Rihanna trivia: All you need to know about her favourite food, drinks and more – Republic World – Republic World

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Robyn Rihanna Fenty aka Rihanna is a popular Barbadian singer, who is one of the most successful pop stars of the modern era. Reportedly in 2020, Forbes featured Rihanna at the first positionintheir 'World's Top 10 Richest Female Singers' in the 2020 edition of 'Self-Made Women'. Rihannarose to fame after recording the song Umbrella which became a signature songin her career topping many music charts.

Rihanna won several awards and nominations for the song. The song won two awards at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2007. During the 2008 Grammy Awards,Umbrellaalso received a Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration from Rihanna and Jay-Z. Her most successful songs include Disturbia, Stay, Work, Diamonds, Rude Boy, Love The Way You Lie, Russian Roulette, Wild Thoughts, to name a few. Rihanna has a million followers all over the world. She is also known for her philanthropic work apart from her chart-topping songs. With all that said now, read on to know interesting trivia about her:

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According to celebrityinside website, Rihanna's favourite food is Callaloo. Callaloo is actually apopular Caribbean vegetable dish which is made by indigenous leaf vegetable.Rihanna's favourite dessert includeschocolate ice cream and cheesecake. Her favourite drinks include Vodka and cocktail.

Apart from this, Rihanna'sfavourite perfume is ROGUE by herself and Favorite movie is Napolean Dynamite. Her favourite designer is Zac Posen and her favourite restaurant is by Giorgio Baldi.

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Recently, the pop icon used her charitable organisation named The Clara Lionel Foundation, to support mental health services amid the ongoing social unrest and the COVID-19 pandemic in the USA. As per reports,the donation is provided to help address mental health issues, food insecurity, income loss, and the needs of individuals excluded from federal stimulus programs in Newark and Chicago.

According to a statement given by CLFs executive director Justine Lucas to Just Jared, the funds were used to support local food banks serving at-risk communities in the US. It was stated that the money will be used for the acceleration of testing and care in Haiti and Malawi and healthcare worker training.

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Promo Image courtesy: Rihanna Instagram

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Rihanna trivia: All you need to know about her favourite food, drinks and more - Republic World - Republic World

Civilisational crisis and post-human society – The Tribune India

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Shelley Walia

Professor Emeritus & fellow, English and cultural studies, Panjab university

At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice, he is the worst. Aristotle, Politics

In times of a global pandemic nightmare, it is imperative to ask in the words of the French artist Paul Gaugin, Where did we come from? What are we? Where are we going? From the time of classical humanism, has the world progressed on matters of freedom and justice, or are we stalled or even moving backward? Are we now in the stage of the post-humanovertaken by the superhuman potential of controlling human behviour as well as using innovative medical technology and bioscience to extend life beyond unimaginable limits?

This question puts the traditional boundaries between the human, the animal, and the technological, under interrogation. Civilisations over the last century have conspicuously moved away from the temper of renaissance humanism that began in the 15th century, striking a note of the inherently privileged status of the homo sapiens. Human potential became the Faustian worldview that represented the undying quest of humanity towards freedom and progress, even if it was at the cost of ecological disasters and unbridled human, animal and environmental exploitation.

However, in two ways, humanism went against the ethical interpretation of life. First, the emphasis was wholly on the human-centred or what is called the anthropocentricstatus of its cosmography, underpinned by the Eurocentric self-centred notion of its civilisational supremacy, that triggered the colonial scramble for the third world.

Secondly, technological development in the long 19th century enabled the European nations to make forays into Africa, the Americas and Asia, giving rise to the ideologically contested terrain of empire. Underneath the facade of free trade, peace and democracy, there existed a permanent state of war, manipulation and authoritarianism. Understandably, it could rightly be surmised that though there was a surfeit of academic lecturing and debate on the subject of liberalism in the centres of higher learning, the passion for overseas exploitation remained unquenchable to date, particularly in the case of a theoretical Pax Britannica followed by Pax Americana that paradoxically held out the promise of world peace through adopting the role of a global hegemon.

Humanism or the enlightenment project that steered the industrial age was destined to flounder right from the start. Obsessed as it was with the progress of the humans, the developed world callously went ahead with its violent politics aimed not only at the colonised, but nature and the animal world too. No wonder, we now have a world-wide crisis with the lethal virus emerging from the wet markets of our meat-eating humans. The question of the ethics of animal rights foregrounds not only the value of animals, but also what it is to be human. Our collaboration with violence and killing is apparent and more so is our unthinking submission to predatory market hypnosis.

During the course of a holiday in the Swiss Alps, Vaclav Havel, the former President of Czechoslovakia and an outstanding playwright, sees a lonely man on a street clutching his cell phone deceiving himself into believing that he is communicating with his dear ones. Havel asks: But does it enable people to know one another any better? Do they like each other more? I do not think so. Placing the central emphasis on the human realm, we have finally ended in becoming victims of science.

In short, humanism called for a new order that ended up in this quagmire of violence, disease and human suffering. Rational thought on free will, human motivation and individual growth propounded by humanism, culminated in the irrationality of the culture industry and the powers that control the very mind of the public. It is the post-human world of big corporations, unregulated banks and insurance companies that make key decisions not only on governing society, but also on the categories of inclusion and exclusion.

Such politics sponsors an ideology that contests any policy intended to mitigate human suffering or promote social progress. It is amazing that the unemployment of millions does not outrage the ruling elite. Operating through deceit and deception, the world of overwhelming consumerism, appeals only to common sense values with the motive of discouraging any scepticism or interrogation of the systems or the powers that be.

Moreover, the obsession with power through data has destroyed the inviolability of the individual. The modern techno-savvy age brings in its wake not just the blitz of information with no measurable increase in knowledge or wisdom but systems that aim at behaviour control threatening human nature with serious consequences.

Would we then like to create a society we actually want to live in? Are we prepared to go back to Huxleys designerbabies with varying intellectual and physical competence. As machines take over human time and consciousness, are we not leaving ourselves behind? It is clear that the free self-contained child of the Enlightenment seems all but dead. The human stands erased with its very foundations of reason and observation challenged. We become unrecognisable as humans. How then can we advance the task of renewing a common world in these dark times?

It is hoped that the humanist worldview would finally redeem the human race by holding on to its institutions of liberalism and justice. Understandably, medicine and technological engineering have made tangible advances. But it must be kept in mind that the understanding of the human progress is neither linear nor stable, it is fraught with complexity and disruption. Change is inevitable and has to be managed and channelled towards maximum benefit to humanity. The amalgamation of the human and the mechanical can be acceptable to the extent that the arrogant anti-narcissistic sentiment of triumphalism over nature and the living forms gives way to the re-evaluation of the non-human world. We are, indeed, not at the centre of the universe.

In a world where hostile sectarianism and apathy to hunger and the ecological crisis are grossly surpassed by new-fangled technological innovations, humans have to learn to accept responsibility for themselves and the world, and face the concrete and undetected threats that lie therein. The irresponsible, unrestrained course of civilisation, in which, to some extent, we all are complicit, is one of the contributory causes of the malaise of violence and oppression. Covid-19, with its contemptuous destructive supremacy might arouse humanity to a little introspection on the death of reason as well as on drawbacks and progress of science.

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Civilisational crisis and post-human society - The Tribune India

Letter to the editor: We must retrieve true history – Record-Courier

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SaturdayJul25,2020at12:01AM

July Fourth weekend I traveled to the Gettysburg andAntietam battlefields. In Gettysburg I was appalled at what I saw. Homeland Security had set up a command post and placed its vans close to various monuments in the battlefield, FBI vans were driving up and down the battlefield along with State Highway Patrol cars and lots of park rangers. Something was happening in Gettysburg and it was not the reenactment of the 1863 battle.

Over the last several years we have witnessed the disabling of American history and culture but to see it firsthand was shocking. I traveled to the Robert E. Lee monument and there they were: the protesters, anarchists and, of course, BLM. How America has changed since my parentsfirst took me to Gettysburg in 1963 as a young boy!

