text:
Hyundai i30 N Fastback revealed
Korean hot hatch gets a more practical sibling
Hyundai hasn't wasted time expanding its high-performance N Division.
Following in the wheeltracks of the critically-acclaimed i30 N hot hatch, the South Korean car maker has revealed the production version of its more pragmatic sibling, the i30 N Fastback, ahead of its official public debut at the 2018 Paris motor show next week.
The swoopy four-door coupe version utilises all the same bespoke running gear as the hatch, with unique body work, bigger brakes, adaptive suspension and a turbo charged 2.0-litre four cylinder engine that drives the front wheels through a six-speed manual gearbox with an electronically-controlled limited slip differential.
In Europe, the car will be offered in two states of tune - a Standard Package that delivers 184kW and a Performance Package with 202kW - but will likely be offered exclusively in range-topping specification, like the hatch back, when it arrives in Australian showrooms early in 2019.
Hot hatch comparison: Renault Megane RS v Honda Civic Type R v Hyundai i30 N v P
She says, he says: Hyundai i30 N
Comparison test: Hyundai i30 N vs $40,000 rivals
Hyundai confirms i30 Fastback N
Monster i30 N in the works
Coming Soon: Hyundai i30 N Fastback
Inside the cabin, the car features supportive front bucket seats, a unique N steering wheel that incorporates paddles to alter the myriad of settings (such as suspension, steering, exhaust note, engine response, the LSD and stability control threshold) and unique N-derived functions in the 7.0-inch colour touchscreen mounted on top of the dash that also incorporates sat nav, digital radio and smartphone mirroring for Apple and Android devices.
The obvious difference is behind the driver's seat with the Fastback body style, with its lift gate rear opening, offering a generous amount of cargo carrying capacity, with Hyundai claiming a nominal figure of 450L that expands to 1351L with the rear seats folded flat.
Beyond the go-fast bits, the i30 N Fastback will also be equipped with a high level of standard safety features including autonomous emergency braking, lane keeping assistance and speed sign recognition.
Hyundai Australia has confirmed the Fastback will be added to its local line-up with final prices and specifications to be confirmed closer to its showroom arrival around February 2019.
2019 Hyundai i30 N Fastback
hyundai i30 fastback
i30 N Fastback
performance car
As Editor in Chief of the Drive Network, Amac is one of Australia's most experienced automotive journalists with more than 25 years experience in newspapers, magazines, broadcasting and digital media.
Actually looks pretty good, and 450L boot in a car this size is very impressive. When they release the DCT version next year miht be worth a test drive. Wou ... VIEW ALL
(5) Comments on: Hyundai i30 N Fastback revealed
hyundai-i30-n-fastback-revealed-119604
['13076903','13076903','16425563','13076900']


Driving down the Dalmatian Coast (the coast along Croatia) was one of the most beautiful coastal drives ever. There's a highway that basically follows the coast and has a new breathtaking view around every turn, much like Route 1 in Northern California, only Mediterranean and tropical-looking. I couldn't even sleep because I was too busy admiring the ever-changing coastline - that, and it took my mind off the hairpin turns the bus was making while barreling down the coastal highway. We arrived into Dubrovnik in the late afternoon.
Dubrovnik is a gorgeous, red-roofed Mediterranean town right on the coast of Southern Croatia. The city's Old Town juts out into the water and is surrounded by fortified Medieval walls, and it used to be a major port. Dubrovnik is huge into tourism - the city is teeming with tourists (there's a huge cruise ship industry), and most of the locals don't even live in the city anymore because it's more profitable for them to live in the suburbs and rent out their Old Town apartments to tourists (my guidebook says the city population of 2,000 drops to way under 1,000 in the summer to make way for the tourists). Consequently, most of the "hotels" you'll stay in are private rooms or apartments rented out by the residents.
Old Town, while jam-packed with tourists, is the sweetest and still has a tiny charming city feel - it's vehicle-free, has cobblestone streets, and you can get anywhere else within Old Town in minutes.
We dropped our bags off at our apartments - mine was the cutest ever; you had to walk through a restaurant and up the stairs to access my second-floor room, and it was run by an elderly Croatian lady who could only shout a couple words in English ("Keys!" "Lock!" "You pay now!") and jabbered the rest in Croatian. On that note, I think I've pretty much perfected the art of the blank stare.
David and I headed to a cliffside drinks spot outside the city walls of Old Town called Buza II. You basically walk to the most Southern street in Old Town, look for a hole in the thick Medieval wall that surrounds the city, then walk through it to find this awesome bar on the other side - with several levels on the cliffside and swimmers on the rock cliffs below. Of course the place is all foreigners, so it was fun just having beers and watching the sunset while chatting with all the other tourists.
The next day, I headed out on my own to walk the city's walls. The walls were constructed to protect the town, then reinforced a ton in the 15th century against the Ottoman Navy. The walls rise up super high above the city with a couple forts along the way, and you can walk along them around the entire city. Not only is it kind of educational/historic, but it also has beautiful views of the entire red-roofed city. The views were really, really pretty.
Went swimming in the other cliffside drinks spot outside the city walls called Buza I (they are creative with their names here). The water was really cold but so refreshing, and the saltwater makes it so much easier to swim. I never realized what a slog treading water in freshwater was, because in saltwater, you just kind of throw an arm or leg out once in awhile, and you're floating like a pro.
Took a cable car to the top of Mount Srd, which overlooks Dubrovnik. From the top, you have this incredible view of all of Old Town and the surrounding water - it looks so cute, this tiny little city surrounded very clearly by huge gray walls on all sides. From the top of the mountain, you can see all the little Dalmatian islands and all down the coast, as well as east into Bosnia & Herzegovina.
Both nights, David and I met such fun people - the first night we hung out with this lovely doctor couple from Ireland that were so sweet and hilarious (how can you sound like you're from Harry Potter AND be doctors AND also be funny??? Life; not fair sometimes); and the next night, I met two girls from the States, Jess and Brie, and invited them out to drinks with us. Our second night included local shots of honey whiskey (it seriously kind of tastes like liquid honey, none of that Jack Daniels honey stuff they always try and push in the US), a beer tower, tuxedo bibs, and street yoga.
Night 2: Jess and Bri and....tuxedo bibs! The best.
While Croatia has a to-die-for gorgeous coastline, most of the land along the sea is rocky - therefore, the beaches don't have sand: they're either just sheer rock faces, or are full of rocks & pebbles on the shore. So it's not a lying-on-the-sand-on-the-beach kind of experience.
Game of Thrones everywhere. They really capitalize on the fact that much of the show is filmed here. I wish I made it past Season 2. Except I don't, because I apparently avoided watching everyone die.
As today is the last day of my Eastern Europe itinerary (cry), I will leave you with a gem Sunny sent me yesterday. I like to keep a low profile while traveling and avoid looking like a tourist as much as possible - so I apparently look like this 80% of the time.
Successfully not-looking-like-a-tourist on the streets of Zagreb. Killed it.
I can't believe I've finished my Eastern Europe leg. The past 3.5 weeks have been nothing short of incredible, and it feels like it just flew by. At the same time, stepping onto that plane at JFK to start this trip feels like a lifetime ago. It's weird when every day is filled to the brim with adventures and things to do and see and eat, and all these people come in and out of your life from one day to another. It feels like I've lived three full lives in the amount of time that would have been just an ordinary month at work.
Additional reflections about life on the road to come at a later date.
I absolutely love Eastern Europe: the amount of history, the fact that it still feels a little grittier than Western Europe (though many spots are pretty much on the beaten tourist path by now), the unexpected beauty, the richness in culture - and every step of the way, I've heard about a million more places here that I want to visit. How weird is it when a month, a period of time that would have been unheard-of extravagance to me last year, is suddenly not nearly enough time to see the things I want to? Next time on my list: Montenegro, Poland, and Central Europe. Can I rope Russia in there as well?


