminary costs. In addition, the hire costs of each of the 26 scaffolds reduced by 1-week resulting in a further saving of £75K. The mock-up provided the opportunity to trial-fit fabricated steelwork prior to painting and delivery, minor design problems found at this stage prevented 4-weeks delay to the programme avoiding costs in the region of £360K. In summary the mock-up has saved the scheme £565K so far as well as providing critical training and safety improvements.
Steel outstands installed
The concept of a mock-up is unusual within highway maintenance schemes but not difficult or impossible to adapt and implement. We would recommend that this approach be considered to all future high-risk activities. The benefits so far have been tangible and identifiable in a way that would be meaningful throughout our industry. For example, our goal of maintaining safety and increasing productivity is being realised.
Using this mock-up proves that safety, if planned and implemented correctly can truly deliver; it is transferrable, adds value and reduces disruption: keeping our people and customers safe and our economy moving.
« A64 Carriageway Renewal Team
Cusworth Park and Gardens Preservation »


Abstract. There are investigation of linear distortion in the time of irregular process interpolation on the principles of its spectral concentration samples, that were received with the discrete Fourier transform. Interpolation mistakes for different spectral correlation characteristics of irregular process are analysed. It's showed that interpolation mistakes amount to zero in the sample points and they amount to their maximum meaning in the middle of sampling period.
Keywords: spectrum, digitization, reconstruction, errors.


text:
Rain to air comeback special broadcast
(Rain Company)
Singer Rain will look back on his 15-year career in a special broadcast titled "2017 Rain is Back."
The hourlong KBS program will feature the K-pop superstar's hit tracks and new songs from his upcoming album "My Life," which is set to be released on Dec. 1.
During the broadcast, Rain, who currently stars on KBS' talent audition show "The Unit" as one of its mentors, will perform the lead track off the new album with junior singers on the audition show.
"Rain will showcase performances that he has shown only during his solo concerts," the singer's agency Rain Company said. "Though the show lasts only for an hour, (we) will condense the past 15 years of Rain into the comeback show, which you will not see anywhere else."
"2017 Rain is Back" will be recorded at 8 p.m. on Nov. 21 at KBS Hall in Yeouido, Seoul. The show will air on Dec. 3.
By Kim So-yeon (syk19372@heraldcorp.com)


