Monthly Archives: August 2017

Do Sharks Hold the Secret to Longevity? – Anti Aging News

Posted: August 9, 2017 at 4:46 am

1091 0 Posted on Aug 08, 2017, 5 a.m.

New study finds that the exceptionally long lifespan of the Greenland shark may provide clues to extending human lifespan.

About Greenland Sharks

Greenland sharks are considered the longest living vertebrates. A team of scientists led by Julius Nielson, a marine biologist from the University of Copenhagen, used radiocarbon dating on 28 Greenland sharks. They established that one of the female sharks was approximately 392 years.

Research Surrounding the Greenland Sharks

The longevity of the Greenland sharks has stirred interest in the research world. Scientists have worked towards identifying the genes responsible for this unique trait.

Could these genes be used to extend the lifespan of human beings? Scientists believe that a successful identification and extraction of the genes could be a major milestone in achieving longevity among human beings.

Researchers at the University of Exeter have studied almost 100 Greenland sharks. They have sequenced their mitochondrial genome. The achievement set an excellent stage for researchers to scrutinize the sequence and understand the reason behind the shark's longevity.

Prof Kim Praebel, the lead scientist of the research, explained why the research is vital. He noted that unraveling the secrets behind the Green shark's longevity may tremendously boost the efforts on the improvement of humans' lifespan.

Why is the Study of Greenland Sharks Important?

Discovery of the genes responsible for longevity in Greenland sharks would be a vital achievement in the research world. It would explain the limited life spans in almost all the vertebrates. Additionally, the discovery would allow the scientists to study whether the genes can be used to prolong the life of the human beings.

The research at the University of Exeter found out that the Greenland sharks swim long distances across the Atlantic Ocean. They discovered that they mate in the deeply hidden fjords of the Arctic. This realization is instrumental in uncovering the negative effects of the activities of human beings on aquatic life. The study of the tissues and the bones of the animal forms genetic data that is crucial in determining when contaminants and chemicals from industries started affecting the marine. The findings would be of considerable benefit to the environment and marine life protection.

The findings of this research have been presented in various forums including the Fisheries Society of the British Isles symposium. The scientists hope that the findings will boost the conservation efforts of the Greenland shark species and other wildlife in the ecosystem.

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Dermira Commits $135M for Global Rights to Roche Eczema Drug – Xconomy

Posted: at 4:46 am

Xconomy San Francisco

Skin treatments developer Dermira is adding another experimental drug to its pipeline that it plans to test as a potential treatment for eczema, through a deal announced this morning with healthcare giant Roche.

But in picking up the global rights to lebrikizumab, Menlo Park, CA-based Dermira (NASDAQ: DERM) is entering a suddenly crowded field of new treatments for the skin condition, which is characterized by inflamed, itchy, and scaly rashes on the skin. Dermira has agreed to pay Roche $80 million now, plus $55 million next year for global rights to the drug. If Dermira can hit development and regulatory goals for the lebrikizumab, the company could be on the hook to pay Roche up to $250 million more.

Should Dermira commercialize the injectable drug in other diseases, the company would have to pay more than $1 billion as the drug hits undisclosed sales marks. Dermira would also need to pay Roche royalties on the drugs sales. Roche is keeping the rights to the drug in interstitial lung diseases, a group of disorders that lead to progressive scarring of the lungs.

Eczema, also known as atopic dermatitis, is an autoimmune disorder that produces an inflammatory response thats visible on the skin. The condition affects at least 28 million people in the United States, according to the American Academy of Dermatology. Lebrikizumab is a monoclonal antibody drug that targets interleukin 13, a protein associated with inflammation.

Other pharmas are aiming to address the eczema market with new drugs. Last December, the FDA approved Pfizers (NYSE: PFE) topical ointment crisaborole (Eucrisa) as a treatment for mild-to-moderate eczema. That drug, which blocks the inflammatory enzyme PDE4, came to Pfizer through its $5.2 billion acquisition of Anacor Pharmaceuticals last year. Meanwhile, Tarrytown, NY-based Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: REGN) received FDA approval in March for its moderate-to-severe eczema drug dupilumab (Dupixent). Like the Roche drug, dupilumab targets interleukin 13.

Dermira and Roche expect to close the licensing deal later this quarter. In early 2018, Dermira plans to start a Phase 2b dose-ranging study, enrolling patients who have moderate-to-severe eczema. The goal of the trial is to find the best dose for a larger Phase 3 clinical trial. Dermira said it expects that it will spend approximately $200 million to get the early results for the Phase 2b study.