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Enabled maintenance mode Requested languages: en_US === frontend -> Magento/luma -> en_US === ... more ... Successful: 1884 files; errors: 0 --- === frontend -> Magento/blank -> en_US === ... more ... Successful: 1828 files; errors: 0 --- === adminhtml -> Magento/backend -> en_US === ... more ... --- === Minify templates === ... more ... Successful: 897 files modified --- New version of deployed files: 1440461332 Static content deployment complete Gathering css/styles-m.less sources. Successfully processed LESS and/or SASS files CSS deployment complete Generated classes: Magento\Sales\Api\Data\CreditmemoCommentInterfacePersistor Magento\Sales\Api\Data\CreditmemoCommentInterfaceFactory Magento\Sales\Api\Data\CreditmemoCommentSearchResultInterfaceFactory Magento\Sales\Api\Data\CreditmemoComment\Repository Magento\Sales\Api\Data\CreditmemoItemInterfacePersistor ... more ... Compilation complete Disabled maintenance mode Enabled production mode.
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Who says kids are difficult to photograph? J and H exceeded all expectations. They did so well, they were true angels! I didn't have to do much or say much… just snapped away, a few instructions here and there for very brief periods, a couple of rewards – a little play in the sandpit, a small sweet…hey, these did the trick! This was a quick photoshoot and we got all the shots we wanted! I love outdoor shots and the family were such troopers they braved the cold – the brrrrrrr cold. It certainly paid off and we all went home happy! Thank you S and G for the opportunity to photograph your lovely family. I had a fantastic time and you are all gorgeous!


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H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival & CthulhuCon
Fri, Aug 18 2023 to Sun, Aug 20 2023
H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival - Providence
FINAL DATES TBA
Fri, Oct 6 2023 to Sun, Oct 8 2023
28th Annual H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival
Hollywood Theatre
Tickets Not Yet Available
The Quiet Darkness
Marc Buhmann
Alissa Bailey
Susan makes a video diary documenting the final minutes of her life and her understanding of the horrors surrounding her.
Previously screened at:
H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival - Portland, OR 2009
10/2/2009 to 10/4/2009 in Portland, OR
Founded by Andrew Migliore in 1995, the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival ® & CthulhuCon™ evangelizes the genres of Cosmic Horror and the Weird Tale through the exhibition of cinematic works by professional and independent filmmakers, as well as special events, book signings, author readings, panel discussions, musical performances, and much more. We embrace and foster new voices in the genre, including those of women, BIPOC, and LGBTQ creators, and strive to present an international showcase of related films and entertainment.
"H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival®", "CthulhuCon™", and the Squidgate logo are the property of Lurker Films, Inc. and are used with permission.
Commitment to Social Justice, Diversity, and Inclusion
Who is H.P. Lovecraft
Lovecraft and his racism
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Follow @hplff


Classic star wars sandtrooper that needs editing.
And change the eyes to orange.
Thanks and thats all that i need.
lol i was wondering when this would finally reach the vine.
is there anyone that can do tis?
" Classic star wars sandtrooper that needs editing. For starters the 409 in the background, can someone change it to 442 And change the eyes to orange. Thanks and thats all that i need."
I can do the orange eyes part, but I don't know if it's possible to change the number.
As you can tell, I'm not skilled in PhotoShop. And what shade of orange??
I can do the orange eyes part, but I don't know if it's possible to change the number. As you can tell, I'm not skilled in PhotoShop. And what shade of orange??"
That's kind of brown, but ok.
Sorry, but I gots to go. Methos might get around to it, and he's way better.


text:
UWG Hosts International Bestselling Author
College of Arts and Humanities News
by Katie Stepp
With genres spanning from middle grade adventure fantasy to young adult mysteries to adult science fiction, it's no wonder that bestselling author A.J. Hartley has been called a literary shapeshifter. The English department and the College of Arts and Humanities recently welcomed the internationally known writer back to the University of West Georgia.
Hartley is a former UWG professor and current New York Times and USA Today best-selling author. During his visit, Hartley read the first chapter of his novel Steeplejack, answered questions, conversed with the audience, gave advice, as well as signed books.
Hartley was born in the industrial area of northern England and has lived many places around the world. He attended Manchester University as an English major. Before being published, he taught Shakespeare at UWG.
Hartley currently works as the Robinson Professor of Shakespeare studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and has published more than 15 novels. Some of his well-known books include Steeplejack, Sekret Machines, Darwen Arkwright and The Peregrine Pact.
Writing his novel, Steeplejack, from the perspective of a young girl was interesting for Hartley.
"The pitfall to avoid is any sort of stereotype—any kind of clumsy way of looking at people from the outside and assuming who they are—and the only way to avoid that is by sharing your work with people who are closer to that position," Hartley explained. "I have always written people who were not exactly like me because I don't think I am particularly interesting."
Hartley emphasized the importance of empathizing with the characters' situations and thinking on their level in order to side with them.
A lot of research goes into his stories, especially Steeplejack.
"I didn't always know what I was researching. To go to Africa and just be there and tour historical sites and talk to people was really valuable for my research" he shared. "I have to make sure the story is dominant and the characters are dominant, but bring the research in naturally."
When asked for advice by a current student, Hartley suggested, "Read a lot. Write a lot. Don't get hung up on perfection. Get it down and move on. You can always come back to it. There are so many potentially good writers out there who can't finish. Take people seriously and listen to what they have to say."
For more information on A.J. Hartley, visit his website: ajhartley.net.
MINT Condition: Instructor Steve Morrison named one of MINT Gallery's 2018 Leap Year Artists
Autism, Hope and Achievement: UWG Alumnus Michael Goodroe Releases Memoir
On Broadway: Alumna Lights the Stage from Carrollton to New York
Poetry in Action: Program Preps Alumni for Creative Careers
UWG Theatre Rings in New Season with Mayhem
Cap à l'ouest (Go West): Foreign Language Alum Starts French Translation Business
Master of Puppets: Alumna Delves into World of Puppetry
A Whole Latte Love: Philosophy Alum Turns Heartache into Opportunity
UWG Alumna Nominated for LifeChanger of the Year Award
Game-Changer: Stones Establish Ongoing Sponsorship of UWG Marching Band
Foreshadowing the Future: Theatre Alumna Directs the Georgia Ensemble Theatre
'A Lot of Space': GreenCourt Donates Wealth of Cloud Storage to UWG
UWG Continues Third Season of The Other Night School in Carrollton, Newnan
Remembering Dr. Mel Steely: 40 years in the classroom and a lifetime of contributions
Retired Professor, Wife Establish Business Internship Opportunity for Music Majors
UWG's College of Arts and Humanities Reveals Spring Dean's Signature Series
Inclusion Effect: COAH Graduate Programs Award Minority Students with Fellowships
Three UWG Students Chosen to Present Research at International Conference
Artist-in-Residence Program: Recent Artist Uses Art for Therapy
The Composer's Palette: Music Major Talks Inspiration, Creative Flow