Rewriting a nation's history is frequently one of the firststrategies taken by a conquering force. Why? Because a people who do not know where they came from also do not know where they are going. While this phenomenon has occurred repeatedly throughout history, today it is happening to our beloved country. It is happening through the rewriting and/or reinterpretation of American historical records, in our national parks, monuments, memorials, landmarks, shrines and churches. In some cases changes are subtle, and in others, blatant. It's done through the removal of key historic pieces that dont support current socialist bias. It's also done through emphasis and de-emphasis of historical periods according to what fits a mode. In fact, the history of our founding period has been eroded and eliminated, almostto the point of oblivion, in our schools.

The time has arrived when we, the people, need to take control of this systematic destruction of our nation and our past. To reclaim our nation from the destructive forces of humanism, secularism and socialism we must retrieve the true history and past of our country, the good and the bad. We are at a crossroads as a nation for our very soul and each of us must determine where we stand for the future of America.

Kenneth Hammontree

Ashland

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Letter to the editor: We must retrieve true history - Record-Courier

The Argument of Afropessimism – The New Yorker

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After Dartmouth and a surprising stretch as a stockbroker in Minneapolisan experience that goes mostly undescribed in Afropessimism but which Wilderson has elsewhere characterized as a kind of double lifeWilderson enrolls in the creative-writing program at Columbia. At night, he attends classes at the New School, where stream of consciousness is in vogue. That downtown influence still shows: Wilderson skids from one glint of perception to the next without much regard for grounding details or fluid transitions; in the middle of an anecdote, he tosses you down a chute and you find yourself stumbling through a thick tangle of theoretical jargon. He thinks vertically, in terms of hierarchies and structures; the horizontal time line is beside the point. He writes from historys humid basement, or from its even less accessible underground bunker, and the plants that bloom in his writing are less floral than fungalhis arguments and remembrances grow in tight groups, close to the ground and propped atop rotting anecdotal logs, all of them adding to the shroomy funk of the room.

Though Afropessimism may veer from the Black autobiographical tradition, the book doesnt escape genre altogether. It falls into a category sometimes called auto-theory, an attempt to arrive at a philosophy by way of the self. The most pertinent example is Black Skin, White Masks, by the French-Martinican psychiatrist and philosopher Frantz Fanon, who worked up his theory of epidermalizationthe process by which the societal inferiority of Black people is grafted onto the skinby recounting his own experiences, along with a series of psychiatric case studies. Wilderson takes from Fanonand then exaggerates, literally to deatha critique of humanism as it has been practiced (or, more often, not practiced) in the Western world. Leave this Europe where they are never done talking of Man, yet murder men everywhere they find them, at the corner of every one of their own streets, in all the corners of the globe, Fanon wrote. And yet, for Fanon, the process of decolonizationby way of inevitably bloody revolutionwas also a process of humanization. Decolonization, he wrote, in The Wretched of the Earth, is the veritable creation of new men.

For Wilderson, Fanons cup is too full. Other previously colonized peoples are indeed human, but not Black people. One of the bleakest aspects of Afropessimist thought is its denial that there is any meaningful analogy between Blacks and other nonwhites. When Frank and Stella try to explain their poison-induced injuries to a Chinese-American doctor, she turns them away, and Wilderson muses that Dr. Zhou is as much a master as Edwin and Mary Epps, the antagonists in 12 Years a Slave. In Wildersons view, people of colora term he uses for those who are neither white nor Blackare junior partners to whites in the enslavement of Blacks. One of the memories that recur in Afropessimism involves a Palestinian friend named Sameer, who, detailing life under Israeli occupation, describes the shameful and humiliating way the soldiers run their hands up and down your body, then admits that the shame and humiliation runs even deeper if the Israeli soldier is an Ethiopian Jew. This expression of anti-Black racism from a Palestinian is a cataclysm for Wilderson. Now he understands that, in the collective unconscious, Palestinian insurgents have more in common with the Israeli state and civil society than they do with Black people.

In the same vein, Wilderson describes a meeting that his father attended, as an emissary of the University of Minnesota, with several Native American leaders, hoping to resolve a conflict about reservation lands. Young Frank was in the audience, and someone sitting near him cried out, We dont want you, a nigger man, telling us what to do! The lesson that Wilderson takes from the episode is that the Native Americansraped and slaughtered on these lands, subjected to a genocide that enabled the Americas as we know them to existare sovereigns, and therefore human, while his dad, middle class, American, and Black, is not. In a previous book, Red, White & Black: Cinema and the Structure of U.S.Antagonisms, which grew out of his dissertation, Wilderson describes the Red, Indigenous, or Savage position as existing liminally as half-death and half-life between the Slave (Black) and the Human (White, or non-Black). In Afropessimism, even that gradation is gone. Wilderson overwrites history with the darkest, most permanent marker.

Every society has a murderous hierarchy: someones always knocking at the basement door, trying to get free. But life is prismaticits possible to be Black and degraded in America while also profiting from wanton extraction of resources overseas, oppressing millions of non-Black others, and living on land stolen from indigenous people. We are always joined in our sufferings, often by somebody we cant see through the darkness. We speak of solidarity precisely because the empathetic act of analogy is a way of acknowledging this complexity, and of training our ethical senses, again and again, to widen the circle of our concern. Any system of thought that has refined itself beyond the ability to imagine kinship with the stranded Guatemalan kid detained at the U.S. border, or with the functionally enslaved Uyghur in China, or, againI cant get over itwith the Native American on whose stolen ancestral ground you live and do your business, is lost in its own fog.

Black thought at its best has been a vehicle for and a product of analogy. Black Christians saw the liberatory potential in the story of the Hebrews rescued by God from beneath Pharaohs thumb and, still more, in the life of the Jewish Palestinian preacher Jesus, put to death by the colonizers of his homeland. Some of them looked to Latin America, where liberation theology blossomed; they created Black liberation theology, and forever transformed the flavor of American religion. A feeling of kinship with the colonized people of India, and with Gandhi in particular, helped make nonviolence a core practice of the civil-rights movement. A study of the revolutionary struggles in Algeria, Fanons great subject, helped to make the caseargued most famously by the Black Liberation Army, an influence on Wildersonfor the occasional necessity of violence. None of this is incidental: the impulse toward freedom is always seeking friends.

While he was studying at Columbia, Wilderson was in a long-distance relationship with a woman he had met on a trip to South Africa. After completing his M.F.A., he moved to Johannesburg. It was the early nineties, the end of the apartheid era. He became involved with the African National Congress, Nelson Mandelas party. He participated in political education and worked for a time as what sounds like a minor spy; eventually, he became an elected official in the A.N.C. Later, he broke with Mandela, siding with the partys more radical members. These adventures are the subject of his first book, Incognegro: A Memoir of Exile and Apartheid. The South African section of Afropessimism mostly concerns Wildersons brief employment as a waiter at an Italian restaurant.

He takes the job after getting fired from a teaching gig, essentially because of his political commitments. The restaurant, Marios, is owned by a white immigrant, and Wilderson works there alongside several Black Africans: an older waiter who tries to school him in the intricacies of racial manners under apartheid; two cooks who, he learns too late, are supporters of the reactionary party that opposes the A.N.C.; and a young woman named Doreen, who is casually harassed by the owner and eventually framed for theft by his wife, Riana. Everybody tiptoes around the whites except for Wilderson, who, by his telling, is a charismatic, bombastic presence. He meets, flatters, and befriends the Nobel-winning novelist Nadine Gordimer, a regular at the restaurant. He goads his Black peers into taking ever more brazen liberties with the whites. Why should they sit in the kitchen eating porridge during their breaks when the whites are out in the dining room, feasting on Italian? Owing to his obvious erudition and, above all, his Americanness, hes invited to join the whites one night. He drags the other Blacks along with him, largely against their will. He chows down while everyone else falls silent. Of course, he understands the situation. He sort of glories in it.

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The Argument of Afropessimism - The New Yorker

12 Artists On: The Financial Crisis – The New York Times

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Being black is belonging to a state organized according to its ignorance of your perspective a state that does not, that cannot, know your mind. Bryan Wagner

One: Legal Abstraction; Super Capitalism and Madness.