Photo by Flicker user Oregon State Universityvia a Creative Commons license.

Frank Vinluan is editor of Xconomy Raleigh-Durham, based in Research Triangle Park. You can reach him at fvinluan [at] xconomy.com

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Dermatologists collaborate on data-driven pediatric psoriasis research – ModernMedicine

Posted: at 4:45 am

Emerging research from an international dataset of pediatric psoriasis patients is revealing much needed information about how children fare with commonly used systemic treatments, says dermatologist Amy S. Paller, M.D., M.S.

And she says the collaborative effort is powered by pediatric dermatologists not industry.

Dr. Paller, professor and chair of dermatology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and pediatric dermatologist at Ann and Robert H. Lurie Childrens Hospital of Chicago, presented findings from the PeDRA-EPPWG Study of Systemic Therapy in Pediatric Psoriasis at the July World Congress of Pediatric Dermatology in Chicago. She not only talked about the soon-to-be-published studys findings, but also how a retrospective analysis could inform a prospective registry.

Dr. Paller and colleagues launched the Pediatric Dermatology Research Alliance, or PeDRA, in 2012, recognizing that pediatric dermatologists needed to work as a group to research dermatologic conditions in children because many of the conditions are rare and lack pediatric-specific data.

Thats exactly what has happened in this work with pediatric psoriasis, Dr. Paller says.

Colleagues in the European Pediatric Psoriasis Working Group, or EPPWG were willing to buy in. The groups shared goals to better understand dermatologists experiences with systemic drugs for pediatric psoriasis, and to get experience with a joint registry, which hopefully would pave the way for a prospective pediatric psoriasis registry, according to Dr. Paller.

Ten centers from PeDRA in North America and 10 centers in Europe came together to perform the study.

It was a tremendous learning experience about some of the challenges of retrospective data collection and the benefit to prospective research using common data collection, Dr. Paller says.

The researchers extracted 54 different items from charts of patients treated with systemic therapy or phototherapy, but only allowed patients to be included who had at least a minimum dataset that could provide important information on demographics, clinical characteristics and severity, systemic agents used, treatment duration and efficacy, side effects and reasons for discontinuation of medications.

A review of thousands of patient records revealed 446 which met criteria for the minimal dataset; of those, 390 involved systemic therapy for pediatric psoriasis. In this joint PeDRA-EPPWG study, which was funded by the International Psoriasis Council, data was collected using the Research Electronic Data Capture, or REDCap, web-based data capture tool.

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Here’s Why Editas Medicine Rose as Much as 15.9% Monday – Madison.com

Posted: at 4:45 am

What happened

Shares of gene editing leader Editas Medicine (NASDAQ: EDIT) rose nearly 16% Monday on heavy trading volume, most of which occurred shortly after the market opened. The number of shares traded in the first few minutes of trading exceeded the daily average trading volume.

There was no major announcement. Instead, Editas Medicine decided to payoff a promissory note issued to the Broad Institute, the holder of its gene editing patents, by issuing shares of common stock on Friday, Aug. 4 that became the property of the research institution. The maximum conversion price was $21.49 per share, which was significantly higher than the recent stock price, and it appears the shares were sold Monday morning at that higher price. Therefore, the company's stock received a little boost.

Despite the honest explanation with almost no significance to Editas Medicine (it didn't receive proceeds from issuing the shares to the Broad Institute), the gains managed to stick around. As of 3:21 p.m. EDT, the stock had settled to a 10.6% gain.

Image source: Getty Images.

In early March, Editas Medicine granted the Broad Institute and Wageningen University promissory notes worth 800,000 shares of common stock related to licensing fees for specific gene editing patents. The notes were convertible to shares at the company's discretion or after 150 days. Since early August is about 150 days after early March, it appears the latter took place.

It's worth pointing out that the Broad Institute was issued 271,347 shares of common stock a few days ago. That's substantially less than the 800,000 shares spelled out in the March filing. However, it's not easy to tell if the balance was given to others named in the filing or if the research institution negotiated a lower payment from Editas Medicine.

Either way, the fact that the Broad Institute unloaded its shares from the converted promissory note is hardly worrisome. After all, the research institution is simply realizing a licensing fee from Editas Medicine. Monday's pop is nothing more, nothing less.

Sometimes there are simple reasons for major stock movements. That is certainly the case with Editas Medicine stock on Monday. But there's good news for investors hoping that more actionable events were the driver of Monday's pop: The gene editing pioneer announces second-quarter 2017 earnings this Wednesday, Aug. 9. That should provide more timely information for shareholders that cannot get enough updates.