News of Pandavas being alive and their marriage reaches Kauravas. Sakuni, furious, suggests that they should attack. (Preemptive strike is not a new idea!) Some elders are not in favor; 'Pandavas are not helpless now! It is better to make up.' Karna has the opposite view, 'It is now or never, let us descend on them. We can vanquish them.' As this matched the mood of most, an army is collected and they march to Kampilya.
The war was short. The Kauravas are routed. The wrath of Pandavas was like that of a provoked snake. They were proved too strong! Duryodhana was inconsolable and heart broken. He was on the point of loosing his mind. 'Indeed the Pandavas are favored by gods. Here they are stronger than ever. Fate, after all, is too powerful. Strength and arms stand no chance against fate'.
Vidura having heard all the news, goes to his brother Dhirtarashtra. He uses the word Kuru deliberately while he speaks of children of Kuru house flourishing and adds: 'The eldest son is now married to the daughter of the king of the Panchalas'. Dhritharashtra falls into the trap set by his brother and thinks it is duryodhana and expresses his joy. When Vidura corrects his misunderstanding, he continues to pretend he is happy. 'It is even more pleasing news. I am very happy that the sons of my dead brother are alive and well'. Vidura replies; 'My lord, your words are now very sweet. I only hope that the feelings you have expressed will remain and your mind will not waver anymore'.
This conversation makes it appear that the blind father is isolated from events around him and Vidura knows his brother too well! And that they are not comfortable with each other.
Duryodhana entering the palace overhears the later part of the conversation and is upset. After Vidura leaves he accosts his father 'What is all this I hear about the great joy in your heart on hearing that my hated cousins are alive? Are you dreaming? Are you not well?'. The king pacifies his son; 'I am more upset than you are. But I could not say it to Vidura. Tell me what should be done'.
Duryodhana has no practical solutions. 'This hated team of five brothers has got to be broken. Can we bribe Drupada and make him friendly with us? Can Draupadi be used to bring dissension amongst them? We should kill Bhima. If he dies their spirit will be broken. Then it is easy for Radheya to kill Arjuna'. But laments; 'We are loosing time and I cannot bear to live if they come back to Hastinapura and live with us'.
Dhritarashtra is pleased with the words of Radheya. 'Today there is to be a conference in the great Palace hall. Bheeshma, Drona and all the Kuru elders will be there to discuss the future of Pandavas and the Kauravas and let us proceed to the council hall'. The three then walk towards the council hall.
The atmosphere is now thick with politicking in the Kaurava court. I suspect very few would be aware of all this in those days, but today it would be a different story! I may be wrong! Walls had ears in those days too!
Another interesting variation! Vachana Bharata does not mention the failed preemptive strike by Kaurvas which is narrated in Kamala's version.
Maya builds a hall. Visiting Mahabharata 52.
Narada's visit. Visiting Mahabharata 53.


Last Thursday, 12th November, 26 Year 7 students performed an abridged version of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry as part of the Shakespeare Schools' Festival.
The Shakespeare Schools' Festival is a charity which aims to inspire young people by giving them the opportunity to perform a classic text in a professional theatre venue. Last week, President Kennedy School students performed as part of the busiest week of the festival with over 12,000 students performing in over 100 performances all over the country.
We are extremely proud of our year 7 students who not only conducted themselves immaculately for the duration of the technical rehearsal, dress rehearsal and final performance in the evening, but also performed with great confidence bringing the tale of A Midsummer Night's Dream to life. Many thanks to all who supported the students throughout the project and those who were able to attend the performance on the night.
Congratulations to the cast of the Shakespeare Schools' Festival 2015!
Students: Mya Birdie, Abena Daffour, Cameron Scullion, Cara Lunn, Cassidy Woollaston, Chloe Holmes, Ebony Flitcroft, Freya Millerchip, Hannah Beckham, Jake Bradley, Joy Asante, Kodie Foulds, Kulsoom Chothia, Leah Wills, Lucy Rafferty, Maryam Hameed, Meghan Sarup, Paige Sephton, Rachel Ngoma, Rebecca Forrler, Rebecca Skipworth, Spencer Fisk, Yaasir Warsame, Francesca Rigters, Thomas Brown and Wazhma Sarwari.


no warning signs whatsoever that there was anything wrong.
union.  So he believed that he was financially secure.
have at least one child later down the road.
the idea.  He had no idea how much things were about to change.
their faces, but they never waited for him to arrive at work before.
He parked his car and went up to them to find out what was going on.
He asked them what was up and Charlie answered.
For the past few years the four of them went in on lottery tickets.
million dollars.  They purchased a few extra tickets for the event.
gamble that worked in their favour.
home, he dashed to the bedroom door and thrust it open.
much on his mind and a thousand thoughts raced in and out of his mind.
watched the sunset, his life changed forever.


text:
> RARE & IMPORTANT ART NOUVEAU POSTERS
> Lot 117
Dec 19, 2007 | Vintage Posters
Rare & Important Art Nouveau Posters
Nicholas D. Lowry
posters@swanngalleries.com
Sale 2133 | Lot 117
Sale 2133 Lot 117
ALPHONSE MUCHA (1860-1939) [THE SEASONS.] 1897.
16 1/2x24 inches.
Condition A-: minor restoration in upper left corner. Matted and framed.
After the success of his first set of decorative panels glorifying the seasons in 1896, Mucha's printer (Champenois) immediately commissioned a second series. While in many ways this second group of allegorical beauties are much like the first (Mucha's two visions of winter are quite similar), there are also some differences between the two. In this later set the colors are sharper, differentiating them from the pastel palette of the first series. Also, and more importantly, this series was designed within a decorative, graphic frame. For the decorative panels, the top space was filled with a floral design, and the bottom space bore the name of each season. But those spaces could also be left empty. This was a critical commercial decision as it made these panels attractive to advertisers, who would use the blank spaces to fill in their particulars. When this variation (with the space at top and calendar area left empty) hit the market, the magazine La Plume was offering them for sale at 3.5 francs. This was more than they were asking for the fully filled-in version, indicating that even at the time this was a rarer printing. Rennert / Weill 37 var. 2.


text:
Tim Donnelly goes from statehouse to airwaves…
Tim Donnelly goes from statehouse to airwaves as radio talk show host
After four months out of political office, former Assemblyman and GOP gubernatorial candidate Tim Donnelly returns as an AM 960 radio host on April 15.
By Beau Yarbrough | byarbrough@scng.com | The Press-Enterprise
HESPERIA >> Ten months after conceding the Republican gubernatorial primary to his rival, Neal Kashkari, and four months after leaving the California Assembly seat he held for four years, Tim Donnelly is back. Or will be, on April 15.
But instead of on the campaign trail, it will be in front of a microphone and on the airwaves.
Looking to work closer to home during his sons' high school years, while still staying part of the political conversation, Donnelly decided to become a talk show host. His three-hour afternoon drive-time show debuts on April 15 on Victorville radio station KIXW, AM 960 as well as online, on his own website, TimDonnellyShow.com.
"I'd never even planned for, or imagined losing the primary," he said, as his son and brother-in-law renovate an office a room away, converting it into the headquarters for the next phase of his career. "It took a couple of months to recoup."
A former small businessman, his political career began, he told voters on the campaign trail, when Sacramento politicians regulated his plastics company out of business. That left him without a fallback plan, given that he was unable to seek reelection in the 33rd Assembly District since he had campaigned for governor.
"I was thinking about selling Toyotas for a while," he said. "Then I looked at running for a state Senate seat."
Steve Knight had been elected to Congress, representing the 25th Congressional District, leaving his 21st State Senate seat up for grabs.
"Then I realized I'd put my family on the back burner for four years," Donnelly said. "Because if you do your job right (in the Assembly), you're gone all the time." Then came an opportunity to still have a voice.
"I want to give people who feel like they don't have any place to go, a place for three hours (a day)," he said.
This isn't Donnelly's first time on the airwaves: He briefly had a 30-minute Saturday morning show on KIXW in 2012. But this time, he's in it for keeps: He's converting an office in Hesperia to a radio studio and his goal is to get the show syndicated to conservative talk radio throughout California. Donnelly hopes his almost 40,000 followers on his two Facebook pages, and the thousands who voted for him in the 2014 primary election, are still interested in what he has to say.
"I'll be able to continue to impact public policy in a way that might have even more impact than being in office," he said.
Although his show will talk politics – Donnelly raved about Ted Cruz's announced run for the presidency, saying America needs a "true believer" like the Texas senator in the White House – Tea Party favorite Donnelly said his show will appeal to his conservative fans in other ways, including interviews with successful entrepreneurs and regular segments about guns, including discussions about brands and pricing.
After handing off the 33rd Assembly seat to Jay Obernolte, Donnelly was poised, for the first time in years, to escape the public eye. His carrying a loaded handgun to a L.A./Ontario International Airport security checkpoint in 2012 will likely follow him the rest of his life, after all.
But Donnelly said he looks forward to staying in the fray, even if the venue has changed.
"This show is not going to be one that defends every idiotic thing Republicans do," he said, saying he had taken similarly contrarian stances in the Assembly. "I won't just be taking on the Democrats. … It's a chance to carry on the fight I waged in the Assembly."
Donnelly said he knows he can fail, whether it's in small business or when seeking the governor's chair, but isn't afraid.
"I'm in the sink-or-swim union," he said. "We have to come out of the gate swinging."
Beau Yarbrough | Reporter
Beau Yarbrough wrote his first newspaper article taking on an authority figure (his middle school principal) when he was in 7th grade. He's been a professional journalist since 1992, working in Virginia, Egypt and California. In that time, he's covered community news, features, politics, local government, education, the comic book industry and more. He's covered the war in Bosnia, interviewed presidential candidates, written theatrical reviews, attended a seance, ridden in a blimp and interviewed both Batman and Wonder Woman (Adam West and Lynda Carter). He also cooks a mean pot of chili.
byarbrough@scng.com
Follow Beau Yarbrough	@LBY3
Beaumont family fixes its favorite recipes on TV show 'Family Dinner'