Systems of capitalism have historically deployed a type of abstraction that leaves humanity illegible, with Black and brown bodies in particular illegible through lenses of white supremacy. The state constructed a system of illegibility that Bryan Wagner refers to as legal abstraction. Legal abstraction was concretized by falsely representing Black being through newspapers, language, laws, paintings, space, slave codes and naming. This system was made operational through weaponized policing. As a painter, conceptualizing capitalism starts by thinking through abstraction as a comprehensive condition related to industrialization, slavery, globalization, patriarchy, space, but also liberation. Racial capitalism is capitalism, and in the face of legal abstraction providing the infrastructure to capital madness, I offer more Black imagination. I offer more acts of autonomy, self-defense, poetics, activism, creativity and more abstractions from the deep Black mindful architecture of Black being.

Two: Illegal Abstraction: Methods in Liberations and Abolition

That brings me to the question: As a painter, what does it mean to produce an illegal abstraction as dissent? To recognize that the illegal measures of action in a police state are actually the actions of moral grace against super capitalism. I offer illegal abstraction as a tool for the immeasurable presence of Black perception. A language that regards our methods of liberation as unpredictable, genius, improvisational, structural, hauntological, smooth and acute. I am certain that the beauty in Black indeterminacy, from sound to science, from architecture to migration, will continue to guide us toward liberation. Im interested in forms that are deeply spatial, generous and where the spectral presence defies the narrow proposition of life and death by the hands of industrialized white supremacy. A second question for my practice: If Blackness is already an architectonic developed out of liquidity (ocean/the middle passage), how can the work embody this phenomenon and offer sensation (sensoria) at the register of liberation?

Three: I Am Painting What I Am Doing and Doing What I Am Painting.

Legal abstraction is reinforced by the domination of a police state protecting systems of super capitalism. An abstraction of dissent needs to be named and practiced as a contribution to the traditions of Black radical imagination. I argue these issues through painting because of its ability to awaken truth between the mind and the brain. Its time for a new relationship with abstraction, an illegal abstraction developed out of the condition of new world-building toward liberation and revolution. An illegal abstraction where Black perception, ideas of scale, space, and the immeasurable are embedded in art experience. Art projects that are new conceptualizations of these histories and assert these by their presence. Objects that are not autonomous or referential, but phenomenal. Id like to address abstraction comprehensively in terms that are responsive to the breath/breadth of this unmeasurable presence of Blackness. We are always.

Closing: Now

In this moment of environmental precarity we will need to be both liquid and mountains, bird and lava. And it is the density of Black grace that will always be the thing that keeps us in our own humanity. Thinking through the histories of Black liberation, these are the victories that fortify my being in the objects I make. The paintings are true because the history of Black triumph is true. These are histories of illegal abstraction.

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12 Artists On: The Financial Crisis - The New York Times

Ethiopian government restores Internet after weeks of blackout during deadly protests – Fox News

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Internet was finally restored by the Ethiopian government on Thursday, following weeks of blanket shutdown as unrest punctured much of the East African nation.

According to Netblocks, a nongovernmental organization that tracks web access worldwide, the Internet was severed just after 9 a.m. local time on Tuesday, June 30, as national protests gained momentum following the shooting death of Hachalu Hundessa, a renowned singer and activist within the Oromo ethnic group, the previous night.

The blackout was deemed a vital national security measure by officials to quell mounting dissension, much to the chagrin of human rights organizations, journalistsand freedom of speech advocates whocondemned the crackdown.

First off, there is no legal ground for the government in Ethiopia to shut the Internet, one journalist tweeted. Threat to national security is usually the presumed excuse, but in no way can the violence of this month be near to that level of a threat.

Despite being Africa'ssecond-most populous country, with a population of around 109 million, only around 15 percent are reported to have Internet access.

The move into full restoration comes following more than three weeks of violence, its most significant spate of turmoil in three years, and amidhigh unemployment and hardship stemming from the coronavirus pandemic. It has also cast an uncomfortable spotlight on growing ethnic tensions within the country.

UN WARNS CORONAVIRUS FALLOUT WILL LEAD TO THE NEXT PANDEMIC GLOBAL STARVATION

The Oromo group, of which Hundessa belonged, comprises around 35 percent of the countrys population. Hundessa, 33 a former political prisoner himself amassed a large following especially among the youth, singing songs that often touched on encouraging fellow Oromos to resist government oppression.

In the aftermath of his death, EthiopiaAttorney GeneralAdanech Abiebie told the press that two men confessed to killing Hundessa as part of a coup plot against Prime MinisterAbiyAhmedsgovernment.

In this Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019 file photo, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed at the European Council headquarters in Brussels. The 2019 Nobel Peace Prize was given to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Friday Oct. 11, 2019. (AP)

Ahmed, the nations first Oromo leader, assumed office in 2018 and introduced a number of sweeping political and economic reforms, which entailed opening up publicly owned entities to private sector investors and reconstituting the military to limit its role in politics.

JOSEPH KONY SURVIVOR RECALLS HOW FAITH, GOD HELPED HER ENDURE 8 YEARS IN CAPTIVITY

Ahmed was additionally awarded the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in ending the 20-year post-war territorial stalemate between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Nonetheless, over 230 people have lost their lives in the latest bout of rebellion, and some 10,000 Oromo people are reported to now be displaced. Nonethnic Oromos have also been brazenly attacked by mobs, according to anecdotes from inside the beleaguered country.

Just hours after Hundessas killing,protesters burnt two resorts that belonged to former Olympic runner Haile Gebrselassie in the towns of Ziway and Shashemene, in addition to setting a livestock farm he owned ablaze. More than 330 vehicles were set alight in Oromia, an area in the center of the country, as well as the capital Addis Ababa.

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Religious authorities, including the archbishop of West Arsi, Abune Henok, have gone on to claim that some have exploited the moment to also assail Orthodox Christians, who make up just under 40 percent of the population.

Ethiopians have also taken to the streets across the U.S. in recent days, including in Washington, to call for peace in the country.

More than 5,000 people accused of participating in acts of violence have been detained by Ethiopian government authorities.

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Ethiopian government restores Internet after weeks of blackout during deadly protests - Fox News

DNA changes that cause neuropsychiatric disorders should be included in genomic screening programs, researchers say – BioSpace

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DANVILLE, Pa., July 23, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --Geisinger researchers have concluded there is sufficient evidence to consider including DNA changes that cause neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders in genomic screening programs.

Geisinger is a leader in population-based genomic screening, and its MyCode Community Health Initiative is the only such research program that routinely returns clinically relevant results to patient-participants. The Geisinger team discovered that close to 1 percent of the more than 250,000 individuals enrolled in MyCode have a DNA change that is known to cause learning disorders, autism spectrum disorder, epilepsy, or other psychiatric illnesses. By analyzing electronic health record data, the research team determined that up to 70 percent of these individuals had a related clinical symptom documented, but most were unaware of their underlying genetic diagnosis.

The team published their findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Psychiatry on July 22.

"Our results show that DNA changes that cause certain brain conditions are at least as common as those that cause some cancers and cardiac diseases that are already being screened for in similar population-based DNA screening programs," said Christa Lese Martin, Ph.D., associate chief scientific officer for Geisinger and professor and director of the Autism & Developmental Medicine Institute. "When we talked with participants about their medical history and found that such a significant proportion had symptoms related to their genetic diagnosis, they shared that the genetic results 'medicalized' what they had been dealing with their whole lives."

When presented with their screening results, a subset of more than 140 patients responded positively and found the information to be valuable. Participants frequently noted that the DNA results helped them understand their own medical and personal history related to the conditions being studied, and many intended to share their results with family members since these DNA changes can be inherited.

"These DNA results are likely to have had a large impact on health and wellbeing throughout life for these individuals," said Karen E. Wain, MS, assistant professor for Geisinger's Autism & Developmental Medicine Institute. "It is important to know how people feel about these results, for themselves and their family, so we can ensure they have access to their genetic information with appropriate support."

Advances in genetic testing have made it possible to identify a genetic cause of neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders in more than 40 percent of individuals tested. However, most testing is ordered for children with developmental concerns and is rarely offered to adult patients with intellectual disabilities or psychiatric conditions. The Geisinger team noted that only about 6 percent of individuals in their study had received a genetic diagnosis through clinical testing. This indicates that many people who could benefit from genomic information have not had access to this information, and that their health care providers have not been informed of the additional health risks that the genomic result confers.