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Gene Therapy Is Now Available, but Who Will Pay for It? – Scientific American

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By Ben Hirschler

LONDON (Reuters) - The science of gene therapy is finally delivering on its potential, and drugmakers are now hoping to produce commercially viable medicines after tiny sales for the first two such treatments in Europe.

Thanks to advances in delivering genes to targeted cells, more treatments based on fixing faulty DNA in patients are coming soon, including the first ones in the United States.

Yet the lack of sales for the two drugs already launched to treat ultra-rare diseases in Europe highlights the hurdles ahead for drugmakers in marketing new, extremely expensive products for genetic diseases.

After decades of frustrations, firms believe there are now major opportunities for gene therapy in treating inherited conditions such as haemophilia. They argue that therapies offering one-off cures for intractable diseases will save health providers large sums in the long term over conventional treatments which each patient may need for years.

In the past five years, European regulators have approved two gene therapies - the first of their kind in the world, outside China - but only three patients have so far been treated commercially.

UniQure's Glybera, for a very rare blood disorder, is now being taken off the market given lack of demand.

The future of GlaxoSmithKline's Strimvelis for ADA-SCID - or "bubble boy" disease, where sufferers are highly vulnerable to infections - is uncertain after the company decided to review and possibly sell its rare diseases unit.

Glybera, costing around $1 million per patient, has been used just once since approval in 2012. Strimvelis, at about $700,000, has seen two sales since its approval in May 2016, with two more patients due to be treated later this year.

"It's disappointing that so few patients have received gene therapy in Europe," said KPMG chief medical adviser Hilary Thomas. "It shows the business challenges and the problems faced by publicly-funded healthcare systems in dealing with a very expensive one-off treatment."

These first two therapies are for exceptionally rare conditions - GSK estimates there are only 15 new cases of ADA-SCID in Europe each year - but both drugs are expected to pave the way for bigger products.

The idea of using engineered viruses to deliver healthy genes has fuelled experiments since the 1990s. Progress was derailed by a patient death and cancer cases, but now scientists have learnt how to make viral delivery safer and more efficient.

Spark Therapeutics hopes to win U.S. approval in January 2018 for a gene therapy to cure a rare inherited form of blindness, while Novartis could get a U.S. go-ahead as early as next month for its gene-modified cell therapy against leukaemia - a variation on standard gene therapy.

At the same time, academic research is advancing by leaps and bounds, with last week's successful use of CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing to correct a defect in a human embryo pointing to more innovative therapies down the line.

Spark Chief Executive Jeffrey Marrazzo thinks there are specific reasons why Europe's first gene therapies have sold poorly, reflecting complex reimbursement systems, Glybera's patchy clinical trials record and the fact Strimvelis is given at only one clinic in Italy.

He expects Spark will do better. It plans to have treatment centers in each country to address a type of blindness affecting about 6,000 people around the world.

Marrazzo admits, however, there are many questions about how his firm should be rewarded for the $400 million it has spent developing the drug, given that healthcare systems are geared to paying for drugs monthly rather than facing a huge upfront bill.

A one-time cure, even at $1 million, could still save money over the long term by reducing the need for expensive care, in much the same way that a kidney transplant can save hundreds of thousands of dollars in dialysis costs.

But gene therapy companies - which also include Bluebird Bio, BioMarin, Sangamo and GenSight - may need new business models.

One option would be a pay-for-performance system, where governments or insurers would make payments to companies that could be halted if the drug stopped working.

"In an area like haemophilia I think that approach is going to make a ton of sense, since the budget impact there starts to get more significant," Marrazzo said.

Haemophilia, a hereditary condition affecting more than 100,000 people in markets where specialty drugmakers typically operate, promises to be the first really big commercial opportunity. It offers to free patients from regular infusions of blood-clotting factors that can cost up to $400,000 a year.

Significantly, despite its move away from ultra-rare diseases, GSK is still looking to use its gene therapy platform to develop treatments for more common diseases, including cancer and beta-thalassaemia, another inherited blood disorder.

Rivals such as Pfizer and Sanofi are also investing, and overall financing for gene and gene-modified cell therapies reached $1 billion in the first quarter of 2017, according to the Alliance of Regenerative Medicine.

Shire CEO Flemming Ornskov - who has a large conventional haemophilia business and is also chasing Biomarin and Spark in hunting a cure for the bleeding disorder - sees both the opportunities and the difficulties of gene therapy.