I'm Dr Claire Scobie, an award-winning author and business storytelling consultant. I'm passionate about the power of stories to change minds. I bring years of experience as a journalist & writer to help your company develop the inherent human angle in every story.
Discover more about Claire the author, her books and personal creative projects.
To learn more about Wordstruck, email today.


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Tasmanian Oak Buffet with 2pac doors showing inside detail.
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Solid Gidgee four draw Buffet with opening doors both sides.


text:
Hollingsworth re-elected with changes made in Hyattsville's City Council
José Umaña May 15, 2019 0 0
HYATTSVILLE – Mayor Candace Hollingsworth received over 89 percent of votes to be re-elected in her role for the City of Hyattsville on May 7.
Hyattsville Mayor Candace Hollingsworth was re-elected during the city's elections on May 7. Photo by Jessica Ricks/The Prince George's Sentinel.
Hollingsworth, who was first elected in 2015, defeated Angela Kenny, who is active in the city as a member of the Police and Public Safety Committee. Kenny was only able to accumulate 206 votes while 37 voters put in write-in votes.
In her four years as Hyattsville's mayor, she has worked toward building a more viable community and is looking to continue the same efforts in her second term. According to Hollingsworth, starting the construction phases of a new public works building and police and public safety headquarters as well as adding more support for school construction projects in Hyattsville Elementary and Middle Schools will be a focus for her moving forward following Election Day.
"Thank you, Hyattsville, for the faith you have placed in us to lead the city for the next four years," Hollingsworth said on a Facebook statement. "I look forward to working with this council to address the concerns that each of them carries on your behalf to make our community stronger and our work ever more meaningful."
Meanwhile, in the city council races, three seats will be filled in by new councilmembers.
First, in the three-candidate Ward Two race, Seattle native Danny Schaible edged out teacher Emily Strab by 63 votes to take over the open seat on the council left by Shani Warner. The third candidate Robert Poisson collected only 27 votes.
In Ward Three, volunteer reporter for the Hyattsville Life and Times Ben Simasek received 128 votes to defeat Matthew Fraterman to take over the open seat left by outgoing Councilmember Tom Wright.
On his campaign website, Simasek outlined four goals he would address if elected to the city council: environmental protections, smart development and affordability, youth programming and efficient and transparent use of tax dollars.
"I believe our city government should be civil, responsive, inclusive and transparent with every resident, so I intend to serve with those values," Simasek said. "I welcome positive and negative feedback. While we may disagree on certain issues, I'm hopeful our disagreements will be expressed respectfully."
Lastly, for the vacant seat in Ward Four, veteran public school educator Daniel Peabody received 88 of the 132 certified votes to defeat Jonathan Mueller. Peabody has taught in the Maryland school system for 14 years, including spending time at High Point High School. He is a member of Hyattsville's Education Advisory Committee.
During the City Election Candidate Forum on April 24, Peabody said his goal would be to bring residents together with the city as part of Hyattsville's emergence into a more developed city.
"We should not displace existing communities," Peabody said. "If we create the right conditions, it is my belief that all people can thrive in this city. That is my vision; I envision a thriving, safe and opportunity-filled Hyattsville for all people who live here."
Incumbent Councilmembers Kevin Ward (Ward One) and Joseph Solomon (Ward Five) both won their re-election bids with large margins of victory. Ward accumulated 333 votes or 79.74 percent of the vote over his opponent Lukas Halim, who was the last candidate to register for the 2019 election season.
Solomon won a tighter race with a significant margin, collecting 78 of125 certified votes to be re-elected to his seat. His opponent Sophie M. Gorman Oriani amassed only 44 votes in a campaign where she pledged to work on school overcrowding and safety concerns.
This year, Soloman led the push for a bill to change the name of a local park named after William Pinkney Magruder due to his racist language at the time of donating the park. The bill unanimously passed the city council on March 18.
"From the residents I have heard from, I think it will mean a lot," Solomon said. "I think we as a community have invested a lot in being a progressive city and demonstrating that we want to respect the values of our community and I don't think racism and segregation are values that we want to recognize. So I think it will be something that is well-received within the community."
Tags Angela Kenny articles Ben Simasek breaking news Candace Hollingsworth City Council City Election Candidate Forum City elections City of Hyattsville City of Hyattsville city council community Danny Schaible elected Election Day elections Emily Strab general knowledge google google map google search headlines Hyattsville Joseph Solomon Kevin Ward latest news Local Local News map google News news headlines news of the day news today newspaper newspaper article newspaper paper open seat PG County pg county news politics prince george s county news Prince George' s County Prince George's County prince george's county news Re-elected school construction projects search Shani Warner stories viable community world news
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With the post-secondary experience as a pivotal catalyst, we have seen changes in the expectations of communities over the years. We see that young adults with developmental disabilities, who have learned, laughed and worked with their non-disabled peers at college and university, are well on their way to inclusive lives.
STEPS Forward is a family driven organization founded to ensure that people with developmental disabilities are included as students in the academic and social life of colleges and universities of British Columbia.
These parents identified a significant gap. They realized that the lack of opportunities for inclusion in tertiary education left a significant gap in creating the world they wanted. At the time, the only post-secondary opportunities for young adults with developmental disabilities were separate, not inclusive.
Looking forward, these founding parents set out to change this. They wanted to create campuses where students with developmental disabilities would be ordinary members of a diverse community, regardless of the nature of the disability.
STEPS Forward has a vision to make it unremarkable for young adults with developmental disabilities to attend post secondary education across BC; to be included in the same courses and programs of study, and in the same ways, as any other student on campus.


Shared interface allowing several users in co-presence to interact simultaneously on digital data on a single display is an uprising challenge in Human Computer Interaction (HCI). Its development is motivated by the advent of large displays such as wall-screens and tabletops. It affords fluid and natural digital interaction without hindering human communication and collaboration. It enables mutual awareness, making participant conscious of each other activities.
In this paper, we are interested in Mixed Presence Groupware (MPG), when two or more remote shared interfaces are connected for a distant collaborative session. Our contribution strives to answer to the question: Can the actual technology provide sufficient presence feeling of the remote site to enable efficient collaboration between two distant groups?
, an experimental platform we hope lessen the gap between collocated and distant interaction.
is combining a multiuser tactile interactive tabletop, a video-communication system enabling eye-contact with real size distant user visualization and a spatialized sound system for speech transmission. A robust computer vision module for distant users' gesture visualization completes the platform.
does not provide the same presence feeling in distant and or collocated situation, a first and important finding emerges: distance does not hinder efficient collaboration anymore.