text:
Season 02: Fallout, Episode 11: Vats of Goo 1
The Master is dead, but there's one thing left to do: destroy the Mariposa Military Base, the facility from which the super mutant menace is spawned. It's also where Lou Tenant is, the hulking super mutant who almost beat her to death, who threw her in prison where Dogmeat was killed. There are some loose ends to wrap up, and a facility to blow up.
Season 02: Fallout, Episode 10: The Master 0
After an inexcusably long hiatus, we're back with the tenth and penultimate episode of this season! In this SPOOOOOKY episode, the situation in Adytum has been resolved, and with it comes connections and allies, resources and weapons, and most importantly the location of The Master. With nothing else to do, our heroine Natalia and her new friends head Southward to the Children of the Cathedral.
Season 02: Fallout, Episode 09: The Battle For Adytum 0
Further evidence links the Children of the Cathedral to the mutant menace, but before Natalia can visit their grand headquarters, she needs to resolve the problem of Adytum and the Blades.
Season 02: Fallout, Episode 08: The Fool 0
When Natalia wakes up, she finds herself confronted with an enormous mutant with a red eye fused into its socket and the most beautiful voice you've ever heard. Natalia is in the Mariposa Military Base! Armed with nothing but her wits and her dog, she must escape this place or be turned into a super mutant herself!
Season 02: Fallout, Episode 07: The Ancient Order and the Horror of Atomic War 0
The Glow, a place where the radiation is so hot it can burn someone from the inside out. The Brotherhood of Steel sent Natalia and her crew here to fetch something, and so they knock back a few anti-rad pills and descend into the pit!
Season 02: Fallout, Episode 06: Odd Jobs 1
Vault 13's water purification mechanism has been repaired and so Natalia's home is safe -- or it would be, if it weren't for those big green supermutants roaming around. Natalia is given a new task: find out where the mutants are coming from. She sets out once more into the wasteland with her companions Ian and Dogmeat, free from the restrictive time limit, and free to explore the wasteland at her leisure. There is a lot of work out there for a mercenary, and maybe while she's indulging herself she can gleam something about the mutant menace.
Season 02: Fallout, Episode 05: Purification 0
With the water chip in her hand, she and her companions return to Vault 13. With the new device activated, the vault can go on with clean water and everything works out just fine for everyone.
...but can everything work out just fine? Not with those hulking green mutants around. Natalia is given a second task, this time to investigate the source of these mutants. This is for the good of the Vault; perhaps for the good of all the Wasteland.
Season 02: Fallout, Episode 04: The City of the Dead 0
Natalia returns from Junktown having thoroughly acclimated herself to the dangerous nature of the wastes. She has guns, brass knuckles, experience, and most importantly, a dog. But no water chip.
Time is running out for her and her Vault. Perhaps someone in the Hub can point her in the direction of another Vault.
Season 02: Fallout, Episode 03: Junktown 0
With the disappointment of Vault 15 behind her, Natalia and Ian venture forth from the bustling trading town of the Hub toward Junktown. There are less leads suggesting a water chip might be obtained here, but it is the only other town for many, many miles.
Season 02: Fallout, Episode 02: The Hub and Vault 15 0
Having failed to locate a water chip in Shady Sands, she and her partner head toward The Hub, hoping for better luck there, or at least a rope so they can further explore the ruins of Vault 15. But what kind of people live in a thriving trading town in this wasteland? How well will they take to one such as Natalia?
Season 02: Fallout, Episode 01: Into the Wasteland 3
We kick off the new season with Into the Wasteland, the first episode in an 11-episode audio-drama adaptation of Interplay's 1997 classic CRPG Fallout: A Post-Nuclear RPG.
It's a much darker tone than last season; Fallout takes place in an alternate timeline in which a nuclear war led to the world being annihilated but for the survivors who hid away in underground shelters. Our protagonist, voiced by RPG Rabbit who had narrated last season, is a descendant of some of those survivors, and she is being sent to the surface in an effort to save her people from water shortage.
This episode and the season as a whole owes much to the support and contributions of listeners and drama or video game enthusiasts. Unlike last season, this one employs the voices of dozens of people from all over the world. Thanks to everyone who contributed, and of course if anyone else wants to, feel free to send us an e-mail and we may be able to use your talent in upcoming seasons.
Intermezzo 2 0
It's the end of our first season; while we get ready for the first episode of the next time, RPG Rabbit and Calvin Redburn spend an hour talking about what we learned, what we didn't learn, ideas for the future and also there are some skits and bloopers.
Season 01, Episode 12 0
The final episode of this podcast's first season! Cecil and his company have come a long way, climbed many a mountain and fought many a foe, and all for what? What is this foul alien demon thing and what is his aim? Perhaps these questions will be answered in a clear, concise way to satisfy everybody but also maybe not! Find out!
And get ready for our next season: Fallout! The first episode is rumored to drop May 01, so...let's hope we can adhere to schedule this time!
Thank you everybody who has offered their vocal talents for the upcoming season, and for those who tweeted or mentioned this podcast. This is a niche audience, but there are probably a lot of people out there interested in just this sort of thing. You can help us be more visible by rating us on iTunes or writing a review! But it's cool if you don't; we're pretty excited we have as many people tuning is as we do.
Stay tuned; next season has a smorgasbord of actors from all over the world. We look forward to seeing (er, hearing) how this turns out.
In this penultimate episode of this season, the party goes on a fantastic voyage through the giant hulking automoton.
The crew boards a spacewhale and soars across time and space to the moon. Herein they meet moon monsters and moon men and moon memories make many majestic mysteries. What happens on the moon stays on the moon, so it is here that our heroes share their darkest secrets with one another. Maybe you already figured some of them out.
The final crystal is within grasp, as long as nobody betrays the party! Herein we complete a few side quests, discover the lucky fate of one of our favorite characters, and use an awesome new drill to free ourselves from these subterranean homesick blues.
Happy new year from the Spoony Bard!
In this installment, a cocky ninja prince joins the party and is almost as effective in combat as he is hitting on Rydia. It turns out Dr. Lugae had a pretty warped imagination, committing horrible acts against Edge's parents that even the final fiend of the elements, Rubicant thinks is a bit excessive. We spend the entire episode in the underworld and head to the Land of the Summons, that place where Rydia was hanging out and aging a hundred times the normal speed. Hopefully Cecil won't be a graybeard when he makes it out of there!