"There is an important care gap and knowledge gap when it comes to genetic testing in adults with neuropsychiatric conditions," said David Ledbetter, Ph.D., executive vice president and chief scientific officer for Geisinger. "We hope the positive clinical and personal utility seen in our MyCode population will help to encourage broader use of genetic testing in adults with these conditions."

About GeisingerGeisinger is committed to making better health easier for the more than 1.5 million consumers it serves. Founded more than 100 years ago by Abigail Geisinger, the system now includes 13 hospital campuses, a 600,000-member health plan, two research centers and the Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine. With 32,000 employees and 1,800 employed physicians, Geisinger boosts its hometown economies in Pennsylvania and New Jersey by billions of dollars annually. Learn more atgeisinger.org or connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.

CONTACT: Ashley Andyshak Hayes717-972-4043arandyshakhayes@geisinger.edu

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DNA changes that cause neuropsychiatric disorders should be included in genomic screening programs, researchers say - BioSpace

2 Stocks to Hold for the Next 20 Years – Motley Fool

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As 2020 has demonstrated, the stock market can move in any direction in the short term. But as historical stock market data suggest, the stock market wields rock-solid wealth-building potential in the long run. That's why individual investors are best served by adopting a long-term mindset with a buy-and-hold strategy.

There are a number of ways to go about it. Most portfolios should own a collection of blue chip stocks, even if that simply relies on indexing, although buy-and-hold investing doesn't have to be boring. After all, investors that held onto today's blue-chip businesses before they were trendy have enjoyed awesome returns thanks to the power of compound interest.

With that in mind, investors might want to take a closer look at Dicerna Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:DRNA) and Fate Therapeutics (NASDAQ:FATE). The two development-stage biopharmas have much to prove, but these pharma stocks could appreciate considerably in the coming decades.

Image source: Getty Images.

First-generation cell therapies were based on chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells, or CAR-T. While the approach has plenty of room for improvement, CAR-T cells have several notable drawbacks. For instance, the cell type isn't ideal for treating solid tumor cancers. Additionally, harvesting immune cells from each individual patient is a cost- and labor-intensive process that delays treatment. This all suggests it's worth exploring other immune cells as the starting point for next-generation cell therapies and new production methods, at the very least to augment the capabilities of CAR-T.

Fate Therapeutics is all-in on that line of thinking. Most of the company's 13 unique pipeline programs are based on natural killer (NK) cells, which have inherent advantages compared to other types of cell therapies. NK cells can target solid tumor cancer cells, rally the rest of the immune system to reduce tumor burden, and be dosed multiple times. The latter feature creates many new treatment opportunities, such as driving longer durations of response or being used in combination with other cell therapies.

The development-stage business has also taken the "next-generation" label seriously. Rather than harvest immune cells from patients -- a long, complicated, expensive, and risky procedure -- the company is pursuing an off-the-shelf strategy. In other words, most of the pipeline candidates are grown from master cell lines, which allows each cell therapy to be genetically engineered with reproducible edits and to be produced in batches. Fate Therapeutics estimates its approach would save weeks during crucial treatment windows and drop the cost of treatment from $425,000 per dose to just $2,500 per dose. Better yet, the approach is cell-type agnostic, meaning it can be applied to NK cells and CAR-T cells.

Although the early stage pipeline lacks concrete data for investors to digest, there are a handful of significant partnerships that boost the company's credentials. Fate Therapeutics has a collaboration with Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Janssen that could be worth up to $3 billion in milestone payments, a collaboration with ONO Pharmaceutical that could be worth over $1.3 billion in milestone payments, and a partnership with Inscripta providing access to next-generation gene-editing tools.

Fate Therapeutics ended March with $204 million in cash, which is sufficient to get the business through several data readouts from early clinical trials. If the results suggest the cell therapy approach has merit, then the biopharma stock should earn a higher valuation. Given the ambitious volume of assets -- 13 unique pipeline programs is very large for a development-stage company -- no single failure should have a disastrous effect on the stock price. Investors with a long-term mindset should give this company a closer look.

Image source: Getty Images.

Gene editing and gene therapies gobble up most of the attention when it comes to genetic medicines, but investors shouldn't forget about RNA interference (RNAi). The gene-silencing technique encountered some stumbles in the past two decades, but a few simple tweaks to how the therapeutic payload is delivered into cells appears to have resurrected the technology's intriguing potential.

Dicerna Pharmaceuticals is one of the leading investment opportunities in the space. On the one hand, the company hasn't commercialized a single pipeline asset and is relatively far behind RNAi peers Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals. On the other hand, the company ended March with half its market cap in cash and partnerships with six of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies.

That includes an unusual collaboration with Alnylam Pharmaceuticals. The duo reached an agreement to co-develop competing drug candidates for alpha-1 liver disease, in which Dicerna Pharmaceuticals has the right to develop Alnylam's ALN-AAT02 and its own DCR-A1AT. The RNAi competitor-collaborators also agreed to share intellectual property for their pulmonary hypertension (PH) programs. Hefty royalties -- in both directions -- are the bounty for success.

That's not the only intriguing partnership in the pipeline. Dicerna Pharmaceuticals and Roche are developing an experimental treatment aimed at chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infections. The asset is likely being developed as a functional cure for the disease, which would follow in the footsteps of an RNAi combination therapy from peer Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals. A safe and effective functional cure for CHB could generate tens of billions of dollars in lifetime sales.

Despite the early stage nature of the pipeline, investors cannot overlook the potential of the RNAi medicines being developed by Dicerna Pharmaceuticals. The gene-silencing approach could carve out and maintain dominant market positions in various indications. Market shares might change when curative gene editing tools and gene therapies arrive, although that could take much longer than many investors expect due to several technical obstacles facing the hyped-up approaches. Investors looking for a contrarian pick in genetic medicine might want to give serious consideration to this biopharma stock.

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Explained: How a Black woman saved lives without her consent and without due acknowledgement – The Indian Express

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Written by Pooja Pillai | New Delhi | Updated: July 27, 2020 12:22:45 am Henrietta Lacks historical marker in Clover, Virginia. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

In the coming week (on August 1) is the birth centenary of Henrietta Lacks, an African American woman who made one of the most significant contributions to modern medical science without her knowledge or consent.

The story of Lacks and the HeLa cell line that was harvested from her and which still forms the basis of a lot of medical research isimportant for an understanding of the ethical issues in medical research on human subjects. This is especially so right now, given the urgency to develop an effective COVID-19 vaccine, which requires that it be tested on human cells.

Who was Henrietta Lacks?

Henrietta Lacks was an African American woman, who, according toThe Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks(2010, Crown) by Rebecca Skloot, grew up on a tobacco farm in rural Virginia. She was married to David Lacks and had five children.

Also Read | In Covid year, why unsung heroine of DNA Rosalind Franklin needs to be remembered

On January 29, 1951, she visited the John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, for the diagnosis and treatment of a lump in her abdomen. It turned out to be an aggressive form of cervical cancer. Lacks died at the age of 31 on October 4, 1951.

What is HeLa and whats so special about it?

When Lacks was at John Hopkins, her tumour was biopsied and tissues from this were used for research by Dr George Otto Gey, the head of the Tissue Culture Laboratory at the hospital. The cells were found to be growing at a remarkable rate, doubling in count in 24 hours. Their astonishing growth rate made them ideal for mass replication for use in medical research.

Prior to this, researchers had attempted to immortalise human cells in vitro, but the cells always eventually died. The HeLa cells named after the donor were the first ones to be successfully immortalised.

How have HeLa cells advanced medical science?

The HeLa cell line is one of the most important cell lines in the history of medical science and has been the foundation for some of the most significant advances in this field.

HeLa cells were the first human cells to be successfully cloned and were used by Jonas Salk to test the polio vaccine. Significantly, they helped in identifying the human papilloma virus (HPV) as being the main cause of many forms of cervical cancer including the one that killed Lacks and were instrumental in the development of the HPV vaccine, which won its creator, Harald zur Hausen, the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2008.