text:
'Definitely fate': Michigan veteran catches baby thrown from burning apartment
by: Donovan Long
Posted: Jul 20, 2020 / 06:13 PM EDT / Updated: Jul 21, 2020 / 10:53 AM EDT
KALAMAZOO, Mich. (WOOD) — Dramatic cellphone video captured a Kalamazoo native as he caught a baby who was thrown from a burning apartment building in Arizona.
"It was definitely fate," said Phillip Blanks.
Blanks made the rescue in Phoenix on July 2. The baby boy's mom sacrificed her life to save his. She threw him out of the window of their burning apartment.
"Soon as I caught him, it was a divine moment," said Blanks. "We looked each other in the eyes, and he had this new slate of life in him, new chance at life, like I'll never forget that."
Phillip Blanks
Blanks credited the split-second decision to his training as a Marine and wide receiver for Kalamazoo Central High School.
"It was all an act of God," said Blanks.
The veteran's hometown community leaders rewarded him for his heroism.
"Heroes come in all shapes and sizes," said Brian Menther, who is the managing partner of Kalamazoo Mortgage.
Kalamazoo Mortgage created a scholarship in Blanks' name that the manager said will benefit all three of the city's high schools. Kalamazoo's mayor also praised Blanks for his selflessness with a proclamation.
"More than ever, we need more people like that," said Menther.
As Blanks reflects on the dramatic video of the rescue, he said he's reminded that in the absence of the baby's mom is the presence of love for the little one and his surviving father and sister.
"We ended up becoming family," said Blanks.
More Kalamazoo and Battle Creek Stories
Kalamazoo man pleads guilty to June 2020 assault
KALAMAZOO, Mich. (WOOD) — A Kalamazoo man has admitted to attacking someone last summer.
Juan Richards pleaded guilty Wednesday to a count of third-offense domestic abuse as a second-time habitual offender.
Lead paint concerns continue in Kalamazoo
by Jacqueline Francis / Jan 14, 2021
KALAMAZOO, Mich. (WOOD) — The new charges to come from the Flint Water Crisis are shining a light on the lead dangers still present in West Michigan communities.
A 2016 data report on childhood lead testing revealed that children under the age of 6 living in Kalamazoo County had elevated blood level rates, twice the level of Flint.
by Lynsey Mukomel / Jan 14, 2021
LANSING, Mich. (WOOD) — The state is working toward ending restraints within the child welfare system on a significant date: the anniversary of Cornelius Fredericks' death.
In the spring of 2020, the 16-year-old Fredericks was restrained by employees at Lakeside Academy in Kalamazoo and later died. In June, state investigators ruled the restraint was wrongful. Three former Lakeside employees were later charged in connection to the death are still awaiting trial.
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National Guard activated as MSP prepares for protest at state Capitol


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text:
How to Write a Vignette
Types of Gothic Fiction
Characteristics of Gothic in Literature and the Arts
Three Types of Literature
How to Spot Allegory in Literature
10 Elements of Gothic Literature
Douglas Matus Updated June 13, 2017
Home » Language & Lit
••• Giovanni Vincenti/iStock/Getty Images
Gothic literature first appeared in the late 18th century, and became one of the first literary genres to inspire broad popular enthusiasm. Though the first examples were fiction, poets also incorporated gothic elements, and the genre remained prevalent throughout the 19th century and into the 20th. For those who wish to study gothic literature -- or try their hand at composing it -- 10 elements appear as hallmarks of the form.
Fascination With the Past
Gothic writers romanticized the past, particularly the medieval era. Castles often feature prominently, as in Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" and Horace Walpole's "The Castle of Otranto." This gothic fascination with the past also manifested in historical settings, such as the early 18th century Scotland of Sir Walter Scott's Waverley novels.
Supernatural elements also feature prominently in gothic literature. M.R. James' gothic ghost stories, published in the early 20th century, can be seen as a reaction against the rise of technology and science. Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," with its ghostly ship, showcases the supernatural in gothic poetry.
Emphasis on Sexuality
In the chaste Victorian era, Gothic literature provided an outlet for the exploration of sexuality. This appears in the trope of the doomed romance, as in Edgar Allan Poe's "Annabel Lee," or in the appearance of a demonic lover figure, such as the bloodthirsty vampire in Bram Stoker's "Dracula."
Many of gothic literature's most influential works make heavy use of horror elements. Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein," with its graveyards, gloomy castle and iconic monster, became a bestseller upon its first single-volume publication. Robert Louis Stevenson's "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" and Ann Radcliffe's "The Mysteries of Udolpho" also provide examples of gothic horror.
Psychological Portraits
Themes of madness and emotional distress characterize the psychological emphasis of gothic literature. As the genre matured into the 20th century, writers began to portray the internal horror of psychosis, as in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper." Poe's "The Telltale Heart," which examines the psychology of guilt, stands as an earlier example of this tendency.
Exotic Locales
Exotic settings featured in some of the earliest gothic works, and remained a key element throughout the genre's history. William Bedford's "Vathek," set in the Middle East, helped popularize Orientalism, a 19th century fascination with Arabic and Asian cultures.
Experimental Techniques
The development of gothic literature paralleled that of the novel as art, and reached its apogee in the first half of the 20th century. Gothic literature contains experimental techniques such as shifting narrators and literary tableaux. Shifting narrators -- such as those in William Faulkner's Southern gothic "As I Lay Dying" -- give different perspectives on the plot. A literary tableaux -- a description of a static scene -- can establish mood or convey symbolism.
The Gothic Hero
Gothic literature popularized the notion of the anti-hero, a flawed protagonist who incorporates dark or monstrous elements. Lord Byron featured gothic heroes in many of his works, including "Childe Harold" and "Manfred." Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights" contains a prominent gothic hero in Heathcliff.
Repeated Use of Motifs
Many examples of gothic literature contain similar motifs, or devices that convey a thematic impact. The motif of the doppelganger, characters that reflect the duality of human nature, appears notably in Stevenson's "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." The dream motif, in which dream sequences can convey the subconscious, also features in gothic literature. "Frankenstein" contains a notable example in Victor's dream of his lover, Elizabeth.
Since its first appearance in the late 18th century, gothic literature made heavy use of symbolism to explore themes of human experience. Often, the supernatural elements, such as the veiled and bloody nun in Matthew Lewis' 1796 "The Monk," convey the hidden terrors contained in human nature. Oscar Wilde's "Picture of Dorian Gray," published a century later, accomplishes this same feat with the symbolism of the namesake painting.
Brooklyn College: The Gothic Experience
WW Norton: The Norton Anthology of English Literature -- The Romantic Age -- The Gothic
BBC Two: Writing Scotland -- Walter Scott
Poetry Foundation: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Saylor.org: A Glossary of Literary Gothic Terms
Douglas Matus is the travel writer for "West Fort Worth Lifestyle" magazine, and spent four years as the Director of Humanities for a college-prep school in Austin. Since 2005, he has published articles on education, travel and culture in such publications as "Nexus," "People's World" and "USA Today." Matus received an Education Pioneers fellowship in 2010 and an MFA from CalArts in 2011.
Giovanni Vincenti/iStock/Getty Images