"Is it something that I think will take market share mid- to long-term if the data continues to be encouraging? Yes. But I think everybody will have to figure out a business model."

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Why ‘Free Speech’ Couldn’t Save That Google Engineer’s Job – Money Magazine

Posted: at 4:44 am

After a memo proclaiming women are underrepresented in tech because of biological differences between the sexes and not because of discrimination went viral , a Google employee is now out of a job in what's become one of the most public firings of the year. As with anything provocative (and tech-related), social media is aflame with differing opinions on whether or not circulating a memo disparaging the core values of your company is a fireable offense.

So is it?

Those who don't support firing the engineer who wrote the memo say that dissenting opinions are good for businesses, and that no one should be fired for exercising their right to free speech. Unfortunately, you don't actually have any free speech rights in the workplace. The First Amendment limits the government's ability to suppress free speech, not an employer's. If you're an at-will employee, which most Americans are (unless you're in a union), your boss can fire you for pretty much any reason. (The only people exempted from this are those employed by the government .) The Constitution does not guarantee you employment.

As Bloomberg Businessweek notes, federal statutes "limit companies rights to fire or hire workers and prevent them from joining unions ... based only on race, religion, ethnicity, sex, age, and a few other protected categories." Beyond that, though, employees can be fired for pretty much any reason. (A few states have limited protections for political speech, per the American Bar Association .)

In a letter to employees , Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the engineer was fired not for simply expressing unpopular opinions, but for perpetuating "harmful gender stereotypes in our workplace" and violating the company's Code of Conduct, adding,

The memo has clearly impacted our co-workers, some of whom are hurting and feel judged based on their gender. Our co-workers shouldnt have to worry that each time they open their mouths to speak in a meeting, they have to prove that they are not like the memo states, being agreeable rather than assertive, showing a lower stress tolerance, or being neurotic.

Creating a hostile work environment, as people are suggesting Damore did, is certainly grounds for termination. It also comes at a time when Silicon Valley is facing repeated criticism for gender discrimination (Uber anyone? ) and for Google, this has become a PR and HR nightmare. His actions likely caused lost productivity company-wide, and as Pichai noted, are having tremendously negative impacts on his co-workers, including reportedly causing some to consider leaving the company.

The big issue with this case is that the memo was not circulated among a small group of people or posted privately. No one exposed the man's beliefs against his will. He purposefully sent them out to the entire company, on a work platform, and directly questioned the judgement of his managers and the leaders of the company, in addition to informing his female coworkers that he viewed them as biologically incapable of doing their job well. Whether or not companies and bosses should fire employees because of these types of actions and politically incorrect rhetoric is a different question entirely . The laws are clear, and it's not just Google where that type of behavior wouldn't be tolerated.

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Lena Dunham’s thought police, Mueller’s gone too far & other comments – New York Post

Posted: at 4:44 am

From the left: Dems 2020 Purity Olympics Under Way

Democrats have already begun testing attacks on one of their own possible presidential contenders, California Sen. Kamala Harris, suggesting shes a corporate stooge, reports Michael Tomasky at The Daily Beast. Its meant to send a message that if Democrats are even thinking about nominating Harris, the dis-unity commission will get to work sabotaging her. But such attacks have the feel of a group of people, most or all of them Bernie Sanders supporters, itching to refight 2016 and demand a level of purity that lo and behold only one candidate can possibly attain. Yet demanding a precise stance from candidates because one candidate takes that position and therefore its the only right and true position is absurd.

Conservative take: In Defense of Trumps Generals

David French at National Review takes issue with those worried by President Trumps reliance on an unusual number of generals in top positions. In this administration, he says, its good that John Kelly, James Mattis and H. R. McMaster are together working at the apex of American civilian government. Given the nature of this president, the small chance of long-term harm is more than outweighed by the benefits of their steady hands on Americas most vital (and dangerous) instruments of government. True, not all generals are worthy of this degree of public trust take Michael Flynn. But these three have spent a lifetime establishing not just a record of physical courage under fire but also of moral courage under political pressure. Apologies to A Few Good Men, but we want them on that wall.

Culture critic: Lena Dunhams Self-Enforcing Police State

Lena Dunham was walking through an airport and overheard two American Airlines employees private conversation about transgender children. So, as Robert Tracinski says at The Federalist, she ratted them out to their employer on Twitter. What makes this really creepy and totalitarian is that she enthusiastically provided detailed information about exactly where the conversation took place in order to help the airline locate, identify and punish these specific employees for holding politically incorrect views. Dunham was acting like an informant working for a totalitarian police state but boastfully, in public, on social media. Yet it never occurred to her to talk to them directly, to attempt to persuade them or to listen to their point of view and engage with it. Because why wait for persuasion when you can use fear?