Theyve been used widely in cancer research and were used to establish that human cells contain 23 pairs of chromosomes, not 24, as previously thought.

When was Lacks recognised as the donor of the HeLa cells?

Lacks was an unwitting donor; neither she, nor her family were aware that her cells had been extracted and were to be used for medical research. Lacks was a poor, uneducated Black woman and her consent was not considered necessary by the medical establishment at the time.

Also Read | Meet Dr Sarah Gilbert, one of the scientists leading the race to find a coronavirus vaccine

While thousands of studies and developments worth many billions of dollars happened due to the HeLa cells, Lacks herself was only acknowledged as their source in the 1970s when researchers sought blood samples from her family. Moreover, her descendants had no control over the cell line until 2013, when the National Institutes of Health arrived at an agreement with them, granting them a degree of control over how Lacks genetic material was to be used.

Race and non-ethical medical research

In 1947, during the Nuremberg Trials, the Allied forces developed what came to be known as the Nuremberg Code, a set of 10 ethical principles for human experimentation. The code was created in response to the German experiments on human subjects during World War II and the first principle it enshrined was that voluntary consent was essential in human experimentation.

By the time Lacks cells were harvested and used without her consent, the code had been in existence for four years. Unfortunately, the violation of Lacks consent was only the latest chapter in a long history of medical research which has scorned ethics as far as non-white bodies are concerned.

Take the case of J Marion Sims, the 19th century physician who is often called the father of modern gynecology. He pioneered the surgical treatment of the vesicovaginal fistula, a common complication of childbirth in which a tear develops between the bladder and vaginal wall, causing pain, infection and urine leakage. Sims performed his surgical experiments on Alabama slaves, without their consent and without the benefit of anaesthesia.

Or consider the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study, conducted by the US Public Health Service, from 1932 to 72, which examined how untreated syphilis progressed through African American men and how different it was from the way it affected white men.

Alabamas Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) was recruited for the study and the subjects 399 were infected patients and 201 uninfected control patients were all poor sharecroppers. While treatment with arsenic, bismuth and mercury was initially part of the study, the subjects were later given no treatment at all. Even after penicillin began to be widely available for use in treatment of syphilis in the 1940s, it was withheld from the subjects of the Tuskegee study. More than 100 are believed to have died; the study finally ended only after public exposure in the Washington Star.

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Unethical, non-consensual experiments on human subjects took place elsewhere too; in 2013, food historian Ian Mosby revealed highly unethical nutritional experiments conducted by the Canadian government on Aboriginal children in six residential schools between 1942 and 52.

As part of the study, malnourished children were denied adequate nutrition; parents were neither informed, nor was their consent sought.

In 2004, a senate inquiry into the experiences of Australian Aboriginal children forced into state care similarly revealed their use in medical experiments and trials, from the 1920s till as late as 1970.

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COVID-19 tests: There’s an insurmountable backlog of virus tests. A rapid test could help. – NBC News

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As the U.S. deals with massive delays in COVID-19 testing, doctors and scientists say another type of diagnostic test could alleviate the stress on labs. Rapid, or point-of-care, tests deliver results in just minutes, while lab-based tools can take days.

"Every day they wait is another day they need to quarantine, or if they're not, it's another day they could be infecting other people," Dr. Keith Jerome, who directs the molecular virology lab at the University of Washington medical school, said in an interview. "If you're getting results within 20 minutes, you can start taking the appropriate actions right away."

The National Institutes of Health announced Wednesday what it called an "unprecedented effort" to ramp up testing technology. Funded by $1.5 billion in federal stimulus money, the program will focus on creating rapid tests and distributing them more widely.

It's also being called for by lawmakers and top federal health officials. President Donald Trump promised more rapid testing during his briefing Tuesday. And Dr. Brett Giroir, who is overseeing the nation's COVID-19 testing, said this month that he expected 5 million additional "point-of-care" tests in July, with a goal of 20 million or more by September.

The tests produce such quick results because samples aren't sent off to labs. Instead, they're inserted directly into a machine housed at a doctor's office or a hospital. The machine does the entire analysis, so instead of hours, it takes just minutes to get results similar to rapid flu or strep tests used by most doctors.

Six point-of-care tests are authorized by the Food and Drug Administration, including two antigen tests, which look for certain proteins in the virus rather than genetic material.

As promising as the rapid tests seem to be, a significant problem prevents more doctors and clinicians from using them. Most aren't as accurate as lab-based tests, and, in some cases, they can have shockingly high rates of false negatives.

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Joseph Petrosino, director of molecular virology and microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine, compares it to eating at a fast-food joint.

"If you go to a gourmet restaurant, you don't expect your meal to be ready in five minutes," he said. "But if you're on the go and you eat fast food, the quality of food is usually a sacrifice, compared to the gourmet restaurant. That's the same thing in the testing world."

One of the more popular rapid tests, Abbott Labs' ID NOW point-of-care test, which promises results in as little as five minutes and was once touted by the White House, came under fire in recent weeks after a small study found that it returned false negatives for nearly 50 percent of certain samples compared to a rival test. While other studies found more accurate results, it was enough for the FDA to issue an alert in May. The agency has received 147 adverse event reports about the test.

"The reality is that trying to do this really fast the combination of fast and sensitive turns out to be really a challenge," said Dr. Christopher Polage, director of the clinical microbiology laboratory at Duke University Health System.

Polage said COVID-19 testing is a lengthy process. In the lab, scientists use special reagents that amplify or copy a sample's genetic material to test for the virus. The process takes several hours. When you try to short-cut it for a rapid test, you can end up trading off the test's sensitivity.

"No patient is ever going to wait at a clinic for eight hours," Polage said. "So it's really difficult and, in some cases, impossible to get an equivalent result in a fraction of the time."

Jerome said, "You have to really keep in mind that there is a trade-off that you've made for that speed, and the trade-off is they're not as sensitive, which means they're going to miss some people who actually have COVID and tell them COVID isn't there."

A point-of-care test made by Cepheid Inc. of Sunnyvale, California, which gives results in about an hour, has been shown to be nearly as accurate as lab-based tests. But scientists say that the machine is expensive and that, as with some lab-based tests, some of the reagents it uses are in short supply.

"If you can wait an hour, you can get really good results," Jerome said. "The issue with those has been just shortages of reagents, and the machine itself is just not available enough that everybody can have one." He said UW Medicine, the health care system affiliated with the University of Washington, can use it only in the emergency room, where it needs to quickly test trauma patients so doctors and nurses know what kind of protective gear they need to wear.

But some doctors say that instead of focusing on rapid tests, which are notoriously difficult to perfect both rapid strep and flu tests also have issues with accuracy the U.S. should focus on fixing capacity issues with lab-based tests, which are being slowed in part because of supply shortages.

"We have the equipment, but we can't get the reagents," Jerome said. "We did a little over 7,000 tests yesterday in my laboratory. But we could have done 7,000 more if we had full allotments of reagents."

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The delays in testing have a real impact for people like Frank Borsa, 55, who anxiously waited for days to find out whether he was infected after he returned to Brooklyn, New York, from Miami.

"It's really frustrating," Borsa said while he was still waiting for the results. "I've called repeatedly. What you get is 'it's taking a little bit longer.' It's very difficult, because you don't know how to go forward."

He finally got his results 12 days after he took the test at a New York City urgent care center. He was negative. But he said he now understands what the hubbub around testing is all about.

"Even though there might be hundreds of thousands of tests performed per day, if people are not getting their results, this is never going to end," he said. "The communication is there's tons of tests. But if there's no results, what good is it?"

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COVID-19 tests: There's an insurmountable backlog of virus tests. A rapid test could help. - NBC News

Why Black and Hispanic residents are more likely to become infected by the coronavirus – Poynter

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Black and Hispanic residents are more likely than white residents to become infected by the coronavirus and Black residents are more likely to die from it. Dr. Sherita Hill Golden, vice president and chief diversity officer for Johns Hopkins Medicine, talked with me this week about why that is the case.

She discussed the impact of systemic racism, dispelled some myths and highlighted ways health care institutions and government can respond to make a difference.