text:
Season Tickets back on sale for 2019/20 Holders in Second Priority Group
Season Tickets are now back on sale for 2019/20 Season Ticket Holders in the second sales priority group...
2019/20 Season Ticket Holders who opted to receive either a discount of 6/23rds to their 2020/21 Season Ticket or to receive six single match credits (Option B & C) can now visit www.borotickets.co.uk between now and midday on Friday 4th September to secure their place ahead of the coming season.
With the Club unable to guarantee the availability of single Match Tickets for the 2020/21 season, supporters who chose Option C may purchase during this window.
All prices have been reduced by 6/23rds for this window (the number of matches cancelled last season) and can be viewed below:
Adult Concession U18 U12
East £225 £195 £132 £62
West £299 £269 £182 £87
North £269 £239 £162 £77
Only 2019/20 Season Ticket Holders can purchase during this window (Until midday Friday 4th September). Any supporters purchasing during this time period who do not meet the set criteria will have their Season Ticket cancelled and refunded.
Please be reminded that supporters can purchase Season Tickets as individuals or together in Family Bubbles (persons living together in the same household) or Support Bubbles (maximum groups of six people in total from two households – see definition here).
All supporters who are purchasing their Season Ticket as part of a Bubble during this priority window must be 2019/20 Season Ticket Holders.
For further information on 2020/21 Season Tickets and the buying process, please click here or read our FAQs.


Responding to a growing concern over ethical animal treatment, retailers Whole Foods, Safeway and Supervalu are moving to more clearly define "humane treatment" in the animal products they sell.
In collaboration with Global Animal Partnership, Whole Foods — known for their organic, fair trade and environmentally friendly product selections — has begun to unveil a rating system that ranks products according to their animal welfare standards on a scale from 1 - 5 indicating treatment of animals, to feed and slaughter methods.
Pork, beef and chicken products qualify if producers agree to volunteer information such as an animal spending its entire life in pasture settings, which receives the highest rank of 5, versus an animal only spending two-thirds of his or her life in pastures or rangelands, which would receive the lowest ranking of 1.
Chickens, who often live in the worst factory farm conditions, would be graded on farmers who maintain a lower numbers of birds, offer perches and enrichment activity including whole grains and hay.
In author Michael Pollan's lucid article, "Power Steer" (NY Times 3/21/02)he traces the life of a cow through the farm system — a rarity in our anonymously homogenized culture of identical nuggets and burgers. It's a helpful tool in tracking contamination and in verifying the care of animals. And the less an animal is stressed, the better the meat can taste, according to experts. The rating program requires traceability from its 700 farmers on all animal products.
Though there is no government-regulated standard for humane animal treatment, it may be a closer reality than we think. Common law regards pets as chattel — replaceable property — but as a Maryland couple is arguing in the case of police shooting their dog, animals are emotional beings and certainly irreplaceable family members — not tractors or furniture. How this affects and differentiates which animals we deem as siblings and children from those we call dinner is indeed a fine — and for many — an invisible line. There are, after all, cultures that keep chickens as pets and eat dogs.
The Global Animal Partnership is providing consumers an opportunity to make more intelligent decisions about their food, but it will come at a cost. Speculators say it could double the price of meats. But with conventional meat industries subsidized and disingenuously low-priced to begin with, if the program is in high demand, it could lead to standardized regulations, which would align prices.


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Find forms for legal topics beginning with E-H.
Nonpayment of Wage and Workplace Complaint Form, Mass. Attorney General.
Petition for Approval of Entertainment Contract for a Minor and Appointment of a Limited Guardian, Mass. Probate and Family Court.
"Once approved, the contract between the minor and the contracting entity is binding, as if signed by an adult. After the contract is deemed acceptable, revocation of the court's approval may be sought only if the Court finds that the child is being harmed as a result of the contractual relationship."
DEP Permit Applications, Department of Environmental Protection.
Firearms Forms and Applications, Executive Office of Public Safety. Forms necessary for permits, transfers and more.
Example of a FOI request letter, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth.
Fully Automated Fill-in-the Blanks FOI Letter Generator, from the Student Press Law Center.
101 Legal Forms for Personal Use, Nolo, 2016. Online version of the popular book has forms for everything from buying a car to hiring a sitter. Requires Library Card for access.
US Court Forms. Free registration required. Includes links to Massachusetts and Federal forms, as well as forms from all other states.
Massachusetts health care proxy, Caring Info. (2016) Includes instructions, form, and additional information on organ donation.
Massachusetts Health Care Proxy, Mass. Medical Society (2018). Form created by Massachusetts Health Decisions.
According to Mass. Medical Society, "Massachusetts is one of only three states that recognizes Health Care Proxies but does not recognize Living Wills. Living Wills are still potentially useful because they guide Agents and physicians about the types of choices a person would make."
MOLST Forms and Instructions , Mass. Department of Public Health.
Health Information Privacy Complaint Form, US Department of Health and Human Services.