Ex-prosecutor: Mueller Probe Is Going Too Far

President Trump is absolutely correct when he suggests special counsel Robert Mueller is violating his mandate, says former US Attorney Matthew Whitaker at CNN: Mueller has come up to a red line in the election-meddling investigation that he is dangerously close to crossing by probing unrelated financial transactions. This is completely outside of the realm of possible election meddling, and Mueller wasnt given broad, far-reaching powers. He is only authorized to investigate matters that involved any potential links to and coordination between two entities the Trump campaign and the Russian government. Indeed, if the special counsel could investigate anything he wants, why would there even need to be a letter spelling out the specific limits of the investigation?

Security desk: Hold UNICEF Responsible for Iraq Lies

The British Journal of Global Health, reports Michael Rubin at Commentary, has determined that the claim that US-led sanctions on Iraq killed 500,000 children was a fiction dreamed up by Saddam Husseins government to fuel propaganda against the West. Yet some still cite the figure and believe its accurate. And UNICEF then headed by former New York City Council President Carol Bellamy parroted the claim. She bears ultimate responsibility for accepting Saddams statistics blindly despite Iraqs refusal to allow independent surveying. Indeed, she worked overtime to publicize it and dismissed out of hand any questions about methodology. So its time to make funding for UNICEF contingent on an investigation into how it got Iraq so wrong.

Compiled by Eric Fettmann

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Stabenow questions ‘censorship’ of ‘climate change’ – The Detroit News

Posted: at 4:44 am

Sen. Debbie Stabenow(Photo: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

Washington Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, ranking Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, wrote Tuesday to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue demanding an explanation for news reports that agency officials had instructed staff to use weather extremes instead of the term climate change.

The Guardian reported on a series of emails among staff at the USDAs Natural Resources Conservation Service that also suggested avoiding the phrase reduce greenhouse gases in favor of build soil organic matter or increase nutrient use efficiency.

Censoring the agencys scientists and natural resource professionals as they try to communicate these risks and help producers adapt to a changing climate does a great disservice to the men and women who grow the food, fuel, and fiber that drive our economy, not to mention the agencys civil servants themselves, Stabenow wrote to Perdue.

This censorship makes the United States less competitive, less food secure, and puts our rural families and their communities at risk.

The USDA did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday but has pushed back against the news reports, telling POLITICO that there was never a directive from the Natural Resources Conservation Service that using climate change was prohibited, and indicating it was unclear why the officials who wrote the memos had brought up the issue with staff.

Stabenow in her letter asks Perdue whether other USDA officials have issued directives regarding the removal of climate change and related terms.

She also wants to know what impact the terminology change could have on implementation of USDA programs and activities, and whether USDA intends to pursue a formal rule-making or other process to accompany the policy change. She asked for a response by Aug. 23.

As a firm believer in the science that underpins the urgent imperative to address climate change, the content of these emails is of great concern to me, Stabenow wrote.

USDA ought to be unequivocal in pursuing polices that uphold scientific integrity, yet these emails from senior USDA staff appear to run directly counter to such a pursuit. USDA should be open and transparent regarding the findings of agency research and the components of agency program activities that involve the topic of climate change.

President Donald Trump has questioned the whether climate change exists and has not said whether he believes it is caused by human activity.

mburke@detroitnews.com

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Jonathan Zimmerman column: Liberals worried about censorship forget about Sambo and the KKK – Richmond.com

Posted: at 4:44 am

By Jonathan Zimmerman

Hey, check out those yahoos in Florida! Theyre censoring textbooks!

My fellow progressives have worked themselves into a good liberal lather over a new law in Florida that allows citizens to object to books assigned in the public schools. Promoted by conservative activists, who accused textbooks of fostering left-wing propaganda, the measure lets anyone in the state raise concerns about teaching materials and entitles those who object to a public hearing of their complaints.

Liberals immediately raised the specter of censorship, worrying that schools would purge information about sex, evolution and climate change.

But we should applaud rather than resist the popular scrutiny of textbooks, which has been a force for social justice and equality in other key moments in our past.

If you think otherwise, Ive got three words for you: Little Black Sambo.

Remember Sambo? He was the jolly, ostensibly Indian figure who dotted the pages of elementary school readers and spellers for much of American history.