Here are the highlights of our conversation, which has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Tim Nickens: Statistics show Black and Hispanic residents are more likely to become infected by the COVID-19 virus and more likely to die from it. Why is that?

Dr. Sherita Hill Golden, vice president and chief diversity officer for Johns Hopkins Medicine (Courtesy: Johns Hopkins Medicine)

Dr. Sherita Hill Golden: There are several contributing factors. I think of them in three buckets, and two of them are historical. One is that there are historical practices that were embedded in our medical and health care environments. During slavery, African American slaves were often experimented upon without their consent and without anesthesia. Even in modern-day medicine, there are some erroneous beliefs that somehow Blacks are more tolerant of pain and need less pain medication. Thats an example of a bias that still exists in the health care system that results in inadequate pain control during hospitalization.

There were also situations like the Guatemala syphilis experiment (in the 1940s) and the Tuskegee syphilis experiment (from the 1930s to 1972) where Hispanics and African Americans were withheld treatment so scientists could learn the natural history of syphilis. The Tuskegee experiment wasnt uncovered until 1972. Thats fairly recent in our countrys history. All of those things led to a distrust among minority populations of our medical system.

At the turn of the last century, there were also racial and ethnic groups that were considered biologically inferior to others African Americans, Latinos, and recent immigrants to the U.S. We know today that is absolutely not true. There is no scientific foundation that there are any groups that are genetically inferior to others.

All of those things have contributed to minority patients experiencing bias in the health care system resulting in less likelihood of seeking care and poor experiences in the health care setting. So we now have African American and Latino patients who may be getting sick but not coming into the health care system because they may have had poor experiences before, or coming to the health care system and not being believed when they are presenting symptoms of COVID-19.

Second, there is a social context, policies that have been in place in our country that started after the Civil War era that have contributed to structural and institutional racism in things like housing, jobs and education. African Americans were coming from the South to settle in cities in the north, and a lot of those neighborhoods would become redlined and African Americans were often subjected to predatory loans. City governments would stop investing in public works in those neighborhoods, stop investing in the school system, and stop investing in economic development. So today we have neighborhoods that still have a lot of housing instability, food insecurity where there isnt access to healthy foods, and a lack of access to parks for physical activity and recreation. We know those factors increase the risk of chronic diseases that have been associated with COVID-19.

The third bucket is that African American and Latino residents are more likely to be working in jobs in the service sector that are considered essential during the pandemic the food service industry, environmental services, security, public transportation. They have had to continue to go to work, often without proper personal protective equipment, especially at the beginning of the pandemic, so they were more likely to be exposed. Many of them are also living in crowded, multigenerational housing.

All of those things contribute to increased COVID exposure. Then if the population is also more likely to have a risk of diabetes, heart disease and lung disease because of these historical issues, and on top of that they are more likely to be exposed to and infected by COVID, that is going to result in worse outcomes. Its not so much that these diseases make you more susceptible to infection; its that they contribute to a poorer outcome once you get infected.

Nickens: Does it frustrate you that some believe Black and Hispanic residents are more likely to be infected by COVID-19 because of genetics?

Golden: Theres nothing genetic about being housing insecure, food insecure, or living in an environment where you have exposure to chemicals that increase your risk of chronic diseases. Those are social and institutional contributors to health that have nothing to do with a persons genetics.

Nickens: Are the lifestyle changes needed to guard against the virus harder to make in poorer neighborhoods?

Golden: They can be. Fortunately, now there are all kinds of masks available. Washing your hands frequently is critical. But if you are living in crowded housing, it can make social distancing difficult to impossible.

One thing important to recognize in the African American community is that everybody who is dying from COVID is not low-income and living in these types of circumstances. There are well-off African Americans who also have diabetes, obesity or cardiovascular disease who are dying from COVID. Even when you are in a situation where you can implement those public health practices, this population is still very much at risk.

Nickens: A lot has been written about historical stress contributing to this situation.

Golden: I think it is a significant contributor. African Americans are more likely to contract COVID and more likely to die. The Hispanic population is more likely to get COVID, but the death rate is not as high and is closer to that of white people. Part of the reason is that Hispanics who are getting infected are younger. But I also think the difference is that African Americans have been exposed to generational stress that results from dealing with discrimination in every aspect of life. Our Latino immigrant community has come to the U.S. more recently, so there hasnt been the same amount of time for that chronic stress to perhaps have as significant impact in terms of mortality.

We really should be thinking about how we eliminate that discriminatory stress for all of our vulnerable communities.

Nickens: What have you seen from the government and the medical community that has been effective in helping people of color and low-income communities deal with the virus?

Golden: Meeting people where they are in the community is key. Those who are undocumented immigrants dont have access to all of the usual benefits that citizens have. In Baltimore, we have established partnerships with community organizations and corporations to get meals delivered to them. We are also using our Johns Hopkins excess testing capacity to provide mobile testing in the community where there are hot spots.

If you are partnering with trusted community partners, they can also help you with contact tracing. People are often uncomfortable about wanting to say who they have been in contact with, but we have to know who they have been in contact with if they are infected so that we can make quarantine and isolation recommendations to stop the spread of the virus.

Nickens: Do you have any hope for positive structural change to come out of this pandemic as these disparities are highlighted?

Golden: Ive been a doctor for 26 years. When youre in medical school, youre told you are going to use this medicine to treat this disease and the patient is going to get better. Then you start practicing, and you realize there are all of these extraneous factors that contribute to the ability of the patient to get the medicine and to take the medicine. We have to really think about how we use our policies and legislation to address these structural, social determinants of health.

One fire hydrant is required for so many houses in a neighborhood. It seems like for so many houses, there should be a store where you can get affordable fresh fruits and vegetables and healthy food. How do we use our power of legislation to address these issues? As we think about good health, much of this needs to happen in collaboration with the health care system but also outside of it. Thats a very different way of thinking than when I was in medical school in the early 90s.

Nickens: From the news coverage you have seen on racial disparities regarding the virus, are there any particular points where the coverage is off-base or where journalists could be more thoughtful about how they approach the issue?

Golden: It is important for journalists to report on and raise awareness about the contribution of structural racism to the social determinants of health that are foundational to the disparities in COVID-19 and the chronic medical conditions that worsen outcomes from COVID-19. This will prevent reporting suggesting that it is just the chronic diseases and that it is the fault of the vulnerable populations for making poor health choices. I recall seeing such reports early during the pandemic, and they were very upsetting because they assume that everyone lives in an environment where they can make healthy choices; unfortunately, that is not the case.

It is also important to emphasize that it is not only poor African Americans who are dying from COVID-19 but also those who are adequately resourced, further shedding light on the generational impact of racism and the resulting stress on health.

Nickens: What have we missed in this conversation?

Golden: Im an African American physician. I have been shocked by how many people have died from COVID-19. Im flabbergasted that we could have this many deaths and a quarter of them are in my own community. My husband and I both know people who have had COVID-19 or have died from it. Its horrible, but if it can actually wake us up to think about what we really need to do to deliver adequate care to people and advocate for environmental justice, that would be a great outcome.

Dr. Sherita Hill Golden is vice president and chief diversity officer for Johns Hopkins Medicine. Her expertises include cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, diabetes mellitus, endocrinology and lipid disorders.

Tim Nickens recently retired as editor of editorials for the Tampa Bay Times. He and a colleague won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing that successfully persuaded Pinellas County to resume adding fluoride to drinking water. This is part of a series funded by a grant from the Rita Allen Foundation to report and present stories about the disproportionate impact of the virus on people of color, Americans living in poverty and other vulnerable groups.

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Why Black and Hispanic residents are more likely to become infected by the coronavirus - Poynter

The Islands of Ireland: Coney’s monument to paradise in Clare – Irish Examiner

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Unlike most of the islands in the Fergus Estuary, Co Clare, Coney Island reveals some of its past immediately on approaching the pier. Where the other islands, such as Inishmacowney or OGradys Island, are surrounded by dense tree cover, Coney Island presents an open aspect where the start of a street can be observed. It has a somewhat austere appearance reminiscent of a Scottish island with foreboding buildings near the shore.