We built a beautiful life together in Austin Texas. While focusing on food, family and friends, we developed a deep passion for Oregon pinot noir. It took just one visit the Dundee Hills to fall in love with the breathtaking land, authentic people and delicate wines.
On our second visit to Oregon we bought "the farm" - a small farm in the Dundee Hills accented by Jory soil, a south-east facing slope, and stunning views of the valley. We never before imagined leaving Texas, yet now we could see ourselves "retiring" someday to join the growing community of wine growers focused on pinot noir. We both fell in love quickly, and after planting our first vineyard in 2014 we realized that our hearts and future were fully rooted in Oregon.
Taking a leap of faith, we purchased a neighboring vineyard site and embarked on building our family home with private guest suites for friends both old and new. We love sharing the peaceful nature of Oregon wine country, the inspiring vistas of the Dundee Hills, the day-to-day operation of a small vineyard, and hand-crafted food with our guests. We hope you make our home yours when visiting the Oregon wine country.


We love Hardy and his delicious expressions of Mouvedre & Chenin Blanc!
Taste his lineup of one white and three reds, and have him sign your bottles!
$20, and get $10 off your purchase.
FREE for wine club members, join today!


"Factorization vs. regularization: Fusing heterogeneous social relation" by Quan Yuan, Li Chen et al.
Collaborative Filtering (CF) based recommender systems often suffer from the sparsity problem, particularly for new and inactive users when they use the system. The emerging trend of social networking sites and their accommodation in other sites like e-commerce can potentially help alleviate the sparsity problem with their provided social relation data. In this paper, we have particularly explored a new kind of social relation, the membership, and its combined effect with friendship. The two type of heterogeneous social relations are fused into the CF recommender via a factorization process. Due to the two relations' respective properties, we adopt different fusion strategies: regularization was leveraged for friendship and collective matrix factorization (CMF) was proposed for incorporating membership. We further developed a unified model to combine the two relations together and tested it with real large-scale datasets at five sparsity levels. The experiment has not only revealed the significant effect of the two relations, especially the membership, in augmenting recommendation accuracy in the sparse data condition, but also identified the ability of our fusing model in achieving the desired fusion performance. © 2011 ACM.