I sometimes try to envision how the residents of the spiritual world must have celebrated the day you rejoined them. What festivities did they perform to welcome you, the Lord's chosen son, back to that transcedental abode? In my mind's eye I can see the cowherd men riding on their bullock carts with families in tow, eager to arrive at the rendezvous point in time to receive you back from your victorious mission of delivering hundreds and thousands of conditioned souls from this miserable world of birth and death.
The cowherd boys' chests must have swelled with pride as the older gopas related how you had successfully fulfilled Lord Krishna's request to lift the burden of this world by disseminating transcendental knowledge in the form of your glorious books. And who can imag-ine how the cowherd girls, dressed in their very best, gleefully welcomed you back into their own entourage and shared with you in secret Syamasundar's pastimes in your absence? Surely they didn't fail to mention the tears He Himself shed in separation from you during the many long years you spent in this world delivering the message of Godhead.
My dearest master, I'll never forget that fateful day, November 14, 1977, when the Lord took you back to the spiritual world making all of us, your loving disciples, effectively spiritual orphans. As news of your departure spread far and wide we sat in disbelief for a brief moment and prepared to grieve for what we thought would be eternity. The deep separation we experienced seemed more than any of us could bear, for all of us loved you more than anyone has ever been loved before. How could it be otherwise? You were our savior. Convinced of the timeless wisdom of the scriptures that you had spoken so eloquently, we had taken up the pro-cess of Krsna consciousness in earnest, renouncing the so-called pleasures of this world on a moment's notice. Much to the surprise of family and friends we eagerly embraced a life of what appeared to be penance and austerity but which, when mixed with the sweetness of service to your lotus feet, quickly turned into a life of ecstatic love and joy.
O my master, lord of my life, please bless me with the purity, strength, wisdom, and resolve to continue preaching your message until the end of my life. You have given me real life, this life of Krsna consciousness, so in effect I am yours to do with as you please. My prayer is that you continue to use my aging body for delivering your message to the conditioned souls, my mind for always meditating on how to execute such noble deeds, and my words for bringing hundreds of thousands of lost souls to your lotus feet.
Srila Prabhupada, it is my great hope, my cherished desire, that I can qualify myself through service to be with you again one day in the not-too-distant future. The possibility will soon arise because after all I am in the closing chapters of my life. I pray that when that final moment arrives I may be pure in heart and qualified to serve your desires in the spiritual world, far beyond this world of birth and death. There, in that transcendental abode, I will never experience the anguish of be-ing separated from you again. Rather, I will help you eternally in your service to the Lord, until the end of time and forever after.