The old school building is adjacent to the pier where children from some of the nearby islands were schooled. This is Inisdadrom School which takes its name from the Irish word for the island - the island of the two backs. Coney and Inisdadrom appear to be coterminous, but on some maps, the Irish name refers only to a peninsula jutting out from its mainland which is cut off at high tide.

The islands character today is defined by lush green fields that are grazed by cattle. It is a little hard to get your head around the fact that the island once supported a population of 145 people (1841). The predominant name was Ginnane or Guinnane with Normoyle and Meaney also significant. With good limestone land supplemented by seaweed used as a fertiliser, the breadwinners on the island had a reliable means by which to earn a living. The sale of seaweed was also a source of income and was regularly sold to the mainland.

Coney is also distinct in that it has the ruins of two churches: one, a 6th-century structure built by St Brendan of Ardfert.

Just up from the pier, the past has assuredly caught up with Coney Island. Several old houses line the road with deciduous trees bursting through the roofs and out through the windows.

Ah, but not all of this islands its mysteries are revealed at once. Past the village, the old boreen rises and falls through the 2m hedges. They are thronged with cranesbill, dog rose, speedwell, orchids, tumbling briars, and teeming with life and energy from the activity of the bees.

The road leads on and suggests that something awaits. Surely some revelation is at hand, as Yeats was wont to say.

No second coming, but as the road reaches a summit, what has to be one of the most extraordinary views in the country from the top of the northernmost back displays itself. Looking downriver to the assemblage of other islands in the estuary, Low Island, Blackthorn Island, and Canon Island, the River Fergus is joined by the mighty Shannon and the two rivers flow on to the Atlantic 40km downstream. An incredible volume of water surges through this confluence. Looking north the view looks right down the runway at Shannon Airport with more islands in between, Deenish and Feenish. To the south, the mountains line up: Knockfeerina; the Galtees, Ballyhouras.

Far below, the traditional wooden boat known as a gandelow has pulled up on Rat Island and its two occupants set about gathering mussels. Their voices carry over the stillness, almost distinguishable.

And then the second revelation. A memorial monument, now without a plaque, was erected by the father of Captain John Foster Fitzgerald, who was killed in a cavalry charge in the Punjab, India in 1848. Foster Fitzgerald saw action with the 14th light dragoons in a mission to suppress a Sikh uprising. He was 27 when he was killed. His father, also a British army officer, had connections to the island having been born in Co Clare.

He was described on the recorded lettering as knight commander of the Bath of Carigoran family in the County Clare. It described his son thus in the words of poet Robbie Burns: None who knew him need be told/ A warmer heart death neer made cold.

The Fergus Estuary is one of several Coney islands in the country. There is one in West Cork, one in Sligo, and another at Lough Neagh. Van Morrisons famous Coney Island is not an island but is connected to the mainland by an isthmus between the villages of Ardglass and Killough.

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The Islands of Ireland: Coney's monument to paradise in Clare - Irish Examiner

Eyes turn to Ayvalk as nearby Greek islands borders shut – Hurriyet Daily News

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ISTANBUL

Greek islands were once popular tourist destinations for Turkish tourists who could arrive at the picturesque hotspots just a stones throw away from Turkey. But now local officials are working on bringing local tourists to Ayvalk, a uniquely beautiful resort town reminiscent of the Greek islands.

The local officials have invited the local tourists to holiday in the resort town before summer is over, salvaging whats left of the tourism season damaged by the coronavirus pandemic.

Before the end of the summer season, come and enjoy the Nature Park as well as 22 islands, Ayvalk Mayor Mesut Ergin said.

Speaking to hlas News Agency, Ergin stated that the name of Ayvalk was Kidonia in ancient times, meaning quince, and added, Nature has offered such a beauty to Ayvalk; it has been so generous that it is our duty to protect these beauties, to preserve the historical texture to the next generations and to keep the infrastructure and the economy in a stronger way.

Ergin said that Ayvalk, which is the only tourism destination with 22 islands, is known as the Land of Winds in mythology and it is a unique opportunity for those who want to cool off on hot summer days. He that the holiday-goers can enjoy their holiday by joining the boat tours in the deep and cold waters of the islands, enjoy the appetizers made of herb varieties in the warm places of Cunda Island, eat papalina fish that is unique to the region and return to their homes with unforgettable memories.

The mayor said that the sunset, the magnificent birth of the full moon, the pleasure of hammock in the afternoon, the smell of red, pink, white and oleander flowers, pumpkin flower and stuffed mussels have very special tastes in Ayvalk, and added, Olives, olive oil and fragrant soaps are meticulously produced with special techniques. These are the most beautiful and meaningful gifts to be taken to friends after the holidays.Noting that those who came to Ayvalk for a holiday start making plans to move there, Ergin said: Each of the 22 islands in Ayvalk district has a different feature and memory. The biggest one of these islands is Ali Bey Island, also known as Cunda Island. A bridge was built in 1964 and the island connected to Lale Island and then to the district center.

This bridge is also the first such bridge built in Turkey. The other islands were declared a national park in 1995 and they were banned for settlement. These islands are reached by boats that organize tours. With its historical and cultural richness, sea and nature, Ayvalk is home to local and foreign tourists every year. In addition to hostels and boutique hotels, there are accommodation facilities for every budget, he added.

Emphasizing that besides its sea, sand and magnificent nature, Ayvalk has 4,000 buildings, 2,000 of which are registered and have a unique texture, Ergin said, There are many places to visit in Ayvalk. Those who want to spend a peaceful holiday away from the noise of the city are especially preferred. As an old Greek settlement, it is rushed by local and foreign tourists. It is necessary to take at least two or three days to visit the historical Greek houses, eytan Sofras [Devils Table], Sarmsakl Beach, Cunda Island, Taksiyarhis Church, Ayazma Church, narl Mosque and many more. Those who plan to take a sea vacation in Ayvalk prefer May and September, when the highest temperature of the season is seen. However, you can visit every season to see its historical and natural beauties.

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Eyes turn to Ayvalk as nearby Greek islands borders shut - Hurriyet Daily News

As Grand Island project stalls, massive Amazon center near Syracuse is built – Buffalo News

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"The effect of this kind of project would be devastating," Dave Reilly said at the June public hearing. "This project would absolutely overwhelm the island."

The site is zoned for manufacturing but it's surrounded by more single-family homes, along with some business properties and a hotel, and the island as a whole hasn't seen a commercial development of this scale in its history.

Late last Monday afternoon, more than 50 members of a coalition of project critics protested outside Town Hall. The same group said it has collected nearly 1,000 signatures on anti-Amazon petitions and has a goal of collecting 1,000 more.

Some Grand Island residents are urging people to oppose the Amazon "Project Olive" development in the town.

Grand Island has a list of investments it wants Amazon to make in the town. Whitney has declined to make the list public while negotiations continue but sources have described it as substantial.

Finally, while Onondaga County officials made a public push for the project, their counterparts in Erie County had said little about Project Olive since February. This changed late last week when Poloncarz touted the project's value to the region in an interview with The News and at a news conference the following day.

Poloncarz said his office has worked on the project for two years and he doesn't want to see Erie County lose it.

While the amount of tax breaks Trammell Crow and Amazon would receive hasn't been made public, the developer under an anticipated payment-in-lieu-of-taxes, or PILOT, agreement would pay $51 million to Grand Island, Erie County and the Grand Island School District over 15 years.

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As Grand Island project stalls, massive Amazon center near Syracuse is built - Buffalo News

A Maine island marketed as a safe and secure haven wants $250K per week – The Real Deal

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The vacation rental market isnt what it used to be before the coronavirus pandemic.

Vacation home owners across the country have recast their properties as safe and remote bases to ride out the pandemic, extended rental periods to months and even season-long, and of course upped the rental rate.

The owner of a private island in Maine took what he called a massive pivot and turned part of his island from an event space for the well-heeled into a safe and secure haven for the well-heeled, according to the New York Post.

Noah Gordon is asking $250,000 per week for the 12-acre property on House Island, which he says has safety and security in spades.

It has five beaches, views of Portland and the Casco Bay and three homes with a total of 10 bedrooms. Theres also three helicopter takeoff and landing zones, as well as deep-water anchorages that can accommodate the deep draft of modern yachts.