Sambo became racist shorthand for a docile and childlike African-American who cheerily accepted his subjugation to the white master.

Hes gone from our textbooks, thankfully. And the reason is you guessed it citizen pressure on the schools. Starting in the 1940s, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and other African-American organizations issued a steady drumbeat of protest against Little Black Sambo and other types of racism in textbooks.

History books valorized the Ku Klux Klan. Music books featured the original lyrics of Stephen Foster songs, including the N-word and darky. Geography books described Africa as a dark continent of barbarity and superstition.

And in New York City, home to millions of Jews and African-Americans, schools taught an anti-Semitic and racist play called The Kings English.

It told the story of a boat shipwrecked on an island where a black cannibal Kawa Koo threatens to eat all 20 of the survivors.

Eventually, Kawa agrees to let a single passenger survive. The boats white captain, Ripley ORannigan, decides to select the person who speaks the best English. That draws gripes from the boats lone Jewish passenger, Perlheimer, who talks with both hands as he denounces Ripley.

Inklish? Vat for I speak Inklish? Perlheimer asks. I read Yiddische papers. I talk Yiddish mit mein friends. Ripley cuts him off. You may have him, Kawa! he tells the cannibal. America doesnt want him. Hes indigestible.

Black and Jewish protests led the New York schools to drop The Kings English in the early 1950s. Little Black Sambo held on a bit longer, but he mostly disappeared from our textbooks by the late 1960s.

Does that mean racism has been purged from school materials? Of course not. Just two years ago, a Texas citizen discovered that her sons history textbook described slaves as workers who came from Africa to America to work on agricultural plantations.

She objected, of course, and the publisher agreed to revise the offending passage. And that provided an object lesson in American democracy, which is always enhanced by citizen participation.

That doesnt mean every objection is valid, of course. Supporters of the new Florida law took aim at biology books describing evolution and human-made climate change, although both concepts are embraced by almost every informed scientist.

Others condemned history textbooks that allegedly praised government services at the expense of individual initiative and self-reliance.

But the answer to this challenge isnt to cut off citizen challenges, which would also prevent complaints of the sort that the Texas mom made. Nor should we squawk about censorship, which is the ultimate red herring in these debates. Im glad Little Black Sambo and The Kings English were censored, if by that term we mean their removal from the official curriculum. Arent you?

Instead, we liberals should use this occasion to call for more public engagement not less in school affairs. The Florida measure specifies that school boards must conduct an open public hearing about every citizen complaint before an unbiased and qualified hearing officer.

Theres our opening. When conservatives move to eliminate material about climate change or evolution, we need to flood these hearings to defend it. Weve got knowledge on our side, just as we did in the case of Little Black Sambo.

Depictions of slavery as a benign institution werent simply racist or offensive, although they were surely that. They were false.

Condemning the new Florida measure, one Democratic state legislator warned it could let anybody come in and complain about the history of slavery, or the fact that maybe we shouldnt have evolution in our textbooks. He was right, but it would be wrong to prevent that.

If you dont like what the schools are teaching, raise your voice. In America, thats the only way we get closer to the truth.

Jonathan Zimmerman, who teaches education and history at the University of Pennsylvania, is the author (with Emily Robertson) of The Case for Contention: Teaching Controversial Issues in American Schools (University of Chicago Press, 2017). Email at jlzimm@aol.com.

2017, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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Wikileaks’ Julian Assange Just Offered Google’s Fired Anti-Diversity Employee a Job – Fortune

Posted: at 4:44 am

WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange has offered a job to James Damore, a Google employee who was fired after he wrote a scathing internal memo criticizing the company's diversity policies .

"Censorship is for losers, WikiLeaks is offering a job to fired Google engineer James Damore," Assange wrote on Twitter Tuesday. In the same post, Assange also linked to a WikiLeaks article he wrote called "Google Is Not What It Seems."

Damore, a now-former engineer at Google, accused the Silicon Valley web giant of suppressing conservative voices in a 10-page memo called Googles Ideological Echo Chamber ," which was circulated over the weekend.

[W]hen it comes to diversity and inclusion, Googles left bias has created a politically correct monoculture that maintains its hold by shaming dissenters into silence," the memo, which was initially published anonymously, said. He later confirmed in an email to Bloomberg that he had been dismissed for "perpetuating gender stereotypes."

Google CEO Sundar Pichai told employees on Monday that parts of Damore's memo "violate our Code of Conduct and cross the line by advancing harmful gender stereotypes in our workplace."

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