text:
Stop Overspiritualizing 'Calling'
July 3, 2017 | Bethany Jenkins
My brother and I both took piano lessons when we were growing up. Starting with scales, we tried to master the basics. At first it was boring—not to mention, unpleasant to hear. After a few lesson books, Zach quit. But I continued.
My first recital piece was Kokomo by The Beach Boys, but over time I played increasingly difficult pieces, moving from pop music to classical. If I was working on Bach or Chopin, for example, I'd do deep work—slowing down, taking each measure at a time, and playing the notes deliberately and repetitively until I mastered them. Then I'd move to the next measure. It was painstaking.
As I mastered the instrument, I began to have fun. My teacher had two grand pianos, and we'd sight-read duets together, enjoying our efforts and laughing at our mistakes. For my final recital piece, I memorized and performed Beethoven's Pathetique with sheer joy.
My brother didn't have the same experience because he didn't put in the hard work. To be fair, he worked hard in baseball and, as a result, was named all-state in Florida. But he never came to experience the joy of playing the piano.
I didn't foresee that joy when I started taking piano. In retrospect, after 13 years of lessons and thousands of hours of practice, I saw that my love for the piano wasn't forged by a desire for self-expression but by discipline, perseverance, and deep work. Passion often comes after mastery and control—we love doing things we can do well, and doing things well takes time, effort, and faithfulness.
Called to Be a Pianist?
In college, I briefly considered majoring in music, but I ended up studying Spanish and international studies. Although I'd occasionally waste hours in a practice room at the music school, I didn't make it a priority. Today I don't have a piano at home, my talent is rusty, and, therefore, playing isn't as much fun as it used to be.
Did I forsake my calling as a pianist? Did God create my hands—with abnormally long fingers that are able to palm a men's basketball—to play the keys? Was I disobedient to God's call?
Instead of becoming a pianist, I've worked in a variety of industries—government, education, communications, law, and non-profit. In each of these places, I've applied the same deep-work philosophy I did with the piano—going slow, being deliberate, and focusing on mastery. In each case, even if I didn't start out loving a particular job, I increasingly enjoyed it because I got better at it.
In any given season, we usually must choose a single vocational path, but the reality is most of us can do a great number of things. We have many latent talents and gifts. When we work hard at them, our passion for them grows. What we do or how we start matters far less than what we do once we've started. As Thomas Edison famously said, "Genius is 1 percent inspiration, 99 percent perspiration."
As a Christian, whether I'm called to be a pianist or a writer is incidental to my main vocation—to be a child of God. When the Scriptures speak of "calling," they mainly speak of our fundamental call to know Christ. As William Taylor writes:
There are at least 51 uses of the word "calling" in the New Testament. Forty-six refer to becoming a Christian (e.g., Rom. 1:7), and four to living a holy or peaceful life (e.g., 1 Pet. 1:15). In just one case (1 Cor. 7:20), it's used to speak of the station for which we have been appointed.
In 1 Corinthians 7, he continues, Paul is explaining that people are called to various stations—single and married, circumcised and uncircumcised, slavery and freedom. What matters more than our particular situation, Paul says, is how we live out our calling as God's children in that situation. As Paul writes, "Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God's commands is what counts. Each person should remain in the situation they were in when God called them" (1 Cor. 7:19–20).
There's No Job Charming
This doesn't mean that we can never change jobs or that we don't serve a God who calls. It does mean, though, that work isn't a means of expressive individualism but of faithfulness. God's far more concerned with how we work—with faith, hope, and love—than with what career we have.
Too often we overspiritualize "calling" and make it about self-expression instead of faithfulness to God and service to others. We search for the perfect job—just what we're "called" to do—and use "calling" as a trump card to replace perseverance, risk, and qualification.
Yet there is no Job Charming. Most of us could do any number of things. We simply must make a vocational choice (using the classic disciplines of prayer, community, and Scripture reading), work deeply at it, and be faithful in it. As Paul summarizes, "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men" (Col. 3:23).
Even if we feel "called" to a particular work, we usually experience that "calling" in retrospect. It's far easier to look at the past and see confirmation than to look into the future and feel confident. Yes, the Lord speaks to us and calls us in advance, but the primary way he does so is through his Word. We step out in faith, work heartily, and—in retrospect—feel increasingly confident that we've been faithful and obedient in our vocation. Such humility recognizes that time, experience, and community are vital pieces of our vocational formation.
Let's not, then, overanalyze or overspiritualize "calling" in our lives. Our primary calling is to know Jesus Christ. That's his resounding voice in his Word. Yes, in addition to his Word, he has given us gifts and talents—as well as prayer and community—and called us to different stations. But there's no perfect job and, even if we love our work, we often only experience that in retrospect after years of deep labor, working heartily as unto the Lord.
Should You Look for Job You Are Passionate About? (Kevin DeYoung)
Do You Love or Do What Needs Doing? (Bethany Jenkins)
Bethany L. Jenkins is Vice President of Forums at The Veritas Forum, a contributor at The Gospel Coalition, and a Senior Fellow at The King's College. Prior to working with faith-based non-profits, Bethany worked in Congress, at the State Department, on Wall Street, and in Big Law. She received her BA from Baylor University and her JD from Columbia Law School. Bethany splits her time between New York and Boston and loves to run in Central Park and along the Charles River. She is an active member of Redeemer Presbyterian Church. You can connect with her on Twitter: @bethanyjenkins.
Faith and Work • Youth Ministry
How Do I Discern if My Ambition Is Godly?
July 15, 2019 | Amy DiMarcangelo
Evangelical History
Has 'Evangelical' Become Toxic?
February 7, 2018 | Thomas Kidd
3 Ways Your Faith Should Shape Your Work
July 8, 2019 | Jeremy Treat
How to Know When to Say No
April 16, 2019 | Jackie Hill Perry • Jen Pollock Michel • Jen Wilkin


Four years ago tragic events changed Alex Garrison's life forever. She has been running away from it and trying to put the past behind her. She changes her name, moves to a new town, and even starts a new career. Just when she feels that she can move on with her life, her past comes back to haunt her. Her best friend, Greg, appears out of the blue and constantly reminds her of what she did four years ago. During her personal venture for freedom, she gives in to her attraction to a married man. When a violent stalker sets his sights on her, she finds love in an unlikely place. But who wants her love so much, that he is willing to kill her for of it?