Gordon said he previously planned to add a yacht club, but thats now on hold. In 2017, the property hosted the wedding of Christi Pirro and Zak Schwarzman. Pirro is the daughter of Fox News personality Jeanine Pirro.

Top vacation destinations have seen a surge in demand since the pandemic hit. Wealthy New Yorkers flocked to the Hamptons beginning in March and April. Some rental owners have reportedly doubled their prices and now even wealthy folks are being priced out. [NYP] Dennis Lynch

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A Maine island marketed as a safe and secure haven wants $250K per week - The Real Deal

Dispatch: Water rescue in progress for 52-year-old man on Ohio River – The Cincinnati Enquirer

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The man was not wearing a life vest and as struggling in the water, according to dispatch.

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Campbell County and BooneCounty rescuecrews are searching for a 52-year-old man in the Ohio River nearPendery Park, according toHamilton County Dispatch.

The Coast Guard called dispatch shortly before 2 p.m. The man was not wearing a life vest and was struggling in the water, according to Hamilton County.

The identity of the man is unknown.

The Enquirer will update this story as more information becomes available.

Read or Share this story: https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2020/07/26/dispatch-water-rescue-progress-ohio-river-near-coney-island/5515197002/

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Dispatch: Water rescue in progress for 52-year-old man on Ohio River - The Cincinnati Enquirer

Opinion: It’s Time For An Ethics Commission In The U.S. Virgin Islands – VI Consortium

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Certainly feels like dj vu all over again. Virgin Islanders awoke on Wednesday to read headlines detailing the awarding of a lucrative no-bid contract to a friend/ relative of the Governor. People scratched their heads and asked what had happened to the change they had been promised and had voted for. Was it nepotism? The facts are not yet fully known and therefore it may be too soon to label it as such.

The League of Women Voters of the Virgin Islands (LWV Vi) acknowledges that in a community as small as ours, it is understandable that administrators might find it necessary on occasion to appoint relatives/friends to high positions or award contracts to them. However, we would assume that such appointments or awards had been made, as all others, on a competitive basis using specific metrics that demonstrate unequivocally that the talents and experience / expertise of the relative/friend rose above all others applying for the award or appointment. Failing that, it sure would smell like nepotism. Giving the young a chance is unquestionably a worthy goal but, again, the award must still be able to pass the smell test of nepotism.

Many mainland states have laws to prevent nepotism from occurring, while other states have conflict of interest laws that prohibit nepotism or do so through the creation of ethics commissions.

It is clear that this is long overdue for the USVI. The LWV VI has written to the senators in the 33rd Legislature urging them to enact legislation on nepotism, as most states have done. The LWV VI was heartened by the questions raised by some members of the Legislatures Finance Committee during a budget hearing over the administrations awarding of a lucrative contract to a friend/relative. It may have been completely justified or it may be nepotism. One thing is clear, however: it is time to put a stop to questionable as well as patently unethical actions by enacting laws that specifically address nepotism in no uncertain terms, along with the consequences for its violation.

Submitted Friday by the V.I. League of Women Voters.

Written by:Gwen-Marie Moolenaar, PhD, President, LWV VI

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Opinion: It's Time For An Ethics Commission In The U.S. Virgin Islands - VI Consortium

Sea Turtles Are Hatching On Escambia’s Beaches. Their Odds Of Survival Are Not Good. – NorthEscambia.com

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If you head to the beach, look out for the sea turtles. Their odds of survival are not good; Escambia County says 1 in 1000 hatchlings will survive to adulthood.

Escambia Countys seaturtlenesting season has just passed its halfway mark, with a total of 17 nests located on Perdido Key and Pensacola Beach. Fifteen nests are Loggerhead, the most commonturtleto county beaches, and the other two are rare Kemps Ridley nests.

Nesting may occur through the late summer; however, the first nests are expected to hatch in early August. Seaturtlehatchlings face many threats on their first trip to the Gulf, both natural and human-caused.

Bright artificial lights from homes, cars and businesses may disorient hatchlings, leading them away from the Gulf and into danger. Furniture, toys, holes and other obstacles on the beach may trap hatchlings or cause serious injury.

Hatchlings that dont reach the Gulf quickly are easy prey for predators and at risk of dehydration, starvation and death.

If you see a nest hatching or encounter hatchlingsturtleson the beach, call Escambia County Marine Resources at 850-426-1257. If you encounter a nestingturtle, turn off all lights and retreat a safe distance away.

Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.

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Sea Turtles Are Hatching On Escambia's Beaches. Their Odds Of Survival Are Not Good. - NorthEscambia.com

Jones, Orient Beach forced to turn away visitors early amid hot temps – New York Post

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A slew of local beaches and state parks were forced to shut as early as around 9:30 a.m. Sunday because they had already reached capacity amid the blazing heat and coronavirus social-distancing rules.

Robert Moses State Park on Long Island was closed by 9:20 a.m., followed by such hot spots as Jones Beach, Orient Beach and Sandy Island, according to the state Department of Parks, Recreation and Historical Preservation. Bear Mountain State Park was among others shut down by 1 p.m.

The state police blocked off the entrances to some of the areas, including at Jones Beach, which had to turn visitors away by 11:50 a.m.

The beaches and parks are operating at reduced capacity because of social-distancing guidelines.

The mercury was set to hit 94 degrees with a real-feel temperature of 98 degrees in the metro area Sunday, according to Accuweather.

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Jones, Orient Beach forced to turn away visitors early amid hot temps - New York Post

One More Thing To Worry About At The Beach: Water Quality – wgbh.org

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A report released Thursday suggests social distancing shouldn't be the only concern as people flock to beaches this summer.

The annual analysis of water quality at the state's beaches by the group Environment Massachusetts found testing at 257 beaches last year discovered potentially unsafe levels of fecal bacteria on at least one day. That's out of 559 beaches that were tested.

Tenean Beach in Dorchester and Kings Beach in Lynn and Swampscott had the greatest number of failing tests in the state.

"Most of our beaches in Massachsuetts are safe for swimming most of the time," said Ben Hellerstein of Environment Massachusetts. "Unfortunately, all too often our beaches are plagued with pollution that can make swimmers sick."

Hellerstein said one reason for that is outdated water infrastructure. In many places, the problem comes from storm water runoff. And in 19 communities in the state, sewage and storm water flow into the same pipes.

"These combined sewer systems can become overwhelmed during heavy storms discharging untreated sewage into nearby waterways," Hellerstein said.

"Collectively, we are still discharging about 3 billion gallons of untreated sewage into rivers and bays every year," Gabby Queenan of the nonprofit Massachusetts Rivers Alliance said.

It's a problem that's likely to become more common as climate change leads to more extreme precipitation events. And, Queenan said, it correlates to economic and racial disparities in the state.

"You are three times more likely to have combined sewer overflow infrastructure in your community if you're identified as an environmental justice community," Queenan said. "Which I think just points to the fact that some communities, honestly, have been left behind when it comes to having those resources to actually fix the infrastructure."

A bill currently before the state legislature would shine a light on such discharges.

"It would require the operators of combined sewage overflow systems to tell the public, to notify the public, when sewage is being dumped in the waters," said state Sen. Pat Jehlen, who is one of the authors of the bill.

"We don't like to know that it happens at all," Jehlen said. "But we should know when it does."

The U.S. House of Representatives is set to vote Friday on an $11 billion water infrastructure bill that Hellesterin says he hopes will provide funding to help fix some of Massachusetts' water quality trouble spots.

Beaches are closed to swimmers when they test above safe limits for bacteria. But Bruce Berman of the nonprofit Save the Harbor/Save the Bay said that beachgoers who see a posted flag that designates whether the water is safe to enter are not necessarily getting an accurate reflection of the current water quality. It takes a day for communities to get the those testing results, he said.

"If there's a red flag, it means it was dirty yesterday, not that it's dirty today," Berman said. "If you swim with a green flag, it means it's clean yesterday. But if there was a rainstorm last night, it might not be clean today."

Berman said communities should take this into account, and proactively close a beach after a heavy rain if that has historically caused poor water quality.

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One More Thing To Worry About At The Beach: Water Quality - wgbh.org