--that the Mass. legislature has approved the amended bill that allows more free lunches, in particular, and that the Gov is poised to approve, though organizations like the National Physicians Alliance is writing to urge that he withhold his signature and the American Medical Student Association is also griping.
What I had said in the past holds: It is really interesting to see how the drug and device industries will give up a lot of marketing tools under pressure, such as jettisoning the previously ubiquitous drug logo pens--but free meals really must work because they'll fight tooth and nail to keep them. And it is really interesting how much total restaurant revenue seems to ride on these junkets. (So much for them being the "modest" meals we hear about in the language opf the law and in the PhRMA code of conduct).
--for filling in the backstory on a recent event at UC-Davis med school. I had not initially blogged about this incident because it had little to do directly with the pharmaeutical industry, and because the two principals, Drs. Michael Wilkes and Jerry Hoffman, are personal friends (Jerry being half of the Rick Bukata-Jerry Hoffman team that does Primary Care Medical Abstracts, whose reviews of the medical literature I often rely on here). But Dr. Poses helps highlight why the incident is of more general concern regarding conflicts of interest at the interface between industry and academic medicine.
Dr. Wilkes was then contacted by UC-Davis lawyers, and was informed that he was being terminated as the head of several academic programs that he was responsible for, including programs on professional practice and global health. These were accompanied by threats that he'd be sued for defamation for what he said about Davis in the op-ed.
Dr. Poses has hit the nail on the head by addresing the past track record of UC-Davis and its leaders. When the people who run academic medical centers start to think of what they do as a business, and when they see industries that make profits off questionable patient care as lucrative sources of funding, they naturally start to think of their physician and scientist faculty members as their sales force that is supposed to roll up their sleeves and sell the Davis "product." When a faculty member adheres to his academic responsibilities and puts the truth over the UCF-Davis "brand," the leadership becomes outraged at this treasonous behavior. Which is why conflicts of interest in academic medicine, especially at the institutional level, need to be vigorously rooted out--and why we need leadership in health care and academic medicine that understands the difference between a business and a profession.
--on the subject of ghostwriting. As we've detailed in many previous posts, there has been a great deal of huffing and puffing over the evils of ghostwriting, where a hired hand for the drug industry writes almost all the article, academic experts then affix their names to the author byline, and the hired gun disappears into obscurity when the paper appears in a journal. Yet there's no good evidence that the practice has diminished, and indeed defenders of the medical communications firms that employ the ghostwriters have become even more brazen in defending these practices, insisting that it's not ghostwriting at all. What Drs. Leo and Lacasse add in this more recent post is a clue as to the large loophole that people jump through to keep ghostwriting alive and well.
Now, these criteria do a pretty good job of eliminating one common abuse of authorship, honorary authorship, in which senior physicians insist on having their names added to the publications of their juniors even when they actually did nothing to contribute to the study. Drs. Leo and Lacasse indicate how the criteria fall down when used to police ghostwriting.
The common practice now is that a hired-gun medical writer will write the crucial first draft of the paper, making sure to organize and spin the paper in a way favorable for drug marketing. The academic guest authors (who meet the first criteria by having been involved in conducting the research) then meet the second criteria by doing some edits--often really minor and trivial, but enough so that they can claim that they had something to do with the manuscript. The hired gun then turns the manuscript over to the academics, who approve the final version. The hired gun is named in an acknowledgement as having provided writing or editorial "assistance." In this scenario, the ICMJE guidelines have been followed, and the hired gun cannot be listed as an author because he/she did not meet the 3rd criterion.
What has changed as a result of this is that the old practice of eliminating all mention of the ghostwriter has given way to the newer practice of listing the ghostwriter in an acknowledgement. No doubt the drug firm preferred the old way, keeping all of its involvement in writing the paper hidden. But the new way works well enough, as the actual key role of the ghostwriter in shaping the paper the way the company wants it is still quite well concealed, and no one who doesn't read the fine print at the end of the article knows of the ghostwriter's existence.
Drs. Leo and Lacasse note that if either medical journals or academic medical centers truly wanted to police this practice, they could do so. As an example of a journal that has adoped more stringent standards than ICMJE, they cite Neurology, that has cut to the chase to ask the really key question, "who influenced the content?" When other bodies continue to swear by the ICMJE criteria, despite widely published accounts of their limitations, we can only conclude that people don't really want to get rid of ghostwriting-- which is highly lucrative for the medical journals through sales of reprints, and also for academic centers, as those faculty who are asked to be ghostwriters in all probability bring in hefty funding from Pharma.
As I explained in HOOKED and in many previous posts, ghostwriting, despite recent efforts to sanitize it, has to be the most egregious case of unethical practice at the medicine-Pharma interface. If you cannot believe that the listed authors actually wrote an article, what can you believe? Maybe in the world of celebrity kiss-and-tell memoirs, no one is shocked to discover that the celebrity "author" really did no writing at all (and more than likely couldn't if he tried), and some hired hack writer churned out the text. But the entire system of trust in science is built on the reader's confidence that the authors, with their academic reputations, are vouching for the results stated in the article and especially for the interpretation they attach to those results. If academic medicine cannot put a stop to this, it is time to call in Senator Grassley and his troops and turn the control of academic medicine over to Congress or some other outside agency, because we've failed.
Dr. Farhat Moazam is a most impressive Pakistani physician. She became interested in organ transplant issues in her native country and eventually came to the US to study for a PhD in ethics. Her book, Bioethics and Organ Transplantation in a Muslim Society, is a superb example both of an ethical investigation of organ transplantation, and a comparative treartment of modes of ethical thought in different cultures.
Another particularly egregious development is the increasing financial support of multinationals for bioethics centres, staff and programmes. Carl Elliot of the Centre for Bioethics, University of Minnesota, who follows this phenomenon in the US, reports a $100,000 grant established by a leading drug manufacturer for a Fellowship in Bioethics, meant to allow researchers to explore "conflicts of interest".
The irony of this is inescapable if one recalls that not too long ago this company was involved in a deadly drug research scandal involving Nigerian children with meningitis and, according to Elliot, made to pay the largest criminal fine in 2009.
This year, another two more pharmaceuticals are to fund a "crash course in bioethics" in China which will include "meetings" with "pharma folks … expats who work for large drugmakers". The University of Pennsylvania faculty member that is organising this course admits that he has worked "in big pharma for many years" with the key objective to "develop academic-industry collaborations". One of the companies was cited last year for interfering in the approval of generic alternatives to its blood-thinning drug.
When US physicians eat out of Pharma's hands, one can object among other things that we ought to have enough money floating about in our bloated health care system to pay for whatever is needed without going begging to the drug industry--especially when what's at stake is not a grant to run a research project, but the funds to sponsor a luxurious dinner or reception at a swank hotel. By contrast, in a country like Pakistan, it's easier to argue that the poverty of the medical system in general leaves physicians with no options but to seek funding wherever they can. It's therefore impressive that Dr. Moazam (who directs the Centre of Biomedical Ethics and Culture at the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation) is having none of that. She quite rightly demands ethical accountability and scrutiny of all such transactions--and real ethical scrutiny, not bioethics-for-hire. If she can insist on this in Pakistan, how much more are we in wealthier nations obligated to follow her example?
Treating Stroke: Pharma Influence, Medical Zealotry, or Both?
I need to provide some general background, review what Dr. Newman says, and then add some commentary.
Background: Dr. Newman quickly reviews the reasons why I had decided long ago that even though I am not into tattoos, if I were to have something tattooed on my chest, it would be "No tPA in case of stroke." Stroke care has been taken over by the group I cynically call the "brain attack mafia" who argue that we should go into crisis mode when a stroke patient rolls into the ER just like we do when a heart attack victim arrives. Their problem: We have proven things to do to save lives in acute heart attack, but what do we have to offer for acute stroke? The logic of the disease suggests that dissolving the clot in the brain artery quickly would save brain tissue, function, and ultimately lives. Sadly, as often happens, logic and scientific outcomes fail to match. The clot buster usually recommended, tPA, has been shown in numerous trials either to have no benefit, or to have a very small benefit which you can only find by tying knots in the statistics, while posing risks of major bleeding.
So now there's a new international trial of tPA in acute stroke, IST-3, just published on line in Lancet (subscription required), that Dr. Newman thoughtfully dissects. Their primary endpoint was death or dependence at 6 months. The study data were clear--no difference in either outcome between the tPA and the control group.
But of course the Mafia would not be satisfied with that negative outcome, so the authors then went back and had to play around with the statistics, and they came up with a new, secondary measure that they claim offered a very slight benefit for the tPA group. So, in what Dr. Newman terms as "breathtaking" evidence of going "stark, raving mad," the authors claim that the study was actually a success for tPA. Not only did Lancet aid and abet the insanity by publishing the paper with this obvious lying-with-statistics, but even added an editorial strongly favoring widespread use of tPA based on this supposed "success."
Commentary: Two main things to note about all this. First, is this obviously biased result due to drug company or industry influence? Well, no and yes, apparently. I looked at the Lancet paper for the usual Pharma footprints. The study was funded by what appears to be a consortium of government health research agencies with no obvious industry money. The authors on the other hand have a long list of ties to industry.
What to make of this? My best guess on the Brain Attack Mafia" is that this is at root genuine therapeutic zealotry among a group of neurologists who are tired of seeing stroke dissed as an "oh well" diagnosis that you just have to take care of and cannot attack with all guns blazing. Folks like this may be biased advocates for relatively useless therapies even when no Pharma money is on the table. But when any industry funding shows up, it's naturally this group that is the greatest ally of the industry that wants to push the drug or the test in question.
Now, second main thing to note. As Dr. Newman points out, even if you believe the crazy statistical gymnasics of IST-3, you are still looking at a miniscule benefit from tPA with a big risk of harm. So an obvious question is: Do we have anything better to offer a patient who has just suffered an acute stroke? And the answer is: Yes.
The literature is now full of studies showing over and over what happens when such a patient is admitted to an acute stroke unit, or the care of a dedicated stroke team, or basically a group of nurses, physical therapists, and other staff in the hospital who wear t-shirts that say "Strokes R Us." It hardly matters if there are any docs involved. What has to happen is that the patient gets care from a team that does stroke all day and every day and has a system not to forget all the little details of care. There's no rocket science, it's just painstakling use of known, beneficial aspects of nursing care, physical therapy, prevention of blood clots in the legs, etc. etc.
So we are talking here about absolute differences (not relative) of around 8 percentage points, which is hugely superior to results seen in any study of tPA. So why, you might ask, is the Brain Attack Mafia so insistent that we have to give every eligible patient tPA, and so unconcerned about whether each hospital that cares for stroke patients has a good stroke team or unit?
Dr. Newman has the answer in a term he calls "scienciness." We in medicine love scienciness. We often don't like science, because it shows us that stuff that we devoutly believe in (like busting clots with tPA) doesn't really benefit patients. Stroke units and teams are extremely unsexy and unexciting (good nursing care??? Give me a break) but are solid science. Clot-busting with tPA is scienciness.
Catching up on some older literature, I see that British sociologist John Abraham (last blogged about: http://brodyhooked.blogspot.com/2011/11/emergent-patient-industry-complex-and.html) and his associate Courtney Davis have produced an interesting paper comparing the drug regulation systems in the U.S. and the European Union, using diabetes as a case study-- specifically, the class of drugs called the glitazones.
They review the story of the approval process in each system for the drugs rosiglitazone (Avandia) and pioglitazone (Actos). Their principal conclusion is that what drove the regulatory approval process in the U.S., and to a somewhat lesser extent in Europe, was the "innovation" factor--that the glitazones were a new class of diabetes drugs and worked by a new chemical mechanism. This led the regulators to take their eye off what should have been the ball--the question of whether these drugs were safe and effective for patients with diabetes.
The FDA approved Avandia and Actos in 1999. Davis and Abraham tell us, "By 2007, the FDA had reached the uncomfortable conclusion that their medical optimism about the glitazones' 'wonderful' and 'unique' mechanism had been little more than wishful thinking." They go on to suggest that such an outcome "is consistent with an ideology that mistakes technological novelty for public health benefit."
While the EU was to some extent driven by the same love affair with "innovation," the Europeans eventually became more hard-nosed than the Americans, demanding to see evidence of improved outcomes in diabetes (that is, longer life, or fewer major cardiovascular events) in comparison with existing drugs, while the US FDA was happy to require the companies merely to prove that their drugs did a better job than placebo at lowering blood sugar. Davis and Abraham explain, "The FDA justified its more permissive approach on the grounds that once efficacy is established, albeit against placebo, the drugs should be approved to find their place in the 'market' where doctors can judge which drugs are best for their patients." Conveniently left out of this FDA equation is how physicians are supposed to be able to "judge" when the industry gets to design all the studies of the new drugs and can avoid asking any of the hard scientific questions that might threaten drug sales--and when the FDA refuses to use its regulatory clout to force the companies to do the studies that would really prove that the drugs have a worthy role in therapy.
Moreover, "The glitazones highlight the ideological nature of the FDA's expectations in relation to rational drug use because the hypothesized clinical benefits associated with the drugs' innovative mechanism, on the one hand, and the comparative clinical evidence actually available, on the other, implied diametrically opposed clinical use. On the clinical trial evidence that the glitazones were less effective than existing drugs at lowering blood-glucose, glitazone use would be recommended after those other drugs had failed .... By contrast, the hypothesized benefits from the glitazones' innovative mechanism implied that the drugs should be used early in therapy to prevent disease progression. The contradiction of the FDA's approach is that to suggest such potential benefits from an innovative mechanism underlines the need for good comparative efficacy data because it is all the more important that information about the glitazones' most effective use is available."
So, where does this worship of innovation come from? It is hard to blame industry fully. Physicians are always excited to hear that a new class of drugs has been discovered. Scientists are intrigued by novel mechanisms. These discoveries make the evening news and get patient-advocacy groups all in a lather about the latest "cure" or "miracle." But despite those other contributing factors, we cannot deny that it serves industry's interests to get the regulators to pay more attention to "innovation" than to actual patient outcome data: "Our case-study of 'innovative' pharmaceuticals suggest that even if ... the expectations of medical innovation are rarely proportionate to future therapeutic results, sales 'results' can prosper for years after because of immense promotional efforts by manufacturers and the ideological sway of the idea of innovation within neo-liberal regulation..."
Now, one interesting feature of this analysis is that Davis and Abraham don't really tell the whole glitazone story. They dismiss with one sentence what happened to the predecessor of both Actos and Avandia, troglitazone (Rezulin)--a drug that I found worthy of three pages of discussion in HOOKED. The first drug to be marketed in this class had to be withdrawn from the market due to liver failure. The British regulators took Rezulin off the market more than 2 years before the FDA did, and 63 people had to die in the US before the FDA finally took action. The love affair with "innovation" therefore claimed even more lives than David and Abraham indicate.
Since Rezulin had done its dirty work via the liver, the FDA thought ot was home free when it could see that neither Actos or Avandia caused similar liver problems. That distracted the agency from the real problem with Avandia, causing excess cases of heart failure. But you could argue that the FDA was even more distracted from the real issue, which is whether these drugs have any significant role at all in the treatment of diabetes--in the absence of any clinical data showing superior outcomes to the many other drugs already in use for diabetes.
A background assumption in most of the FDA actions taken on these drugs is that when a company goes to the trouble of actually discovering a branbd-new drug--instead of just making yet another me-too drug--it somehow deserves a reward for these efforts. This raises two questions. First, how low has the bar become for what counts as exemplary behavior by a drug company? Second, if the company deserves some sort of pat on the back for their work of scientific discovery, how does that translate into subjecting patients to a new drug that may be unsafe and that has not been shown to make them better?
Hat tip (again) to Primary Care Medical Abstracts for alerting me to this paper.
Davis C, Abraham J. The socio-political roots of pharmaceutical uncertainty in the evaluation of 'innovative' diabetes drugs in the European Union and the US. Social Science and Medicine 72:1574-1581, 2011.
This Taiwanese group of investigators report a prospective study that involved 416,175 healthy people with a mean follow-up of 8 years, which most people would regard as a sufficiently large sample to draw some reasonable conclusions.
They wanted to explore the conventional wisdom that you need at least 30 minutes of exercise a day to show any health advantage. They did in fact find that if you did 30 minutes of exercise a day, you had a 20% relative reduction in all-cause mortality, and a 15% reduction in cancer mortality. But the good news was that they also found that even 15 minutes a day led to 14% and 10% risk reductions, respectively, which is not all that shabby. There was a nice dose-response curve with added exercise leading to increased health benefits. So the authors conclude that it makes excellent sense to recommend even minimal exercise as a way to get patients some health benefits and hopefully they might find they can increase it over time.
Now I go into all this because in this blog we've seen example after example of a "wonder" drug that alters mortality rates by maybe 1% or 2% at best; and that's rare compared to drugs that change surrogate markers but have no impact on mortality at all; or then the drugs that reduce disease-specific mortality but not all-cause mortality. In short, the effects seen with even 15 minutes of exercise in this study are vastly superior to results shown with the majority of prescription drugs that are commonly used in "preventive" merdicine.
Prescription Drugs: Even More Deadly?
Ms. Lenzer cites a new study that uses the FDA adverse reactions report database to calculate the estimates that in 2011, between 2 and 4 milion Americans suffered some sort of serious reaction of prescription drugs taken properly and in the correct dose, and 128,000 died. The latter estimate fits well with Don Light's earlier work that the annual death toll is conservatively estimated at 100,000, making it the 4th largest cause of death in the US. The new study also shows that 11% of the US population is taking 5 or more drugs, which every physician knows is a setup for dangerous drug interactions.
The top troublemakers on this list were anticoagulant drugs that caused dangerous bleeding. One was warfarin, which is an old generic and is not marketed by any company. But the other is one of the new kids on the block, dabigatran (Pradaxa), which is being heavily marketed because it's a new agent and supposedly a lot safer. Another big problem drug in this review is the antibiotic levofloxacin (Levaquin) which is so widely used in hospital as well as outpatient medicine that it's often jokingly referred to as "Vitamin L."
The idea behind this appears to be that regulations and restrictions are hampering drug reps' access to docs. This is of course bad because these drug reps are a wonderful source of up-to-date, accurate information. So it will no doubt seriously harm patients if these reps can't do their good deeds.
So we have to set up a scale to weigh the pros and cons accurately. On the one side we have to put the possibility that because industry marketing cannot reach some physicians, patients might suffer harm--despite many previous studies that all show that drug reps, when they interact with docs, always tend to downplay any risks of drugs. On the other side of the scale we can put 128,000 deaths per year due to our crazy, overboard overprescribing practices, much of it fed by industry marketing.
You can make guesses as to which way the scale will tip.
In the J&J settlement, Mr. Wilkinson is happy that the proceeds go to the Arkansas Medicaid fund--noting the justice that if bad drug marketing ends up costing the taxpayers money, the proceeds of the suit should go to making it right. But his lament in each case is that some of the money should have been devoted to a specific re-education campaign to better inform those caring for the elderly of the dangers of these medications, and to undo the damage done by industry marketing misinformation.
Now as to the nursing home patient who's demented and making a fuss that upsets the staff--a group in Norway looked at 352 nursing home residents who were moderately to severely demented and displaying behavioral problems. They decided--maybe these people are in pain, and the reason they are acting up is because they hurt, but they can't tell us. So they tried pain management, beginning with acetaminophen and progressing to stronger measures if needed. For the majority of their patients, just putting them on acetaminophen made the behavior problem go away and created no adverse consequences.
So maybe for at least some of this group of patients, what we need is better pain management with cheap genetric drugs.
Husebo BS, Ballard C, Sandvik R, et al. Efficacy of treating pain to reduce behavioural disturbances in residents of nursing homes with dementia: cluster randomised clinical trial. BMJ 2011 Jul 15;343:d4065.


text:
Spacecraft catches Mars atmosphere in act of escaping
Posted by EarthSky in Science Wire | Space | October 15, 2014
Earth's atmosphere is leaking into space, too, but only very, very slowly. Meanwhile, Mars is thought to have lost much of its atmosphere already.
Ultraviolet images showing the tenuous oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon coronas surrounding the planet Mars and the escaping Martian atmosphere. Image via University of Colorado/NASA/Mars MAVEN spacecraft
A team of scientists with the MAVEN spacecraft, which has been orbiting Mars since September 21, said this week (October 14, 2014) that – by observing all of the products of water and carbon dioxide breakdown in the Red Planet's atmosphere – they will be able to characterize the processes that drive atmospheric loss on Mars.
That's right. Mars atmosphere is escaping, just as Earth's is. On Earth, this gradual leaking of our atmosphere back to space is exceedingly tiny, only about three kilograms of hydrogen and 50 grams of helium (the two lightest gases) per second. Meanwhile, Mars – which is smaller than Earth and thus has weaker gravity – is thought to have lost a large percentage of its atmosphere to space. It's a goal of the MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) spacecraft to help solve the mystery of how Mars lost so much of its atmosphere.
These early ultraviolet images from MAVEN – which is still lowering its orbit and testing its instruments – show tenuous oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon coronas surrounding the planet. NASA says MAVEN has already yielded a comprehensive map of highly-variable ozone in the atmosphere underlying the coronas.
Plus MAVEN has provided scientists with their first look at a storm of energetic solar particles at Mars, which are thought to be one possible mechanism for driving atmospheric loss. Read more about MAVEN's early observations at Mars here.
Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN Principal Investigator at the University of Colorado, Boulder said in a press release:
All the instruments are showing data quality that is better than anticipated at this early stage of the mission. All instruments have now been turned on — although not yet fully checked out — and are functioning nominally. It's turning out to be an easy and straightforward spacecraft to fly, at least so far. It really looks as if we're headed for an exciting science mission.
The mission aims to start full science gathering in early to mid-November.
Artist's concept of MAVEN spacecraft at sunrise above Mars, via Colorado.edu
Bottom line: Earth's atmosphere is gradually leaking into space, too, but the leakage from Earth is tiny. Meanwhile, Mars is thought to have lost much of its atmosphere. One goal of the MAVEN spacecraft at Mars is to find out why.
The EarthSky team has a blast bringing you daily updates on your cosmos and world. We love your photos and welcome your news tips. Earth, Space, Human World, Tonight.